[chillytc]

I like having bread and butter presets ready and available for when inspiration strikes. I usually start things off with my Virus and so I have a bunch of basses in one place and a bunch of pads in one place and a bunch of leads in one place in the first bank of sounds. Many are presets picked from the crazy number of presets on the Virus and many are tweaked or homemade. But when I have an idea, I can quickly flip through 16 basses that I like that are in various styles to find one that fits the idea (sometimes with a tweak, sometimes not). So any synth that is intended to be used a lot should have some solid, inspiring basic tones to start from. I find it is too easy in electronic music to fall into the rat hole of constant tweaking, so I am always looking for ways to move fast to get an idea down before the inspiration is lost.

I also like to see some presets that show off the unique attributes of the synth - sounds that only it can do. For example, some of the Absynth pads or the Polished Steps preset on the Poly Evolver which manages to have tons of modulation and movement while still sounding crazy analog fat - can't get that tone from anything else I have. Whether or not I use these unique patches, they serve two purposes for me: (1) they help me file away what this synth is particularly good at so I know when to reach for it and (2) studying those patches helps me get to know the synth.