How to make money designing synth patches

[themagicalkamja]

make sure that you price it suitably to the quality

Of course. But how to determine what is reasonable...

Price according to the number of presets? Or according to "quality"? Or something else? I was mostly thinking the former...

[starflakeprj]

I would start by giving presets away for free, possibly donationware, until you gain some good reputation. This way you will probably reach out to more future customers.

And, what I find really important is the quality of the demo songs.

[bronxsound]

well, i am not a sound designer but as a use i would judge quality of the soundset by looking at following aspects:

- originality/usefulness of sounds;
- modifiers/playability ie. how the sound reacts to mod wheel, aftertouch etc;
- organisation ie naming, grouping etc;
- eq/volume balance accross the soundset;
- balance of type of sounds. it depends on the theme of the soundset.

i would check work of the top guys to get the idea how it is done. and possibly think of own work as a potential buyer.

[themagicalkamja]

And, what I find really important is the quality of the demo songs.

Do you think a full-on demo SONG is more impactful (like, with drums, etc.), rather than just an audio file where you sequentially demo each preset in a pack individually? If you have like 150 presets in a pack, I doubt I could work them all into a song haha

[bronxsound]

i think the common mistake is that people try to make a patch sound super good in isolation. for me the best sound design is provided by hw workstation manufacturers, where a single sound maybe does not standout alone but in the mix it sits just right without too much eq/comp tweaking.

[themagicalkamja]

- modifiers/playability ie. how the sound reacts to mod wheel, aftertouch etc;

Yeah this is a big one for me. I always make my patches expressive, b/c it's such a waste of cool functionality to. It use aftertouch etc.!

- eq/volume balance accross the soundset;

Nice, hadn't considered this one. Good tip.

- balance of type of sounds. it depends on the theme of the soundset.

This is the biggest unknown for me: how to arrange each pack.

Should it just be based on whatever sounds I think complement each other best? That's totally subjective...

Or should it be based on genre (e.g., "sounds for trance")? This seems to be most common.

Or should it just be a pack of just leads, then a pack of just basses, etc.? But, for instance, what constitutes a good bass sound varies quite a bit by genre, so that returns to the option above...

[starflakeprj]

And, what I find really important is the quality of the demo songs.

Do you think a full-on demo SONG is more impactful (like, with drums, etc.), rather than just an audio file where you sequentially demo each preset in a pack individually? If you have like 150 presets in a pack, I doubt I could work them all into a song haha

For me, what awakens my interest, is a well produced song/clip (maybe not full length) which contains as many presets as possible. Demos where you play the sounds one by one is, imo, pretty lame, and won't give the customer much ideas of how you can use the sounds.

[bronxsound]

it might be a good idea to leave doing an audio demo to someone else. particularly if you are aiming in a specific type of music. there are hundreds talented folks who will do you are favour in exchange for a sound pack in question and some exposure.

[starflakeprj]

it might be a good idea to leave doing an audio demo to someone else. particularly if you are aiming in a specific type of music. there are hundreds talented folks who will do you are favour in exchange for a sound pack in question and some exposure.

I guess one can purchase a few of these "construction kits" as well, where you get a bunch of midi files. At least that was my idea when I was thinking of starting creating soundsets for various synth plugins.

[Aryaroman]

i think the common mistake is that people try to make a patch sound super good in isolation. for me the best sound design is provided by hw workstation manufacturers, where a single sound maybe does not standout alone but in the mix it sits just right without too much eq/comp tweaking.

But I think most hardware workstation (ones I know) patches sound both good (well, at least as in pleasant) in isolation and mix...

But yes, this is definetely a problem software has, consistency. I never have found I would've had to use the volume slider in hardware workstations, save for slight adjustments, but nothing nearly as drastic as in software and synth banks. Even something like the Komplete factory library has sections/banks that are clearly louder than the rest (like the Mellotron samples).

[masterhiggins]

Wait until a new synth or plugin comes out and post YouTube videos or SoundCloud examples of you demoing them and then indicate further in the kvr thread that you're offering a pre-sale on your soundpack. It serves the dual-purpose of promoting yourself and making it look like you're performing a service.