Which synths do you use for their presets and which do you use for sound design?

[dangayle]

I love Diva, ANA 2, and Thorn, but to be honest I use them as glorified preset players because the presets sound great and I don’t particularly like doing sound design with them. I flip through the presets until I’m inspired and modify them to taste and go from there.

If I have a specific sound in mind though, I’ll almost always start with Operator, then Wavetable or Hive 2. Or I’ll throw an oscillator sample in Sampler and go from there.

Bazille gets a lot of use for both, simply because it is amazing. The presets sound good, and wiring it up is fun. I can’t design what I want, but I do manage to always make something interesting.

What about you?

[JiggSaw]

To be honest, I don't design any sounds scratch. It's not my thing. I love browsing presets and then I can tweak the sound from there. I like the foundation being set for me. With that said, my favorites at the moment are Spire, Pigments 2, and Massive X.

[dangayle]

To be honest, I don't design any sounds scratch. It's not my thing. I love browsing presets and then I can tweak the sound from there. I like the foundation being set for me. With that said, my favorites at the moment are Spire, Pigments 2, and Massive X.

Some of it comes down to the element of surprise. I'll preset hunt for a while if I'm just exploring, but if I need a specific sound (typically it will be a bass sound), I'll just make it from scratch.

[thecontrolcentre]

VSTs for presets, hardware for sound design ...

[CausticPuppy]

Zebra2 is really the only one I’ve done any “from scratch” sound design, but mostly to learn how to do sound design with Zebra2. For everything else I will start with presets and maybe do tweaking - and that goes for hardware and software. I’ve messed around with Pigments 2 a little as well, mostly just to play with granular synthesis on my own samples.

I figure there are some really talented sound designers out there, and I’ve purchased a few preset packs - so I’ll go with their hard work and just use them in music.

[vurt]

i dont use presets.
not because i think im better, or that theres anything wrong with using presets, i just enjoy doing the sound design.
im even the same on guitar, can soend hours trying pedal combos and settings, get my sound, then record about 2 mins.

[Ploki]

Very similar to OP. With Diva i mostly surf presets, with Bazille and Hive i love working from scratch.
With Repro-1 I surf, with repro-5 i prefer designing lol

[mtelesha]

Design Sounds - Hive 2 (Easiest to learn in a few hours) and Falcon (Took hours but well worth it).

Preset and can't sound design well enough - Biotek 2, Zebra 2, FM Synthesis and Additive in General.

Greatest Sound Sets Way Superior to my Skills: Joseph Hollo sound sets famous for Zebra 2 Pad Haven Trilogy. Thank you for your Hive and Diva sound sets Joseph!

What makes me realize I am a amateur - Biotek 2 - The XY is AMAZING and it sounds so unique I can tell immediately what sound I used because of it. I just make happy little accidents.

[Dasheesh]

anything that has too many presets gets thrown in the garbage.

[Dasheesh]

with the rest of the refuge.

[Pacific05]

Sound design: Reaktor (with Blocks even better) and FM synths (Sytrus in FL, FM8).

Presets: I like to listen to all and tweak them. It happens with almost every synth I have, so long list (Arturia ones, Repro, Synthmaster, Thorn ecc). Then I love to learn and go deep (with mixed luck, I must say).

[ccDuckett]

I'm having an easier time thinking of "both" examples, like Surge, Crystal, or Sonigen Modular...
loads of fun to see what can be wrought out of them, but also worth the time to explore what others have done.

BTW, "Too many presets"? Do you mean things that have preset banks like "50 almost unnoticably slight variations on a basic saw pad"? Taking your statement literally would be absurd, otherwise.

"Welp, Synth1.. in the trash you go. Waaaaay too many presets."

[Dasheesh]

i'm fine with "templets", or examples. anything that tells me how it is supposed to be done can suck it's own.

[foosnark]

i dont use presets.
not because i think im better, or that theres anything wrong with using presets, i just enjoy doing the sound design.

Yup. To me the sound design aspect is usually what provides the inspiration to make the music.

I'd be fine with something like a string machine or electric piano with minimal built-in sound design capability, if I had the space... but then I'd process it in Bitwig and the modular etc. and run it through FX and still turn it into sound design.

For example, on the album I'm mastering now, I used Felt Instruments Wolno -- a sample player, you can't get much more "preset" than that (although it does have some mixing controls) -- on two tracks. But for both tracks I processed it heavily, recorded it, and looped the recording continuously in Bitwig Sampler, Clouds and Mimeophon with yet more processing.

(The synth, or sampler, is only a part of sound design.)

In general I'm a fan of simple synths that give complex results -- inviting to tweak, easy to find sweet spots, and surprisingly versatile.

[melomood]

It depends on the day and which way the wind is blowing. I do have a preference for anything that will let me load my own sounds in to it in some way