TranceAddict Forums (www.tranceaddict.com/forums)
- Production Studio
-- what do you guys look for in a soundbank?

what do you guys look for in a soundbank?

hey everyone! i'm making a soundbank for Massive atm, and I wanted to get your input on what you go for in patches.

I've already got a bunch of presets made, but i want to know what you guys look for.

i've been aiming for usefulness & abundancy; melodic dance sounds plus some high quality drums and maybe transition effects (not sure yet... what do you think?)

my macro setup policy is basically, they're there to group changes that should be done together to make sense, or to label non-obvious results from tweaking a certain knob. if a patch doesnt need 8 macros assigned, it doesnt get that. i put a lot of thought into labeling them so that the name is not about which parameter is affected but about how the overall sound is affected.

i've done some fairly complex behind the scenes stuff to achieve certain effects that i hadn't heard from Massive before, while keeping the patches usable, malleable and ready to drop in a mix.

i'm aiming for ~500 patches total.

what this bank ISN'T going to be about: dark ambient soundscapes, thin, harsh and shrill stuff, useless sequences


so, what do you think? what do you look for? does the above sound like something you'd be interested in? do you have anything you'd love to see in a massive bank and haven't so far?

i'd be really grateful for your input!

I'd say you're on the money.

The useful sounds for me are the melodic, softer sounds that have great ambiance and can be built/layered to great atmospheric effect. I hate the shrill/harsh stuff (the last thing EDM needs is more sirens schreetches) and it's has been done to death, not to mention that's it's really easy to make those sounds yourself; nicer patches are always more nuanced and therefore more time consuming.

Not sure I need drum sounds as I use samples but sometimes the simple but unusual rhythmic patterns can be useful.

Re: what do you guys look for in a soundbank?

quote:

Originally posted by wayfinder my macro setup policy is basically, they're there to group changes that should be done together to make sense, or to label non-obvious results from tweaking a certain knob. if a patch doesnt need 8 macros assigned, it doesnt get that. i put a lot of thought into labeling them so that the name is not about which parameter is affected but about how the overall sound is affected. i've done some fairly complex behind the scenes stuff to achieve certain effects that i hadn't heard from Massive before, while keeping the patches usable, malleable and ready to drop in a mix.

This sounds great to me. I look for play-ability in presets, so the more performance controls, the better, as long as they do something that is useful and musical. Too many sound designers just leave the pitch bend at the default one octave, the MW at the default filter cutoff, and ignore things like aftertouch or macro knobs altogether. I think one of the things that sets the really good sound designers apart from the rest is their ability to do something useful and creative with these controllers by doing something that makes sense for each specific patch. But, that said, I totally agree that there's no sense in using all 8 macros if a patch just doesn't need that many (and few do IMO).

i hear you on useful and musical. i don't usually see the need to have a "destroy" button on everything, which is really easy to do in massive

unfortunately, i don't have a keyboard with aftertouch that's a bit of a bummer but can't be changed at the moment. i have, so far, opted to not fly blind and program in stuff i can't test myself, so no aftertouch at the moment :/

patches that actually do things and have built in macros. The sounds that make you go huh,,,
unfortunately everyone does melodic stuff that is stagnant and well pointless.

do you mean all melodic patches are stagnant and pointless or just a subset?

i find patches that are stagnant basically always derivative and just pointless. just the save fucking sounda over and over and over and over.

But i guess for me , the point would be to hear something that sounds interesting and different because every single sound bank that does those demos weree they play tracks, i don[t understand how you can't do that yourself. That is the easy part. The hard parts are the sounds , well they are usually sampled and then resynthesied but still.

do a macro , havoc some midi data for each showing how you can manipulate them. Offer something more than just fucking sounds that everyone has heard

gotcha

thanks for your input everyone! anything else?

I ran right out and got this one =))
http://www.loopmasters.com/product/...e-Presets-Vol-2

I like deep basslines...think Ferry Corsten, Vincent De Moor, Rank 1, etc. For leads, I like nice, warm sounds. Same goes for pads...I don't like anything too digital sounding.

I guess I'd just like a soundbank that made Massive not sound like shit. I haven't used Massive in a single track since I bought it.

quote:

Originally posted by echosystm I guess I'd just like a soundbank that made Massive not sound like shit. I haven't used Massive in a single track since I bought it.

For me, Massive never "spoke" to me. It just didn't jive with me at all, even after going through all the factory presets and even tried making some of my own.

Yeah, the factory presets weren't my cup of tea either. But I think I've managed to get a nice warm and punchy sound out of it

quote:

Originally posted by djshire For me, Massive never "spoke" to me. It just didn't jive with me at all, even after going through all the factory presets and even tried making some of my own.

Same here, the factory presets didn't interest me at all. They're not bad, but I just couldn't find any practical use for them.

I think I'm gonna give massive another try though, maybe I didn't give it a chance.

If I bought a soundbank, I would want sounds suitable for new age and cinematic music. Evolving pads that aren't dark and scary. Maybe some soundscapes that aren't nightmarish sounding. Probably not what you intend to make, just saying.

Agree with Looney4, offer something more than just sounds that everyone has heard.

Very interesting perspective, thank you! Considering what Massive is capable of in terms of usable sounds, I think the factory presets did it a disservice overall.

Yes, Massive is well-suited to the dark and twisted, the harsh and ugly, the wildly modulated and so on. But beneath that, away from the extremes, lies a surprisingly tender and staggeringly versatile tool that can do glimmering brilliancy and creamy warmth, both patches with highly recognizable character and the sort of solid, unobtrusive sounds that can be dropped into a mix and instantly work, a tool that can be precise and stable and useful. That's the side of Massive that I use in my own music, and that's the side that I emphasize in my bank.

Powered by: vBulletin
Copyright © 2000-2021, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.