Misc thoughts for commercial patch designers

[mumpcake]

Just some random thoughts about things that bug me with soundsets.

1. Always make sure the mod wheel does something.

2. If the synth you are developing for has macro controls, you don't have to assign them all, but assign a few that might make sense to be manipulating.

3. If the synth has an attribute tagging system, make sure you tag the attributes. If I am looking for basses, and yours never come up because you didn't bother to tag your patches as basses, I am not going to use them.

4. If the synth allows for comments that can be displayed within the patch, use that functionality.

5. Try and keep the volume at a similar level to the factory patches. Nobody wants a blown speaker or eardrum.

6. For samplers, don't save the patches with hardcoded directories.

7. Also for samplers, map the sounds to where they should be on the keyboards. Nobody wants a piccolo set that starts at note 36. (Developers of CM multisamples seem to be the worst offenders for this one)

8. Again with samplers, I usually don't want modulation or envelopes part of the samples themselves.

9. Give your patches descriptive names. "Lead 001" or "Pad 003" tell me absolutely nothing about how the patch will sound. "Searing Lead" or "Pillows of Winds" are a little more descriptive, and I have a better chance of remembering what they sound like than just a number.

[Perimeter Sound]

Those are not bad ideas, at all. As a part-time sound designer, thanks for the feedback, even though you may not have been talking about me specifically ha-ha. I used to do #4, but now I just list what the modwheel is affecting, rather try to describe the sound or something. But, I do #9, and the other part, like "LEAD - Halo", or something, so you know it's meant to be used as a lead, and it has a name if you want to use that to remember it easier.

Everyone works a bit differently, but you bring up many good points/suggestions.

[mumpcake]

Yeah, I don't have problems with anyone naming a patch with a descriptor like BASS/LED/PAD/SYN/FX or whatever but just numbering the patch is something I find annoying.

Although if the patch is for a synth with a tagged browser, the descriptors are a bit redundant.