How much of tweaking you do to the source sounds?

[Heigen5]

A Poll.

Do you think it's just natural to treat almost every sound or do you think that only few of the sounds are in a need to be shaped? Do you process your sounds a lot?

[MrFigg]

I play guitar and always process it in some way.
Drums get reverb.
Synths not so much.

[BRIGGS]

FX is where art happens.

[motuscott]

I'll mess with a sound at the drop of a hat. I don't worry about presets cos they're not pre when I'm done with 'em.

[guitfnky]

FX is where art happens.

yesss....YEEEEESSSSSS!!! <tents fingers>

[Aosta]

I play around with everything to shape and sculpt the sounds into what I like.

[BRIGGS]

FX is where art happens.

yesss....YEEEEESSSSSS!!! <tents fingers>

[guitfnky]

yesss....YEEEEESSSSSS!!! <tents fingers>

[chaosroyale]

Sound designers can't really answer this poll. I don't use presets, and I consider FX/layering/cv/automation to be an integral part of sound design, not an option. So maybe more categories are necessary?

"always heavily change the presets or create new ones" (pretty common for lots of musicians doing ambient, neuro, techno, etc)

and maybe

"always make new sounds" (for the real snobs)

[syncanonymous]

It depends upon the sound set for the particular music

A lot of my work is sound-a-like for film backgrounds

if the cue is R&B or Soul (which often is the choice), then you can't go crazy with the sound set
or symphonic; you need to have good samples

stuff I do for myself; seldom any presets, if any
I might sketch with presets, but the final product won't have any

like now, I am doing a pop song with latin rhythm but Hip Hop drums
my brother has been kind enough to record some of his vast collection of percussion over in LA and email wavs
the quirk and reality of the off the cuff recordings balances the use of ID8s and brings some authenticity
I've had to tune most of his sources to the song...

[plaamook]

I’m basically a sound designer and I approach music that way so yeah, pretty much everything gets processed. Even if it’s just pitching it down and eq and some verb. Can’t remember the last time I popped a straight sample or recording into a track.

[Rising Night Wave]

FX is where art happens.

+1

[Seckin]

I really wonder why people wonder this kind of thing.

[Rising Night Wave]

out of wonderiosity?

[veezay]

Obviously depends on the source and what I want to achieve. Assuming "source sound" means samples, I'll try to find a sample that's as close to what I'm looking for, and then I'll see if I can modify that to be even closer, be that any means of editing or FX.

If, on the other hand, "source sound" means a synth preset, I don't know, because I generally start from the scratch. For most of the stuff I do, I can make a synth patch which is close to something I'm looking for. If I can't, I start thinking about how it could be done, and I'll try to get there myself (and hopefully learning something along the way).

Basically I'll do anything that'll give me the result I'm looking for.

[seqoi]

With no disrespect intended I think poll and thread is completely irrelevant.

I mean you have a sound and you have goal for a project/session/track. You shape your sound to adapt to what you want to achieve with a track/project right? And that later depend on many factors when it comes into mixing session within primary goal - balance in a mix

Furthermore there is no rule to "creation" thing. There are rules which shape final track yes like you don't clip and technical stuff but processing source or not processing it is not decided within "technical" reasons.

It's not that you approach to a song like "ooo let me put that snare there, and then ooo let me put a bassline here...hmmm do I process them now or not" - or do you? It's not something that is happening out of pure coincidence or is it? I am not talking here about coincidental things and that track/sounds shouldn't be experimented with, I am talking from a perception of should source sound be processed or not.

Sometimes you work with what you have, sometimes you bring in new stuff but every time it's a new canvas and depending on a goal you then shape or not shape sound within necessity of a project.

Maybe I am completely missing a goal here (language barrier)

[seqoi]

Obviously depends on the source and what I want to achieve.

If, on the other hand, "source sound" means a synth preset, I don't know, because I generally start from the scratch.

Basically I'll do anything that'll give me the result I'm looking for.

Precisely. But it doesn't matter if you start from scratch, sometimes presets are just "that" thing but then later on they may need some shaping to balance out mix or so.

I can't possibly see how this poll can guess or give valuable score because there is no general rule to making something as creative as track.

[antic604]

Almost to every sound individually. And then to the busses, sends and sometimes even master. That's why I'm finishing 1 track / year on average

[okaino]

Just depends if im building up from scratch im less likely to do additional processing because everything is what it is and how i wanted....now if i mix someones session its highly likely i might process the sounds provided if i dont see them up to par especially for drums bass and lead vocal.