I didn't read your whole post because frankly, it looked like you kept repeating yourself.
But in a nutshell, it's simply about preference and style of your own personal workflow.
Some people even use presets for hardware (analog) in the form of writing onto paper layouts of the controls, commonly referred to as recall sheets. You can make them in spreadsheets.
But, with producing there is 2 main schools to consider, and everything else in between.
Technical engineers on one side and Pure talent artists on the other extreme. Both typically have polar opposite workflows, yet software has to cater to them all.
Engineers have detailed know-how but lack a artists touch. Artists know the sound they want by listening or just knowing what they want to hear.
Presets can be somewhat of a time-wasting addiction also, it's easy to try to gather them up to use later on. SOrt of defeating the value of time spent producing or creating sound and music.
Presets are designed to be 'starting points', or they can be to inspire the players of the produces AND represent the plugin makers "best foot forward", to show off what they consider the best of their product.
Music it self is also hard to define. For instance some 'music' is extremely focused on traditional technique with little room for experimenting. Other music can be created from random wave generators or AI beat remixing. You can go on and on about the different varieties of the music spectrum. Just look at how young music is mostly frowned on by our parents or old school people. This will likely always be the case.
Best of luck.
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It could be different on a mac...
Don't forget high-pressure, commercial music production situations. Almost all commercial producers are preset collectors of the highest level. Time constraints have a way of pushing one to pursue the most expedient methods.
Don't forget high-pressure, commercial music production situations. Almost all commercial producers are preset collectors of the highest level. Time constraints have a way of pushing one to pursue the most expedient methods.
and yet, some of our favorite music has been recorded under just such circumstances
there are Plenty of musicians who perform better under pressure, who play a better solo knowing 'this has to be it' instead of leaning on "endless playlists" and comping.
there are no 'shoulds' and 'shouldn'ts; every situation is different
It does not take too much searching of the memory banks to remember a session where too much time was taken and the energy levels suffered.
For me, some presets can be useful but all require some adjustment. A good example of this is with compression presets. If you throw a standard compressor on a kick drum track and use the kick drum preset you should get a usable ratio, attack and release setting for kick drum comp. But the preset doesn't know what level the kick was recorded at so you'll have to adjust the threshold and output gain, there's no way around it. But the preset gets your part of the way there.
and yet, some of our favorite music has been recorded under just such circumstances
there are Plenty of musicians who perform better under pressure, who play a better solo knowing 'this has to be it' instead of leaning on "endless playlists" and comping.
there are no 'shoulds' and 'shouldn'ts; every situation is different
It does not take too much searching of the memory banks to remember a session where too much time was taken and the energy levels suffered.
Well thats an intriguing comment! Guess i spoke too soon.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Big Zimm
For me, some presets can be useful but all require some adjustment. A good example of this is with compression presets. If you throw a standard compressor on a kick drum track and use the kick drum preset you should get a usable ratio, attack and release setting for kick drum comp. But the preset doesn't know what level the kick was recorded at so you'll have to adjust the threshold and output gain, there's no way around it. But the preset gets your part of the way there.
Ah yes, this applies to presets of EQ and Compression as well.
I guess for that, its a good thing to use the presets to see how things are usually done on say "kicks", and then tweak to fit the character of your kick better.
I suppose over time you would know approximately what settings to use for the kick, or drum buss, or whatever. And therefore you wouldn't necessarily have to use the presets at all as your dialing in what you know will be appropriate, listening to the sound, and then fine tuning appropriately.
Overall, it doesn't matter if your using compression presets and then fine tuning to you taste. I guess it's what your hearing and then how your tweaking and using it that counts.
I guess that therefore applies to all presets, including synthesizer presets, especially for new producers, as they have to get to grips with it first. So actually, they can learn a lot from the presets.
And then, once they require enough knowledge, they can probably do a lot of sounds themselves. But i suppose presets are there if need be as there handy and quicker. They would have learnt a lot from the presets themselves.
