I am sitting here polishing my latest patch collection (shameless plug). I spend a lot of time creating patches: tagging and setting macros etc. I cannot even quantify it in terms of hours…but it’s a lot. I am retired and this is one of my main pastimes. I dont say
its work - it’s not as, I really enjoy the whole process (yes, I never enjoyed working for a living).
But I wonder not only about the users of my patches but all those using Arturia products in general. Do you always create patches from scratch like me? Do you tweak existing patches or do you just use them as they come? I dont know if Arturia has ever done a poll to ask the question. I think it would be an interesting exercise.
So, how do you approach patches?
4 Likes
Hey @Funtmaster
I can only offer my own personal experiences here, of course, and they’re COMPLETELY independent of Arturia etc…
I’ll create something from scratch, usually sample based, but occasionally analogue hardware based, from time to time.
BUT, i’m incredibly grateful for people such as yourself who enjoy sound design, it would seem, in the same way some of us love writing songs, creating music etc.
Generally, i’m a tweaker, i’ll find something that’s either exactly what i want or fairly close and then tweak it to where i want it to be.
I’ve just finished some cover versions for a project and one of the sounds HAD to be VERY close to the original or it just wouldn’t have worked. There’s a fair bit about it online, most of it wrong it would seem; but i managed to recreate it, all but the LFO speed was just a touch too slow, but close enough, with my Minitaur.
I have to admit, i DID feel rather a lot of satisfaction from that one, even though it was a fairly simple patch in the end.
So, i think i understand part of what you guys get from sound design?
HTH!
3 Likes
Thats interesting Mat - especially the bit about recreating sounds. I have had people ask if I could recreate this or that sound and I always decline as I don’t want the ‘hassle’ of not satisfying their expectations. I paint and for exactly the same reason I don’t take commisions.
2 Likes
I mostly learn the essential of instruments so I can modify them to get the sound I need.
Creating a patch from scratch, I would only do in the process of learning an instrument.
Creating patches is a great hobby, just like trying to create pieces. and as Mat points out, it’s useful. I would say creating a piece is a need for me.
As I’m typing, I’m listening to Naima by John Coltrane. I think, for Coltrane (Chet Baker, etc.), it was like the baby’s cry, the only way to express the pain, the sadness, the blues, the Brazilian sauda, etc.
1 Like
new to all of this DAW experience along with Arturia. i on the other hand rely heavily on existing patches that are bundled through Arturia and don’t find it necessary to tweak anything.
1 Like
I’m the same - mostly tweaking existing patches. What sold me on the V-Collection was the selection of old synths with which I could re-create tracks that were hits when I was (a lot) younger. I really enjoy dialling in a synth sound on a track. I was surprised how many were just presets that came with the synth they used, plus effects here and there.
That said, I do also put together my own - mainly as a learning exercise. I have a large collection of rubbish/unfinished patches.
3 Likes
Well that a testament to the breadth of patches Arturia and others provide.
Urban mythology has it that a great many hardware synths were resold over the years with their original factory patches untouched. That has certainly been my experience buying secondhand synths over the last 45 years. If that means that the originals were so good: great. If it means that synths were too difficult for some to program (I am thinking DX7): than it’s rather sad.
That idea does take the conversation in another direction: what makes a great synth? For me, it’s a balance between, features and ease of use. I tend to steer clear of “one trick pony” synths which are only good at one thing.
2 Likes
@Yearofthegoat
I think we’re not too different there at all. 
@Funtmaster
Again, i think it depends on your wants and needs, SOME people are incredibly choosy about their sounds, i’m one of them.
I spent years with just one workstation synth and found it incredibly frustrating after a little while, so i REALLY appreciate things like The V Collection, all those incredible machines i spent years lusting after!
I do think there’s room for ‘one-trick ponies’ IF they do that trick well enough though, The Solina is a good example, VERY limited in its capabilities, but when you want THAT sound…
2 Likes
I think that’s right. I was re-creating Don Henley’s Boys of Summer and found that the LM-1 (or LinnDrum) sounds and synths (Prophet 5/Oberheim) were - almost - straight presets. But then, why not if that suits your mood?
The flip side is I’m very aware that I haven’t really deeply learnt the workings of a lot of my synth VSTs (I also have Cherry Audio plus a couple of others) and while a lot of the subtractive types are similar, there are others like the DX7 which I’m only now starting to understand. In fact I suspect I’ll leave this earth without having fully used them all!
As for one-trick ponies, yes they have their place - Solina’s a good example.
1 Like
I retract my comment about one trick ponies your Solina example proves me wrong and there are probably others 
2 Likes
Hey, no worries!
That’s a large part of what this forum is about, discussing ides, individual philosophies, different perspectives etc… so long as it’s all done respectfully there’s NOTHING wrong with that at all, quite the opposite as it CAN be highly constructive!
EDIT:
Further thoughts, as this one got me thinking a bit…
Again, from my own personal perspective, im drawn to certain sounds, Bass Guitar is massively important to me as i spent decades learning to play and develop myself, and loved every minute of it.
As a kid, synth sounds always grabbed my attention, certain sounds more than others… fast-forward many decades (
) to now and i realised something a few months ago… I’ve spent a fair few years building a nice selection of analogue synths, i realised that they’re either ‘the real thing’ or copies of vintage American synths.
From what i’ve read over the years, it seems part of their design philosophy was to compete with electric guitars, which would make sense.
It’s their brash and aggressive sound that appeals to me, they’re MUCH more so than Japanese synths, which are smoother and more polished sounding, at least to my ears. I do like the early Jupiters though.
