Outsim Synthmaker?

[Jay Vaughan]

>> i forgot what that is, what is it?
> The wonderful Korg 900ps.

ah hah, that is a wonderfully interesting synth.  rockin' interface!

> ..so are you saying that you start every patch with a push of the  
> Initialize
> button?
>

yes, in fact, for the last 7 years that has mainly been my mode of  
operation.  also, i don't have anyone elses patches in my synths these  
days - all save slots contain 100% patches made by me.  so even if i  
pick up a patch where i left off, its still my original sound.  i save  
like a mofo, too.

> Nope. Im say I mostly know "none-carers".  Its completely academic  
> if a
> patch which you have created starts from an Initialised patch (a  
> preset in
> its own-right) or, another patch.
>

i think its a very subtle distinction; if you're creating your own  
patches from scratch, there are details that you know about the sound  
that would otherwise be overlooked.  one of the reasons i am a hard- 
ass about this issue is that i realized during the 90's that i was  
spending far too much time playing other peoples patches and never got  
deeper into the synth engine, which is why i got a synth in the first  
place.  i chucked all my romplers and hard-to-edit synths, and began a  
strictly disciplined focus on making my own sounds, on the basis of  
what i understood about the synths.  i did not personally find that  
using other peoples patches was helping me learn the synth; it was  
having the opposite effect of shielding me from the hard work of  
making my own sound from scratch in the first place.

so, i really got hard-ass about it, as a discipline.  i simply do not,  
ever, use anyone elses patches. the rewards for me personally have  
been fantastic.

> But I know you use some synths that don't have patch storage anyway;
> likewise with my main synths.  Also, I rarely actually bother to save
> patches as I like the idea that all of our tracks are moments in time,
> recorded as a performance, just like a regular rock band.
>

i too like this, but i save like crazy.  my save banks are a time- 
ordered list of changes i've made - i often have 30 copies of the same  
sound saved, with minor tweaks in between, so i can easily go back and  
forth between versions.  i found it really productive to force myself  
not to 'covet' the patch save slots like they had to be maintained  
'preciously', and instead just use the whole set of slots as a big  
scratch pad.

but, that took a little discipline.  i know there are folks out there  
who can't work that way.  i'm not trying to over-generalize and say  
everyone should do this, just that as a discipline it has worked for  
me immensely well.

last night for example, friday-night jam session @ metalab: new folks  
come along and ask for a little tutorial on how it all works.  "make a  
fat bass sound" - and so i made one from scratch, taking 'init' and  
pushing everything i needed to push to make it happen.  this was a lot  
more enlightening for them than it would have been were i to just pull  
up a preset - the process is what matters, not the immediate result.

> But people should not get hung up on presets.  Their use or  
> otherwise don't
> make or break the song.
>

i think its important not to get hung up on things, but that goes both  
ways: if you feel uninspired, trying a new musical discipline can be  
really effective.  a total non-factory, only-play-what-you-made- 
yourself approach has been wonderful for me.

but then, unlike you, i'm not exactly releasing tracks for other  
peoples enjoyment these days, and thats a bit sad.  so that is about  
to change, though, as i work more on the production end of things again.

> Frickin raining in London. Even English girls wear clothes when its  
> raining;
> sucks!


yeah, not so bad here in vienna today .. the boy is with grandma and  
granddad, so we've had a bit of a wild fling for a break, and now its  
time to get out of bed and go have brunch.  ;)

;
--
Jay Vaughan