Ages ago, I used t work in a music store, in the keys department. I used to demo synths for clients and as a musician I had a talent for improvising just the right lick, or melody, or groove, or whatever that fit the particular patch I was playing. Unlike traditional instruments, synths are textural chameleons and a patch can speak to a creative musician, sometimes inspiring a melody, a groove, even an entire song.
I've also worked in situations where a drummer came up with a groove that inspired a song, or a guitarist's lick, same. I'm sure others here have had similar experiences. Synth patches, loops, MIDI beats, whatever, are no different: all this stuff is food for the creative spirit.
But in cases where I've heard something very specific in my head, I've created my own patches too, or derived what I needed from the closest match if it was handy. And typically, I build my own drum tracks just because it's faster as I typically know what I want and rifling through drum loops would be a waste of time. But that hasn't prevented me from building a few grooves from RMX patches, because that was the way to go; in fact in one case that was the inspiration for a commercial release.
The universe is a fluid place. I don't think it's wise to categorically deny oneself access to sources of inspiration. Whatever works, works.
correct me if I am wrong, but I believe the OP was referring to "presets" in the sense of "sounds" or "patches"
hence his consternation at people 'collecting' massive folders full of them
'presets' for compressors and EQs are another thing altogether, IMO
I have 'settled' on any number of electric pianos or synth pads "as is" when building a track
I don't think I ever was satisfied with a signal processing preset as is when mixing. Maybe if I was a keyboardist instead of a mixer, I might have a different view.
correct me if I am wrong, but I believe the OP was referring to "presets" in the sense of "sounds" or "patches"
hence his consternation at people 'collecting' massive folders full of them
'presets' for compressors and EQs are another thing altogether, IMO
I have 'settled' on any number of electric pianos or synth pads "as is" when building a track
I don't think I ever was satisfied with a signal processing preset as is when mixing. Maybe if I was a keyboardist instead of a mixer, I might have a different view.
Already replied to his comment, but yes in general i was referring more towards libraries of presets found in softsynths and people collecting massive bundles of softsynth presets from the internet.
I see what the OP is saying. I think to get a good sound, you need to know the basics of the synth your playing with..even if its just for tweaking. Otherwise you will allow the synth preset to dictate the production.
But theres no time on a writing session to ask the artist to wait for 3 hours while il load up a sine wave and get cracking and a lead sound that I know i can find elsewhere quickly.
I think that most of the new synths presets are designed to sound flash from the off and are so full of reverb and effects that i find its too much when mixing the track.
I have tended to go back to more simple synths like Arturia collection and then add my own effects.
on the flipside, i dont want to spend 3 hours looking through Absynth to find a nice simple pad.
I make sure when i get a new synth, I send a few hours going through and noting down the sounds that are usable or inspiring, and knowing how to tweak..but iv not even opened the 5inch thick manuals that came with Arturia collection..leave that to the programers. Im not going to start fashioning my own guitar design either..
I disagree with the piano analogy. I'm a violin player and it took years to learn how to play different kind of sounds with it, which i could probably be compared to far kind of presets. But piano is piano.
Nevertheless, all you people saying the use of presets is a good thing, you're probably the ones who make this century soooooo boring. All the bands you liked where twisting something on their own, be it a guitar, a way to drum, a way to sing (WITHOUT ****ING KIND OF VOICE PRESETS like you got nowadays because of TV shows), and of course, dealing with synths and computers in a personal way.
I think to get a good sound, you need to know the basics of the synth your playing with.. even if its just for tweaking. Otherwise you will allow the synth preset to dictate the production.
Yes, definitely!
Quote:
Originally Posted by tritace
I think that most of the new synths presets are designed to sound flash from the off and are so full of reverb and effects that i find its too much when mixing the track.
Definitely this!
Quote:
Originally Posted by tritace
I have tended to go back to more simple synths like Arturia collection and then add my own effects
And yes, this is also true with me, for now.
But i'm also slowly learning and experimenting with Absynth and stuff within Reaktor.
Your comment rings very true with what i have found
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