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I have always wondered this. I have almost completed my first dubstep/electronic type song and almost all my plugin presets are free patches offered by producers online.

Is this a bad thing? I haven't mastered synthesis yet so any thing I try to make is generally quite bad. But with most of the patches I have used I tend to tweak a little by changing rhythms, and playing around with knobs in the plugin to make it something a little bit different from the original. This kinda goes the same for samples too like drum samples. I downloaded a snare sample from a producers site that he gave away for free and used it as well.

Of course everything is mixed so it sounds all different in the end. But still i don't FULLY feel happy about it. But is it ok because I'm just starting out with this stuff? I came from a "punk/rock" back ground so I never had to make any sort of sound apart from playing around with guitar effects which is pretty straight forward compared to FM synthesis sort of stuff.

ask zomby

No, it's not. The thing is, there's so many patches out there that any sound you're looking for has pretty much already been made. No need wasting time making it if it's sitting in front of you, especially if you already have the know how to do so. It's not cool to try to pass it off as yours though.

Just make songs bro.

nekminnit..... yea, only posting because i saw your name

i kind of look down upon it a bit. i mean if you use a preset for a pad or for maybe 1 element in the song whatever. but if you use all presets, IMO its kind of lame. personally i do all my own sound design. it may not be the best but it certainly wont get any better by using presets. on the other hand using presets may allow you to write songs faster which may allow you to get better at arranging more quickly. but personally i think there is so much to learn for sound design ill need all the practice i can get.

but by all means go ahead and keep using presets. its only going to hurt and limit you in the future.

Well I'd say if you don't feel comfortable then don't do it.

Its his first electronic song lyons. Its advice like that that turns people to watching 4000 youtube videos on sound design and not writing music which is the thing they enjoy. The only time you need to learn sound design is when you start to feel limited by not knowing it. In the future I'm sure he will learn sound design but for now why not just focus on learning his DAW and transferring his skills from guitar pedals to VST's/au's? Besides, i bet a lot of the stuff he is doing with pedal types of sounds constitutes as sound design, it does to me anyway.

OP fuck the haters and keep going with it, you can worry about sound design further down the track.

wormcode wrote:Well I'd say if you don't feel comfortable then don't do it.

Thats a good point though

We had the same conversation regarding loops the other day;

Loops Vs. Original Content - http://www.dubstepforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=241757

And I'll reiterate what was said there;

wub wrote:

£10 Bag wrote:I don't give a fuck where you got your samples from if the tune is good.
I'm not sure I even care where you got your samples from if the tune is shit!

Let's see what the Pope says:

The Pope wrote:It is not as bad as the Original Sin, so go forth and sin no more.

mks wrote:

Let's see what the Pope says:

Gonna sample that pope dude myself I like that guy.

mks wrote:

Let's see what the Pope says:

The Pope wrote:It is not as bad as the Original Sin, so go forth and sin no more.

Always knew the Pope was a junglist

Well, if you've just started and made your first track, there's absolutely nothing wrong about it With time you'll learn synthesis. Just keep making those tracks

Cool thanks for the responses dub bros. The main reason i felt kinda weird about is cause I didn't know if it was an acceptable thing to do. It seems most are quite ok with it and it has given me a good starting point and makes for faster arrangement.

down the road you'll have to learn it because there isnt always gonna be that sound you're looking for, but for now you're good it's your first track.

i wasent hating. i was just saying what i think. iv always made all my own basses even on my first track. its simple enough to grab a saw or square wave, fiddle to your liking and add some distortion no?

Avicii does this and nearly all of my friends love him. I think you're fine, honestly.
@Eat Bass, maybe to us, but think back when you first opened up your DAW. We're you even routing everything to the mixer?

In the DAW I use, Nanostudio for iPad, there is only one synth. The Eden synth.

It's so freaking flexible. When I first used it, I just use edited versions of it's presets until I was able to make good sounds of my own. I still use a couple edited presets, but most of them are ones I made now.