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My New Video: How to Get the Most Out of Your Virtual Instruments and Synths


Reid Rosefelt

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Komplete  36,000+ sounds
Komplete Ultimate 67,000+ sounds
Omnisphere 9223 presets
UVI Vintage Vault 10,000+ presets
Arturia V Collection 8,000+presets (without expansions)
etc. etc. 

Have you auditioned all the presets in the virtual instruments and synths you own?  If you did,  do you have a photographic memory to be able to call up the best ones for your music?
How do you know when you buy something new that you don't already own something you like better?  

 

Edited by Reid Rosefelt
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"we already own something that might be better than the thing we are buying"

I feel exposed.

I've got Komplete Ultimate 10 and there's a few things there I've never used, like Reaktor, took a look at it, little boxes joined by lines, couldn't get it to work, that was enough. If I can't get something to work and get a decent sound out of it in 5 minutes, I'm gone. Sure, you can download learning videos for everything but if the GUI sucks that badly to begin with, are you really going to use it once you've done all the tutes? When there is so much other stuff around that might suit quicker.

 

Edited by Tezza
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9 hours ago, treesha said:

Interesting idea, but I don't know how to insert a vst instrument and then have the chosen similar types of patches show up each in their own track? How is that done? Normally for a few patches I would use a few instances of the vst. thanks

Yes, that's right: multiple instances of  VSTs.     You can see that in the example in the video of my favorite Omnisphere pads, each on its own track.  It's around 4:38.

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7 hours ago, Tezza said:

"we already own something that might be better than the thing we are buying"

I feel exposed.

I've got Komplete Ultimate 10 and there's a few things there I've never used, like Reaktor, took a look at it, little boxes joined by lines, couldn't get it to work, that was enough. If I can't get something to work and get a decent sound out of it in 5 minutes, I'm gone. Sure, you can download learning videos for everything but if the GUI sucks that badly to begin with, are you really going to use it once you've done all the tutes? When there is so much other stuff around that might suit quicker.

 

At least you tried Reaktor once.  That's huge. 

FYI, Reaktor is not really a thing you need to learn how to use or want to learn how to use.  Like Kontakt, it's  an ecosystem for creating instruments. You don't have to make your own Kontakt instruments, just play them.   Many of the instruments in Komplete are actually Reaktor instruments with nice interfaces .  There are third party companies like Blinksonic that make instruments for the Reaktor Player. And there is a huge library of free Reaktor instruments from the Reaktor community.  A lot of extremely cool freebies in there.  

I'm not suggesting that people become expert in something they don't like.  But they could at least open up all the stuff in Komplete for a little while, which I'm sure most don't do.  If it's in there, I say try it.   At least to see what it is.  If people bother to buy Arturia V, then maybe they could spend a bit of time with all the synths in that.   Open them up, try the presets, see if you can figure out what makes them unique.  Otherwise they just keep piling up instruments, synths, and libraries . How does that help you when you sit down to write something? 

I've been there, and that's what led me to the thinking behind this video.

It's not about not buying. I discovered through making templates that I didn't have a B3 that I liked, so I started searching.  Now I have the incredible IK one.   Making templates can lead to buying.   But at the same time, I know that I want to get all the UVI synths, and I know that's not rational.  I won't ever be able to get through them.  I'm probably better off just buying the ones I definitely want to use. 

I have as much trouble disciplining my spending as anybody, but using templates has made me more productive.  There's no way I could write all the little cues I do for my videos without templates.  

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Great video Reid. Yeah I actually go through every single preset of my synths but then the synths I get (such as Synth Magic) don't have thousands of presets so it's totally doable over the course of a few weeks, a little each day. I save all the presets I like into categories, and I've litteraly mined all of my synths, including what came with Komplete 10, for all the "best" sounds and saved those preset files into categorized folders. So e.g. I can have a "Plucks" folder that maybe has 50 different plucks from maybe 13 different synths. These days I don't even go directly to my synths anymore but I go straight to those folders for whatever sound I want and instantly call up whatever synth generates whatever sound. 

