What are Soundpacks?

Original hardware modular synthesizers required the fitting of short cables to allow for modulation routing. Therefore upon desigining sounds, the user of the synthesizer had to, in a way, “patch” it by inserting the cables in the desired positions-locations.

The term carried on to this digital day where it literally means “a preset of a synthesizer”. When the “patch” of a VST synthesizer plug in gets “loaded” (usually with a select menu found on the GUI of the synth), all the knobs, buttons, settings and other parameters of the synth are recalled to the positions they were when the patch was saved, therefore the “sound” the user had created can be “recalled”.

So, patches when found on the internet, always relate to specific plug-in instruments or effects – in essense they are “preset sounds” (for synths) or “preset settings” (for effects).

niu02kevin, post: 37598, member: 8306 wrote: Seems a little like cheating. I can’t imagine that a lot of prominent artists/producers would use presets, do they? It may be a good place to start to get that sound you’re looking for, then maybe make some other adjustments from there.

That’s a very popular discussion amongst producers – especially those who are new to production. Lets put some thoughts on the table though….

Does a great pianist design how his own piano sounds or is he just very good at playing it?
At what extend is a sound “yours”? If you designed a sound from scratch (usually “init” patch in a plug in synthesizer) is it really yours given the fact that someone else designed the knobs and the code with which this sound is programmed? So how about desigining your own synth….Hey but wait a minute, desigining a VST synth usually involves coding in a language like C++. But you didnt create the language….And oh, forgot to mention, you didnt even build the OS nor the computer in which all this stuff runs on…..So where does it end?

Prominent producers, indeed do not use presets – but that, I believe, is not because if they did they would be “less” original or have “less” authentic or “personal” sound. Its, usually because the synth presets do not cover their own “notion” of how this or that sound should be. It appears as a need, not as a pre-active thought of “being original” – if I make sense.

What Im trying to say is, I have never felt like Im cheating because I used an already made sound of a synth in one of my tunes – BUT most of the times, I dont like the ready-made sounds of my synths because usually the patches are showcasing the vast capabilities of each synth in creating “fat”, “dirty” gritty or what have you sounds. Now if you are into minimal stuff, most of the times these sounds are too “full-on”. So, all in all, it aint about cheating, its about what suits ya. 😉

I think any DAW is fine that has a good name in the scene. Ableton, Logic, FLS,…
It totally depends on your workflow and style of work.
For example I like Ableton to play around with, but I never got it to work for my production workflow.
I love production in Logic and creating beats with Maschine.
But I also have seen people rather using an MPC and Ableton… so whatever works for you is good I guess.