# Should I study every plugin and VST instrument?



## MeloKeyz (Jan 5, 2020)

Dears,

I want to know if I should study every instrument from its own manual. For instance, Absynth has its own 200+ pages manual. Are you guys just playing around every instrument without studying it? 

Or are you just playing around them by ear to produce the desired sounds?

Appreciate your response


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## d.healey (Jan 5, 2020)

Before I buy a plugin I read the manual to find out how it works. I don't necessarily look at the detailed info about each patch, if the manual has such info. 200+ pages sounds heavy going, don't they have a quick start guide?


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## bill5 (Jan 5, 2020)

MeloKeyz said:


> Dears,
> 
> I want to know if I should study every instrument from its own manual. For instance, Absynth has its own 200+ pages manual. Are you guys just playing around every instrument without studying it?
> 
> ...


I only crack a manual if I have to. Basically I don't have time or patience to muck around pouring over zillion-page manuals (PS a manual hundreds of pages long was probably poorly written for most apps). If I have to do that, it was poorly designed.


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## Wai-Yi Wong (Jan 5, 2020)

For me I usually play around with the instrument by myself first, then look at the tutorial videos online and looks into the manual if I really need to.


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## j_kranz (Jan 5, 2020)

Once you learn the basics of how most synths and samplers work, you should have a pretty good idea of how to start creating a patch, no matter the synth. I tend to use the manual more as a reference when I can’t find something, or if something is functioning differently than I expect. Also, some youtube videos are often a good introduction if you’re more visually inclined like I am.


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## W Ackerman (Jan 5, 2020)

I would strongly avoid falling into the easy trap of trying to learn everything you can about an instrument before attempting to create with it. You could spend the rest of your life reading manuals and watching videos. A good instrument should be playable out of the box or with some YouTube walkthroughs. I tend to start playing around immediately and then dive into the manual or online videos if I find something that needs more information.

An exception to this for me is my DAW. I have read the entire manual for my DAW and subscribe to several youtube channels with tip and tricks for getting the most out of it. Being able to record, playback, loop, edit, punch in, mix, etc. with all the powerful tools available with the popular DAWs is essential to getting the most out of your instruments.

Record more - read less.


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## MeloKeyz (Jan 6, 2020)

Thank you all for the wonderful replies.

I agree with the concept of record more and read less. However, I am not a sound engineer or designer and I really can't decide when a certain setting to be used and when not. For instance, I have no idea when I apply LFO/HFO. I know they mean low frequency and high frequency something but can't decide when to use them. This just a small example.

Instead, I am currently reading audio engineering and design in general along with Cubase 10 rather than reading the endless manuals of every plugin/VST. Audio engineering will give me the important fundamentals that I need in my sound design and mixing. I am a member of Groove3 and I find it extremely helpful. 

Thank you again guys.
VI control is really wonderful forum. I learn here a lot without tutorials or videos.


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## MartinH. (Jan 6, 2020)

MeloKeyz said:


> Dears,
> 
> I want to know if I should study every instrument from its own manual. For instance, Absynth has its own 200+ pages manual. Are you guys just playing around every instrument without studying it?
> 
> ...




I'd say of any "class of plugins", like synths, play around with them, see which ones you enjoy the most, then from those skim over a few pages of the manuals and read their tables of contents, then read the one manual that seems to have to most useful information, presented in the most accessible way. I think it's totally worth to read one manual to really know one plugin in and out, but if you read every single manual, you're probably wasting a lot of time on redundant information. 

It may or may not be worth though to quickly skim all manuals for "gotchas", like parts that are emphasized with warning labels etc. to stress some things that are important to know when working with the plugins, or at least will help you a good deal. I don't follow that advice either though, so don't feel bad if you just want to trial and error your way through everything, I believe that is what most people do.


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## MeloKeyz (Jan 6, 2020)

Is one plugin knowledge transferable to others easily? If that's the case, its another good idea.


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## d.healey (Jan 6, 2020)

When I get emails asking me why my products no longer have user guides. I'm going to use this thread as justification for not writing them


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## d.healey (Jan 6, 2020)

MeloKeyz said:


> Is one plugin knowledge transferable to others easily? If that's the case, its another good idea.


