KVR Audio

Kriminal · Post by **Kriminal** » Sat May 23, 2015 11:25 am

Analogue stuff from the late 70's, early 80's. Thats the stuff i grew up with. Loads of those had patch books.

wagtunes · Post by **wagtunes** » Sat May 23, 2015 11:27 am

Kriminal wrote:Analogue stuff from the late 70's, early 80's. Thats the stuff i grew up with. Loads of those had patch books.

You must have had a very generous dealer. I didn't get squat.

Kriminal · Post by **Kriminal** » Sat May 23, 2015 11:30 am

wagtunes wrote:
Kriminal wrote:Analogue stuff from the late 70's, early 80's. Thats the stuff i grew up with. Loads of those had patch books.
You must have had a very generous dealer. I didn't get squat.

I never bought new ones...some of the patchsheets were actually part of the manuals... tho sometime i didnt even get a manual... and no internet meant learning the hard way.

wagtunes · Post by **wagtunes** » Sat May 23, 2015 11:31 am

Kriminal wrote:
wagtunes wrote:
Kriminal wrote:Analogue stuff from the late 70's, early 80's. Thats the stuff i grew up with. Loads of those had patch books.
You must have had a very generous dealer. I didn't get squat.
I never bought new ones...some of the patchsheets were actually part of the manuals... tho sometime i didnt even get a manual... and no internet meant learning the hard way.

Which is pretty much how we all learned back then, thus my comment on how spoiled we've become.

Apostate · Post by **Apostate** » Sat May 23, 2015 11:34 am

I guess it takes a certain kind of person to sell a synth once they find they can't stand the presets. A person who buys things according to other people's reviews, for instance...

Kriminal · Post by **Kriminal** » Sat May 23, 2015 11:35 am

I wouldnt say we are spoiled, its def made things easier (performance wise...no more 2 minute silences between songs while re patching

)

Mostly its changes for the better. Some ppl are just lazy...

Apostate · Post by **Apostate** » Sat May 23, 2015 11:41 am

Kriminal wrote:

Mostly its changes for the better. Some ppl are just lazy...

I agree 100% on the changes, however it can be quite the bum out when some of those same people end up successful "artists"...

Or maybe I'm just a jealous nobody

wagtunes · Post by **wagtunes** » Sat May 23, 2015 11:45 am

Kriminal wrote:I wouldnt say we are spoiled, its def made things easier (performance wise...no more 2 minute silences between songs while re patching )

Mostly its changes for the better. Some ppl are just lazy...

I don't have a problem with being able to store your patches. What I have a problem with is the instant gratification mentality of "give me a synth with 10 million patches that I can summon at the touch of a button so I don't have to do any thinking."

The other day I was working on a track and needed a riser. I could have gone into one of my gazillion synths and found one. Instead, I pulled up Zebra 2 and started a patch from init. Then added some PW and MW automation to it and I had my custom riser that nobody else has. And it sounded better than everything I could have "settled" for had I just pulled up a preset.

And the irony of all this is that the synth makers feed into the preset mentality by supplying hundreds of them and most of them are nothing but crap. It boggles my mind how so many great sounding synths, Zebra 2 included, come with the worst presets that don't even begin to do the synth justice. It's like the synth maker itself was too lazy to create something useful.

If you don't find that hilariously ironic, I don't know what to tell you.

Apostate · Post by **Apostate** » Sat May 23, 2015 11:52 am

wagtunes wrote:
Kriminal wrote:I wouldnt say we are spoiled, its def made things easier (performance wise...no more 2 minute silences between songs while re patching )

Mostly its changes for the better. Some ppl are just lazy...
I don't have a problem with being able to store your patches. What I have a problem with is the instant gratification mentality of "give me a synth with 10 million patches that I can summon at the touch of a button so I don't have to do any thinking."

The other day I was working on a track and needed a riser. I could have gone into one of my gazillion synths and found one. Instead, I pulled up Zebra 2 and started a patch from init. Then added some PW and MW automation to it and I had my custom riser that nobody else has. And it sounded better than everything I could have "settled" for had I just pulled up a preset.

And the irony of all this is that the synth makers feed into the preset mentality by supplying hundreds of them and most of them are nothing but crap. It boggles my mind how so many great sounding synths, Zebra 2 included, come with the worst presets that don't even begin to do the synth justice. It's like the synth maker itself was too lazy to create something useful.

If you don't find that hilariously ironic, I don't know what to tell you.

There's plenty of truth above, but I mostly just feel inspired to keep doing my own thing by it. Though I love synths like Gladiator and Predator, I can't help feeling uncomfortable when, going through the presets I hear things that sound uncomfortably familiar...at times to an extreme. The preset kids all end up sounding the same, but then that's what corporate music wants. As the Who put it "same old song with a few new lines, and everybody wants to hear it."

But hey, the preset kids are at times successful and I'm not, so I'll just go live amongst my sour grapes...

idfpower · Post by **idfpower** » Sat May 23, 2015 12:02 pm

First off, why the heck do you guys always jump from software to hardware comparisons? Second, why must you always emphasize on how difficult were "the old days" vs. now? We live in 2015, yeah things got easy - it's called freakin' progress. Back in those days the "computers" were a PITA, and yet not many ppl seem to cry over those... let's get serious: it was impossible for the average hobbist musician to have his own home studio back in the day, now all that changed. Hardware has its charm, but it's not necessary nowadays - it's an option - and that's a cool thing: ppl have a choice. Back on track...

Um... lemme see... Aalto, Daedalus, Atlantis, Lusus, Nuklear, TranceDrive, iloSynth, KHs One, all GTG, Pterosaur, TS Substance, UltraSonique, all AMVST, Toxic Biohazard, Oatmeal, Scanned Synth Pro & Enzyme, Intro, Firebird, Triple Cheese, all KX77, all SonicXTC, Flexoid/Wide-Boy TubeOhm's and all Novakill synths.. the list goes on and on...

tehlord · Post by **tehlord** » Sat May 23, 2015 12:06 pm

do_androids_dream · Post by **do_androids_dream** » Sat May 23, 2015 12:53 pm

idfpower wrote:...it's called freakin' progress.

I wouldn't really call it progress. It's certainly getting easier and easier to knock together a track that sounds like a million others but that in itself is not progress. Unless that IS what you personally call progress.

Lotuzia · Post by **Lotuzia** » Sat May 23, 2015 12:58 pm

So ... a lot of synths seem to need ... soundbanks

Apostate · Post by **Apostate** » Sat May 23, 2015 12:59 pm

tehlord wrote:

How did you find my picture!

do_androids_dream wrote:
idfpower wrote:...it's called freakin' progress.
I wouldn't really call it progress. It's certainly getting easier and easier to knock together a track that sounds like a million others but that in itself is not progress. Unless that IS what you personally call progress.

It's just the way things are. Seems like most musicians today, computer or not, just have to make music because they love it. And that includes the preset people whom buy synths like Nexus to sound like someone else just as much as the more original sound designers.

Helix and Z3ta might be two examples of synths whose presets often do them justice, in fact both featured presets that really inspired me to come up with my own.

wagtunes · Post by **wagtunes** » Sat May 23, 2015 1:07 pm

Lotuzia wrote:So ... a lot of synths seem to need ... soundbanks

Yeah, sure keeps me busy. Of course I don't cater to the masses and my soundbanks are more retro than modern so there's that. But I make what I enjoy and if others also enjoy it, great. If not, that's cool too.

I do this because it's fun and not to make a gazillion dollars doing it.

Soft Synths Whose Presets Don't Do Them Justice