Soft Synths Whose Presets Don't Do Them Justice

[murnau]

As for talking smack about Howard Scarr, I've done no such thing. I simply said I don't like Zebra's presets.

No, you said...........

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.

Teksonik i told you already in this thread don't feed the troll. It's simply a waste of time.

[penguinfromdeep]

For me the worst experience regarding presets has so far been with Fxpansion D-CAM. Damn I thought the synth was broken, so much distorted unusable stuff (at least for me and to my ears). The synth itself is great though, and have had some great 3rd party preset packs too.

[cryophonik]

Tremor is another one (albeit a drum synth) whose presets don't do it any favors. They're well-designed, but focus too much on the overly distorted kits, rather than show off its range. I have to admit, when it comes to drum synths, I'm not very good at sound design, so I wish there was a wider range of useable kits to start with.

[cryophonik]

I've just been going through the Zebra factory presets again trying to understand where all the hate is coming from...

No hate here. The question is whether or not the factory presets do it justice. To me, Zebra's presets are very focused on more of a classic/vintage synth sound. For a synth as versatile as Zebra, I think it would be better served to show off a much wider range and more modern styles (and, no, I don't mean just EDM/dubstep). I often see posts from people (mostly preset flippers) who demo or buy it and end up being dissatisfied with it because of its presets and/or because it's seemingly too difficult to wrap their head around. That's why I think a broader range of preset styles, including more modern sound design, would be beneficial in the factory presets. Because you only use what you see with Zebra, it's much easier to learn from, or mimic, other patches compared to fixed-architecture synths IMO.

Ultimately, we're talking about a synth that's been around for a long time and AFAIK has never included new presets with any of the updates, so they're bound to show their age and sound dated next to newer synths. Fortunately, there are many free and commercial banks available for Zebra that cover a wider range of styles. Besides, I suspect that Zebra3 will have a wider range of presets anyway, given the growth in the U-he team over the past few years.

[arkmabat]

Zen tries to give you access to many of the free presets at once. Kinda nice.

http://www.bigtickaudio.com/zen/about-zen

Zebra has over 1000 presets...

[Apostate]

Zen tries to give you access to many of the free presets at once. Kinda nice.

http://www.bigtickaudio.com/zen/about-zen

Zebra has over 1000 presets...

I think Blue II has extra, downloadable presets for registered users. I might be wrong. In any event, when I'm looking mostly just for presets I usually go to Rob's plugins. Blue II, Predator, BD, some great stuff there in my humble opinion.

Agreed on Tremor, the presets seems pretty limited. This will draw scorn, but I happen to like some of the Arturia Spark presets, also their Oberheim has more than a few killers, to my ears at least.

[Kriminal]

As for talking smack about Howard Scarr, I've done no such thing. I simply said I don't like Zebra's presets.

No, you said...........

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.

Teksonik i told you already in this thread don't feed the troll. It's simply a waste of time.

Wagtunes is a troll cos he has a diff opinion?

[murnau]

No, different opinions are great since we are here on a public forum.

I just ask myself how accusing others to be "to lazy to create something useful" (which is trolling in my eyes without any substance btw) can be seen to be the same statement as "simply i don't like the work".

Now keep applauding.

[Kriminal]

[wagtunes]

Know what? I could have chosen my words better. And for that, I apologize. But when I hear patches like "I Am Zebra" I really have to wonder how serious somebody was about their programming for this synth.

I still stand by my opinion that the Zebra 2 presets don't do the synth justice. Had I not dived into it to see what it could really do, I wouldn't have bought it.

Maybe it's personal taste. I don't know. Truth is, there are very few synths whose presets really make me want to use them. Blue II is one. I think many of those presets are amazing. And while I still create my own, I definitely get inspired by them.

Another synth whose presets I like are Bazille. They really show off how quirky that synth can be. I got lots of inspiration from Bazille's presets. Same with Omnisphere. But then again it's hard to make that synth sound bad with those samples.

One person's great preset is another person's "what were they thinking." I just could have expressed myself better.

FWIW, some of the downloads off the Zebra site are pretty decent. I don't recall the designers off the top of my head but they're the guys who do a lot of the house and trance stuff. I thought they were well done. The factory stuff, not so much.

Anyway, I'm sorry if I offended anybody. It wasn't my attention.

FTR, I've had people tell me my presets sound like they were designed by a 5 year old and I don't get offended. Not when in the same breath somebody else will specifically ask me to design presets for a particular synth because they like my work.

You're never going to please anybody and you're a fool if you try. That's why i create what I like. If people like it too, great. If not, whatever. But I'm not going to make stuff just to make a buck.

[Apostate]

Truth is, there are very few synths whose presets really make me want to use them. Blue II is one. I think many of those presets are amazing. And while I still create my own, I definitely get inspired by them.

Another synth whose presets I like are Bazille. They really show off how quirky that synth can be. I got lots of inspiration from Bazille's presets. Same with Omnisphere. But then again it's hard to make that synth sound bad with those samples.

