Do Professional Musicians And Producers Use Presets?

There’s a lot of myths surrounding what tools professional record producers use with regard to music creation.

For example people often wonder if professional music producers use similar tools that everyday producers use and the answer is yes.

One question that I recently got from an upcoming producer is whether professional musicians and music producers use presets.

I thought this would be a great idea for an article and a great way to address myths that surround music production with regard to the tools that the novice producers use as well as the tools that the advanced producers use.

With that said, Do professional musicians and producers use presets?

Both professional musicians and music producers use presets.  All modern tools and workstations that are used to create music have presets that make the job of making music is easier. Whether advanced or not musicians and producers rely on the use of digital plugins with presets patches.

Why professionals rely on presets

Let’s get into some of the reasons why even the professionals in music rely on the use of presets.

They make the workflow is easier

Let’s face it…making music is not simple. Even the most simplest songs have some complexity to them.

Which is why anything that can make the job of making music easier, will be sought after by both producers and musicians.

If you’re a music producer then you’ve surely noticed just how the sample and loop pack market has shot through the roof.

It is because sample loops make the job of making music easier

For example, a drum loop can save you the time of having to program your own drums.

The same goes for presets. They make the job easier.

For example, pre-made sounds on synthesizers save you the time of having to design them from scratch.

Effects presets like mastering presets make it easy for you to simply drag and drop presets onto your master channel, make a few tweaks and be done in less time.

Therefore presets are used by even the most professional or advanced music producers because they are time saving tools.

Sometimes the preset is that good

There are many reasons why professional musicians and music producers use presets.

One of these reasons is that sometimes the preset is just that good.

There are many presets out there and sometimes choosing to use one may come down to finding something you really like.

This is one of the reasons why musicians and record producers will stick to certain presets that they’ll use over and over.

If you’re a music producer this is something that you’ve obviously experienced.

Musicians recording alone

It’s now common for musicians to have their own studios in their homes.

This has become a necessity because sometimes an idea may come to the artist and they may want to record it right away when they have the inspiration to do so.

It’s not always possible that an engineer will be available to help them record and edit their vocals.

Which is why they may rely on presets that they can get from their own engineers, that they then use when their recording on their own.

This allows the musicians to record whenever they want and use presets to get their vocal sounding at least good enough for them to create better.

Presets educate the user

Another reason why music producers and musicians rely on presets is that, presets allow you to  take a peak behind the parameters used in the creation of the presets.

This can give you a better understanding of what is trying to be achieved by the preset and the means with which it is being achieved.

For example, a preset for acoustic guitar could have a reverb plugin, delay plugin and a stereo shaper.

This then gives you the general idea of how guitars are meant to sound. Looking at the settings made to each plugin you get a better general idea of how the plugin is being used to achieve a specific goal.

This gives you a better sense of the general principle behind the preset.

Final Thoughts

Presets are huge part of music creation. Especially in today’s world in which  almost all work relating to the production of music is done digitally.

We rely on computers more.

The most analog thing in some recording studios these days is the voice performance of the musician.

This is why we rely on the use of digital tools like presets and other things that can make our job easier.

Most newbie music producers often operate on the misconception that professional musicians and record producers use special tools that are different from theirs.

This is obviously not true. Music production is all about creativity and the ability to-do so with either good tools or average tools like stock plugins for instance.