If two plugins are similar and work in similar ways then yes. A manual for a synth library won't be much use when using an orchestral library.


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## bill5 (Jan 6, 2020)

MeloKeyz said:


> Thank you all for the wonderful replies.
> 
> I agree with the concept of record more and read less. However, I am not a sound engineer or designer


Neither are most of us. You might try looking for some general tutorials online.


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## Jeremy Spencer (Jan 6, 2020)

It's kind of a silly question 

Manuals are there for a reason. If you want to learn a plugin merely from playing around with it, then that's what you'll learn. If you want to get right under the hood and find out how to fully utilize that $$ you spent, check out the manual. A perfect example is EW Hollywood Strings. Without reading the manual, you are probably not going to grasp the full potential of this library.


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## gsilbers (Jan 6, 2020)

MeloKeyz said:


> Dears,
> 
> I want to know if I should study every instrument from its own manual. For instance, Absynth has its own 200+ pages manual. Are you guys just playing around every instrument without studying it?
> 
> ...




i used to work on a high end post studio with machines that normally cost about half a million and they had tons of these. very complex stuff to do works for the big studios in hollywood. very intimidating. 
the main machine room supervisor was this calm armenian dude who didnt go to post school or was a tech guru or anythign but calmy knew how to use everyone of those machines. and he used to talk to the sony engineer when he came over to fix or try to sell something and this japanese dude was just on another level of existence. math equations and stuff like that. 
so it dawn on me that we are bascially USERs. plain and simple. so you have to use your USER mindset. and these machines and systems are jusst trying to get us to the place the work needs us to be and the interface and manuals help with this. 
since you are doing music and music production then you know the end result and what needs to be done. 
so there is no need to read the whole absynth or kontakt manual to know all this stuff. you can reference it based on what you need and maybe learn a few things or two more. but you learn by practice. 
At the same time when i was confused about frame rates and complex streaming algorithms in my post world, i read random manuals on the subject i was confused about and realize all these terminologies and manuals help a lot understand basic stuff on how the post world wants you to do stuff. and that all these things that are the beginning sseems complex will soon start to make sense and help with understanding not only the prodcut you are looking at but the whole picture and how every similar prodcut is trying to get you to the same place of easier music prodcution. and youll make some insteresting connections in your mind and learn about other things you didnt know you wanted to learn. 

some plugins get very complex. if you start leanring synth by using avenger then thats a steep curve. but if you lean u-he diva or more easily Repro-1 then itll be easier to understand basic synthesis in addition to the youtube videos. 
youll start seeing these plugins all have different ways of doing similar things and you can devide it in camps. like subtrative synths vs fm synth. or audio processors eq vs multi band compressor. and so on.


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## MeloKeyz (Jan 6, 2020)

Wolfie2112 said:


> It's kind of a silly question
> 
> Manuals are there for a reason. If you want to learn a plugin merely from playing around with it, then that's what you'll learn. If you want to get right under the hood and find out how to fully utilize that $$ you spent, check out the manual. A perfect example is EW Hollywood Strings. Without reading the manual, you are probably not going to grasp the full potential of this library.



I think newbie questions are always silly. 😏 And that explains why I am posting in this category in the first place. lol

My apologies.

And yes, my goal is to know my plugins inside out and fully utilize them not because of the cash but to produce the best sound qualities possible for my tracks. I still consider myself new to computer music production but I am not new to music composing and stage performance. I've learned that there are VSTi sound good in their defaults and other need more tweaking (effects, eq'ing,...etc.) and this when my question came in.


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## MeloKeyz (Jan 6, 2020)

gsilbers said:


> i used to work on a high end post studio with machines that normally cost about half a million and they had tons of these. very complex stuff to do works for the big studios in hollywood. very intimidating.
> the main machine room supervisor was this calm armenian dude who didnt go to post school or was a tech guru or anythign but calmy knew how to use everyone of those machines. and he used to talk to the sony engineer when he came over to fix or try to sell something and this japanese dude was just on another level of existence. math equations and stuff like that.
> so it dawn on me that we are bascially USERs. plain and simple. so you have to use your USER mindset. and these machines and systems are jusst trying to get us to the place the work needs us to be and the interface and manuals help with this.
> since you are doing music and music production then you know the end result and what needs to be done.
> ...



