I’m working through the factory presets and free sound packs for my recently-acquired A4 mk1. The range of sounds it’s capable of is truly impressive, but I wonder if anyone uses “SFX”, or sounds with uncontrolled and considerable pitch variation. I had a similar question with my Microfreak, which has (in addition to those categories) presets that include sequences. I can’t imagine dropping someone else’s sequence into even my random noodling (especially on the Microfreak, where I can only play in exactly the same voice), and as far as I can tell, dissecting the modulation tracks is really not practical, so I’m not even sure I can learn from them.
I know there are people who advocate just erasing all factory content, or starting from init each time. I understand that, but I think there are times when inspiration is more rhythmic and one wants to quickly put a reasonable melodic component in place, or vice-versa. And it may be a while before I can make sounds as good as the ones that are right there. (I played cello previously, and I remember the weak sounds I made for the first couple of years. But my cello didn’t have presets!)
I guess I’m asking about astonishing but seemingly (to me) unusable sounds, and more generally, how people use the presets of others, or their own. I’m relatively new to all of this, so please forgive me if I’m being naïve.
If I’m reading you correctly my answer is simply that this is a limitation of presets, especially complex ones with complex modulation or a pre-programmed sequence. I use presets sometimes myself so I’m not against them, this is just the nature of using them.
I can believe that companies put in complex presets to show off capabilities, but I wonder if people have found uses for them, and I wonder why they are included in later (often third-party) sound packs.
Some people might choose a complex preset as the centerpiece of their track and work around it? I don’t have a good answer to that because presets like you speak of often leave me in the same place as you, asking “who is able to use this?”
Certainly there are people who are better at reverse engineering them and can make the complex ones work for them. That isn’t a talent of mine so it slows me down.
…on most synth, in dsp in special, it’s sooo easy to get lost in preset skippin, scrolling, sucking…
but in some others, presets can lead u anywhere…
and a4 IS one of those…it’s tickling my mindset and i can always tweak it from there…
and almost any preset can become UR sonic imprint within the next right twist…
morphed and plocked to something totally different…while evolution does it’s job…
i got pretty much all a4 presets on my a4 waiting…and i always start with picking some various cherries and preset flowers along the way to fill up a new blank kit…to see, er, hear what they can do…to…for…and…with each other…