How much do you use presets? [Poll]

[Ghostwave]

Presets are like stencils.

That may apply just to arpps and even then just to some extent.

What ppl seem to "overlook" is: presets only give you a certain sound - but you are the ones laying down the notes, not the preset itself. Or maybe ppl don't understand the difference between presets and samples...

But with stencils, you get to choose where to use them and what colour or colours to use them with. And you could also use only part of them to make your own shapes.
Eventually, you might want to immitate or adapt those stencil shapes just like you would do with your own patches.
I won't comment on that analogy anymore but I still think it was a good one.

[hibidy]

I just can't believe this

[trimph1]

I just can't believe this

...oh but of course you can...

[idfpower]

I won't comment on that analogy anymore but I still think it was a good one.

I understand the logic behind your analogy; I'm just saying there's more to a preset than just the "premade" aspect.



Anyway to conclude all this debate: there are certain taboos regarding almost any instrument (and how it should be played). Most of them (if not all) are rubish. You can do whatever you want in order to make music - as long as you don't break copyright rules, everything is game. What really matters is the result.

Unfortunately some folks "forget" how to listen/judge a song as a normal listener, the further they get into the technical aspect of making music; they stop seeing the big picture. It happened to me as well. But reality is we might be missing on a lot of good music because we can't pass certain aspects (like: too simple song structure, bad mix, etc), while the normal listener simply enjoys the music and couldn't care less how that was created.

One more thing: just because you know more than a beginner doesn't mean that you are automatically able to make good music So all this argument is pointless - just make nice songs and ppl will listen regardless of using presets, samples or 100% selfmade sounds

[trimph1]

this is making some of the...you are not a serious modeler if...threads at cs.trains.com seem tame.....

[ferez21]

Using synth presets, and using loops\midi is a wholeeee different story. I agree anyone that uses pre-made midi files is not serious about his work.

By using synth presets, your'e not taking the technical side of producing music seriously, which is fine, because not every musician need to have technical skills. Not every musician is a sound engineer nor a mastering engineer.

By using midi files, your'e not taking the composition side of producing music seriously, and composition is the most basic skill of a musician.

I was once "making music" with Dance Ejay, and using loops\midi is exactly the same(and i dont mean placing 1 or 2 percussion loop to thicken your rhythem).

So using a drum loop when you are a pianist or a guitar player looking for realistic sounding drums is a bad thing now? lmfao gtfoh. There are genres of music based soley on manipulating loops or on just using loops in their entirety. Rap music comes right to mind. I have friends who are guitar players who play their guitars over studio drummer loops all of the time. Its perfect for those guys. There is no right or wrong way to make music unless its bad music.

This is what YOU decided to understand from my comment, which wayyy off what i really said.
Of course a pianist using a drum playback is a real musician, and so is a guitarist, i was referring to electronic music where lots of people are trying to make short-cuts and are practically buying melodies for their productions.
There always exceptions, you can't cover all cases with a simple comment.

[Tricky-Loops]

Does anyone remember Stefan Raab?

He bought the "Satellite" song for Lena (Meyer-Landrut) from 2 other people who had written the composition and the lyrics (a few years before).

So you could say he really used a preset song (made by other people) and produced his own version of it...

And he earned a lot of money with it! (Number 1 of the Eurovision Contest!)

So what's bad about using synth presets or preset songs or preset studio musicians or preset singers or preset stage sets?

[Crackbaby]

Does anyone remember Stefan Raab?

He bought the "Satellite" song for Lena (Meyer-Landrut) from 2 other people who had written the composition and the lyrics (a few years before).

So you could say he really used a preset song (made by other people) and produced his own version of it...

And he earned a lot of money with it! (Number 1 of the Eurovision Contest!)

So what's bad about using synth presets or preset songs or preset studio musicians or preset singers or preset stage sets?

Nothing if you're more of a famehungry moneymaker than a musician ..

[hibidy]

Using plugins is cheating. Making takes is cheating. Fixing a mistake is cheating.

Seriously, considering the froth of raw sewage that "music" has become, why are people worried about presets? From bieber to lil wayne, from rihanna to gaga, from pink to periphery, it all sounds like one big gigantic preset anyways.

Dance music? Sounds like one big preset. Sure there are guys like vurt, D.H. Miltz and such that are truly original but most music IS one big preset.

I know it's terribly selfish of me, but I just don't understand why it bothers someone to use a flipping preset, or a loop. Ivory towers be damned!

[fluffy_little_something]

Where is the "I never use factory presests" option?