One person's great preset is another person's "what were they thinking." I just could have expressed myself better.

Completely agree on both Bazille and Blue II, there are great and inspiring presets there imo.

I have to put XILS 4 into the "presets that are especially inspiring for programming". Quite a few of those presets really can get me into that synth, and that's not the world's easiest synth to get into, at least imo.

Thanks

Oh I've been motivated to program XILS 4 directly because of your presets, Lotuzia!

[murnau]

Know what? I could have chosen my words better. And for that, I apologize.

Forgiven.

No, seriously i personally appreciate that you see it that way.

FTR, I've had people tell me my presets sound like they were designed by a 5 year old and I don't get offended. Not when in the same breath somebody else will specifically ask me to design presets for a particular synth because they like my work.

I enjoyed most of the stuff i heard on your site. So far some can judge only by listening the sounds are very good imo.

[wagtunes]

Truth is, there are very few synths whose presets really make me want to use them. Blue II is one. I think many of those presets are amazing. And while I still create my own, I definitely get inspired by them.

Another synth whose presets I like are Bazille. They really show off how quirky that synth can be. I got lots of inspiration from Bazille's presets. Same with Omnisphere. But then again it's hard to make that synth sound bad with those samples.

One person's great preset is another person's "what were they thinking." I just could have expressed myself better.

Completely agree on both Bazille and Blue II, there are great and inspiring presets there imo.

I have to put XILS 4 into the "presets that are especially inspiring for programming". Quite a few of those presets really can get me into that synth, and that's not the world's easiest synth to get into, at least imo.

Thanks

Oh I've been motivated to program XILS 4 directly because of your presets, Lotuzia!

XILS is another one. In fact, I don't know if I'd have been able to even get into that synth without listening to what it could do because trying to program that thing at the start was a bitch. It had a very different architecture than I'm used to with modulars and it took me a while to get the hang of it. The presets helped me reverse engineer some stuff in order to finally break through and come up with my own creations.

[wagtunes]

Know what? I could have chosen my words better. And for that, I apologize.

Forgiven.

No, seriously i personally appreciate that you see it that way.

FTR, I've had people tell me my presets sound like they were designed by a 5 year old and I don't get offended. Not when in the same breath somebody else will specifically ask me to design presets for a particular synth because they like my work.

I enjoyed most of the stuff i heard on your site. So far some can judge only by listening the sounds are very good imo.

Thanks. In the grand scheme of things, none of this really matters. The general public will determine what's good and what's bad. If stuff sells, it's good. If it doesn't sell, it's bad. It doesn't really matter what it sounds like because it's all subjective.

Having said that, want to know how to give yourself the best chance of selling your stuff? Listen to stuff that DOES sell. Emulate it. Try to put your own little twists on it, but don't stray too far because if you do, you risk losing your audience.

It's a tightrope that every patch designer has to walk if he wants to be successful. The key words "wants." If not, then he can just do his thing and see what happens. Some of my stuff sells, some doesn't. But at least it's all who I really am and not some imitation of "popular patch du jour." Not that there is anything wrong with that from a business perspective. In fact, it's smart business to give people what they want.

That's another subject altogether. Honestly, I'm not really sure what people want anymore. I look at the presets for many popular synths and then I hear people complain about them. Makes me wonder why they bought the synth in the first place. To try to answer that, I can only go by my own personal preference. The problem is, my personal preference may not be the "norm" for the "average" synth buyer. I go by downloading a demo and testing the sound by making my own patches. If I can't make a patch I like, I don't buy the synth. It's that simple.

How everybody else makes their decision would only be guesswork on my part.

That's why this whole process can become extremely complicated, which is why some synths succeed and some fail.

[Apostate]

Truth is, there are very few synths whose presets really make me want to use them. Blue II is one. I think many of those presets are amazing. And while I still create my own, I definitely get inspired by them.

Another synth whose presets I like are Bazille. They really show off how quirky that synth can be. I got lots of inspiration from Bazille's presets. Same with Omnisphere. But then again it's hard to make that synth sound bad with those samples.

One person's great preset is another person's "what were they thinking." I just could have expressed myself better.

Completely agree on both Bazille and Blue II, there are great and inspiring presets there imo.

XILS is another one. In fact, I don't know if I'd have been able to even get into that synth without listening to what it could do because trying to program that thing at the start was a bitch. It had a very different architecture than I'm used to with modulars and it took me a while to get the hang of it. The presets helped me reverse engineer some stuff in order to finally break through and come up with my own creations.

You put that perfectly. I still haven't gotten a firm handle on XILS 4, but that's one of the most fun parts for me.

I put out an album with my favorite singer ever, and it was an album modelled after my favorite albums. It did well for what it was, but of course I never made even half the money back I put into it. It's all for the love of creation for me, and that's probably all it ever will be. I ain't hurtin' anybody and don't intend to. I gave up the idea of financial profit, because I want to keep making the music I love. I don't complain, I don't point fingers (not that anyone here does). I just do my thing, it makes me happy. That's it.