I happily admit it: when it comes to VST synths I have always been a preset guy – until very recently. So what happened?
In one word: iPad. I have never been someone with enough patience to twist some dozen knobs in order to find a static sound that would make that much of a difference compared to numerous quality presets included in most of the VST synths. Tweaking one or two knobs or sliders to slightly adjust a well-laid preset has always been enough for me.
After I discovered the x/y-touchpads in iPad synths – for names refer to earlier posts – all this changed. Now I suddenly had a real-time controller to adjust the sound, which finally gave me the legitimate reason to get acquainted with all those knobs the pads control – as well as the iVST synth manuals. Never in my life would I have read through six different regular VST workstation synth manuals without the pad control option.
So in one sentence: it was all about hardware, not software. I was so used to my master keyboard and its limitations that this sort of touchscreen-based sound control system quite literally blew my mind. Suddenly I find myself feverishly tinkering with Animoog sound settings on my iPad like I was a 1960s sound engineer on acid.
This phenomenon is of course linked to larger discussion about expressiveness in virtual instruments. As I’ve mentioned on several occasions in earlier entries, the keyswitch tradition pretty much takes the fun out of trying to make a VST instrument sound good. So does the need to twist two dozen virtual knobs instead of using a touchpad, I’ve noticed.
However for me this means some sort of rebirth when it comes to working on my ‘own sounds’: I finally feel like it’s something meaningful and attainable within reasonable amount of time and effort.
The number of reasonably priced master keyboards with integrated touchpad? None I’m aware of.
Missing Sample 