Be honest, do you use presets often?

[jonheal]

I once used presets, but they made my head feel like a big bag of pudding. Wait. Those were Percosets.

[etyrnal]

I was wondering if anyone uses presets to compensate for your lack of skill in synthesis. This also includes the presets in the NI plugins like Absynth and Massive, which thankfully became available in the recent update.

I'll admit, I heavily use them; only in rare cases do I actually design my own synth sounds, and frankly, they're kinda crappy. (Perhaps that's just me)

Synthesis seems quite an interesting topic to study. I'd love a comprehensive tutorial on Massive.

You need to explore all the knobs and faders and settings in every synth like a kid in a sandbox. Just learn whatever enob does to the sound one by one. And make yourself a goal of doing one or two patch making tutorials a week. After a while you'll start to realize which parameters affect the sound in which ways. Eventually it becomes second nature. I started on analog synths with patchbays. That's the reason why I liked reason so much.

Sent from my XT1575 using Tapatalk

[Oquasec]

The synth that got me into producing was uhe zebra. Another guy way back said he wouldn't recommend a synth like that to be the one you learn synthesis with, but I beg to differ as it and thor have a lot of different types of synthesis built right into them.

Subtractor is 3 types right off the bat I believe. Ogun is another main, but I was one of those guys who actually liked the idea of sitting there for hours fiddling with knobs & faders. I definitely know a lot of individuals who simply can not be arsed with it. I understand them entirely.

[syrokitty]

Depends on the synth. If I'm not familiar with the architecture of a device, quality presets (for studying) are invaluable. Presets have very rarely found themselves into final products, though there've been a couple instances that I can think of where the deadline was nigh, and I had to move fast. (A director requested that I add a 30 second intro to the final cut 20 minutes prior to my deadline -- also had to master --- luckily I had already saved the chain I'd be using in bluecat audio's patchwork in pro tools where I then loaded the elongated mix and tweaked/ bounced/ transferred.) In this case, I curated a sound and tweaked it to fit the mix. etc.

I'm happy to say that I'm getting rather quick at dialing in anything I want in Zebra 2. (god, am I ever excited for 2.8 to be released as we're getting repro's 'jaws' (wavefolder distortion) --- it's so over for bass sounds)

[decoder]

I'm around 50/50 at this point.
Right now I'm challenging myself to build from scratch something that sounds close to an old Roland feedback oscillator sound...
Failing miserably at accomplishing that... BUT I am opening my mind and ears to new things and really that's what matters in the grand scheme of things!

[robthompson]

Isn't composition half of sound design? Arranging the noise is sound design. You're literally just moving the noise with clips.

Yes, there's a compositional element to sound design, but that isn't really what I meant.

Traditional composition seeks to combine different sounds in persuasive and effective ways, or to explore the sonic and expressive capabilities of a single well-known instrument - and then to combine all this in a work which is greater than the sum of its parts. Although the same process takes place in sound design, the destination is quite different. A packed auditiorium, its members held in rapt attention as, one by one, a sound designer's best patches are paraded before them, is not something I expect to encounter any time soon.

Creating the sounds themselves opens up new avenues for exploration and exploitation. Ideally, the work of the sound designer and the composer should be complementary, and they may, of course, be the same person.

[stratatonic]

Never use presets. I have all the time in the world to lovingly create every.single.patch from scratch. Because my fans demand it.
Everyone on the planet knows that a song is nothing without brand new sounds in it.

I am so pissed off that every synth - soft or hard - has presets. They should all come with nothing. And every musician should start from scratch. Every single time. This is why music sucks these days. Every one is taking the easy way out - it sounds the same. Create your masterpiece. START FROM SCRATCH! And for godsakes, don't save your new patch. It can never be used again. Everyone will KNOW.

I set my guitar amp and pedal knobs to zero every day. And every day I tweak for an hour to get it sounding just like it did yesterday. I probably should just write down the settings. But that would be, like, cheating.

No thanks, I'll stick with presets. Devs shouldn't create presets for their masterpiece synths? get real. You have time to tweak for an hour a day? not me. Sorta like to get to the music.

I 'm not sure how to respond to this...

[ravisoni]

I never twiddle the knobs. Almost extensively use only presets, and to change the sound, I add in more FX (echo, pulv, alligator, pulsar etc). Almost never touch the native knobs on the device itself.
Edit: Read some more replies. To those who swear by starting from scratch, also think the use-case for Reason for other users (like myself and many more). Reason is not meant to be used exclusively the way you use it. I mean don't challenge me or I'll start using reason to control some hardware at home, having completely nothing to do with music.
Just let people use reason however they want to use it. As long as they are happy using it, as long as they are getting "their" use out of it, what's it matter? We're not all here to be a platinum selling artist, or to push the limits of reason and show the world the unending capabilities of its synths. Is it cool to do that? Sure. Fun, too? Absolutely. Is that what I want to do? No.

[Sunsiare]

I always use a preset and from there I tweak it enough to make it my own. I don't have enough audio synthesis knowledge to start from scratch.

[jappe]

I use presets a lot.
Mostly because I like to work top-down; presets allows me to make a quicker draft while I'm in that zone before the creativity window closes
I often have the intention to refine the song by replacing the presets with own patches or tweaked versions of the preset.
And I also often run out of patience before that step:-D

I think making a patch engages another part of my brain than making the song.

