Arturia Satisfaction: Sound banks Presets (I'm satisfied or not ;) )

Sound Explorers Corner Free speech
#1

Hello,

I wonder about the comments related to the satisfaction of the preset banks that we buy.
I answer of course every time, but I do not know where they appear, the merits of those who do the same thing like me.

In some cases it would motivate me or conversely avoid a less targeted purchase.

Of course I think it is important for Arturia Marketing to better monitor the quality of the products on sale, but for us to know if our reception of its banks within our musical universe is useful.

A favorable exchange of word of mouth (or keyboard to screen) is always useful.

Thank you for reading.

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#2

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#3

Hi Simon,
my point is not about a banal satisfaction of a bank purchased from Arturia although I think that the designer of the preset would have at least a sincere and justified return (while knowing that it is only the use is for many for personal purposes and not exploitable).
But more for an exchange of use for those who like me go much more blindly in programming sounds, including the fact of often going to the simplest.

And then do not worry it is not a message in a bottle, it was just a reflection, just to participate.

Good evening Simon.

#4

All good man. I just couldn’t resist. :smiley:

I never end up finding the time to do those surveys, largely because I hadn’t gotten around to using the presets yet. I simply grab something while it’s on sale knowing I have a purpose for it which I will get around to very soon. Sometimes that’s months down the track, however.

I really can’t evaluate sounds in isolation, I have to see how well they for my purpose, how much hard work is needed to shape them to fit in, etc. Many of the times, there is too much reverb and OTT compression in my opinion. So a little work customising them is always expected,

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#5

I have purchased a few of the artist tribute banks…Pink Floyd, Jean Michel Jarre amongst others and have found them all a little underwhelming. They are fantastic sounding but my expectations were rather than a bunch of presets that closely resemble the originals they would be an exact emulation of them. Given the quality of their Synth emulation i expected better but it’s a small gripe in the scheme of things. My whole studio is basically comprised of Arturia. The Keylab 49 mk2, Minfuse 4 and Pretty much the entire suite of software are all amazing products. There is, as always room for improvement and it would be great to be able to contribute constructive feedback in a way other than the survey methods they currently use. I don’t know what the purpose of the questions are but i found that nearly all of the information requested was totally irrelevant to me personally.

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#6

…And that’s exactly what this forum is for.

Companies will always have their own priorities that they wish to look at, they’re run by people who will have their own priorities too.
But, other people have different priorities and that’s part of the reason for this forum. :sunglasses:

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#7

Hello @tekkaz72 and thank you for your participation. I doubted for a moment the merits of this topic.
Well I am happy because I will be able to give more precisely my opinion on some of the 70 banks that I acquired, most of which benefited from the 50% discount.
For the moment especially the one from Arcane Realm has disappointed me a little but it is also the style of cinematic music that does not suit this type of bank.
I really appreciated Ancient Mantra and Future Chaos (these are the first two that come to mind).
I am thinking of doing a balance for each of these soon (see later the name of the best presets and in what conditions I would like to use them) the number of presets that suits me and the others.
This does not detract from the quality but I prefer a bank of 32 that will be useful to me than 64 or 128 or I risk getting lost in too large a choice.
To tell the truth the demos on the Arturia portal give a very attractive side for top compositions but without the musical quality at our level we risk being a little disappointed with the result (knowing if those on trial are proposed in a random concern or the best put forward, it’s a bit like in a surprise cover).
In any case I did not really feel the same thing for Pink Floyd while noticing a bank more interesting than the other.
Musical Friendship.

#8

Hello,
I tried the few presets offered by Explorations Vol.2 Soundbanks in demo mode, which I must admit for some of them won me over.
The only problem apart from the amount of one Bank for three which is very interesting is the risk of duplicates with those I have acquired.
Well, it is essentially based on Pigments and I must admit my laziness in not taking the step of exploiting this one.
I just have to pay, it is for a good cause, all work deserves a salary.
Salutation de France.

#9

Bonjour Pascal,

From your initial post, I may be wrong, but I think you would like a peer (collègues musiciens) review of banks. It would not solve all problems (taste is a personnal matter) but it would help in choosing a bank.
Maybe a topic like Bank review.

On your last post, unless a bank targets a new version of Pigments for example, you’re bound to get “duplicates” or presets that can be derived from a previous one with some work or presets that you won’t use. It’s probably trivial but sounds don’t make music. Depending on genre (jazz, rap, ambiant, techno, etc.), music is rhythm, harmony and scales. A sound may inspire a few bars but expanding from these few bars is the real work.

You should not fear returning a bank that willl be useless to you. After all, we have to judge a bank on a few presets.
It would be too much to ask Arturia to produce samples of every presets. The price would go up. An independent producer like Reverb Machine (Dan Carr, who produced Vintage Lab, Modern Lab for Arturia) does give a sample of every presets but he doesn’t produce on the same scale and the price of banks is higher. And you don’t get to tweak the presets, you only get examples of the presets.

