There are days I don't want to write any music. I could spend hours just listening to preset sounds for my favorite synths, especially from well known sources (Luftrum, Sample Magic, Aiyn Zahev to name a few).
Some preset packs are hard to find since they're old, it's rewarding to find them. : )

 

It's the old "hunter-gatherer" brain. Got a 4tb external drive...why not?

 

It's like collecting trading cards when we were kids.

 

Well, some people just like collecting. Antiques, toys, figurines, fuzzboxes, plugins, presets, you name it.

If it works for you then why not?

 

Some of these libraries are just so expertly crafted too...would take a lifetime of noodling to come up with some of these patches.

 

Presets save time and can avoid a ton of tweaking when you're dealing with proper work. Some plugins are not that easy to craft a sound and some plugins can create a lot of sounds. A starting point is always handy .

 

I think we both have different definitions of the word "fun"

I only have stock presets installed, I've learned more about my synths by trying to create or recreate sounds than loading presets.

I did try going through presets once to get the sound I wanted, I ended up getting angry with it because it never got close to what's in my head.

I create my own now, and I'm less angry

 

Because OCD

 

because it gives more choice. more choice more variation.. the more presets the better. i usually stay away from synths with 128 presets only.
i dont know.. thats what i think.

 

how much synths are you using? what are your everyday synthesizers?

 

There are a bunch of different plugins, from synths to effects, which people often like an included randomization feature/function. It can be a similar thing with entire plugins, as more and more effects plugins come out that are very opinionated by design. There are lots of black box plugins maybe now more than ever. Lots of presets only leads to possibly more random results, so they are good for strange song starters or if you hit a writing block. If I already know what kind of sound I want, i'll just make it myself. It also helps to keep you from switching that channel to an entirely different synth; or worse, installing more synth plugins; and yes, people do both all the time.

 

Funny how presets got the same hate as AI not to long ago.

Ive been working on a tool and or trying to find the best tool to browse all presets. I like Native Kontrol from NI but its limited.

https://www.infinity.audio/one-instrument shows promise but also limited..

Even loop cloud is good for exploring but not good for previewing.



this is a super bootleg work in progress im building, currently only FXP files since a few different plugins use this format. Serum, Albino, dune, sylenth etc..

but the concept is a place to find, organize, cleanup, and preview a sound based on a search. I want it to blindly preview the sound dispite the instrument. Lets say im looking for a hoover sound for a drum and bass track and can search that based on the tagging system and preview it in context to my track without having plugin bias. Maybe there is a weird hoover preset that albino has but i barely open that plug.

Still a WIP but i think it can be helpful on the fly in the flow state.

Insert "you're cheating", "you should learn how to sound design rant below" its also ok with sound designing from INIT, loading a preset you saved, and preset choosing.

 

What are some of your favorite preset packs (and for what instruments)?

 

Sonic Sirius - Synthesizer Soundsets
Freeware Soundsets for Software and Hardware Synthesizer
https://ohlenbostelhelge.wixsite.com/sonic-sirius-sound-d

https://www.kvraudio.com/developer/sonic-sirius
https://www.youtube.com/user/FutureNoise1

 

I think some good preset sets are great fun. Sometimes they're like getting a new synth with sensible control mappings and just have fun playing it and twisting the knobs to play it my way. Then dissecting the favourite sounds to pick up some tricks specific to that synth.

But I don't do that anymore and the reason is pretty simple: the sheer quantity of them. I mean, and this is not one of those "get of my lawn" things because more can be good, my Wavestation came with 150 presets. That's a decent amount. Something like Zebra 3 comes with 1200+ and has more control mappings than the WS. There's no way I can dedicate enough time to give them all a fair go. That's just one synth, now take any big collection or a DAW suite and it's just not doable at all. So getting extra preset packs is just too much.

I do like that Z3 has a "Discover" function that picks 50 random presets to try out. That's excellent, everything should have it.

 

All it is going to do is help you organize, catalog, and preview presets faster, right? It's hard to call something that handles those tasks as "cheating".

Anyway, an app and plugin showed up on sister site this week called Midibro, and it is almost the exact opposite of what it sounds like you are working on. It's a scanner for all your folders of Midi files, and that part functions kind of like Loopcloud. But then it shows on the other side, graphic representations of each midi file, and you can click them for it to play back with a placeholder internal instrument. That part is close to how EzKeys2 handles the same thing.

 

shamelessly plugging, bro shut up lmao

you remind me of every tech company right now ran by people who are not nor could care less about music , manufacturing slogans and catch phrases that are hollow and weightless that everyone just loves eating up lmao (your vibe reminds me of it, clearly you didn't actually say any of these aforementioned slogans or catch phrases)

lastly, you know damn well why AI gets hate

 

Yeah, I used to be absolutely obsessed with presets. I reached a point where I didn't even want any room for my own creative input on my various synths anymore. Like someone struggling with dyslexia, I would trigger the master keyboard using just my index finger, hitting the "C" key, and so on, and it was great! But why? I think it has something to do with this, if this is even translatable: perhaps it’s because we are using something in the virtual realm that is, in the broadest sense, the digital equivalent of a box of chocolates, only better. Like little bite-sized canapés, we delight in almost every new preset that comes along, especially those bearing slogans like "Disney’s Precious Little Trinkets, Vol. 1–3." So, much like a mushroom gatherer, we grab our little wooden basket and carefully place inside every preset morsel that briefly amazes or delights us. Just before heading to bed, we take one last peek into our fancy little basket, quickly click on something at random, it goes "§$%&/", and just like that, it works again ! Marvelling at the sound with joy written all over our faces, we can finally head off to bed, ready to do it all again in the morning... Now, try doing the same or similar thing, eg with a pizza: order a pizza with "mixed toppings and various sorts of cheese," may tell the pizzaiolo to just come up with whatever he feels like making. then the result:

 

Sick! is is essentially a shell / host with the various plugins all loaded? Accepts Midi from your session? Very useful tool.

 

Dopamine.