Which synths have the best presets?

[waltercruz]

From what I've seen in the demos, OP-X Pro seems to have a lot of good presets too.

Well, I'm a gigging musician, play in a lot of bands. The Pink Floyd presets packs from synthmaster was of a great help when I began to play with a Pink Floyd cover band, 3 or 4 year ago. These days, I have replaced almost all of them for other patches, even other synths, but it was of great help having all these patches in my collection. I would love to see a Rush preset pack or a Nine Inch Nails preset pack from someone (I hope that there's some preset developers reading this thread!)

[xamido]

Rob Papen Predator and Blue 2. Now that's a lot of good factory presets synth.

[Firebird]

I think Omnisphere but I still use third party ones.

[ObsoleteAcc99]

For me, the problem with buying a new synth is finding one that has a long life in it

- which means a synth that top preset designers write for.

I've done okay with Dune and Omnisphere, as their preset evolution has been high quality and steady.

Are there any other great sounding synths that have:

> great presets from Day 1

> and are well supported with top quality 3rd party presets for sale?

I'd love to know of any synths that fit the bill

....

You might well ask - what are "great presets"?

I said this deliberately as many presets banks are:

- too me-too (I don't want to hear "bread & butter")

- endless cinematic noises & drones from hell I'd never use

- have no interactivity, eg, not much thought went into the mod wheel or aftertouch or possible sequencing

cheers = kev

do romplers count? Halion Sonic (which also has synthesis and expanders) and reFX nexus have *unbelievable* presets! And continue to keep offering new ones as such, especially the latter.

[aMUSEd]

Alchemy has the most consistently amazing presets for me - the factory content is great, the addons even more so (just a few duds like that horrible beatbox thing) - especially Simon Stockhausen's.

Diva and Zebra also come with a fantastic set of presets, don't believe the rubbish about the Zebra's not being so great.

Massive comes with a reasonable set of presets but some of the third party ones are outstanding, particularly those by biomechanoid, Jeremy Janzen, The Unfinished and Leap into the Void. Most of those are nothing to do with EDM.

Omnisphere deserves its reputation as having good presets, and again some of the third party stuff is great, especially by The Unfinished and Sound Dust.

Blue 2 for me is a mixed bag, personally I find many of Rob's presets boring (although there are a few standouts), but the ones by JoMal are wonderful, just wish there were more of them.

[fisherKing]

hive. nexus2. spire. zebra. massive. all great-sounding plugins with impressive libraries (and, with spire, zebra, massive, a wealth of 3rd-party presets out there)...

[V0RT3X]

u-he's stuff gets my vote

[liv]

I would love to see a Rush preset pack or a Nine Inch Nails preset pack from someone (I hope that there's some preset developers reading this thread!)

This is somewhat inspired towards Nine Inch Nails, might want to have a listen.

https://soundcloud.com/leap-into-the-vo ... inch-nails

[mrj1nx]

Out of the ones i have right now I would say Spire and RP Predator, Spire has some amazing sounding presets and its pretty easy to take one and tweak it. Im not really making pure EDM, more a mixed bag of hiphop, chiptunes, and hybrids. Dont own Zebra yet though, its next on my list.

[EnGee]

For Vintage sounds and feel, the presets of Arturia's synths especially Arp2600V, Mini V and Modular V. Waves Element also has great presets and although Monark has few presets, but they are really excellent IMO.

If I want plenty of great sounds (and very usable in my case), NI synths are the top IMO (FM8 and Massive). Absynth and Reaktor synths like Razor, Kontour, ..etc are the best in weird sounds, and lately I found Bazille and VirtualCZ have some great presets. Well, most of my current usage is in this category (add Dune2 and Codex to it) and some of the Vintage category above.

I don't know if I can help here because this is what I'm interested in currently and the presets from the synths I mentioned are very inspiring for me

[jdoo]

My two cents. Zebra Zebra Zebra. Earlier post from someone (Waggly?) about the lack of presets, must have been based in ignorance. Howard Scarr and other killer synth designers really set the bar high for what to expect and hope for in factory presets, with what is packed into Zebra. There's far more than bread and butter sounds. The included presets show you the art-of-the-possible, and excellent examples, of how to squeeze sounds out of Zebra. That’s not all though… Zebra has attracted top sound designers, and budding new sound designers for years. Too many great sound designers to mention, but I’m going to mention a few. I’ve been super impressed with the Zebra works by Jozsef, Corin, Yoel, Michael, Frank, Soren, Jeff, Steve, Ed, 3ee, and the Master…. Howard. There are others, who I just can’t remember off the top of my head, or who choose to remain anonymous - but the I have listened to, indexed, and rated (for personal use, and for Logic Pro) hundred (thousands) of Zebra patches. There is a reason why Zebra is so popular. Aside from being a capable synth - it has attracted the best sound designers. Really.

[wagtunes]

My two cents. Zebra Zebra Zebra. Earlier post from someone (Waggly?) about the lack of presets, must have been based in ignorance. Howard Scarr and other killer synth designers really set the bar high for what to expect and hope for in factory presets, with what is packed into Zebra. There's far more than bread and butter sounds. The included presets show you the art-of-the-possible, and excellent examples, of how to squeeze sounds out of Zebra. That’s not all though… Zebra has attracted top sound designers, and budding new sound designers for years. Too many great sound designers to mention, but I’m going to mention a few. I’ve been super impressed with the Zebra works by Jozsef, Corin, Yoel, Michael, Frank, Soren, Jeff, Steve, Ed, 3ee, and the Master…. Howard. There are others, who I just can’t remember off the top of my head, or who choose to remain anonymous - but the I have listened to, indexed, and rated (for personal use, and for Logic Pro) hundred (thousands) of Zebra patches. There is a reason why Zebra is so popular. Aside from being a capable synth - it has attracted the best sound designers. Really.

As I said, the stock presets that come with Zebra 2 are relatively few. It isn't until you dive into the download area and download the rest of them that you start getting a decent number and variety.

It would have been nice had all those presets just been included with Zebra 2 upon installation. That's why I said what I did.

A technicality? Maybe. But nonetheless accurate. At least at the time I got Zebra 2. If something has changed since, I wouldn't know.

I am NOT ignorant.

[Ridan]

Out of all of the synths I've ever owned Alchemy (win) has had the best factory presets by far.

Never had any reason to buy third party sounds for it.

Have been creating my own patches for it through out the years though, but all in all Alchemy has my vote, and my heart.



Waldorf Nave gets an honorable mention. Has some splendid stock atmo's.

[Cinebient]

I also really like Prism (a Reaktor synth). It has fantastic patches.... If you like organic, esoteric and other world sounds!

[Mister Natural]

+several above on Alchemy
+1 on Z3ta2
I'd also add the amazingly diverse presets of Hybrid2

peace