mholloway wrote:
3. when I do sound-design from scratch, it's for one reason and one reason only....wait for it.....it's because I enjoy it! Not because I have some bullshit notion that it makes me better than everyone else. I'll program a snappy synth bass or a layered pad because the process of doing so is engaging and rewarding, and that is that. this is my biggest bitch about the anti-preset guys: they act like avoiding presets and opting for scratch sound-design is some kind of badge of exclusivity and authority. fuck that! sound design is just a fun craft that is deep, complex and rewarding: it's great for some, boring for others, and some others would just rather have a quick-find in a prest library and focus on song-writing and production. are they morons because of it? hell no. really mastering sound design is in many ways a totally separate hobby/interest from songwriting and mixing. it doesn't have to be a primary focus for everybody.
i feel better now.
-M
so Mr..while your first 2 points are perfectly valid the 3rd is actually only valid for singer/ somgwriters and not for producers in the electronic domain.. that includes all dancestyles even hip hop to an extend..even when this is very vocal based music where a preset sound dont matters much.. however...in the drum sounds and groove atmosphere design theese guys are damn creative usually .. listen to the bonus beats of an old public enemy record and you will hear better stuff than in the most drum libs.. actually theire sounds are part of the most drum libs by now...
So we have to take the Drum/groovedesign into consideration in all dance styles too..
Regarding theese styles your point 3 is false...
first.. sound design is the virtuosity of elecronic music..and groove design and to an lesser extend arrangement is the song writing of a dance track..
most of theese styles even life without explecit melodys or harmonies.. and usually no lyrics.. where is your songwriting here?
So for a big part of electronic music sound design actually is the songwriting.. the place where the emotions are transportet..the atmosphere is created.. the soul of the track.
The groove design is actually the basics that make it function..
This all is not just a fun craft.. a little hobby on the side of music production...
It is the music production itself !!!
ANd the mixing? you just can´t pay a propper mixer in a good studio?? in the clasical studio producer sense it s perfectly ok to higher a guy for the job... thats the fun craft...
except when its part of the sound design.. where we are at the fx presets.. an emt plate simulation? ok..bread and butter sounds and fx are allways ok to use.. that includes the viena lib and alike..
but the tricky dicky space cyclotron echo cascade and hit in your turn to minimal super fat compressor presets?
You call it mixing when using theese? you set the levels yourself? and that ist is?
even the arrangement follows the isntructions of some you tube tutorials?
So you are a mixer than and not an electronic music producer...
are people that do this make morons out of themself?
no...
they are lamers.. but hard to distinguish from morons... the pure amount of theese people that think using presets all over the place is ok makes them look like morons somehow... especially because its so easy to at least tweak a little bit.. theese plugins have even more knobs than any hardware synth would allow to tweak.. people seem to enjoy browsing 1000 presets more than doing some
tweaks themself, that usually get you faster to your goal..
In case you have a goal and are not hunting for ideas by browsing presets.. any sound holds the info how it wants to be played in it allready.. so you ae browsing not only sounds.. you are browsing ideas... your own ideas? do you really play ? or just the intentions of the preset creator?
Usually easy to decide.. have you heard that line before somewhere? with a very similar sound? than its not your idea
...
And as usual..morons in vast amounts are dangerous...
There are actually voices that speak loudly about removing copywright protection from the electronic dance geners because there is no own compositional invention in big parts of it.. generic music... sorry guys..
when you use presets to write classical songs its ok..but than the general midi expander is ok too.. and you wont need the space cyclotron amen break whatever preset...nd especially not browsing thru thousends of them.
Or you do it as a hobby... than ist of cause ok too.. but for real electronic releases?
no.. not ok..
Any sound holds an info how to play it within it allready.. except you brush a factory sound against that direction and really play something extaordinary with it.. you well might use a preset once in a while..when it just fits too good and you have created own content with it.. but to build whole tracks on them?
Sorry, that IS actually really lame..
Sound design dont takes much time, you still can use your preset arrangement template than.. with the breakdown bla bla here and there.
Sound design Is actually the fun part of a produktion nobody should miss, but its no extra..
Not so long ago the presets was so dreadfull that nobody dared to use them in own productions anyway..
That they are good now is rather a curse than a gift.. It´s on the user to decide how much to rely on them.
But you cant change the rules and declare preset use as totally ok and normal and pretending to be electronic music producer in the same time... The rules and standards of the game are set by the hackers not by the lamers.. so everybody using presets will have to live with the lamo stamp.. in the end of the days it has become rather a sport than an art.
See it as real sportsman that participate on an international online game.. and try to imagine how much fun such a game is when 80% of the gamers are lamers... tendency rising..