How to navigate in huge sound libraries

J

John1992

New member
Hi all,

I pretty struggle each time I try to find a specific synth/keyboard sound that I have in mind when producing a song. I'm even not sure that I'm aware of all "families" of sound that exist. The partition as I understand it now is:
synths, hammonds, keyboards (rhodes, electric piano, organs...), and acoustic piano.

So my questions are (I'm working with ableton live):
1. Are there types of sounds that I am not aware of?

2. I have some plugins and there is a huge amount of sounds in them. The majority of these sounds is irrelevant for me, and every time I look for a specific sound texture I have to skip them all until I find it. (In most cases I find something close to my vision and change parameters to make it exact).
So what is your methodology for navigating in these enormous libraries and finding the exact tone you're looking for?

3. Are there any recommended plugins or places to find presets? I'm currently using serum and I have to admit that approx 95% of its default sounds are irrelevant for me because they are dubstep/techno style and I am trying to get more hip hop beats - james blake - billie eilish - radiohead kind of synths/keys.


I'll be thankful for any help :)
 
Yeah, its like you want to pick a category. Bass synths. Then in that family you save some favorites. My Fantom has 10,000+ patches. But I went through and saved the best 2-3 presets out of 100's of bass synths, to my Favorites.
John1992 said:
billie eilish
Click to expand...
who?
 
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It's all about time and patience. There are more sounds than one may ever use. But if you know what kind of sound you want, narrow it down to there and take time looking ~ and then just remember !
I have a load of programmes and over the years, I've just gotten to know them. Sometimes, a sound hasn't been right, but when it has, I just note it in my mind. For example, I have a great electric piano VSTi called Lounge Lizard. I've had it since 2004. It has Fender Rhodes' and Wurlitzers on it. Probably about 40 or maybe a few more. So if I want an electric piano on a song, that's where I head and then I just play a few of them before settling on the one I'm going to use.
 
Thank you both!

Could you please specify the different categories you use (such as bass synths etc...)?
Sorry for the cluelessness but I think it can really help me.
 
I don't really work in terms of categories. For each song, I know pretty much what instrument I want. Of course there are certain multiples so it becomes a matter of testing out. For example, I have 4 sets of mellotrons as I love that instrument. I have the MTRON by GMedia, the Mike Pinder samples and then two weird and wonderful things I found on the net back in 2012 or thereabouts. One is called a nanotron, the other is called the Meltron. I know where they are on my computer and though between them there are many sounds, I'm always quite specific in my head about what I want so it's quite easy to head straight there.
If I wanted a bass synth {as a bass player, very rare !} I'd just go to the two programmes that I know have them and have a listen.
The huge number of instruments available can be quite overwhelming to start with. It almost feels like you have to use them all, just to justify having such scope. But I don't think that way any more. My thing is to use what I need at the time and if there happen to be things that never get used, so be it. I'm not going to shoehorn in a sound just because it's there. So, with that in mind, practice gets you to knowing just where everything you need is.
 
You mentioned working in Ableton. Here is a video I watched some time back when learning Ableton on organizing collections.
 
Sometimes you got to hit the arpeggiator and ARP hold. Play a chord. Then cycle the preset encoder knob. Preview them in a rapid fashion.

Pianos, Clavis , Electric pianos, etc. There are an infinite number of categories and subcatergories.
 
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