Preset Deconstruction is a vital skill

[Synthman2000]

This is how I would do it the easy way.

1) First turn of all internal effects, especially delay, reverb, chorus based.
2) What oscillators are on? What waveforms? (oct?) Are they interacting? (FM for e.g.)
3) Look at oscillator level processes, sync, detune, spreads, or special.
4) Look at amplifier and filter envelopes
5) Look for envelopes and LFO routing/s - mod matrix or drag and drop source/destination slots
6) Look at distortion processes if any

That will give you the bulk important information very quickly on subtractive synths including wavetable. 1) is important so you can assess the pseudo stereo information in the preset at oscillator process level early on.

[CinningBao]

I think I prefer my 'working from the end to reveal the sound' method.

Each step from the end takes away colouration and complexity. By trying to understand the oscillator settings before you've turned of the filter could easily affect what you think is going on, so I'd recommend turning off the filters first.

We've all got our methods though, but I would recommend turning off everything after the oscillator before you try to figure it out.

[DrGonzo]

We've all got our methods though

Haha... indeed.

I did the same until a couple of years ago, but now I only go by ear alone. Envelopes, oscillators, filter, effects and characteristic details. That takes me to the ball-park without copying the sound too close and leaves room for personal taste. Maybe I take a look if there are any intervals between the oscillators, but apart from that it's all by ear these days. Makes it more fun as well.

[Synthman2000]

"By trying to understand the oscillator settings before you've turned of the filter "

The understanding part is literally taking note of osc settings and looking at what waveforms. Filter is arbitrary set on any sound and if controlled by an envelope you may get no cue to what is happening other than using your ears, which is a very good thing to do given they are the fundamental basis of everything.

[CinningBao]

We've all got our methods though

Haha... indeed.

I did the same until a couple of years ago, but now I only go by ear alone. Envelopes, oscillators, filter, effects and characteristic details. That takes me to the ball-park without copying the sound too close and leaves room for personal taste. Maybe I take a look if there are any intervals between the oscillators, but apart from that it's all by ear these days. Makes it more fun as well.

I imagine that's where most folks expect to end up, I'm there too - not really needing to unpack a sound to figure it out - you know the tools available and the most likely ways to configure them. The video is meant to be a guide for folks who have no experience unpacking synth presets to help them get to where we are

[CinningBao]

"By trying to understand the oscillator settings before you've turned of the filter "

The understanding part is literally taking note of osc settings and looking at what waveforms. Filter is arbitrary set on any sound and if controlled by an envelope you may get no cue to what is happening other than using your ears, which is a very good thing to do given they are the fundamental basis of everything.

I mean, yeah, you're saying the words "taking note of settings and looking at stuff" but the idea is that people begin to understand the 'recipe' of the synthesiser. What kind of sounds do the raw envelopes make, how much do the filters take away content from the raw waveform, what shapes do the filters have (of course you know there are plenty more shapes than just low pass, we've got various notches, all-passes, some with internal saturation, some not) and _then_ how do we shape the amplitude of the sound and pass it through some carefully chosen effects.

I think the familiar subtractive order of osc->filter->vca->effects is a basic enough concept that working from the end each time will help the user understand the steps taken, and why they were used, in order to make the sound.

After a while people will adjust the process so it fits how _they_ understand the sound building world, but without some guidance I think folks can get a bit lost if you don't know the basic principles of synth routing.

[DrGonzo]

After a while people will adjust the process so it fits how _they_ understand the sound building world, but without some guidance I think folks can get a bit lost if you don't know the basic principles of synth routing.

That's a really good point actually. Analysing presets and sounds will eventually lead to an individual deconstruction process. Another fun exercise I sometimes play with is just write down the sound on a piece of paper with short descriptions. Bass, Short, Dark, FM-donk, Tight delay. Then I mute the original and try to recreate the sound just using the keywords. It rarely leads to a replication, but more often than not, the sound will be cool in its own right.

Hehe... sounds is so much fun

[CinningBao]

Haha, yeah, I definitely done that in the past "I need a lately bass style sound in my subtractive synth, ok -2 saws an octave apart, a tight filter envelope modulated quite wide, let's go for a 4-pole filter with no resonance, and I want it to behave like a sample, getting shorter the higher up you go so I need to key-track the amp decay" and then having a listen to see what I came up with

THAT's what synth folks do for fun! You've got some nice kit there to do it on too