Built-in effects on synth patches...

[Silver Sonya]

...drive me f-ing nuts.

This cheesy default of adding hazy, gauzy, slick chorus or reverb or echo onto every patch to make it "sound bigger" is exasperating. In order to hear the real sound, I have to keep turning the effects off. When scrolling through a bank of sounds, it gets really annoying.

Plea to anyone who designs a synthesizer --- of any type, software or hardware --- please allow for a "global effects disable."

Fabfilter Twin2 allows this and I'm soooooo grateful for it! Allows you to get to the business of finding or programming a sound! If I want effects, I know how to do that, thank you very much.

Rant over.



- c

[Derp]

Just get synths without effects. Or better yet, get synths without presets! Problem solved!

[plaid_emu]

I've never owned a synth with effects that didn't have a 'global effects off' setting. And I've owned quite a few. What synth are you referring to?

[Silver Sonya]

Well, I'm just going on memory, does the Juno 106 have a global disable of chorus? Does Omnisphere have a global disable of fx? FAW Circle? If these things do, I haven't found them. These are just some that come to mind.

Today what I'm dealing with is scrolling through and modifying various Reaktor patches designed by third parties. Every patch seems to have some echo or "atmospheric" treatment that obscures the sound. Once you disengage the fx, some of the sounds are quite nice.

I should add that I'm not a synth aficionado (I'm a guitarist), so I guess I think of myself more as an arranger than a synthesist. I am usually on the hunt for a texture that will fit into an existing (or evolving) arrangement. I'm rarely looking for a synth sound that is an entire "soundscape" unto itself, which seems to be the presumed mindset for people who program synth presets. For me, the soundscape is the aggregate of the song. Y'know?

The sounds I gravitate to tend to be smaller, rawer, curious, muted tones.

- c

[Farshad]

One of the few synths that has usable (and most of the time great) FX on most of its patches is my Kurzweil K2661. Maybe it is because its dedicated effects section (KDFX) is a wonderful unit by itself...

[Dopamine]

This has been my pet peeve for the past 20 years, ie, since the Roland D50 was released.

[Yoozer]

Originally Posted by Silver Sonya

Well, I'm just going on memory, does the Juno 106 have a global disable of chorus?

No, but that's because the chorus is such a big part of the 106's sound.

You'd have to hack in the switch for that yourself .

As for effects; D-Cam Synth Squad has its effects in a separate module, following your philosophy of "it should sound good already when it's just dry". Hopefully it'll come out this month, since it was announced for Q2.

[NWSooner]

I completely agree with the OP. This especially bugs me with the Andromeda A6 because the base sound of this synth is awesome, and the built-in effects are incredibly terrible. So every time I change patches I hit the button to turn off all effects.

[plaid_emu]

Aaaah, yes. Most of the gripes seem to be with virtual instruments. For whatever reason there seems to be a lack of "global" settings in general on software synths.

Reaktor can sound very nice, even without all the effects. Two awesome sounding Reaktor synths (if you disable the FX) are FatCat and 3X.

[divine source]

Originally Posted by plaid_emu

I've never owned a synth with effects that didn't have a 'global effects off' setting. And I've owned quite a few. What synth are you referring to?

well, where can i find the " global effects off " on waldorf Q ?

[dione]

Originally Posted by NWSooner

This especially bugs me with the Andromeda A6 because the base sound of this synth is awesome, and the built-in effects are incredibly terrible. So every time I change patches I hit the button to turn off all effects.

If you work in multi-mode you can just switch off the fx on the midi channel you're working on...thus every patch you select on that channel has no fx...simple huh ?

[plaid_emu]

Originally Posted by divine source

well, where can i find the " global effects off " on waldorf Q ?

I stand corrected.

I've never owned a Q but I did own a Micro Q and Blofeld for awhile. I just looked in the manuals for all three and couldn't find a global effects parameter for any of them.

In a way this is kind of surprising but on the other hand, it's not. I'll usually tweak a specific preset to my liking or just plain start from scratch so I never even noticed it wasn't there.

I guess the thing we have to remember is that these high-level programmable synths like Reaktor and Blofeld are basically designed for tweakers who usually start from scratch or severely alter a preset to suit their taste. In these scenarios, you're going to get in there and manually do the dirty work on each patch because you already have a pretty good idea where you're going to take things.

The presets slathered with effects are basically there for one purpose: First impressions.... "Oooooh, Aaaaah! Here's the plastic!"

[science]

I delete the presets on every synth I buy before I even start using it.

Presets aren't really the point of owning a synth. That's what sample libraries are for.

[Dopamine]

<< I delete the presets on every synth I buy before I even start using it. >>

Now that's hardcore! You must be a pretty accomplished synth programmer.

