Do you use presets? Occasionally? Regularly?
You know, those pre-made settings that come with your plugins…
While their use is undoubtedly debatable for virtual instruments, I find that using those from your compressors, equalizers, and other effects for mixing is simply a (very) bad idea.
Sure, they are quickly accessible and seem to save time. But still, they can often do more harm than good.
Explanations…
Why Presets Are Bad
Let’s get straight to the point (and I’ll tell you later in which cases presets can be interesting).
In many situations, the presets of your plugins do not match your music.
Indeed, these pre-existing settings were made on other sounds — on other mixes. Logically, they will not adapt to your own recordings.
Take the simple example of a hard rock/metal guitar track you might have recorded. Here it is without effects:
You want to equalize it, and you add an EQ plugin like MEqualizer (which is part of my list of free equalizers).
You look in the presets, and you notice that the plugin offers one called “Heavy Guitar 2”. Great, the description seems to match your music well.
So you select it:
And here is the sound result:
For me, we have lost power and body, but in the mix, it might not be a problem since there will be other guitars, the bass, and a fortiori the rest of the instruments.
However, if your original recording was higher pitched and with less bass, like this:
Do you think the preset would still fit?
Here is the answer with one last audio excerpt:
As you can hear, the sound is really distorted and the preset does not correspond at all to the recording — even though it was a “Heavy Guitar”. The guitar has lost all its energy and power, leaving only an unpleasant high sound.
Of course, this type of example can be reproduced infinitely with all types of plugins, especially compressors.
Indeed, the signal’s dynamics can vary significantly from one recording to another, for the same instrument. Typically, if we consider a snare drum, it is impossible to predict without listening how it will need to be compressed.
You will agree: using presets for mixing is somehow taking the risk of destabilizing your mix by making poor adjustments.
As recordings vary in pitch and level, applying settings made on other sound sources is generally a bad idea.
The Advantages of Presets
The goal of this article is, of course, to warn you about the potential problems that can arise from using presets.
However, there are indeed situations where they can still be interesting.
Generally speaking, they provide an idea of the type of setting that can be applied to achieve a certain effect. They provide guidance.
For example, the PSP FETPressor plugin has a preset named “Snare Power”, aimed at adding power to a snare drum.
If we select it, we see that we have a high ratio, a fast attack at 0.6 ms, and a fairly quick release.
The preset can thus provide ideas, or even serve as a starting point for your settings.
Another example:
During mixing, if you need to simulate a stereo space, you will probably use reverbs (or a delay).
Generally, you can start from one of the available presets and briefly adjust it to get, more or less, the sound you are looking for. You will probably need to fine-tune it more precisely later on, but at least you will start off in the right direction.
And for that matter, you will likely save some time.
In conclusion
Presets can therefore be useful in certain cases. They can serve as a starting point that you modify as you mix.
However, they can also prove to be quite dangerous, especially for beginners. Indeed, since they are never really tailored to the recording you are working on, they can destabilize your mix very quickly. The result: you risk wasting a lot of time trying to fix these issues.
So be careful with…
And what do you think about presets? Do you use them for mixing? Leave a comment below 🙂