Sound design philosophy for newbies - what's the scoop?

[lunatiKK_synth]

Hello forum dwellers,

I'm a production newbie, have been for a while. I've always really wanted to get into creating electronic rock music, and doing my own sound design. I've been playing around with software for about a year now. Now I know for a fact that there is a whole lot to synthesis, and that people frown upon using presets. What really confuses me is, when working with VSTs, what does sound design really classify as? Is it finding a sound from some soundbank out there and changing it around for a while, or does that count as "presetting"? Do most people just start on a blank slate where they can go in a whole bunch of different directions on one, blank synth, or do certain soundbanks have their own, separate properties from the main synth itself? It all just really confuses me, so I thought, hey, let's discuss it.

Thanks for the input guys... hope I'm not too stupid

[GeorgeZ]

There's a lot of people who use presets. Nothing wrong with it. If you can do the sound design, sure go ahead, but it depends on what you want to do. Just want to get tracks done, use presets (tweak as needed, if needed). If you want to do sound design for your own tracks, check out some youtube tuts, and get your hands dirty (also, don't write of presets as just that, they can be very useful to learn from). Don't be put off by what other people say. If you're comfortable using presets, go for it!

[deastman]

Nothing wrong with using presets. Sound design is nothing more than a preset which you make yourself. Some people really enjoy the process of manipulating sound, while others prefer to just find something already existing which sounds good and use it. There are no right and wrong answers.

As for what sound design is, it just means manipulating all the controls of the synth until you arrive at a sound you like. The more you understand about how synths work, the more control you'll have over that process. But don't be afraid to just grab some knobs and see what they do.

In general, soundbanks do not have special properties from the main synth. A bank of sounds is just a collection of presets which someone created and saved. The main exception to that would be sample-based synths, where the soundbank might include new recorded audio material specific to those presets.

[Aiynzahev]

I take a broader view of sound design. It relates to the entire song, the mixing, the arrangement the processing. The end result, what the listener hears, is your sound design.

In that context synths are a small part of the bigger pictures and presets an even smaller part.

I know very good artists who aren't that comfortable with synthesis, but make very good music, and I mean it's very well received by listeners, but they tend make a narrow range of music. If you really want to spread your wings and explore you need to know the basics of what you're doing. It's just like music theory.

OTOH plenty of people know a lot about synthesis but don't make anything I find pleasurable to listen to.

[2ZrgE]

Hello forum dwellers,

I'm a production newbie, have been for a while. I've always really wanted to get into creating electronic rock music, and doing my own sound design. I've been playing around with software for about a year now. Now I know for a fact that there is a whole lot to synthesis, and that people frown upon using presets. What really confuses me is, when working with VSTs, what does sound design really classify as? Is it finding a sound from some soundbank out there and changing it around for a while, or does that count as "presetting"? Do most people just start on a blank slate where they can go in a whole bunch of different directions on one, blank synth, or do certain soundbanks have their own, separate properties from the main synth itself? It all just really confuses me, so I thought, hey, let's discuss it.

Thanks for the input guys... hope I'm not too stupid

Without the use of presets I wouldn't be ablet to finished any of my tracks - not everyone has enough time to dedicate hours just constructing sounds - especially if the result sounds like a preset anyways. Why should I for example build a Moog-style sound when I can choose between a dozen of presets which I can then modify within minutes? Pure waste of time and just musical snobbery...

[Lotuzia]

Hello forum dwellers,

I'm a production newbie, have been for a while. I've always really wanted to get into creating electronic rock music, and doing my own sound design. I've been playing around with software for about a year now. Now I know for a fact that there is a whole lot to synthesis, and that people frown upon using presets. What really confuses me is, when working with VSTs, what does sound design really classify as? Is it finding a sound from some soundbank out there and changing it around for a while, or does that count as "presetting"? Do most people just start on a blank slate where they can go in a whole bunch of different directions on one, blank synth, or do certain soundbanks have their own, separate properties from the main synth itself? It all just really confuses me, so I thought, hey, let's discuss it.

Thanks for the input guys... hope I'm not too stupid

A soundbank will have the characteristics of its author(s)

Each sound designer has his universe, his skills, and weaknesses that match his skills, ie for sounds that doesnt interest him/her, and will therefore lack in the soundbank.
The creator universe makes that even some presets that are considered as generic like an 'analog brass' will be created in a different way by SD X or Y. I know this for having managed whole teams of SDs.
Then some people like/need to make their own presets, even at the price of reinventing the wheel each time. Its part of their pleasure of making music. This has nothing to do with the *quality* of the music produced with these sounds.Successfull musicians just use presets, some -more rare- others used only their sounds, and others a mix of both. Terrible musicians will make crap with nice presets,while the best and inspired ones will turn them into gold.

Actually, there's just no rule about using presets, other that the ones you'll maybe want to impose to yourself. At the end of the day, no one cares if a good track has been made with presets or not : Its a good, or less good track. Et voilà.

[DJ Warmonger]

Eventually you end up making your own presets and recalling them.

Of course presets are good way to learn music and also to get tune running quickly. Making all your sounds from scratch is a huge waste of time. However, you will enetually want to bend sounds to your will and achieve very specific results.

Presets are also good source of inspiration. Just check what the synth has to offer or find some less specific sound that you wouldn't imagine on your own, but which fits the track nicely.

[garryknight]

Sometimes a preset is already close to the sound you want and just a little tweaking can get there. Other times you might want to build something that fits with a soundscape you're putting together and no preset is even close. But to get to grips with designing and crafting sounds you need to understand how sound works, what waveforms are available on your synth of choice, how you can combine them, and what modulators you can use.

To get some idea of whether you want to go down this route, you could try the Syntorial demo. The first 22 lessons are free. After you get the theory down, there are plenty of YouTube videos that, even if they don't use your synth, can be a great help as most synths share the same basic features: oscillators, filters, LFOs, and so on.