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 Forum index » Discussion » Composition
Should I be ashamed of using presets?
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Acoustic Interloper



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PostPosted: Thu Oct 17, 2013 7:47 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

It's not the frequency of the preset, it's the size of the patch
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ark



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PostPosted: Thu Oct 17, 2013 9:23 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

Not only should you not use presets, but you should also build your own synthesizers from scratch. Also develop a totally novel theory of music.
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blue hell
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PostPosted: Fri Oct 18, 2013 2:30 am    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

ark wrote:
from scratch


Working on it, working on it, but a life time is so short, and my silicon won't semi-conduct - but hey, at least that synth will not have any preset I must delete Shocked Laughing

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Jan
also .. could someone please turn down the thermostat a bit.
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ark



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PostPosted: Fri Oct 18, 2013 10:01 am    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

Don't you have to extract the silicon from sand first?
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blue hell
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PostPosted: Fri Oct 18, 2013 10:39 am    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

But of course!
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Jan
also .. could someone please turn down the thermostat a bit.
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DrJustice



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PostPosted: Fri Oct 18, 2013 10:46 am    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

Are you guys suggesting using preset sand Shocked
I suggest you start with eroding a mountain yourself!
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blue hell
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PostPosted: Fri Oct 18, 2013 11:09 am    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

I'm not God Shocked
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Jan
also .. could someone please turn down the thermostat a bit.
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elektro80
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PostPosted: Sat Oct 19, 2013 2:59 am    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

ark wrote:
Not only should you not use presets, but you should also build your own synthesizers from scratch. Also develop a totally novel theory of music.


Brilliant!

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blue hell
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PostPosted: Sat Oct 19, 2013 7:14 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

Ah, an easy way out Cool



http://createdigitalmusic.com/2013/10/arturia-teases-a-new-analog-mini-keyboard-microbrute/

Quote:
Has no presets

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Jan
also .. could someone please turn down the thermostat a bit.
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Antimon



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PostPosted: Sun Oct 20, 2013 2:57 am    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

Blue Hell wrote:
Has no presets


Same thing with the Waldorf Rocket. Even though I don't frown on presets, and often use them myself, I do consider "no presets" to be a killer feature on a synth - such a great feeling to start somewhere unknown and getting to travel around the synth everytime I turn it on.

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gustavojobim



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PostPosted: Mon Dec 30, 2013 1:14 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

Answering to your original question: no.

(Klaus Schulze, Roedelius, Jean-Michel Jarre, everyone does it. What matters is how you use them.)
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brainvoyager



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PostPosted: Sun Jan 19, 2014 4:39 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

There are thousands and thousands of people that play the piano. There are thousands and thousands of people that write music for the piano. They all have one thing in common: all the music they write and play on the piano sounds like a piano. The reason is obvious, it's because it's a piano.

Does this say anything about the quality of that music despite the fact that all these people use the sound of a piano? Of course not.

A preset is a preset. The advantage of a synth above a piano is that one can create his or her own sounds with it. That's something one can't do on a piano. So what?

What matters is one's creative mind, one's composition, his or her performance. No matter what the nature of the instrument and the sound is, it's all about the things just mentioned. An instrument is merely a means through which music can be made audible. And the fact if one likes the chosen instrument, more specific: the chosen sound, or not, is purely subjective.

I consider a preset just as a sound. I consider the sound of a piano as just a sound, I consider the sound of whatever acoustic instrument just as a sound. The choice what sound to use is a subjective one. Every choice is ok. But if one likes to create his or her sounds, then that's very much ok as well.

So that's why I consider the question as to whether to be ashamed to use presets or not, as a completely 'ridiculous' question.

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filboid



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PostPosted: Fri Jan 30, 2015 7:53 am    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

:BLOAT: I see not much changes over the years when it comes to opinions about music creation and the :BLOAT: proper technique.

Presets are someone elses idea true, and if you use them to create a new idea isn't that tantamount to picking up a Startocaster and sounding similar to Hendrix? I mean hell its only a preset and if you can use it to create art in a way that the author of the preset never imagined that is cool in my :BLOAT: opinion.