Addendum: Dan Carr (Reverb Machine) has very good articles on chord progressions with examples from various groups like Boards of Canada, Tame Impala, De Marco, etc. These groups don’t use many sounds (often Mini or Juno). It’s the way they use them that matters.

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#10

Hi all.

Discussions about notes and scales, chords and chord progressions and sound and so on are old. Music is hard to define. I can say i like melodies and chords, but i don’t restrict music to be that.
I think there are reasons, why we are not only using our voices, hitting on wood or playing flutes.
I also think there are reasons why we like to have fun with sound in echo valleys and under water.
Sound has an impact on us. Synthesis is a wonderful way to create new musical sounds. Sound is very much music. I think it was Phillip Glass who once “created” a piece that was the sounds the audience and surroundings created within a timeframe, showing it’s hard to define music, even if some of us might say, that’s not music.
Even jazz musicians eksperiment with sound.
Sound can set a mood and tell a story.
Sounds can inspire.

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#11

Thank you @francoise and @LBH for your two respective messages, as well as your two different opinions on certain points.
Of course I know that at the same time the sound is only a support in the musical journey when it goes off the classic path by being synthetically acoustic (since digital here in the sound banks), but I also find it experimental, it opens me a musical perception that I would not have with my guitar or my Roland E-38.
As much as it seems to me to need Spitfire Audio BBC Core I cannot do without adding a number of layers or sounds that basically titillates my intellect, it is very often the start of what I can call my compositions.
I think, far from me the comparison for Frank Zappa during his Synth Clavier period or the experimental side of Steve Hillage, Gary Numan and many others.
I have not had this chance to immerse myself in harmony, even less when it comes to the musical structure of a composition, but I have noticed that all these sonorities develop my musical sensitivity more than all the methods I have been able to buy so far.
But I do not forget the advice and warm, benevolent messages of many like you.
Musical Friendship.

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#12

I buy many banks and play guitar, piano, sax and trumpet so I’m curious about “sound”. I have a more restrictive definition of “music”. If my cat hit keys on my keyboard, is he making music? :smirk_cat:

I would put it the other way around: if you don’t have the money to buy banks of presets, you still can make interesting music.

Some musicians may prefer an instrument but Mozart, Debussy, Brad Meldau only needed a piano. The Indy groups Dan Carr (Reverb Machine) reviews don’t need a lot of gear. They have their own distinct harmonies and scales. Are they old? The preference for banging a drum instead of blowing a flute is much older; the oldest flute dates back 50,000 to 60,000 years ago.

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#13

My point is you can make good music without buying many synths and banks. I buy many banks, so I’m curious on “sound”. But I’m not sure it’s an infinite universe, there are pads, bass, drums, keys, etc. with some differences).

To me Zappa is the equivalent of pop art in graphic art (collages by Robert Rauschenberg for instance), mixing rock, pop, free jazz, classical, etc. But did he compose alone or is it a collective work? I don’t know. According to this analysis, it is not easy to decide:

He mostly played guitar and was interested in exploring the Synclavier but it’s not a lot synths. It offered the possibility of very fast execution of pieces which is what a modern DAW offers.
King Kong was played on traditional instruments and it has a melody and chords; it’s not just a sound.

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#14

Hi @francoise,

The videos in this post is only, if you are insterested.

I absolutely agree in using the instruments and sounds you have. I don’t ask to buy anything.

I don’t think music is outdated if it uses old instruments or don’t use new or speciel sounds or instruments. Using new instruments and sounds does’nt in it self make music new thinking and creative either.

I like controlled music. But so much music use randomness.
I think free improvisations often turn into scales only. Other times magic can happen and create fantastic music in the moment without being composed in advance. I guess even a cat can be lucky and add something with a note without becoming a composer or a musician.

Excactly. That’s why i chose those examples. Lot’s of instruments have been developed during time. My points are, that humans have always been interested in sound, and it can’t be kept out as a part of music and as an inspiration source. And sounds creates moods, includings moods important for in example some movie soundtracks.

I like vocal music by for example Thomas Tallis. I for example love this beautiful short piece: If ye love me - Choir of King’s College, Cambridge: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fMskfyShNI

I love the sound of flutes and oboes and so many other traditional instruments from all parts of the world. I like lots of ProgRock where Flute was used quite much.
Gryphon in the 70’s used old instruments. They mixed things to create music. Here in an example with flutes and other instruments like drums, crumhorn, electric bass, acoustic guitar and more: Gryphon - Ethelion: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXsJA_POOpo

But i also like Tangerine Dream and other electronic based music.

I like many kinds of music and sounds.