[Feinstrom]

I use the effects on every synth as part of the sound engine. So if I like what they contribute to the sound, I use them. If I don't like it, I don't use them.
They seem to blend into the sound better than external FX in most cases, as crappy as they might be...

And I use presets (although that's a different discussion) to show me what can be basically (!) done with a synth. I analyze the ones I like best and try to find out the synth's sweet spots.
When I need a certain kind of sound I usually start from a completely different point (e.g when I need a pad I start with a bass or a swooshy FX patch) to make sure I need to change a high number of parameter values - always starting from an init patch means always starting from the same point every time.



Cheers,
Bert

[Derp]

Originally Posted by science

I delete the presets on every synth I buy before I even start using it.

Agreed. Unless it's a rompler where the whole point of the synth is to be used for it's flutes and violins, I don't see the point in using presets on a synth when you can usually whip up something better with just a minute or two's worth of effort.

[alexp]

I love my Korg Prophecy, but god do I hate the FX.


alexP

[Acid Hazard]

Originally Posted by science

I delete the presets on every synth I buy before I even start using it.

Presets aren't really the point of owning a synth. That's what sample libraries are for.

I don't delete all the presets, but i find the INIT PATCH and use that to copy over the presets when i make patches.

[Yoozer]

The sonic range of a synthesizer is an ocean. Presets are little islets you can use to dive off from, to explore the ocean. The advantage of having 'm is that you don't have to travel every time from the same point in the corner of the map. That alone is the reason I keep 'm; they save a lot of time while they don't impede on my explorations.

Furthermore, there's no difference between the settings you program and those included in the factory presets; it's just that the latter can be found on every machine, while yours are generally only found on your own.

Lastly, two know more than one; presets are generally designed by more than one person. They might come up with ideas I don't. I'm a pretty decent programmer, but thinking I could beat out the combined creativity of those 10 others - not likely (unless they really suck at what they're doing).

[Acid Hazard]

It's not about doing a better job than the programmers. It's about creating sounds that will only be heard in your music, and not countless other tracks. It's about originality.

[Yoozer]

Originally Posted by Acid Hazard

It's about creating sounds that will only be heard in your music, and not countless other tracks.

Yes, but this doesn't automatically make your track better. Furthermore, you have no way to validate that those sounds you dreamt up haven't been dreamt up and used already by someone else.

It's about originality.

You're using a synthesizer thousands of other people use, you use basic waveforms to construct sounds that appear in thousands of other synthesizers, playing chords everyone else has played in a 12-tone system that's been in use for several centuries. Extra bonus points if you work in 4/4 with 16 steps, because that reduces possible originality even more.

See the problem?

[Acid Hazard]

No, i don't. Synths have an infinite amount of sound creation. The building blocks don't matter. It's the end result. Sometimes it's a similar sound to something most people use, sometimes it isn't. Point being, DIY. It's far more satisfying to roll your own than use a preset that someone else HAS used. Sorry, but using presets doesn't do a thing for me except make me feel like a lazy schmuck.

[Silver Sonya]

Originality comes through songwriting.

"Strawberry Fields Forever" uses a stock mellotron flute sound. You probably have this exact sound somewhere in your sample library. Have you written something as amazing as "Strawberry Fields Forever?" No, you have not. And neither have I.

The magic is in the idea and the feeling, not the instrument. The instrument is an instrument.

This whole "I don't use presets" thing is super-nerdy, misguided and adolescent.

Mozart used "presets," Coltrane used "presets." Dylan's harmonica was a "preset."

If you choose to build your sounds from just raw oscillators or whatever, please go forward. If you choose to modify and shape an existing sound to, that's cool too. Make something great and charismatic and memorable and transporting, that's all anyone cares about. That's the only value in music, if it takes the listener on some kind of journey.

Have a good idea. Everything else is bullshit.

- c

[kreeper_6]

I dunno, The "Hoover" preset sure did the trick. There are plenty of other presets that are well known, if it sounds good, why not?

[RobJB06]

I dont have many S+S synths, but the few that i do have, XV5080 and JD990 for example have global reverb/ multi-fx which you can turn on/off for the whole unit..
So look for the global fx and see if you can turn it off

[aeonlux]

Originally Posted by Silver Sonya

Built-in effects on synth patches...drive me f-ing nuts.

This cheesy default of adding hazy, gauzy, slick chorus or reverb or echo onto every patch to make it "sound bigger" is exasperating. In order to hear the real sound, I have to keep turning the effects off. When scrolling through a bank of sounds, it gets really annoying.

Agreed...and it's doubly-irritating when you have quality outboard effects at your disposal, e.g., Eventide, etc., that can do a much better job than the cut-down effects present on the synth!


cheers,
Ian