What's wrong with presets anyway?

[Bulls Hit]

Presets were deveolped strictly for marketing and sales purposes, not for engineering purposes. They were meant as a way to sell equipment to folks who might never buy them otherwise because they don't have either the skills, the training or the patience to properly use them. Their only purpose in life is to expand the manufacturer's market by irresponsibly putting engineering tools into the hands of non-engineers.

I'm not sure I'd call the development of presets irresponsible. If more people buy the product because of the presets, then the company makes more money for its shareholders, and attracts others with money to invest so the company can continue to invest and develop a (hopefully) quality product.

Personally I would call myself a non-engineer and I don't feel the least bit irresponsible using a preset if it sounds like what I'm looking for.

The guys at uad aren't idiots. I'll bet they know how much a close mic'd snare can sound like poo on a stick. They also know better than anyone how to dial in the channel strip to make it not so

 

[DavidK]

I'm not sure I'd call the development of presets irresponsible. If more people buy the product because of the presets, then the company makes more money for its shareholders, and attracts others with money to invest so the company can continue to invest and develop a (hopefully) quality product.

Personally I would call myself a non-engineer and I don't feel the least bit irresponsible using a preset if it sounds like what I'm looking for.

The guys at uad aren't idiots. I'll bet they know how much a close mic'd snare can sound like poo on a stick. They also know better than anyone how to dial in the channel strip to make it not so

They are also extremely convenient. Presets in Keyboards evolved to store, not to make a musical statement. Same with Reverb, its very handy to have them stored as opposed to spending 15 minutes adjusting parameters.

Here's another school of thought:

A preset cello sound is going to be a lot different in a string players hands because they know bowings, articulations, phrasing, voicing etc. A "normal" person will approach it like a keyboard and its going to sound lousy. Same thing with reverb: The novice who chooses "indoor tiled pool" for every song is not going to benefit from presets, he isnt listening.

I could go through most of the Beatles catalog and point out how badly George Martin did with orchestration. It would be pretty stupid as they all sound great, regardless of any rules he followed or rules he broke, he just did what sounded good. I dont view using presets as a badge of shame, I view them as a convenient tool to get some work done.

 

[SouthSIDE Glen]

I would say that keyboard presets, like reverb presets, are a different animal.

What I'm referring to and I think what most people who also take the negative side of this argument are referring to are non-reverb signal processing devices such as compression, multi-band compression, parametric equalization and graphic equalization.

And yes, it is irresponsible to sell a product to someone who is not equipped to use it. Doing a disservice to the customer in order to make extra money for one's self is just the kind of thinking that makes the Enrons of this world.

Let me sum this up simply and distinctly. Someone that has no idea how a compresor or equalizer works has no business using one in a production environment. Obviously one has to have a compressor before they can learn how to use it, of course. But if one is using it in a training environment, they are going to learn one hell of a lot more, learn it better, and learn it faster by using a compressor that has no presets than if they use one that does have presets.

G.

 

[Bulls Hit]

And yes, it is irresponsible to sell a product to someone who is not equipped to use it. Doing a disservice to the customer in order to make extra money for one's self is just the kind of thinking that makes the Enrons of this world.

So you're implying that offering presets is not just irresponsibe, but bordering on dishonest? Lol you're making plugins sound like the Texas chainsaw massacre. You might be a great engineer but I'm not sure you'd make a good businessman

 

[SouthSIDE Glen]

So you're implying that offering presets is not just irresponsibe, but bordering on dishonest? Lol you're making plugins sound like the Texas chainsaw massacre. You might be a great engineer but I'm not sure you'd make a good businessman

if by "businessman" you mean "salesman", then you're absolutely right. I used to be in sales many many moons ago and got out because it is a business totally dependant upon lying and ripping off the consumer. But I'm a pretty damn good businessman. I just don't play the lazy way. I do it by working my ass off and providing quality product and service that sells itself and feeling good about it at the end of the day.

Presets aside for a second, let's talk more generally. We are living in an age where gear in general - with or without preseets - is getting into the hands of people that have no business having it. When someone says "I just got a TCFinalizer/Avalon 737/Waves bundle/CubaseSX/fill in your own model here/etc. how do I use it", they have been robbed. They have literally had their money stolen from them (assuming they didn't steal it themselves ).

G.

 

[DavidK]

Presets aside for a second, let's talk more generally. We are living in an age where gear in general - with or without preseets - is getting into the hands of people that have no business having it. When someone says "I just got a TCFinalizer/Avalon 737/Waves bundle/CubaseSX/fill in your own model here/etc. how do I use it", they have been robbed. They have literally had their money stolen from them (assuming they didn't steal it themselves ).

I dont quite agree. The same could be said about 50% of sofware too. Most people could do the same with a free program as with photoshop, its really powerful and few mortals know what to do with it. The same with computers: many people use them for email machines and typewriters. That Total Gym in the Housewife's garage was 1000 bucks, she could have walked around the block.

The same with instruments: how many of their owners can REALLY play them? Very few. My prejudice is with people who can afford 6 figure string instruments yet cant play "Come to Jesus" in whole nuts. Drives me nuts.

 

[Dogman]

What I am getting from Glen, and a few others though, is they are really advocating to learn what the plug is doing, and how to manipulate it to use it to it's full potential on your tunes.

 

[Bulls Hit]

Yes absolutely, no argument there.

However I don't agree with Glen's contention that some people are somehow unworthy to own a piece of gear or software. Who is in a position to judge? It's that sort of thinking that led to the cultural revolution in China