knob tweeeeeeeking

just a thought that occured to me last night....


how many ppl on the board, when making music will only ever use the preset synth sounds that are included with that synth. who is a tweaker??

i personally find that for 75% of the time i wil only ever use preset sounds on synths but for the times that i don't i can say that the almost cliched expression of "the best synths sounds that you create will be ones that you make yourself" has become true.

for instance i will now usually lay dwn some percussion and a kick first to get a groove going than try to write a bassline pattern to fit this groove, from here i will then select an appropriate sounding synth and tweak just a few parameters to twist this sound into one that is more personal.



one more thought for this thread is to see which synths ppl generally choose to use (if they express a preference)

for me personally, i swear by Crystal and use FM7 alot too.

discuss....

i think the only way is to create your own sounds, if people use presets only they might as well of bought a sampler.

although there has been times were ive come across a preset that has been perfect, usually a really simple bass or a lead to use as a secondary layer but the charectoristics have fitted exactally what i needed so bar a touch of eq its remained the same patch. but the majority of the time especially for leads and strange atmospheres etc you cant beat jumping into some crazy synth experiment session :love:

i use the virusC for a lot of my sounds aswell as the novation k station and cubases new monologue (which i think is great for bass and takes the tinyest amount of cpu) ive also been getting some intersting sounds out of a friends sh32 ive lent but god that interface can be unfriendly :crackup:

Most of the tim I tweak all the way, depends on how lazy i'm being or state of my head... Sometimes the easiest option is to select a patch and use this as a starting point before tweaking.

I find some synths can be more inviting for tweaking. atm, I love rgcaudio synths very cool - or anything with a modulation matrix. Gonna add one of these to my walsh!!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by detfella

Sometimes the easiest option is to select a patch and use this as a starting point before tweaking.

Gonna add one of these to my walsh!!

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this is true. just to get the sound of the tack going, i often use a synth preset and later twist it's arse off!!!

can't wait for the uploaded version of the walsh!!!

on the subject of the crystal synth...


on the website:

www.greenoak.com/crystal/

there are some really good tutorials to get to grips with this program

i mainly use the presets, then tweak from there, i rarely use just the way the preset already is

First action when buying a synth - Delete all the sounds it came with. Not only does the fresh slate cause you to have to learn how the thing works from a synthesis standpoint, but it guarantees you'll have your own aresenal. Of course, on top of that, changing parameters is key to boggling the ears.

Which sounds more interesting to your ears...a person standing in front of you talking, or the person trying to say the same things while bouncing on a trampoline, into a wall of jagged rocks, drinking tabasco and whiskey through a punctured hole in their neck? That's parameter tweaking.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by thetonewrecka

Which sounds more interesting to your ears...a person standing in front of you talking, or the person trying to say the same things while bouncing on a trampoline, into a wall of jagged rocks, drinking tabasco and whiskey through a punctured hole in their neck?

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:lol:

Good point.

Erm, I have an MC202 and Freebass. Neither have presets or the ability to save sounds (which is a real downer sometimes).

My other stuff - Alpha Juno, Sid Station - I tweak the hell out of constantly, the Alpha is a pain though as the parameter editting is a nightmare through the buttons/tiny window.

I think I should try contrain myself to writting more notes and tweaking sounds less - I never usually seem to get past 4 bar repeating patterns, tweaking sliders/knobs, messing with effects. My neighbours must hate me - there goes that kick drum and a slowly modifying synth line again, ad infinitum...

Actually when I do get to writing patterns I have the opposite problem, I can't go for more than a 4 bar repeating pattern without messing with the notes, etc. Trying to make new variations on the patterns...

Arrrgh!!! :doh:

lately we tend to lay down all the sounds starting with a kick and then layers/sounds/subs and then we do all the tweeking. We wait with the percussion and highats till the very end, we find if we do this at the beginning it limits our options in the way the track goes and if you do it in the end you have a much clearer view of what highats are needed to complent your track...

I don't think i've ever used a preset sound in my life. Although all my gear now has no presets=o] So it's kinda hard to. Even the TX-81Z, i would throw a sequence out then edit it. I just can't use presets, i feel dirty if i do.

I was lots more of a "say no to pre-sets" guy in the past now I value the importance of good presets in orther 2 inspire u. I mean lots of time u play with a sound that just screams for u 2 make something with it.. in the end U tweek it 2 death but it was "that" preset that gave u the spark!

my 2 conts anyways,

Z

Very true. But you're still not using the actual preset sound=o] It's all your own by then end of the day. Presets are a good starting point to buld upon.

what has been said in this post is pretty unanimous (think thats right).

using presets are a good pre-cursor to get a tune going, invariably though, ppl want to stand out and in this respect a preset is twisted to fit.....

some presets that come with a synth - be it hard or soft, are outstanding and as Z has said inspire creation, thus presets are extremely important in knowing just what can be achieved with a synth in some occasions. I therefore do not agree with just getting a synth and deleting all the presets (IMHO :oops: ).

combination really.

why program a sound from scratch if that same sound is already available.

on the other hand, programming from scratch is for the sounds nobody else has programmed.

tweaking stuff to fit the track is standard procedure whether working with acquired sounds or ones own.

in the end its how everything sounds in the final track thats most important. nothing beats unique sounds but not at the expense of a good track (both musically and sonically).

^^^ Agreed. I've done all of the above. If I really like the sound of a preset and it works in something, I'll use it. Sometimes I might throw some effects on it to change it up a lot. Sometimes I might build off of a preset. And sometimes I'll do something from scratch. The end result is all that matters.