LEADSSESSIONS for Synthmaster One

Synth presets are funny things. They are for those who do not bother finding out how a synth really works. Somebody does the work for them and save their "turning the knobs" work in.... presets.

Sometimes when you have a certain sound in your head that you want for your song, and a preset comes along with just that sound, then you are in heaven and you are likely to give that or those presets a 5 stare review. Sometimes you may need to settle for "something close", or "as close as I can get" and perhaps the rating on the preset pack drops a little.

Sometimes the presets are like small compositions, especially if arp is added. So you can do even less work on you own and just arrange some arps in sequence, and voila ! You have a song. Perhaps you will add some jaming along a pre-arranged preset.

Strangely enough the preset world is huge. There are many out there wanting to rather spend a lot of money than to do the effort of learning a synth from scratch.

I am one of those.

And as one of those relying on others to turn the knobs, I have spent the last 15 years in the preset world on a huge number of synths. Not turning a singe knob myself. Why bother?

However, what I have learned is that there are presets and then there are PRESETS. Some knob turners out there seem to be more cunning than others in bringing out the personality and ability of the synth into the presets. You can, for the same synth, compare presets from different knob turners and find out that some of these guys are far better than just turning knobs. Some presets utilizes every corner of the synth. Some presets feel like music, even if no arp is added. Sounds so sweet or interesting they will make you stay for hours exploring and putting them into projects. Sounds that are so inspiring they give ideas to full compositions. Sounds that make you dream of them at night.

Alas, the presets from zzsounds are not among those. There are many far better I could mention but I will settle for one: PluginGuru. Although most of his work is for Omnisphere, he has also done amazing presets for Serum. So why are they better? Just take the time and listen. Sweet dreams are made of this.