[CaliforniaBurrito]

I use presets a lot.
Mostly because I like to work top-down; presets allows me to make a quicker draft while I'm in that zone before the creativity window closes
I often have the intention to refine the song by replacing the presets with own patches or tweaked versions of the preset.
And I also often run out of patience before that step:-D

I think making a patch engages another part of my brain than making the song.

This reminds me I used an ID8 string patch the other day! Ooooohhhhh!

[CaliforniaBurrito]

I make my own ABL3 patches.

[demt]

one other thing is way sum sounds complement eatch other and why it takes a lot of searching to find the perfect peaches and cream let alone every track sympathises in sum way to the whole piece

[EpiGenetik]

I'm most likely to use them when I'm demo-ing a device. After that if I'm looking for a sound whilst in the groove, I'll typically program it myself, but this is dependent on the synth/sampler that is being used.

A cool trick in this regard is to only use a preset for the first new sound of the day, thus it can force some new sonic directions to a track. You will still need to tweak the preset, though, in order to get it to fit correctly. This is why knowing synthesis well is so important because it is more difficult to edit someone else's work than it is to just do your own from scratch, at least this is certainly the case on more advanced and eccentric synths like Absynth, for example.

[jonheal]

Well, I caved and used another preset.

Sure enough; a fresh case of crabs.

[Kov]

After 7 years of using reason and 141 dance tracks, 2 metal albums and 3 metal EPs i did with it i think i used 5 preset patches (each just 1 time).

[ltbrunt00]

Using presents as a starting point for tweaking is a time savor.

[ltbrunt00]

I will say that Serum you almost have to make your own patches from scratch the default patches don't get me excited. Respire default patches are amazing. All the NI stuff is hit or miss, you get some great presets and with other devices the presets sound like shit.

[dvdrtldg]

For me, a lot of it comes down to the UI. Some synths are designed to make programming a joy, e.g. Antidote and Legend, and with those ones I'm happy to make sounds from scratch. eXpanse is another one, kinda complicated but the layout is so inviting that you can build sounds very fast from the ground up

Other synths with tiny fiddly UIs tend to get me scrolling for presets - take a bow Predator (although here, the problem is too much choice. I keep hearing how Predator is so cool coz it has literally thousands of presets, but to me that's a nightmare. By the time you've waded through a few hundred bass patches, you could easily have built your own)

[Hauser+Quaid]

I will say that Serum you almost have to make your own patches from scratch the default patches don't get me excited. Respire default patches are amazing. All the NI stuff is hit or miss, you get some great presets and with other devices the presets sound like shit.

All about 3rd party patches with Serum. But I agree ReSpire has a lot of instantly useable presets, they did a great job with patch design. There are also a bunch of amazing 3rd party packs for that synth too.

[ltbrunt00]

I will say that Serum you almost have to make your own patches from scratch the default patches don't get me excited. Respire default patches are amazing. All the NI stuff is hit or miss, you get some great presets and with other devices the presets sound like shit.

All about 3rd party patches with Serum. But I agree ReSpire has a lot of instantly useable presets, they did a great job with patch design. There are also a bunch of amazing 3rd party packs for that synth too.

I have spent way to much money this year on Rack Extensions and VSTs. I may spend the rest of the year acquiring the best preset patches for all these devices. Will probably do Thor, Massive, Serum and Antidote.

[Arrant]

When writing music I usually use mainly premade patches, I don't want the creative flow to be bogged down by creating sounds from scratch then. If I do, it's typically the first sound or two before the need to flesh out the song quickly takes over. This helps avoid being stuck in loop-land.
Note that those premade patches may very well be my own, sometimes you just want to sit down and tweak some synths you know. Maybe that one sound inspires you do a track based on it right then, or maybe you just save a bunch of patches to disk, which is fine also.

[jappe]

When writing music I usually use mainly premade patches, I don't want the creative flow to be bogged down by creating sounds from scratch then. If I do, it's typically the first sound or two before the need to flesh out the song quickly takes over. This helps avoid being stuck in loop-land.
Note that those premade patches may very well be my own, sometimes you just want to sit down and tweak some synths you know. Maybe that one sound inspires you do a track based on it right then, or maybe you just save a bunch of patches to disk, which is fine also.

Two different modes of making music.

I think it would be great if the Props could make a Reason Patch Creator without sequencer for mobile phones, to support that patch making mode...perfect when commuting etc.

[O1B]

... then Go to School...
- it aint nutting but some oscillation, amplification, filtration, and modulation
Three Parts... very useful. Great Guy in the video.

The Microbrute helped me a great deal in sound design. It's like using too Thors worth of Analog Waveforms - but with a bit more Bite (Metalizer, Brute factor)

I always use a preset and from there I tweak it enough to make it my own. I don't have enough audio synthesis knowledge to start from scratch.

[Kalm]

Nope, like 10% of the time. Usually if I just need a sound to help make things interesting and I've crafted the entire track pretty much. Every time I scroll through presets it's never what I want so I started giving up. Plus, I have a conscious of "somebody definitely used this. . ." paranoia about me lololol