I absolutely love songs where you can point to an exact preset on a classic box. It was the norm for many many people across a lot of styles.
DX7 for sure but even Tritons in the 00s.
I also think of guys like Rei Harakami who did so freaking much with the basic Roland Sound Canvas instruments and creative arranging.
I know this isn’t the place but I really want to share a piece of his for the un-initiated.
Bruh! I’ve painted some bangers with the number system!
When I specifically want some familiar sound, like 303, a strings patch, x0x drum or something like that, I like to have some nice presets, which I usually tweak a bit to my taste. They’re also cool to help learn the synth’s capabilities.
But I’m most creative when starting from init patch. Probably because that’s when I have the most fun.
Love’em
I usually try to learn patches from youtube, or sometimes forum posts, then make a template i can modify, either on vst or on Analog4, to see what i can squeeze out of it. I think its more flexible when you put in the work into your sounds. (yes, its time consuming sometimes, but also so much fun.)
My take on this is presets are great. Sample packs too.
A preset (pre-made or designed by you) or samples (from packs or sampled off something) are raw materials. You still have to make something with them, combine them in some way. If you make something that emotionally resonates with someone then the fact you designed the sound or sampled something directly doesn’t really matter. For one thing, finding true uniqueness there might be tricky if it were at all possible due to the sheer number of potential options out there. And the end listener certainly won’t know or care either way.
It’s a sign of the age we’re in. Just like there’s more shows on Tv than you could ever watch, there’s more presets than we could ever use. many people sift rather than select from a limited palette.
But like others, as a preset surfer myself, of course I get folks who can and want to design and who might enjoy that sort of thing. I’ll have a go (in fact I made my first Ableton rack preset from nowt last night!) The work of sound designers means surfers like me can keep surfing. So it’s all good.
The OB-6 preset 007 almost justifies the $3k price tag by itself. I don’t know if I’d use it in a track but I sure enjoyed listening to it in my living room.
I hate surfing presets but if I find one that’s interesting I’ll tweak till I like it.
I do save my own sounds though.
I love presets as inspiration if I’m noodling. I also love random buttons, play a big chord or a line I’m working on and sometimes a preset will just inspire a different progression or direction. I almost always tweak out of utility once a song gets going and also sometimes love designing a sound from scratch to fit what’s already in my head.
I’ll never forget being a late teen a million years ago and putting a tune up on one of those rate my song sites and getting positively savaged because I’d used a power fifth synth preset (just a simple prophet-ish saw sound) from some now defunct software rather than any critique of the track itself.
Made me afraid of presets for a long time and made me make a lot less music rather than tweaking knobs until my sound was totally muddy and “unique.”
We love synths here. Synthesizers were built to sound like other things- pipe organs, brass sections, strings, plucked guitars… a bunch of nerds like us figured out they could also melt our ear drums with totally insane sounds and thanks to them, we can open up omnisphere or diva or whatever and play a three note chord that approximates the birth of the universe. Presets are awesome.
MC-707 was the machine that made me calm down and just use presets.
they are great indeed.
Been buying workstation type synths specifically for their presets ever since I got blown away by a combi patch on a pawnshop Triton LE back in 2012.
I remember reverse-engineering that preset in Andertons. Couldn’t afford an OB-6 but I wanted that preset so badly (again not sure I’d use it in a track but was just so pleasurable to play). Photographed and wrote down a bunch of settings, and later tried to recreate it at home on other synths. Not sure I 100% nailed it but made (and saved) some sounds that I was really happy with in the process.
That is often what I do with presets that speak to me - either I tweak them into something new but retain the element that drew me to them, or I try recreating them using different hardware/software.
MC-101 for me, but, yeah. That Roland stuff is so good, there’s no way you’re going to do better.
Generally I prefer starting from an init patch.
But, presets are gems for learning and exploring instruments.
Presets are also a way for the companies to show how awesome their stuff is which gives you the opportunity to learn a few cool tricks .
So, presets are super rare a starting point for a new track, but most for learning.
I’d argue that in this analogy the presets are the paint, not the composition of the track. So it falls to whether the artist is pre-mixing their own colours from scratch or squeezing them from a ready made tube, but either way they are still creating an original piece with those materials, as how they use them is entirely unique to them
I think it also plays to which end of “the meal” of music you want to take control of. If sound design is a starter, the song is the main and mixing and mastering is the desert, you may have to choose whether you want a starter or a desert.
Both are cool. Like you could legit design all your sounds and write a tune, but I imagine you’re a unicorn if you can make amazing sounds, write fantastic tracks and mix and master like a pro.
My suspicion and my experience is that all presets represent is people who like to get on with crafting a track and then mixing and serving the song itself above all else. The preset is just a means to an end. You could also design all your sounds, write your track and then run that through mixing and mastering presets. Both legit, it’s all about what you find fun and productive as a musician.
If you’ve ever used a preset in your music even once you are an illegitimate hack.
I happen to be such a hack on occasion. But I’m in good company.
I think painting, cooking or making a track as lots in common.
If you cook a chicken with rice with some seasonings 
. Sure it could smell and taste great or you can fail a bit sometimes.
But at some point it’s choosing the right material to make this cooking and time spent mixing thing the right way which will give it’s taste.
When you will eat this dish do you really care how it was cooked ? The important thing is to take pleasure in the cooking process and in the dish.
And if you need to use this special ready made condiment which taste so good… use it 
And if you don’t care on how it was made like sauja sauce for sushi’s… that’s fine 
Presets aren’t for me. That said, I’ve bought preset packs to see how other folks achieve interesting sounds.
I get so overwhelmed with options that lots of presets make a synth or effect less useful to me. Maybe AI will help with this in the future?
I love presents! They’re my favorite!!