What are your "good enough" sounds you use to sketch out ideas?

[sparkleboss]

TLDR: what do you have in your "good enough" library to sketch out your ideas without rat-holing on sound design?

Long version:
I've been working on production for almost a year, and I consistently get hung up in the same spot. I get an idea for a melody, or a drop in my head. When I go to sketch out the idea, I fire up Serum, and try to quickly pick a sound that will be good enough to keep working on my idea.

BUT I inevitably never find a preset that is close enough to what I have in mind, so I start trying to make that sound, rather than working on my idea. I love sound design and can spend hours trying things out, and learning Serum, but I don't feel like that's the most productive way for me to be spending my time. I feel like I should get the idea to where I really like it, and THEN go deep on sound design.

Do you have a toolbox of good-enough sounds that you use to sketch things out? Or a set of presets, or a synth that lends itself to that? maybe I haven't spent enough time with the Serum presets, but they seem to lean more towards esoteric demonstrations of the synth's capability (awesome! But not what I seek).

Thanks in advance for any ideas.

PS: This post sort of straddles sound design and composition, apologies if it's in the wrong spot.

[Kenny Troy]

I prefer to write my songs with a piano ever since reading something from Zedd where he said it will help your melodies sound more "organic", plus I believe a piano allows you to really hear your harmonics and note lengths better than what you will hear with most synths.

Here's a screenshot of some of the synths I use to test out my melodies though.. I'm sure you'll be able to spot many of these from sample packs (lol)

[Lydian]

Piano

[sparkleboss]

Thanks guys this is helpful. When you start with piano, do you have an intermediate step, that's like "this should be a growly bass, I'll use this for now, this should be a pluck" etc to try and flesh out what the overall sonic feel is going to be? Or do you just go through your parts one by one and design them to 90% of what they'll be?

I'm just trying to move faster. Write more, fail more, but learn more. I feel like I devolve into fiddling too easily

Kenny Troy, thanks for the shots of your sylenth presets.. I fully expect that the basic/generic stuff I seek is probably easiest to find in some very mainstream packs - and I'm alright with that. I'm just trying to learn, not actually release songs with LD_Tomorrowland

Thanks again. Any other suggestions are still appreciated. I'm really grateful for this forum. 

[vinceasot]

i have a presets folder for the synths i use, massive, sylenth and spire
the sound design companies release material and i try and download them whenever and take what i like

I think its essential to learn synthesis, gotta know your synth in and out
i mean starting from an empty preset and getting your sound
so try 50/50 maybe

the presets are good practice tools though and starting points when you are 'tired' or just want to flip through stuff, get some inspiration, short on time

[Lydian]

When you start with piano, do you have an intermediate step, that's like "this should be a growly bass, I'll use this for now, this should be a pluck" etc to try and flesh out what the overall sonic feel is going to be? Or do you just go through your parts one by one and design them to 90% of what they'll be?

I don't worry about instrumentation when sketching out ideas. The main point of sketching things out on piano is for me to compose the melodic and harmonic content of the song. Once I get the notes to sound beautiful on a piano then step #2 is to choose the instrumentation.

I first attempt to build out the instrumentation in my head. I think to myself which sounds or instruments would make the most sense with the notes that I've chosen on the piano. I imagine what the notes would sound like if it were to be played on a guitar or a synthesizer. I imagine whether the harmony would sound best with plucks, supersaws, or stabs and etc...

The bass is almost always following the root of the harmony which makes it obvious what the notes will be. Whether it turns into a growl bass or not is totally determined by what the song calls for. If I'm going for a soft timbre then a growl bass would be totally out of the picture.