Most abused synths/tones

[tekkentool]

TB-303

Hate it with a vengeance

Bumping an old thread and a bad opinion. Santa's giving you coal this year.

[cornutt]

Also, for the last few years, the whole circuit-bent raw-square-wave random noise thing.

I don't know if it's from circuit bending specifically, but yeah, it seems like lately I am hearing a whole lot of the wide open square wave.

[blavatsky]

How about a basic sawtooth pad with slow attack, slow filter sweep and a phaser?

Not exclusively a synth sound but every lame rising pitch/white noise/snare roll getting faster build up in modern dance/EDM/Dubstep


i think the throwback 'raw' squarewave / atari/chip sound is partially a result of synths going from basic analog type sounds (old moog/prophet) then in the 80s/90s and up we got very fancy with wave tables/FM/oodles of effects and layering...people want to go back to simple retro/nostalgic tones (esp. kids that grew up on video games and cheesy synth soundtracks). Sort of like how electric guitar can be so overproduced - like drowned in reverb/S&H filters/phasers/ebow'd and now its sort of 'in vogue' to have a stripped down Jack White-ish pedal-into-amp sound (all depending on genre of course)

[commodorejohn]

Well, I don't mean just the unfiltered-square aspect of it - heck, I love my NES sounds as much as any child of the '80s. But somehow people got the idea that the kind of random, glitching pitch-jumble/looped-shift-register-noise cacophony you get from a really dirty cartridge is something anyone would want to listen to, and now there's whole DIY kits designed to produce this...huh?

[ppg_wavecomputer]

Don´t know if it´s been mentioned yet but I hate all factory patches from Yamaha DX7 (Stratotron, for starters), Roland D50 (Fantasy), Kawai K4, Korg M1, Korg Wavestation, and Korg 01/W... once upon a time, those patches turned many promising and inventive electronic music performer into sticky goo.

Oh, and I hate sampled Fairlight patches... like disguising a Volkswagen Beetle as a Lamborghini because you can´t afford the real thing.

HAve I mentioned Roland JP-8000 Supersaw... and squealing TB-303s?

Stephen

[mute]

bass is kinda tired. people should stop using bass.

[Bitexion]

Speakin of DX7 presets..the EL.PIANO1 was used on so many pop ballads that ppl still "hate" the sound.
Funnily enough, that is also one of the presets that's easiest to change into something much better. Just by tweaking a few parameters you can get a chorus effect and thicken up the bottom, and turn up or down the "tines" sound.

[commodorejohn]

I actually quite like the DX7 piano (both EL.PIANO1 and the DX7-II's FullTines,) but man am I ever sick of its use in sappy pop ballads - it's such a good sound, it really deserves better.

[Voodoo Ray]

Hard-sync stab.

Speaking of DX patches, sometimes it really is about context.

[Dr. Phibes]

"Train" was the best DX7 preset. Always appropriate.

[Hugo76]

Don't know if it's mentioned, but I really hate that "Autotune"-effect.
I'll probably never tire of the 303

[Jay200MPH]

Don´t know if it´s been mentioned yet but I hate all factory patches from Yamaha DX7 (Stratotron, for starters), Roland D50 (Fantasy), Kawai K4, Korg M1, Korg Wavestation, and Korg 01/W... once upon a time, those patches turned many promising and inventive electronic music performer into sticky goo.

Oh, and I hate sampled Fairlight patches... like disguising a Volkswagen Beetle as a Lamborghini because you can´t afford the real thing.

HAve I mentioned Roland JP-8000 Supersaw... and squealing TB-303s?

Stephen

So, you hate when samples from one type of sampler are played through a different... type of... sampler? Okay.

Actually you seem to hate most of the last 25 years of electronic music... Maybe you should put away the synths and pick up an acoustic guitar or something.

[Jay200MPH]

I hate the sound of synth nerds on the internet whining that other synth nerds are nerds about the wrong types of synths.

Also, 'noodling'. If you've ever described what you're doing on a synth as 'noodling', I hate it. And you.

[THAT'S SARCASM.]

Wasn't this thread about 'overused and abused', not 'stuff I hate and you should too!!!1' ?

[commodorejohn]

Actually you seem to hate most of the last 25 years of electronic music... Maybe you should put away the synths and pick up an acoustic guitar or something.

This makes zero sense as a retort. Someone who doesn't like modern developments in a genre/genres should give up on them entirely? You might as well say that fans of the old Transformers cartoons who don't like the Michael Bay movies should sell off their G1 DVDs and go watch My Little Pony instead...

[nuketifromorbit]

Oddly enough I don't find myself hating over used synth patches, but in most instances I hate the majority of music that utilizes them. This is especially true of the supersaw, but for some reason I find it comforting to own a synth with which I can quikly dial in that sound. I could never get into Trance, and I hate all the Ke$ha/Lady Gaga c**p that seems to make the most use of it these days, but I still feel as if the sound could be utilized in a non typical fashion. For instance I could have sworn I heard a super saw patch in one of Killing Jokes latest songs and it managed to not sound cliched or cheesy.

*edit
Of course maybe its because my greatest secret shame is that I kind of like a couple VNV Nation albums.