Absolutely! Synth presets are a great place to start when making music and can help you to quickly produce your record since you may be overwhelmed with so many individual parameters to fiddle with.

The same logic applies to sound engineering. FX presets aren't altogether bad. You can further tweak and modify the settings to make them sound exactly as you want with the exception of audio mastering. A good starting point for the latter is always having everything set flat.

Recycle to your heart's content​

Some people say you should make your own synth patches but a part of that crowd always wants to reinvent the wheel. There ain't nothing wrong with recycling the same soundbanks over and over again when you are using an audio software plug-in, a hardware synthesizer, or a keyboard workstation.

For example, sub-bass: like how many sub-basses are you going to make that will change the world of music? You probably need to do it once perhaps three variations and that's it for the next decade. In fact, in numerous styles of music, many sounds are so repetitive that they end up becoming a staple of the genre. What seems to change though is the chain of effects.

In contrast, if you are not a clout-chasing artist or producer you obviously have to learn the ins and outs of sound design like the back of your hand. The common pitfall though is you may end up spending way too much time exploring endless possibilities e.g., modulation routing.

A good way to approach sound design is to have a dedicated day of the week or once a fortnight to make new sounds. If you learn to do that your music production workflow will improve immensely since you won't spend hours messing around with LFOs, envelopes, oscillators, and filters.

When to use mixing and mastering presets?​

Audio mastering presets don't always seem to work unless they are tailored for a specific genre of music in which a bulk of the productions sound the same which is less likely to happen anyway. In other words, many so-called "mastering presets" are redundant and are likely going to do more harm than good. For example, if there is a problem area at 746 Hz while the preset is boosting at 800 Hz with a gentle curve what is a noob going to do? Chances are they will leave it like that.

However, with brickwall limiters, you can have certain go-to settings rather than with EQs as aforementioned. The main useful scenario of loading EQ presets for mastering is definitely to illustrate to someone that with mastering equalization broad curves are the name of the game with the exception of the low-end and minor corrective cuts.

But in the mixing realm, there is enough room for experimentation. As a result, this allows you to create unique and interesting soundscapes by combining different effects in creative ways using many presets e.g., reverbs, delays, stereo wideners, pitch effects and etc. You can't do that in mastering. Well, you could but you'd create chaos.

N.B. Using less audio equalization, or EQ can actually be the best thing to do for your music because it allows the natural sound of the audio to shine through. While it may be tempting for beginners to use a preset EQ setting to quickly make their music sound better, this can often result in a less natural and less balanced sound. Instead, it's usually best to use EQ sparingly and only make small adjustments to specific frequencies in order to enhance the natural sound of the audio rather than trying to drastically change it with a preset. By using less EQ, you can ensure that your music sounds natural and well-balanced.
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