How to Make Synth Presets Your Own

Here are seven ways you can move beyond the factory bank and build on your favourite synth’s patches

Sound synthesis is a huge skill to have, and there are some super-talented preset designers out there, whose job it is to cook up every synth’s Factory Bank, making it sound as good as it can possibly be. Load up any modern synth and surf through its presets, and you’ll be treated to a seriously tasty buffet!

But unless you’re also a top-of-the-line sound designer, how can you possibly take their work and make it better? Well, that’s what we’re going to help you with in this article.

Over the coming paragraphs, we’ll advise you on what changes to make to synth presets in order to hone them into something suited to your specific purpose.

 

Not improving, tailoring

One thing to remember when starting on this journey is that the presets you’re loading up have been made without any specific music in mind. Unless they’ve aimed towards a certain genre, synth presets generally need to work at any given context.

With that in mind, let’s start looking at the ways you can make synth presets your own.

 

1. Change the tempo

Here in Phase Plant, we’ve got a great Keys patch from the Factory Bank, Double Story. It uses Chorus, Delay and Ensemble to create some lush textures underneath the notes as they play.

We’re currently running at a tempo of 114bpm, but what tempo was this patch created with in mind? Likely, it was created to work at a variety of BPM. But its LFO rates and delay rates had to be set to something, so it’s not like we’ll be disrespecting the sound designer to change them up for our specific tempo. Here we slow them down to 3/8 instead of 3/16.

The change isn’t huge, but we’ve scratched the surface and are ready to dig down.

 

2. Tweak the oscillator

The way a synth patch works, your oscillators are a key component of the sound, but they’re not necessarily tied up in a complex chain. Being at the start of the signal flow, your oscillators have a huge impact on the overall sound of your patch, but unless there are a lot of modulators affecting their properties, they can be changed without too much worry over the consequences.

Our Phase Plant patch uses a pair of triangle waves as the key component. Only one property, their Harmonic amount, is being controlled by a modulator (the envelope). We start by changing one waveform to a square wave, and adjust its pulse width (PW), which has a fair impact on the sound.

Given that the oscillators have little modulation, how about adding some? And how about adding some to the newfound PW control?

The sound is more lively but still fairly restrained. Our patch is still recogniseable, but our subtle tweaks have made it more unique to us.

 

3. Time for the filter

The filter will always be a huge part of the character of a sound – especially if there’s only one, as in our current patch.

To get a sense of what the filter is doing, go for a huge sweep. When the filter is fully open, we get the high frequency details; as the filter gets more closed, we get a darker, more serious tone.

In this patch, the filter is only being modulated by the mod wheel, so we can actually introduce a new take on the sound. As shown above, we add a new LFO at the bottom of the interface, and assign it to the filter’s Cutoff (positively) and the filter’s Q (negatively). We stop the LFO from triggering with each note, and then we tweak the original Cutoff and Q values to balance their ranges.

 

4. Retuning oscillators

Here’s a big one. Earlier, we changed the oscillator waveforms, but there’s deeper we can go here with the operation of these two things: tuning.

First, there’s tuning in octaves. Our original patch saw the two oscillators playing at the exact same pitch in the exact same octave. Very samey, although that’s part of the personality of the original patch. We change this to have the square wave play at +7 (a fifth up) and the triangle wave to play at -12 (an octave down). This changes the character of the patch a lot, causing a low wash from the deep triangle oscillator and a higher, more removed tone from the square.

There’s also the option to detune a synth patch, which leads to a thicker sound. This usually requires the oscillators to be tuned to the same note before being slightly detuned by just a few cents, but we can get a hint of the character of that sound by detuning our +7 and -12 oscillators a little anyway.

 

5. New timings for envelopes

Let’s take a look and a listen to a synth patch’s envelopes and what they do or the sound. We’re starting off with a new patch in Phase Plant to demonstrate this one. The patch name is Ender, and the character is a short pluck with some delay and reverb on it.

Now we’ll see just how much difference playing with the synth’s envelopes can make. This one is connected to the Filter Cutoff, and when we reduce the amount (and turn the cutoff back up to compensate), we realise the new nature of the patch underneath: it’s a dusty synth tone that’s capable of sustain as well.

Right now, the envelope’s Sustain is set to 0, meaning that the Attack and Decay stages are the only real, active parts. By increasing the Sustain, we also bring the Release into play, making the patch act like a more traditional, ADSR setup. More to the point, the sound of the patch itself has changed very much, opening up a new, unique version for us to make our own.

 

6. Tear down the modulation setup

This idea is for the brave producers, and it’s about gutting the synth’s modulation architecture and starting again. Although this might not be possible with every patch, especially when modulation is vital to a patch’s identity, but in many cases, you may be surprised at how little the sound changes once the fancy modulation routings are all chopped back.

Here we’re going to tear down the modulation for another Phase Plant patch, Beyond Guitar. It starts with several modulators, but we’re just going to strip them all out to leave nothing.

The patch is somewhat recognisable, even though it’s not got the interesting modulation it did at first. The point is, it’s time to set up our own modulation routings to trigger the same base setup in a new and different way.

