KVR Audio

Dirtgrain · Post by **Dirtgrain** » Wed Jul 29, 2020 11:26 am

Do any synth makers update their presets periodically, free of charge? Some have been around so long, with all sorts of great things done with them by users. I suppose they want enough quality in their presets to bring in the buyers, but not enough of it to crowd out sound packs they might sell and sound designers who sell packs.

foosnark · Post by **foosnark** » Wed Jul 29, 2020 11:55 am

I generally am not into presets except as a way to get a sense of what the synth can do. But Serum especially struck me this way -- a bunch of presets I had no interest in, but fun to roll my own sounds with.

If you play with classic FM synths you see a ton of this too. A lot of cheesy attempted emulations of acoustic instruments and some "analog brass" sounds -- at the time I guess it was trying to make the new technology seem familiar and musically useful, but it seems laughable now. Then again, I still kind of love an FM Rhodes

teilo · Post by **teilo** » Wed Jul 29, 2020 3:09 pm

Rapid. Most of the good presets are the complex arp, sequences and splits. But the basic presets leave a lot to be desired. Especially keys and leads.

While we're at it: Why are most lead patches so harsh, regardless of synth?

slashcobain4 · Post by **slashcobain4** » Wed Jul 29, 2020 7:33 pm

Serum honestly

SynthRatings · Post by **SynthRatings** » Wed Jul 29, 2020 8:08 pm

Dirtgrain wrote: ↑Wed Jul 29, 2020 11:26 am Do any synth makers update their presets periodically, free of charge?

Yes, some do. Rob Papen is an example of a developer who is great at this.

noddog · Post by **noddog** » Wed Jul 29, 2020 9:14 pm

Massive X - I have to say utterly disappointing presets.

EnGee · Post by **EnGee** » Wed Jul 29, 2020 9:32 pm

Can you guys explain why the presets of synth x or y are disappointing or not nice?
It would be more useful if you state for what kind of music and what was your expectations.

I guess I'm easy to please! As I always find something I like, but sometimes I wish there are more useful (not showy) presets especially in complex synths like Harmor for example.

BezO · Post by **BezO** » Wed Jul 29, 2020 10:05 pm

I find every synth I have has a minimal number of presets I like.

WatchTheGuitar · Post by **WatchTheGuitar** » Wed Jul 29, 2020 11:40 pm

I really disliked the Lion presets even though it’s obviously powerful, same goes for mSoundFactory. Lion has too many wacky noisy patches for my liking, Melda too bland and weedy.

Dirtgrain · Post by **Dirtgrain** » Wed Jul 29, 2020 11:48 pm

EnGee wrote: ↑Wed Jul 29, 2020 9:32 pm Can you guys explain why the presets of synth x or y are disappointing or not nice?

Well, I imagine one could make quality tracks with most of the stock presets from any given synth. The thing with Serum is that so much has been done with the synth, by amateurs and pros, that its presets don't cover that its stock presets are underwhelming, due to the places they don't go that the synth can take them. I do like some of the Serum presets, and I learned a lot about the synth and wavetables/FM by examining the patches.

Probably this can be said about a lot of synths.

quantum7 · Post by **quantum7** » Thu Jul 30, 2020 1:51 am

ZEBRA! I never thought that Zebra sounded anything special until I bought 3rd party sounds for it and realized how freaking good it can sound.

BONES · Post by **BONES** » Thu Jul 30, 2020 2:46 am

Tj Shredder wrote: ↑Wed Jul 29, 2020 7:42 amAs synths are sold by tasty presets aimed at a target audience, they tend to be unusable in its majority. Any sequenced or drained in reverb preset belongs to that category. Most preset banks are guilty of that pure selling point design...
I am happy if I find 2 or 3 usable sounds, the rest I have to do myself anyway...
My question would rather be: to which presets do you always come back when loading a synth?
For me its lithic piano in (micro)Prism (modified for MPE),
Mellow Duduck and rosa dulcimer in Equator,
Most of himalayas MPE presets for Cypher 2...

This is really annoying but I agree with pretty much everything you've said here, except for the specific patches you've mentioned. If I can find 3 or 4 presets in a synth that might be useful to me, that's all I need and there are very few that contain more than a dozen really good presets. Those that do would be Thorn, although many of them are variations on a few themes, Equator and Union.

Dirtgrain wrote: ↑Tue Jul 28, 2020 11:53 pmI liked TUC's presets so much that I tried to find music he made.

I quite like some of the TUC presets for Tyrell N6 and Hive. They are much more to my tastes that the usual EDM fare of most preset banks.

EnGee wrote: ↑Wed Jul 29, 2020 9:32 pm Can you guys explain why the presets of synth x or y are disappointing or not nice?
It would be more useful if you state for what kind of music and what was your expectations.

That's an easy question to answer - most synths do not contain presets that are useful for the kind of music we make so you have to either extrapolate or play around with it yourself to know whether or not it is going to be useful to you. e.g. ANA 2's factory presets tend to be of the very clean variety, almost pristine, nothing that would interest me at all. However, playing around a bit with it I discovered it has one of the best overdrive effects I have ever heard. When I applied that to the pristine factory sounds, all of a sudden they started to get interesting for me, so I bought it.

I guess I'm easy to please! As I always find something I like, but sometimes I wish there are more useful (not showy) presets especially in complex synths like Harmor for example.

You are probably more in the target market than I am.

Dirtgrain wrote: ↑Wed Jul 29, 2020 11:48 pmThe thing with Serum is that so much has been done with the synth, by amateurs and pros, that its presets don't cover that its stock presets are underwhelming, due to the places they don't go that the synth can take them. I do like some of the Serum presets, and I learned a lot about the synth and wavetables/FM by examining the patches.

Serum is a good example of a synth that holds absolutely zero interest for me. Maybe that's down to the factory presets, I have demo'd it, or maybe it's something else but I doubt I'd buy it if it was only $50. Possibly if I had bought it ages ago, before I had any of the other synths I have now, but today it doesn't offer anything I can't already do.

grandmasterbird · Post by **grandmasterbird** » Thu Jul 30, 2020 6:52 am

quantum7 wrote: ↑Thu Jul 30, 2020 1:51 am ZEBRA! I never thought that Zebra sounded anything special until I bought 3rd party sounds for it and realized how freaking good it can sound.

Are there any you would recommend?

izonin · Post by **izonin** » Thu Jul 30, 2020 5:13 pm

grandmasterbird wrote: ↑Thu Jul 30, 2020 6:52 am Are there any you would recommend?

Adam Szabo has some nice sounds for Zebra2.

BBFG# · Post by **BBFG#** » Thu Jul 30, 2020 6:18 pm

izonin wrote: ↑Thu Jul 30, 2020 5:13 pm
grandmasterbird wrote: ↑Thu Jul 30, 2020 6:52 am Are there any you would recommend?
Adam Szabo has some nice sounds for Zebra2.

http://sound.artenuovo.com/padsheavena.html

https://www.luftrum.com/synthpresets/

https://www.theunfinished.co.uk/shop/zebra-bundle/

https://vintagesynthpads.com/ocart/Zebr ... ts_Patches

https://www.patchpool.net/uhe.html

There are also many from the user libraries for free.

What are some synths that sound amazing but the factory presets could be better?