Really, most developers make such odd or unusable presets that it is a waste of time checking them out in the first place. Most of them are either for genres I hate, or outright sound effects and gimmicks that make no musical sense. Also, not few developers don't use categories or meaningful names for their presets. What am I supposed to expect from a preset called "trouble in paradise" etc.? A lead, a bass, a pad? I don't even want to find out.
I assume many in-house sound designers are not musicians, but just after the wow effect when listening to an isolated patch.

[Tricky-Loops]

Does anyone remember Stefan Raab?

He bought the "Satellite" song for Lena (Meyer-Landrut) from 2 other people who had written the composition and the lyrics (a few years before).

So you could say he really used a preset song (made by other people) and produced his own version of it...

And he earned a lot of money with it! (Number 1 of the Eurovision Contest!)

So what's bad about using synth presets or preset songs or preset studio musicians or preset singers or preset stage sets?

Nothing if you're more of a famehungry moneymaker than a musician ..

I think it's possible to be both - a moneymaker and an artist, on one day you can use a preset song and on the next you can make your own songs without any presets...

OTOH the 2 Lena albums that Stefan Raab made were so bad that I listened to it only 1 time...I miss his crazy "Maschendrahtzaun" ideas, Waddehaddeduddeda...

But I still have much respect for Stefan Raab as a business man...

[KevWestBeats]

Using synth presets, and using loops\midi is a wholeeee different story. I agree anyone that uses pre-made midi files is not serious about his work.

By using synth presets, your'e not taking the technical side of producing music seriously, which is fine, because not every musician need to have technical skills. Not every musician is a sound engineer nor a mastering engineer.

By using midi files, your'e not taking the composition side of producing music seriously, and composition is the most basic skill of a musician.

I was once "making music" with Dance Ejay, and using loops\midi is exactly the same(and i dont mean placing 1 or 2 percussion loop to thicken your rhythem).

So using a drum loop when you are a pianist or a guitar player looking for realistic sounding drums is a bad thing now? lmfao gtfoh. There are genres of music based soley on manipulating loops or on just using loops in their entirety. Rap music comes right to mind. I have friends who are guitar players who play their guitars over studio drummer loops all of the time. Its perfect for those guys. There is no right or wrong way to make music unless its bad music.

This is what YOU decided to understand from my comment, which wayyy off what i really said.
Of course a pianist using a drum playback is a real musician, and so is a guitarist, i was referring to electronic music where lots of people are trying to make short-cuts and are practically buying melodies for their productions.
There always exceptions, you can't cover all cases with a simple comment.

I completely understood what you said. Its good to see the clarity though again I disagree with the whole idea of it. Could easily say the same thing about a drummer using melodic loops. He is still a musician just plays a different instrument. I don't really make "electronic music" so maybe that is why my view point is different from yours but what you said seems silly.

[fluffy_little_something]

Since I use synths mainly in their original sense, i.e. for emulating real instruments which I don't play but whose sound I need, I would appreciate if developers made the effort to include authentic emulations of the most important real instruments. But usually there just are none, no electric bass, no sax, no trumpet, no Rhodes, no piano, no rhythm guitar, no Jazz guitar, no authentic strings, nothing... Sometimes they include very remote emulations that you would not know are emulations if you were not told so But I guess they just prove that those people suck at sound programming...

[tanabarbier]

Using plugins is cheating. Making takes is cheating. Fixing a mistake is cheating.

Seriously, considering the froth of raw sewage that "music" has become, why are people worried about presets? From bieber to lil wayne, from rihanna to gaga, from pink to periphery, it all sounds like one big gigantic preset anyways.

Dance music? Sounds like one big preset. Sure there are guys like vurt, D.H. Miltz and such that are truly original but most music IS one big preset.

I know it's terribly selfish of me, but I just don't understand why it bothers someone to use a flipping preset, or a loop. Ivory towers be damned!

Come on, don't be angry because people disagree, nothing is really happening here.
You can't expect everybody to embrace the same view on music making, because that would be contrary to the idea itself of art, a personal expression.

I don't look down on anybody for doing what they want with their time, I don't expect others to want to do things the same way I do.

And by the way, if music has become so bad, why being so annoyed by people not liking one's way of making music? You seem to don't like those people's you named either.

I use presets to listen to them, to learn, to make music even, just they don't stay in the piece until the end, because I like it that way.
Recently most of my ideas came of a sound I made on a synth, without preset. I just turns me on more, you know, each his own. The most inspiring synth to me right now is Bazille, 0 presets, each time I turn it on it's a new adventure, yeah baby.

And I have absolutely no aim making money with my music, and that IS a choice, if I start making money with it, it is going to become a job, and like any dayjob it is killing you. I want to want to make music all my life, and money is like poison to me (my view, disagree blablabla).

[hibidy]

Not angry at all, just don't get it.