Frustrating presets

[Brewster1]

For such a sophisticated program, why are Digital Performer's virtual instruments, and guitar amp presets etc.... so daggy?
I don't get it. It's so frustrating!
In many other programs, such as Ableton and Logic, you can dial up a preset and work with it straight away. No tweaking required.
Who is doing Performer's presets, and do they have any idea how to pull hip and classic sounds?
Scrolling through 180 snare drums in Model 12, there is not one snare that sounds great.
Dial up a "clean" tone in the preset insert settings, and they are all rubbish. Either over compressed or over affected (effected?).
WTF is going on? Are the engineers of DP lab geeks, or actual musicians?
Vibe factor= -10
Rant over!!

[James Steele]

Since it's a rant, I'll move it to the Gripes section.

[Dan Walsh]

presets......

[Shooshie]

I've always wanted a preset that would wash my coffee pot, grind some beans, and make me a fresh pot. I really don't understand why I don't have something like that yet. MOTU hasn't returned my calls.



Shoosh

[David Polich]

Seems if you don't like presets, you'll have to create your own. It's called
programming. Everyone should learn it, it frees you from being disappointed by presets.

Seriously, grab any of the plug-in effects, including the amps, set everything to straight up and start moving knobs and switches and see
what happens. You'l get the hang of how a plug-in or VI works much more
quickly and not only that, you'll learn what you don't want the plug-in or
VI to do.

Part of getting a good sound from a plug-in, particularly an amp simulation,
is understanding how the original gear works. The guitar amp and speaker cabs that come with DP8 are actually really good, but if you have no experience with real guitar amps and speaker cabinets, you're likely to be
frustrated. DP8's guitar "pedal" effects are superb, I haven't found one that I didn't like or that didn't nail what it was modeled on..but again,
the presets might not be the best place to start with those.

Regarding Model 12, that's always been a "12-bit sample-y" drum VI (like the old Drumulator or Linndrum machines). In fact, that's what I think its name refers to - the old Emu SP-12 drum machine. If you want "real" sounding drums, you should look elsewhere, like BFD or EZ Drummer. I've used Model 12 when I wanted to create a drum break that sounded like it came from vintage drumbox, and in that regard it works well.

[Prime Mover]

I agree that presets usually aren't an indication of how good a VI or effect is, however, it's hard to argue that good presets aren't extremely helpful in getting the grasp of a complicated new effect/VI. Users are dealing with literally dozens of extremely variable, complicated processors, each one with its own interface, terminology, and design philosophy. We're artists, our goal is to create... learning is part of it, but it's only a means to an end. Many times we don't have time to sit down and learn a piece of software/hardware from the inside out, plus, that's often not the most meaningful way of getting a feel for a new instrument. That's where solid presets can really be helpful in learning new effects/VIs. They give you a starting place that says, "if you set it up like this, it'll sound like this". Switch between presets for a while, and you start to develop a sense of what function does what. It also gives you a good starting place. Even the most advanced users who know a synth/effect by heart would rather not take the time setting every miniscule setting from scratch. Jump to the closest preset, and tweak from there until you've nailed what you're looking for.

As whiny as the initial post is, I do have to somewhat agree that MOTU has been a bit lax on presets as of late. Their older effects definitely had a lot more presets than the recent ones, and I do find it harder to really get the feel of the more complex effects.

But on the flipside, some things really can't be preset. I always find it laughable that WAVES makes presets for their mastering effects. How the heck is a multiband limiter setting going to translate to any other mix by another engineer? It's like making presets for an EQ, completely source dependent. There is definitely some of this with any effect, though it's more the case with some types of effects than others. Guitar amps definitely can assume a certain uniformity of source material.

But then again, maybe that's the whole problem... maybe the parent poster isn't starting off in the right place.

I do really love the MOTU effects. My biggest gripe is that there's no universal "pedal board" interface to really play with them more freely. I would take MOTUs amps over GuitarRig in a heart beat, but GuitarRig makes it so much easier to "play" with things, that I tend to get better results with GR. Not to mention, NI does a pretty damn good job making a lot of really educational presets.

[stubbsonic]

It is conceivable that a user base (like this one) could create a more functional and versatile set of presets-- and just have a little file area for them. However, since most folks here don't seem afraid to get their hands dirty with programming, it might not be accessed all that much.

[James Steele]

I agree that great presets are always nice to have. They're also subjective. Perhaps I can at some point set up an area to share them here. Just have to decide what format to exchange them in.

[Prime Mover]

That would be wonderful, James. Honestly, sometimes new presets are almost as good as new plugins. I've abandoned many a great plugin just because I didn't feel comfortable using it. Had there been good presets, that might have changed.

[bdr]

I have to agree, the presets in general are lacking for people like me who dont have the time to learn the innards of every plugin.

[Shooshie]

It's funny, since the beginning of plugins, I always thought the presets were just there to show you what the controls do. It never occurred to me to actually use them. When buying some plugins, I was surprised to find tons of presets. That's when it finally dawned on me that some people really just use the presets. But it's so much faster to program it yourself than to go through a jillion presets. And, you get exactly what you want.

Shoosh

[twistedtom]

Some of the new effects don't even have them, I like them and use some, they could have asked me what I wanted and made them to fit my wants although. I like having presets even when I do change them, as I often do, it gives me a starting point, and shows me what the controls do. As far as VIs go, the best ones do not come with any DAW, I have a few of them, I love M5-3. I have SD and EZdrummer,SD is the one I like, more control, better sound.

[MIDI Life Crisis]

The effect presets are supposedly to be released in a future version according to the MOTU folks I spoke to about 18 months ago.

[bayswater]

It's funny, since the beginning of plugins, I always thought the presets were just there to show you what the controls do. It never occurred to me to actually use them. When buying some plugins, I was surprised to find tons of presets. That's when it finally dawned on me that some people really just use the presets. But it's so much faster to program it yourself than to go through a jillion presets. And, you get exactly what you want.

Shoosh

Presets can be an opportunity for the author to demonstrate the range of effects the plugin can produce. It can be an efficient way of deciding if you want to spend the time going deeper into the plugin.

[Shooshie]

It's funny, since the beginning of plugins, I always thought the presets were just there to show you what the controls do. It never occurred to me to actually use them. When buying some plugins, I was surprised to find tons of presets. That's when it finally dawned on me that some people really just use the presets. But it's so much faster to program it yourself than to go through a jillion presets. And, you get exactly what you want.

Shoosh

Presets can be an opportunity for the author to demonstrate the range of effects the plugin can produce. It can be an efficient way of deciding if you want to spend the time going deeper into the plugin.

True. And a preset can get you in the ballpark of what you want, if you know which one to choose, leaving you only with a little tweaking to make it precise.