Idea In the early 70's I was in a prog rock band called Not Yet. I used to take apart old walkie talkies and transistor radios use a wire probe to find cool sounds. I had an old surveyors wooden box that was over 5 feet tall and really cool looking. I put a few of these PC boards in it after soldering a bunch of switch's and potentiometers so I could create ridiculous sounds on stage. Lots of fun and now its in vogue as circuit bending. Yawn...........

I don't even know where I am going with this.................ok back to writing music! Oh and I do still use presets a lot including my own.

PS. Never assume that what you are doing has never been done before until....................someone tells you so. Even then I would be very skeptical.
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robsol
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PostPosted: Fri Jan 30, 2015 9:00 am    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

Indeed... Aren't we but complex processors, having a vast amount of input which we filter and process, creating art and expression as a result. Seen in this light, there is nothing original, but just re-processed signals with no ownership or claims to being the generator of something genuinely new. After all, you do not live in a vacuum. Who cares if you use a particular tool in one way or another, or a specific system of ideas already thought up, like equal temperament or FM synthesis. Use what you can in any way that you can, and don't stop the flow.
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glow worm



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PostPosted: Wed Feb 04, 2015 5:08 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

Why should anyone be ashamed of using presets? There are several, million-selling bands who haven't exactly been shy about doing so - or about raeping the free demo synths they get six months ahead of Joe Public for all the best presets, which means YOU can't use them because it'll sound like you've copied someone famous Mad

IMO: many, if not most presets are like wheels that don't need reinventing. If I need - say - a squelchy brass, some warm strings or a soaring lead, then there are already plenty I can choose from. By the time they've been tweaked and shoved through some FX they'll be "my" sounds Very Happy

And that's how I mainly use presets: as pre-formed, rough templates. I have a sound in my head, so I trawl through the presets in search of one which has *something* in common with it - tone, envelopes, LFOs or whatever. Then I'll start playing with it...

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StephenKilgour



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PostPosted: Mon Nov 23, 2015 1:12 am    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

In reply to the original topic statement, I say that it doesn't matter if you use presets or not, as long as you get the desired sound that you want and it sounds cool, who cares?

Smile

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Nacho



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PostPosted: Wed Feb 17, 2016 12:27 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

No, you learn with presets.
Last edited by Nacho on Thu Jan 19, 2017 3:39 pm; edited 1 time in total
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mapperboy



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PostPosted: Sat Mar 12, 2016 10:07 am    Post subject: would you build a new acoustic piano? Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

Its a very old debate. Sorry for the reply to this old post but I just joined!. This discussion has being going on since electro music was possible, (Cage-Stockhausen, Tudor etc. even Hammond and Fender) After 45 years in music I now need to say consider the song first. If you have time (and I've spent literally hundreds of hours on Korg machines) to sample and create truely 'original' patch then go for it. However many electro artists' talents and time are better put to refine their actual pieces; melody/noise lines, riffs, progressions, dynamics etc. and just use something already out there. Minor tweaks can usually be done once you know the sound engines and will give just as 'original' flavour if you are seeking to be mostly identified the artist who of whom it's said 'wow, never heard that sound before!' IMHO
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TripMX



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PostPosted: Wed Jun 29, 2016 1:43 pm    Post subject: About presets Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

Hmmm, regarding presets, I personally RARELY EVER use them. I can onlly remember one or two songs out 80+ that I used presets on. I always try to keep my work as original as possible.

Not saying that using presets is a bad thing, but I'd have a more self-gratifying feeling if I made everything myself, and that's how I work.

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mode



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PostPosted: Sun Oct 01, 2017 4:00 pm    Post subject: Re: Should I be ashamed of using presets?
Subject description: Instead of programming my own modules...
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clementshawes wrote:
Instead of (learning) programming sounds, I load up presets and tinker with them; unashamedly using the thing as a device emulation or other type 'player'.

I'm starting to wonder if I maybe ought to replace it with something more 'focused' as this thing is far bigger than me - I freely admit that the draw factor were the huge library of excellent patches and fact I'd be able to educate myself on synthesis over time.


Whatever floats your boat; if presets help you be more productive.
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