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Contraposition
Junior Member
United States
114 posts
Joined: May, 2010
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 Posted - 2010/05/31 : 07:01:07
I've noticed a lot of people seem to really dislike the usage of stock synths and percussion, presets, and so forth. Why exactly? I'm not saying that pushing the sonic boundaries and creating your own sounds is bad (I encourage it), but why is this taboo for a lot of people? It's like complaining about people who use the same drum kit, grand piano, etc. "Oh, REALLY original and creative there using a stock instrument pal! Why don't you go and invent your own instrument like all of the TRULY intellectual and creative people?"
Maybe I'm missing something. It just seems like a fallacious argument to me.
On a more-or-less related note, there are plenty of "stock synths" that don't seem to get bashed very often and are used quite a bit, including the hoover, choir sound, super sync lead (can't find a sample), and so on.
(I should note that this isn't specifically an argument against plugins e.g. Nexus).
Hopefully this doesn't come across as grumpy or anything.
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"When a pianist sits down and does a virtuoso performance he is in a technical sense transmitting more information to a machine than any other human activity involving machinery allows." -Robert Moog
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choonland
Advanced Member
Colombia
1,100 posts
Joined: Dec, 2007
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Posted - 2010/05/31 : 08:33:50
quote:
Originally posted by Contraposition:
I've noticed a lot of people seem to really dislike the usage of stock synths and percussion, presets, and so forth. Why exactly? I'm not saying that pushing the sonic boundaries and creating your own sounds is bad (I encourage it), but why is this taboo for a lot of people? It's like complaining about people who use the same drum kit, grand piano, etc. "Oh, REALLY original and creative there using a stock instrument pal! Why don't you go and invent your own instrument like all of the TRULY intellectual and creative people?"
I agree with that, its not like mozart had to build a new piano everytime he started a new opera.
On the other side, If you are a producer after some time you start to notice and recognize every preset almost by name, and eventually it starts to sound a little boring.
some classic tracks are good because they have an unique sound or synths that no other track have.
however, creating brand new sounds is almost a whole different art. sometimes you just want to start writting the music, instead of spending 5 hours trying to get "THE SOUND"
Besides most VST come with so many presets that it should give enough room to combinations and creativity. usually with a few changes of the preset switches you can get a decent "new sound"
in the end, is useless to have the most innovative sounds if the composition sucks.
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Triquatra
Moderator
United Kingdom
12,635 posts
Joined: Nov, 2003
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Posted - 2010/05/31 : 10:00:43
people only really hate if it sounds like crap, which some presets do.
if it sounds good, people arent going to hate.
which is why some presets get hated on, and others not.
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Meathead
Advanced Member
United Kingdom
4,217 posts
Joined: Sep, 2006
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Posted - 2010/05/31 : 10:25:25
quote:
Originally posted by DjTriquatra:
people only really hate if it sounds like crap, which some presets do.
if it sounds good, people arent going to hate.
which is why some presets get hated on, and others not.
There is a lot of hate for "stock" presets and what have you. Especially when overused. There used to be regular posts about a certain patch in Albino being used often in tracks over on the Dubstep forum.
I, as one who once displayed this hate you mention, feel i'm in a good position to answer your question.
The "hatred" is through sheer arogance. A producer, more often than not amatuer, feeling as though they are somehow better than other producers who use these "stock" presets, many of which are professionals, as appose to doing what they do, which is to +spend hours creating a sound from scratch only to find they've lost the idea they had for the track or that there was no idea there in the first place; just a sad little man twidling nobs and layering crap upon crap in vain. At least, that's my thoughts.
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"Music creates order out of chaos; for rhythm imposes unanimity upon the divergent, melody imposes continuity upon the disjointed, and harmony imposes compatibility upon the incongruous." -Sir Yehudi Menuhin
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Dante
Advanced Member
Vatican City State (Holy See)
1,185 posts
Joined: Dec, 2009
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Posted - 2010/05/31 : 21:05:39
Don't see the problem as long as it sounds good to me. Generally more interested in the musical content, anyway.
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Contraposition
Junior Member
United States
114 posts
Joined: May, 2010
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Posted - 2010/06/01 : 03:57:49
quote:
Originally posted by choonland:
On the other side, If you are a producer after some time you start to notice and recognize every preset almost by name, and eventually it starts to sound a little boring.
I suppose this varies between person-to-person. There are several presets from Nexus and Vanguard that I know and hear a lot, although to be honest it doesn't really bother me as long as they're put to good use (e.g. here).
quote:
Originally posted by choonland:
in the end, is useless to have the most innovative sounds if the composition sucks.
quote:
Originally posted by Dante:
Don't see the problem as long as it sounds good to me. Generally more interested in the musical content, anyway.
Exactly.
I know it's subjective, but artists like S3RL come to mind. Even though he uses the same lead quite a bit (too much admittedly) there are multiple songs of his that I like (such as 3 To The Floor) because of their composition in general.
quote:
Originally posted by DjTriquatra:
people only really hate if it sounds like crap, which some presets do.
if it sounds good, people arent going to hate.
However, there are a lot of people who are immediately appalled whenever they hear a known preset though (and only because it's a preset), and that's the group I'm discussing. I imagine a lot of other people fall into the group you described though. There are some presets that annoy me because of their sound, and others I can't get enough of.
quote:
Originally posted by Meathead:
There is a lot of hate for "stock" presets and what have you. Especially when overused. There used to be regular posts about a certain patch in Albino being used often in tracks over on the Dubstep forum.
I, as one who once displayed this hate you mention, feel i'm in a good position to answer your question.
The "hatred" is through sheer arogance. A producer, more often than not amatuer, feeling as though they are somehow better than other producers who use these "stock" presets, many of which are professionals, as appose to doing what they do, which is to +spend hours creating a sound from scratch only to find they've lost the idea they had for the track or that there was no idea there in the first place; just a sad little man twidling nobs and layering crap upon crap in vain. At least, that's my thoughts.
I agree with you mostly, although I wouldn't say it's entirely in vain. I don't know if it's norm or not (I doubt it is), but usually what I do is just use entirely presets at first (with some tweaking if necessary), and once I'm finished with the composition, I adjust all of the synths and effects where needed to get to what I hear in my head. Sometimes I'll get an awesome effect or idea that would require some changes to the composition; unless I feel that the song would be heavily improved with it, I'll save the preset and write the idea down for use in a later project. It may slow my train of thought but it definitely doesn't derail it.
Sometimes when I don't feel like producing but I do feel like messing around, I'll spend an hour or more creating my own presets that I usually use later on.
Cheers.
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"When a pianist sits down and does a virtuoso performance he is in a technical sense transmitting more information to a machine than any other human activity involving machinery allows." -Robert Moog
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Edited by - Contraposition on 2010/06/01 04:00:05 |
catlikethief
Average Member
United States
162 posts
Joined: Mar, 2010
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Posted - 2010/06/01 : 05:23:02
I'm sure most people who hate on stock synths on random message boards are probably kids that made a terrible sound on V-Station and now think they're an amazing synthesizer.
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The British Boy lost in an American world.
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Audio Warfare
Advanced Member
United Kingdom
3,047 posts
Joined: Mar, 2009
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Posted - 2010/06/01 : 09:29:02
It doesn't bother me personally. As long as the end result is good music it shouldn't really matter.
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Listen to released and forthcoming Audio Warfare/Audio Weaponry tunes here:-
http://soundcloud.com/audio-warfare
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