Our result is a patch with its own personality, but a solid foundation that it inherits from the original patch we started from.

This method might not work for every synth patch or every user, but it’s a way to generate something new out of something old, without much overlap between the two.

 

7. Layer it with another

What’s more unique than a single synth patch that everybody has? How about two synth patches put together?

By combining one synth patch with another – literally two synth patches – you’re unlikely to be doing exactly what someone else has done already. What’s more, there’s probably a lot of choice in your plugins folder, so you can come up with some interesting combinations of synthesizer plugins that usually have very different functions. Phase Plant plus a Mellotron, anyone?

But you can’t quite just throw two synths together, willy nilly, and hope that they’ll work. Instead, you’ll have to go into synth patch layering like you go into sound layering with samples or drums.

 

How to get the best results when layering whole synth patches

You’ll probably want to keep your two synth patches similar in their timing. While it’s possible to layer a long chord with a quick pluck, they can be told apart quite quickly. It’s more likely you’ll find a great combination in two plucks, two bells, two pads and so on. Remember, this is just as far as the patches’ timing goes, not their timbre. Two synth patch twins should get on better.

Then there’s the notes you’re playing. With the same note coming out of each synth, it may be simple to fuse the two together, but their tails could get messy. It’s worth trying to play both synth patches using different octaves, in the hope that one can take the low energy and one can provide the high energy.

Generally, each patch will contribute a different piece of character and personality to the overall sound you reach, and it’s worth working out what this will be before you start. Perhaps one patch will provide a tonal sound while another can add a percussive ‘knock’, and whatever else gets combined along the way can be dealt with later.

Finally, after layering two synths together, your last step should be to account for what’s gone wrong. Can you adapt envelopes, remove oscillators and tamp down modulation amounts, all in order to rein one patch in where it’s adding too much? And are you able to identify what’s going wrong in the first place in order to start tracking it down?

 

Using synth presets to learn the art of synthesis

Through all this exploration, it might have become apparent that there’s a lot to learn about synthesis from this method of experimentation. By tweaking the factory bank patches made by professional sound designers, you’re starting to deconstruct how these people work their craft and spin up their presets – and you get to take a bit of their skill if it rubs off on you.

By exposing yourself to the inner workings of a patch, you’ll notice what makes it tick, what’s assigned to what, and where the personality seems to come from. You may start to recognise patterns of the routings and connections that make the most fundamental difference to a patch’s sound versus the ones that don’t have that much impact.

 

Some synths with huge factory preset banks

If you’re looking for some virtual instruments that come with a generous helping of patches to deconstruct, layer and generally familiarize yourself with, here are a few great options.

 

Korg M1

A digital synthesizer and workstation that originally made waves in the late 80s and early 90s, the Korg M1 has since become a legendary piece of music tech history. This software version Korg M1 plugin is a faithful recreation of the original, preserving its AI synthesis engine and unmistakable sonic character.

The M1’s factory patch library is vast, containing over 3000 presets when all the expansion cards are included. From the iconic Universe and Piano 16 patches to lush pads, bells, mallets, brass, and hybrid orchestral sounds, the collection covers a huge range.

 

SubLab XL

A modern bass synthesizer that specializes in hard-hitting, low-end focused sounds. Building on the original version, SubLab XL expands the engine but keeps the workflow streamlined and intuitive. It uses a combination of sample playback, wavetable, and analog-style synthesis to generate rich, layered bass sounds with precision control.

With hundreds of expertly designed presets out of the box, SubLab XL is a go-to toolbox for creating powerful subs, 808s, saturated low-end textures, and clean bass fundamentals. The patches are crafted with genre-specific intent — from booming trap kicks and distorted drill basslines to tight EDM subs and weighty house grooves.

 

Carbon Electra

It’s built around subtractive synthesis with four oscillators, built-in distortion, and an intuitive step sequencer, making Carbon Electra a solid choice for modern electronic music production.

The synth comes loaded with over 800 factory presets, spanning aggressive basses, sharp leads, cinematic pads, rhythmic sequences, and more for use in genres like EDM, techno, drum n bass, and synth pop.

 

u-he Diva

Widely regarded as one of the most authentic-sounding analog emulation synths available today, Diva models the circuits of classic analogue synths with meticulous attention to detail. Its analogue-modelled oscillators and filters can be freely mixed and matched, allowing users to design vintage-style synths from scratch.

Diva ships with over 1200 factory presets to showcase the instrument’s range and fidelity. You'll find buttery analogue pads, punchy retro basses, expressive leads, and warm keys that feel alive with subtle movement and depth.

 

VPS Avenger 2

Combines multiple synthesis methods, including virtual analog, FM, wavetable, granular, and sample-based synthesis, within a modular, drag-and-drop environment, Avenger 2 builds on the massive success of the original with new sound engines, better modulation options, and a modernized UI. It’s aimed at producers who want deep sound design capabilities but still need fast results.

With over 1300 factory presets included in the base package (and thousands more available through expansions), Avenger 2 is a sonic treasure chest. The factory content covers everything from cinematic atmospheres and evolving textures to modern EDM leads, trap basses, lush trance pads, and creative FX.