BTW: In the Phillip Glass example about the sounds coming within a timeframe i have never considered Phillip Glass to be Composer as such. I actually don’t even like to call it music - i also have my doubts of some kinds of artforms about the artists role. But i can’t deny, that some consider this for music and art. Discussions about things like this is very old and very long.

Cheers

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#15

Thank you @francoise and @LBH for your participation and your two different visions in some points but which come together musically.

For my part (it’s only my opinion) I’m almost sure that if Frank Zappa had had the opportunity to have all the machines and sounds that are offered to us today he would have benefited from it musically, he was also an explorer and innovator. His musical universe was made of infinite discovery.
When I say that it is important for me to have a support for my compositions it is because it is not possible for me to invest in instruments whose cost is far from financially possible for me.
Of course I would have liked to have a real piano in my family at the age of 10 instead of tapping on my cousin’s toy.
A guitar of that name instead of the scam that my parents not very fortunate bought for me, changing guitar lessons into recorder lessons.
The first guitar (Washburn) bought at 19 with my second salary as a shoemaker, although working in the store on Saturdays I could not claim to join a group. .
I had to wait until I was 60 to be able to really devote myself to it because the responsibility towards my family was essential not to invest myself totally in music.
I no longer want to deny myself the right to consider myself today as a real but modest musician, to use all the resources to compose with all the technical means that are at my disposal.
Even if it is not of a great class, even if it may seem mediocre, the musical fibers I will seek them like gold diggers in the flow of all the sounds that are offered to me until total obsession.
But I understand your vision but it is not the miracle melody that I am looking for it is just my musical signature.
Thank you both for your kindness and your listening.

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#16

Merci beaucoup @francoise pour le livret sur Frank Zappa.
Bien Ă  vous.

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#17

I think that today we are so spoilt for choice that it can sometimes limit creativity.

My first ever synth (I gigged with it) in the 80s was a Korg MicroPreset M-500.

Compared to other more expensive synths, that had a very limited range of features but it was all I could afford and I poured hours into getting the sounds I wanted out of it.

I had great fun and got some great sounds, I still think (rose tinted glasses may be in effect though) it had the best white noise/wind sound ever.

No internet, no endless supply of free synths etc, I had this one synth and I had to learn it inside out.

Had I been in my late teens now , I could pick up a brand new 25 note midi controller for under ÂŁ30 and a choice of free synths for iPad/Android/PC/Mac, a fair choice of cheap DAWS especially if I have access to a PC and an almost unlimited choice of free/cheap plugins.

So many banks of sounds with these freebies, I wonder if I was that age now, whether I would actually learn any synth inside out or whether I’d simply get (free or paid) more sound banks.

If I’m looking for a particular sound, a quick google will soon throw up a sound bank or two (and in some cases too many) to choose from.

There’s two (at least) different types of synth player imo.

Those that want to make their own sounds or tweak the sounds others have made.

Those that really want a rompler and mainly use presets made by others.

Nothing wrong with either of course.

I am from the first camp, I love learning what each aspect of synths do, how everything interacts with each other.

I still buy loads of sound banks , even though a lot of the time the sounds from one bank sound very similar to another bank.

It can become almost an addiction rather than a necessity, but unless someone’s getting into debt buying them, it’s not doing any real harm.

Thinking about it, considering how many different sound banks and plugins there are, it’s interesting to note how most new songs still use the same tried and tested sounds rather than something different. Maybe that’s me though as I obviously mainly listen to the type of things I like.

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#18

I purchased the exclusive EXPLORATIONS Vol. 2 pack last Saturday.

It’s a bit difficult to give my opinion right now given the 450 presets to listen to for €29.99.

To tell the truth, right now some will be a source of inspiration but others require a very specific context, not at all in the style of my compositions at the moment but we always have good surprises with the harmonization of sounds.

At least and at best 2 of these packs arouse my interest the other will come in due time.

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#19

I think we agree. My point was not against “sound” since I buy lots of presets. So I enjoy discovering the art of sound designers.

I have a lot of choral “sacred” music like the Music for the Holy Week, many directed by Belgian director Philippe Herreweghe, and I have many XXth century music from Xenakis (“stochastic music”, randomly generated) to neo-classical like British composer Gavin Bryars or Górecki. And humor is part of music. The Gryphon celebrate an era of Elizabethan (Renaissance) dance music.

To music, however defined! À la vôtre! (cheers).

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#20

Yes, Pascal, this bundle is tempting :lollipop: :candy:.

As for me, I have many banks and I wonder what will follow, another new VST? Since I have many banks, I obviously value the work and creativity of Arturia’s sound designers.

But maintenance of acoustic musical instruments is getting expensive. I recently spent at least 500$ can. of my alto sax, my tenor sax and my classical guitar. And another 150$ is coming in September for the alto (nettoyage à l’ultrason, ultrasonic cleaning).

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