Which synths have the best presets?

[fischkopf]

Also Diversion is something to check out. I haven't seen THAT many 3rd party banks but there's enough for me to be happy. I love me some Diversion.

+1 Diversion the factory library sounds amazing.

[andy4trance]

Very strange that Lush 101was not mentioned. Very good presets imo

[db3]

I like Spire's factory set.

Trying to think about something not already mentioned...I would say Air Hybrid 3 and Vacuum Pro both come with a lot of good, usable presets.

[ariston]

Also Diversion is something to check out. I haven't seen THAT many 3rd party banks but there's enough for me to be happy. I love me some Diversion.

+1 Diversion the factory library sounds amazing.

Dmitry is, among other things, a fantastic sound designer.

[aMUSEd]

Yes it does have fantastic presets, I just wish it was better optimised

[fischkopf]

Yes it does have fantastic presets, I just wish it was better optimised

True, but as the CPUs evolve and get cheaper, more and more people will be able to utilize Diversion more fully. I think because of the high CPU use, people have only scratched the surface of this beast synth, with a lot of potential still to be unfolded.

[2ZrgE]

Marketing-wise at least Hive was clearly offered to the EDM guys. Dune2's USP was/is it's mighty unison/supersaw.

Neither of them being actually good at EDM sounds

Maybe you have a strange understanding of EDM?

But that's not really worth a discussion.

[Numanoid]

Maybe there is a correlation between the better the synth the better the presets

[recursive one]

Marketing-wise at least Hive was clearly offered to the EDM guys. Dune2's USP was/is it's mighty unison/supersaw.

Neither of them being actually good at EDM sounds

Maybe you have a strange understanding of EDM?

Well, pretty much may be. Currently my main area of interest is psytrance and psychill, used to listen to lots of classic trance tunes (like Thrillseekers, Leon Bolier, Mike Foyle etc) before that, I'm by no means an expert in mainstream dance music.

To my personal taste, Dune2 doesn't have the right character for such sounds as super/hypersaw, wobble basses, trance plucks, pitched legato leads and other sounds I associate with EDM. I've compared it to Spire, Sylenth, Virus - no, it doesn't cut it. It excels at ambient stuff though.

Hive - well, its is solid, simple and low CPU subtractive synth. Useable in lots of genres where you need basic subtractive sounds, but to my ears it doesn't sound anything special. Sylenth does, Hive doesn't.

All of the above is highly subjective, obviously.

[chk071]

Marketing-wise at least Hive was clearly offered to the EDM guys. Dune2's USP was/is it's mighty unison/supersaw.

Neither of them being actually good at EDM sounds

Maybe you have a strange understanding of EDM?

Well, pretty much may be. Currently my main area of interest is psytrance and psychill, used to listen to lots of classic trance tunes (like Thrillseekers, Leon Bolier, Mike Foyle etc) before that, I'm by no means an expert in mainstream dance music.

To my personal taste, Dune2 doesn't have the right character for such sounds as super/hypersaw, wobble basses, trance plucks, pitched legato leads and other sounds I associate with EDM. I've compared it to Spire, Sylenth, Virus - no, it doesn't cut it. It excels at ambient stuff though.

Hive - well, its is solid, simple and low CPU subtractive synth. Useable in lots of genres where you need basic subtractive sounds, but to my ears it doesn't sound anything special. Sylenth does, Hive doesn't.

All of the above is highly subjective, obviously.

I totally agree though.

Don't want to lie though, it's probably also simply because the named synths have been used to death in the music, so you really link the sound of the whole genre to these synths. I always find that other synths lack a bit of assertiveness. When i try to make the genre specific sounds with Dune 1 for example, i won't get nowhere really. It's too thin, too tinny, and the bass too absent, even when applying EQ, i can't rescue anything. And that's not the point really anyway, it's got to have all that out of the box, and it doesn't, so there's no point in adding lots of stuff to make it sound "right". Dune 2 is better in that regard, but still shares some of the same character. And Hive sounded much too harsh, brittle and metallic to my ears, and i didn't like the character of the filters. Each to his like.

[Dasheesh]

Maybe there is a correlation between the better the synth the better the presets

Maybe not. The best presets are the ones you make yourself.

[dune_rave]

To name one:
Synthmaster - There's a preset bank contains several preset recreations from the album: "Tomita - Snowflakes are dancing".

[kevvvvv]

fluffy said

Nor do I feel like spending money on third-party sound sets

Ah .... this is the part I like, and why I made this post.

3rd party soundbanks are what give a synth a much longer life.

I never mind spending a small amount of money to get a great usuable selection of sounds.

A great presets bank is like keeping your old house, but getting new furniture and decorating

My problem is that many 3rd party soundbanks are dull, too me-too, or not musically usable (another cine-drone, anyone?).

The standard of presets everywhere has improved massively over the last couple of years

- but many designers are still pushing out tired old ideas of sounds we've heard 100s of times before

- and without the controllers designed-in properly



I got fed up of Blue because no matter how many presets come pre-loaded, they're still just Rob Papen's idea of music.

I got fed up of Massive as too many banks were useless - basically poor design and very unlovely sound, amde by fanboys.

I don't agree that the best presets are the ones I make myself.

My best presets are the ones I've tweaked to make fit the piece I'm working on.


recursive one said

Dune2 doesn't have the right character for such sounds as super/hypersaw, wobble basses, trance plucks, pitched legato leads and other sounds I associate with EDM

You're out of date here - Dune's current EDM stuff is absolutely top notch - except for maybe wobble basses - but maybe wobble basses aren't exactly EDM either.

Either way the multi-stage envelope editing in Dune makes wobble easily accessible. I was doing this just the other night.


Open Question

Which new synth would you buy solely on the strength of a particular 3rd party preset bank?

[recursive one]

You're out of date here - Dune's current EDM stuff is absolutely top notch

Are you refferring to someone's soundset or your own sounds? Care to post a link?

[chk071]

The question isn't whether a synth CAN do EDM stuff, they all can. It's just that there's synth which sound absolutely top notch for the sounds most present in the music. For example some synth can do a great supersaw, on others it will sound totally sucky. I really love Largo for example, but the supersaw is just trash. Same with Massive. Sylenth1, Spire, or Electra2 on the other hand all sound very good with those sounds, thus they're the most used synths in the genre since years (not sure about Electra2, but Sylenth1 and Spire for sure). I'm sure Dune 2 is a great synth. But is it really as top notch for EDM sounds as the synths mentioned? I don't think so. The reception also speaks a certain language. Unless you can point me to the mass of EDM soundsets for Dune 2. I will happily point you to the gazillions of EDM soundsets for Sylenth1 and Spire.