What synths have the most usable presets?

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With many synths offering a whizbang set of presets that show off every synth feature, often with limited musical usefulness (a trend that started with the Roland D50s "Digital Native Dance"), users are forced to "dumb down" the presets to fit their music or create their own sounds from scratch. What synths do you think have the most musically useful presets that require very little tweaking to make them fit your music?

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Usable is subjective - I think it’s really going to depend on what someone would create on their own and how well that aligns with a particular plugin

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Forgotten wrote: Fri Sep 20, 2019 7:53 pm Usable is subjective - I think it’s really going to depend on what someone would create on their own and how well that aligns with a particular plugin
While that is true, some synths have soundsets that fit a wide variety of styles and have a great deal of usability. Synthmaster with its expansive sound set comes to mind. Spire is another synth with a diverse sound set as well as the u-he instruments.

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Both the Repros. Some really good usable presets with those. Pads, keys, bass, leads, there's always something I can use with minimal tweaking required if I want.

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Digital Native Dance found its way into many songs so you can't say it's not useful.

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My first thought was....any synth that has an "Init" preset. Those knobs and switches are there to be *usable*.

But, more directly on point, I'd say synths that have a large and broad range of categorized presets and a browser that is designed to really help you narrow down and audition those presets. Omnisphere is definitely one of the best in that regard.
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Vortifex wrote: Fri Sep 20, 2019 10:41 pm Both the Repros. Some really good usable presets with those. Pads, keys, bass, leads, there's always something I can use with minimal tweaking required if I want.
Keep coming back to these, for the same reason. Just a really great sound quality, with enough limitations to stop sound-designers going too far off-piste.

Also, contrary to it's reputation, I find Omnisphere to fit the bill. It's not just the fact that there are so many presets that the ratio of simple-to-complex presets will still eclipse other synths. It's more the fact that even the complex sounds will tend to be a layer of a couple of simple sounds. All you need to do is mute either of the layers to give some very useable results. I find the same to be true of Alchemy, where many patches have four sources vying for attention. Just muting those that pull focus will often reveal a love bass, pad etc, that might have been there just as a thickener, but on it's own is understated, and sweet :tu:

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I found quite a few stock Synthmaster presets that were inspiring. Same goes for the Arturia V Collection synths. All subjective of course.

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I liked the Strobe 2 presets when I looked at its demo, but I can't speak to its range. That said, check out the ones that have demos.

I wonder how UVI Falcon compare to Omnisphere in terms of presets. Also, where does Komplete 12 fit in there, in terms of the presets for the synths you get?
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yellowmix wrote: Fri Sep 20, 2019 11:03 pm Digital Native Dance found its way into many songs so you can't say it's not useful.
Perhaps a half a dozen that I could locate. Not nearly as many as most of the other D50 factory sounds. That is why I said: "limited usefulness".

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tony10000 wrote: Fri Sep 20, 2019 7:51 pm What synths do you think have the most musically useful presets that require very little tweaking to make them fit your music?
The most expensive ones.

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awol9000 wrote: Sat Sep 21, 2019 3:19 am
tony10000 wrote: Fri Sep 20, 2019 7:51 pm What synths do you think have the most musically useful presets that require very little tweaking to make them fit your music?
The most expensive ones.
Not necessarily...the free u-he synths have plenty of usable sounds and the AIR synths are very inexpensive when on sale and have great libraries as well.
Last edited by tony10000 on Sat Sep 21, 2019 4:14 am, edited 1 time in total.

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duplicate

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Synthmaster, Sektor, Flow Motion

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Synthmaster by far, especially with the expansions that are all great. Then Serum, Dune, Phonec, kHs ONE, Go2 and Carbon Electra sounds instantly great when you tweak them...

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