Part of it would be that i’m a fan of late 70’s-mid 80’s soul and funk, which used those American synths extensively.
Whilst we’re getting philosophical…
1 Like
Ha! Now you got me thinking. As you probably know, my musical journey started with Tangerine Dream in the late 70s. Many of their sounds then were not that complex then,but it was the way they used them - sequenced, that made them shine. What did strike me was their transition to digital and in particular the PPG Wave. Those sounds were often totally unique and they have stuck with me over the years. Now I have the PPG 2.3, Microwave and Blofeld in plugin format - whoa! However, referencing another recent post of mine here on Reason Parsec, it uses a rudimentary set of Wavetables and coupled with its other modifiers, I came up with this sound. Its roots are in Wavetables but it goes beyond that in some respects. Thats why I would like to see some of Parsecs features in Pigments.
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/481unaoehxjum0v4f70e5/Sound.mp3?rlkey=hv8bpgojrqyvsqervi8pco919&dl=0
Lol, we’re getting into psychology with this one now, our early experiences affect us much more than we realise! 🫨😜
1 Like
Totally. But it’s an interesting landscape to explore. I have come to realise that, with a few exceptions, my musical tastes were cemented at around age 19. I even think there have been some studies that support that theory. As an aside to this aside, one of my other fundamental music building blocks is Cabaret Voltaire. They were an antidote to a troubled teenager in the 70s. Little could I have foreseen than that one day I would be lucky enough to form an acquaintance with Stephen Mallinder and even be offered the opportunity to supply the cover artwork for one of his releases! So far, its been an interesting life.
2 Likes
Yes, there have indeed been NUMEROUS studies into this that have come to the same conclusion.
MOST people’s musical tastes are set in or around their teens, there could be myriad reasons as to why that is of course.
Our teens are generally an exciting time in our lives, most people get new freedoms to explore new things and, many of us had a ‘soundtrack’ to this essentially.
It’s something i’ve noticed in people i’ve known for a long time and to some extent in myself.
It seems the non musicians’ tastes adhere to this fairly strictly, on the whole, but musicians have a greater desire to search out the new and exciting (to them) to come up with new ideas… at least that’s how it looks from my own experiences.
From my own ‘cohort’ locally, the people i knew at school, grew up with etc, those that didn’t learn to play at least one instrument and have the theory to go with it, that that theory holds true and quite rigidly in fact.
I can think of at least half a dozen people i was in ‘bands’ with back in the day who’ve just not moved on or developed musically at all, they’re FIRMLY stuck in their late teens to early twenties.
2 Likes
Personally, my core musical tastes have persevered. However, there are several exceptions:
-
Tangerine Dream started to lose appeal around the mid 80s, turning into horrible lift music for decades and now just a shadow of its former self as others have inevitibly surpassed it.
-
The discovery of what I lazily call “noise music”, Fennesz, Tim Hecker for example.
-
The discovery of modern electronic classical composers like Max Richter and Johann Johannsson and especially Nils Frahm.
-
A disturbing liking for COIL. One of the few bands weirder than Cabaret Voltaire.
The journey continues.
1 Like
Sounds like me. I was into JMJ/Kraftwerk/Ultravox/Human League/Heaven17 and others when I was in my early teens. Then moved on to Marillion/Genesis/Asia/Journey then GnR/Pearl Jam/more rock stuff around the time I learned to play guitar.
But I still listen to those 80s synth bands now. My kids laugh at me (but then I catch them listening to them too).
2 Likes
I found a video of someone recreating the Blade Runner lead. Might have been a Yamaha DX-1? Huge keyboard/synth, but the patch is simple, and I list it here, like a recipe:
- 2 saws, 1 slightly detuned, with the slow attack for both amp and filter envelopes
- AT opens the filter
- mod wheel invoking a very slow, shallow LFO on the oscillators for subtle, slow-motion vibrato
- slow release of both envelopes
- pitch bend downward range of 1 octave (12 half-steps)
- a bit of verb or delay to lubricate the sound
I recreated that patch on every kind of synthesizer plugin that I own. That’s a lot of synths.
That’s the synths from the V collection, including Pigments (and the mighty CS-80 OG), all of my favorite NI synths, like MassiveX and the original Massive, all the GForce synths (Oberheims, Moogs, impOSCars, etc), the D16 group’s SH101 remake, and inside each DAW I use, in the built-in synths, and a few more. It doesn’t take that long once you know what you’re looking for, and generally how to achieve it.
That exercise unlocked something for me in each one. It’s like the perfect way to give your synths a good, “And what are you all about?”
Rinse and repeat for any patch or sound you like. It inspired me to write so many songs from the exercise, and not one of them has that patch in it.
Great patch makers are truly inspirational. The majority of my ideas come while just playing acoustic piano, and playing amazing patches that spark an idea, a motif, or even a whole song, so I appreciate what you do a LOT.
Cheers!
3 Likes
My first ever synth was a second hand Ensoniq VFX in a summer circa 1990.
It had never been programmed. The music store in the Saguenay region (300 km north of Quebec city) was owned by a family of musicians and they didn’t bother programming when playing alive.
I spent the summer learning midi with the VFZ and a Roland CM-32 module.
One day I woke up early asking myself: how should I do this? when later on I had a stomach cramp. It was 6 (18h.) in the evening and I had not eaten a cracker 
.
I was then writing educational programs in C and LISP. Programming music was a revelation.
2 Likes