I've had a little dig around on the forum and online, and have found some, but not all. Is there any standardised abbreviations used for synth presets? Some are obvious and/or common sense, but some are a little vague.

The ones I think I've worked out are below, and I will continue to add to this list to provide a bit of dictionary-like reference for anyone in the future.

808 - 808s
AC or ACID - Acid
AMB - Ambience
ARP - Arps
ART - Artist
AT or ATM - Atmospheres
BA, BS or BASS - Bass
BL or BELL - Bells
BLA - ?
BR - Brass
CH, CHO, CHD, CHRD or CHORD - Chords
DR or DRUM - Drums or Drones
ENV or ENVIRO - Environments
EP - Electric Piano
FLT - Filtered
FX or SFX - Effects
GATE - Gates
GROWL - Growls
GT or GTA - Guitars
HIT - Hits
HV or HOV - Hoover
IMP or IMPACT - Impacts
INS or INST - Instruments
KS, KY or KEYS - Keys
LD or LEAD - Leads
MA - Mallets
MID - Mid Bass
NEURO - Neurobass
NFG - ?
OR or ORGAN - Organs
PD or PAD - Pads
PH or PHR - Phrases
PL, PK or PLUCK - Plucks
PN or PIANO - Piano
POL or POLY - Polyphonic
PR or PERC - Percussions
PSY - Psytrance/Psychedelic
PZ - Piezo
RS - Reeses
RIS or RISER - Risers
SAW - Sawtooth
SC - Sidechained
SML - ?
SQ or SEQ- Sequences
SRTE - ?
ST - Stabs
STR or STRING - Strings
SUB - Subs
SY or SYNTH- Synths
TX, TEX or TEXTURE - Texture
VO, VX or VOX - Vocals
WU or WB - Wobbles
WW - Woodwinds

 

Last edited: Dec 5, 2023

BLAHHHH .... that one i'm not sure of. i would guess PN is piano as well, and PSY is... Psychedelic? i'd throw 303 or acid in there

 

EP is Electric Piano
PZ is Piezo
HOV is hoover
SFX is Sound Effects
WW is Woodwinds
MA is Mallet
BR is Brass
SAW is Sawtooth
FLT is Filtered

 

Last edited: Dec 5, 2023

psytrance (or just psy) is its own music genre
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychedelic_trance

 

I know that, but the above are what are currently used in synth preset naming conventions, meaning the green/red bold letters are what manufacturers label presets as. The rest is the descriptor. Therefore, manufacturers are using "PSY" in the preset name, and it's unclear whether this means PSYtrance, PSYchededlic, or something else until someone can confirm.

 

I find 2 letters are not enough or to vague to describe some. I prefer (use) 3 letters...

 

That's the whole point of this list to convert what manufacturers are using to something less vague as a bit of a reference to decode them

 

I see "MID" names for "mid bass" in Spire. Mid Bass is used in Trance music. It has little low end. For that, we add "sub bass".

 

it's not like there's an international standard they're conforming to, it's entirely down to the designer to name things. so it would be either or both of those depending on the synth and who programmed it. with that in mind I'd also vote for bla standing for 'blah' representing that the designer was tired of naming things

although if anyone wants to propose an ISO standard for synth naming, apparently bunford volunteers