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I agree, great video! Templates FTW!

I am taking an online class in song composition, where the instructor addressed the issue of too many available sounds at the very beginning.

He encourages making a pallete of sounds as being a decision to limit what to use for your project.

When you can use anything and everything, that becomes infinitely huge! Which can be terrifying, because we have every option in the world available to us. Too many choices, and as you pointed out, not enough hours in the day.

Defining a pallete is limiting the main tools to be used at the beginning of a project. Sounds very similar to your recommended use of templates! For example selecting a set of drums, bass, synths, and other stuff as needed. Not that it can't be changed later, but just something to begin with. Sound design can be done later on, but getting started with a specific set of sounds should get you moving with your song ideas.

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28 minutes ago, abacab said:

I agree, great video! Templates FTW!

I am taking an online class in song composition, where the instructor addressed the issue of too many available sounds at the very beginning.

He encourages making a pallete of sounds as being a decision to limit what to use for your project.

When you can use anything and everything, that becomes infinitely huge! Which can be terrifying, because we have every option in the world available to us. Too many choices, and as you pointed out, not enough hours in the day.

Defining a pallete is limiting the main tools to be used at the beginning of a project. Sounds very similar to your recommended use of templates! For example selecting a set of drums, bass, synths, and other stuff as needed. Not that it can't be changed later, but just something to begin with. Sound design can be done later on, but getting started with a specific set of sounds should get you moving with your song ideas.

Exactly @abacab

This is the first of a series, as I allude to at the end.   I will get into palettes in future videos.

You don't need to make templates of sounds if you are able to jump directly to making palettes. 

I do believe that when you remove the endless choices you become more productive. 

@Christian Jones  is my hero.  He's got it together.

 

 

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17 minutes ago, Reid Rosefelt said:

I do believe that when you remove the endless choices you become more productive.

They do seem endless don't they. My frequent downfall is going down the rabbit hole of sound design in the very beginning. I need to better discipline myself to limit my choices up front! 🙂

Looking forward to your future explorations with palettes!

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4 hours ago, Christian Jones said:

Great video Reid. Yeah I actually go through every single preset of my synths but then the synths I get (such as Synth Magic) don't have thousands of presets so it's totally doable over the course of a few weeks, a little each day. I save all the presets I like into categories, and I've litteraly mined all of my synths, including what came with Komplete 10, for all the "best" sounds and saved those preset files into categorized folders. So e.g. I can have a "Plucks" folder that maybe has 50 different plucks from maybe 13 different synths. These days I don't even go directly to my synths anymore but I go straight to those folders for whatever sound I want and instantly call up whatever synth generates whatever sound. 

How do you save all the presets from different synths into folders of the same sound type.

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Great. Now I want the Omnisphere. 😐

The templates are a good idea, though. I know which instruments I own, but all those presets and expansions...

1 hour ago, Tezza said:

How do you save all the presets from different synths into folders of the same sound type.

I'd like to know, too.

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3 hours ago, Tezza said:

How do you save all the presets from different synths into folders of the same sound type.

 

2 hours ago, Pseudopop said:

I'd like to know, too.

With Kontakt and all the other NI synths anyway, when you save a preset it creates a preset file you can keep in a folder and I've got a bunch of categorized folders (Pads, Organs etc). Some time ago I spent a few weeks going through all the presets of all my NI synths including the Kontakt factory library and saved the ones I liked into categorized folders and I also renamed each preset to indicate what type of sound a given one is, so I get a lot of info w/o even hearing the preset. So for sounds I just go to those folders and it's quick and easy to audition say a whole folder full of my own plucks presets in Kontakt and same for the other NI synths. 

It was tedious mining those presets but I did it over time and it's translated to me now having all of my best gem presets from all my synths all in one place, so anytime I'm choosing from any of those presets I'm choosing from cherry picked stuff right off the bat. And I'm getting my gat dang money's worth from the synths I own. 

Edited by Christian Jones
don't know
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