I'd become a bit creatively stagnant recently. I was making stuff that was pretty good but for some reason didn't really excite me or didn't quite live up to the standards I'd set for myself. After mulling it over for a while I realized I was doing some of my best work a few months ago when I was loading up a bunch of presets from Omnisphere, tweaking to taste, and just kind of breezing through the process. I fell into the old can=should trap. i.e. just because I can make some pretty cool sounds now, I should make my tracks out of all original sound design. The loss of speed and fluidity really stifled my creativity without me even realizing it.

So, just a reminder to... you know... not be a dummy like me. Do what works/feels good. I'm using a healthy mix of presets and original sound design now and it's working much better.

This has been another pointless PSA, brought to you by Cav Emp.

 

do not fool us with your treacherous ways, to be a musician you have to be an original nazi, it is known

and if you are too weak to do that, then have some fun playing around like the infidel you are

perhaps they will play your shitty music in hell

 

Oh yea been there.You need the new Steven Slate trick or treat plugin,some say its even better than EZmix.

 

Well somehow I agree.
I think when some people are starting to learn by doing sound design, it's a good idea to not switch their workflow suddenly. they used to browse/tweak presets so they should slowly approach sound design.

What I'm saying is, that it's not bad to use presets at all. some of them were made by legendary sound designers. some have defined the sound of a certain genre like hoover sound. but the idea is to not use them all the time and try to have something for your own.

 

Not just that, but presets can give you ideas. When you're designing all the sounds from scratch you're pretty much limited to what you already had in mind. That's great if you want everything to be totally deliberate, and sometimes I do. But 'happy accidents' are also part of the magic of making music. Sometimes you stumble on a preset that turns a good idea into a great one, or changes the direction of a song.

I still have some snobbery in me. It makes me feel a little funny to use a preset, and I don't think I would ever make a track anymore that is less than 50% original sound design. But the benefits in creativity, spontaneity, fluidity, etc. are undeniable. IMO of course.

 

Sometimes, just hearing a preset can even lead to a full song.
So I don't mind, for my part, to mix up tweaked presets and origianl sound design.

 

Exactly!

Yep. happened to me before.
Overall I think there's no problem with using presets. Just that we shouldnt rely on em all the time.

 

Exactly.

I will often have a song's main themes worked out in my head with basic /common sounds e.g. Piano and then go find the sounds/samples to translate to whatever genre im writing to.

At the end of the day the most advanced sound design is still just smoke and mirrors for notes played on a keyboard.

I tweak presets and/or add effects until they are unrecognisable. And sometimes just mildly tweak esp as any sound is only just an element of the greater whole of my track.

Instruments like the Piano, Acoustic Guitar Saxophone etc sound the same as they always have and have been used for centuries doesnt mean there are no great songs to be made with those same sounds so I think preset snobbery is silly. (The only exception is nowadays some presets are almost full songs with one press of the button, thats a joke)

Not saying sound design isnt great but I care more about writing great songs and arrangements with emotion and progression than tech showpieces, but of course there is a market for that too.

 

We metalheads ampsim lovers are typical victims of this. "This Revalver 4 preset is good, but what if I put the TSE x50 2 Tube screamer instead of Revalver's one? Oh, and change the cabsim IRs sure will sound cooler... Wait! I've heard Amplitube 4 cabsim rocks!". Two months later... "Damn, the original preset sounded better than this 4 preset 3 plugin combo...". Bye, cruel life

Now I just use presets and, when I have time and knowledge, I slightly tweak them to my taste. But first I try to do some music lol

 

Nothing wrong with presets. I always use presets

 

I almost never tweak the presets I use because I consider it a waste of time.

If I find a preset that sounds good and inspire me then I prefer to concentrate on the song creation with this preset instead of trying to experiment with the sound to no end.

 

I think I saw a tut by IllGates or Vespers (on your recommandation @Cav Emp ) and he said something that first I didn't get, but now I do because I have similar issues as yours, and his advice kind of goes in the direction of what you are saying. He advices to not mix sound design time and beat making time. Those process have to be separated I think to be able to lead somewhere, each in their own right. He advices to take a morning or two per week for sound design, all afternoons of the week for beat making for example. It surprised me he said that because obviously the guy knows how to sound design and I bet he has no problem pulling the sound he wants in two minutes, once he knows the sound he wants. But that's the thing, the sound design isn't creating the picture, the story - which is what structuring the song, creating hook, choosing preset, fx would be, you lay the chapters of your story - sound design, creating synth patch, is working the colors you're gonna use, the words picked for your story. And getting stuck at picking the colors, the nuance of it, before having sketch a general frame for the story, a beginning of a picture, has gotten me in deadend too lately, and it happens as I start to be able to programm synth patches that I like on my own.

But there is a problem with preset too. They are a great starting point, they are borrowed words though, they allow you to tell your story but with the words of others. Synth patches made by others are colors with their nuances made by others. Great painters have their own palette, they make their color as they see fit. Tweaking has its limit, you give nuances to nuances, but it's still not your own words.
So to get around that, I have been trying to start beats with presets (well lately I haven't started squat, hopefully I will go back to it soon), because those words by others give me instant creativity boost, they give me clear colors that seem to have a purpose and suggest a direction. I move forward quick as soon I have that, sound inspire me, and allow me to move forward to structuring the story. That's what words do they suggest story. Once I have a general frame, lately (well again, three weeks ago), I try this : I try to get the same kind of color I have originaly used (the preset), but with others material (another synth) that I mold myself. If a preset from say Massive inspired me, I'm gonna try to replace with a patch I make with serum for example. Those are different materials, they can't have the same result, they can't say the same thing exactly in the same way. I'll go in a direction though, because in the context of a story I know which word approximately has to be there, I have a direction, I'm not aiming in the dark, there is already a path and the material I'm working has to fit in that path. It's some kind of "synth replacement" strategy. Nothing keeps me of course at that point from browsing in my own patch to check if I haven't already done something that could replace the preset. I still sound design while making a beat, but I try to never do it aimlessly. It kills the creativity process for me if I do.
But it's important for me to keep on doing sound design in an "aimless" fashion too. Because every now and then, I just come up with something so clear, a word or a color so strong, that it screams a story to me, and in a way the song is already included in it. Those are the best patches I come up with !

 

you have to write your own programs and make the computer chips too from raw materials you bought from an African slave digger kid with bloody fingers , then you can be original ...

 

Have to admit I have never programmed/designed a sound, it's presets all the way for me. I just can't see the point in spending ages trying to create something when far more talented people than me have already done it. A preset sound can always be tweaked/altered by using plugins if they are not exactly what you are looking for.

Obviously if you have the talent and patience to create a sound from scratch or you simply enjoy doing it then it's all good but it's basically down to personal choice.

 

We are all thieves of ideas and sounds to some point! Even geniuses of music like Beethoven, Lennon, Dylan, Radiohead, etc..borrowed sounds/styles from previous sources to form their own music.
It's how you shape & mold these influences that really matter.
Like a great chef gathers a lot of ingredients & ideas from the best dishes and then goes on to create their
own unique menu's.
Let's collect lots of ideas & sounds and get to making our own styles of unique music!