Well said, sir. 👏


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## MeloKeyz (Jan 6, 2020)

Ok I think I know now what I am going to do.
Thx all
God bless.


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## Living Fossil (Jan 6, 2020)

MeloKeyz said:


> For instance, I have no idea when I apply LFO/HFO. I know they mean low frequency and high frequency something but can't decide when to use them. This just a small example.



This statement indicates that you should in any case spend a reasonable amount of time with some basics of sound synthesis.
p.s. in the 30+ years i work with synths i never came across the term HFO.


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## MeloKeyz (Jan 6, 2020)

Ok I think I know now what I am going to do.
Thx all
God bless.


Living Fossil said:


> This statement indicates that you should in any case spend a reasonable amount of time with some basics of sound synthesis.
> p.s. in the 30+ years i work with synths i never came across the term HFO.



I have this spooky synth https://www.psychicmodulation.com/phonec.html

Please read the specs and lemme know your feedback.


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## Living Fossil (Jan 6, 2020)

MeloKeyz said:


> Please read the specs and lemme know your feedback.



Funny that they use this name.

Basically, every oscillator that is used to create frequencies in the audible range is a HFO; 

the term LFO indicates that the usual frequency is below the audible range and therefore perceived as a rhythmical pulse (not to be confused with the "pulse" wave). However, most LFOs also go into the audible range. 

Nevertheless, you should spend reasonable time on the basics.
There are some good tutorials on YT (e.g. those of Howard Scarr - they are aimed at Zebra 2)


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## Polkasound (Jan 6, 2020)

When I first got into virtual instruments, I knew almost nothing about them. I didn't know an articulation from a round robin. I employed the "learn as you go" method, siphoning knowledge from every source available... websites, forums, videos, manuals, and of course, endless exploring and tinkering.

Since composing music is not my main gig, I had (and still have) the luxury to learn at my own pace. If composing were my bread and butter, I very likely would have invested in courses and bought books to get up to speed.

Living Fossil's advice regarding learning the basics is spot on, because that knowledge will carry over to the operation of all other synths and sample libraries. But how you approach learning the basics, and learning beyond the basics, will be dependent on your motivation and goals.


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## bill5 (Jan 6, 2020)

Wolfie2112 said:


> It's kind of a silly question


Hardly. It's a good question. Ironically, calling it silly is itself rather silly.



> Manuals are there for a reason. If you want to learn a plugin merely from playing around with it, then that's what you'll learn.


Whatever that means-?



> If you want to get right under the hood and find out how to fully utilize that $$ you spent, check out the manual.


 The manual may be helpful in that regard; it may not. It all varies with the specifics. One can definitely find out how to fully utilize a plugin without touching a manual in at least some (I submit many) situations.


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## bill5 (Jan 6, 2020)

MeloKeyz said:


> I think newbie questions are always silly. 😏


I can't imagine why, but anyway...



> My apologies.


A nice gesture, but totally unnecessary. 

Really in the end go with what you find works best for you. If you can figure it out by simply using it enough, great. If you find you get more out of it by reading the manual, great. Everyone's different and again it varies with each plugin as well as its manual..some are well written, some are horribly written, some in between.


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## MeloKeyz (Jan 8, 2020)

bill5 said:


> I can't imagine why, but anyway...
> 
> A nice gesture, but totally unnecessary.



I learned to accept criticism from everyone, Bill. I am actually making friendships out of it sometimes. The secret ingredient of success in this life is to smile to everyone.

Peace.


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## John Longley (Jan 8, 2020)

Not knowing how to use things, or ignoring how to-- has made a lot of great music. However, if you feel like "this seems way too difficult", it is usually manual time.


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## bill5 (Jan 8, 2020)

MeloKeyz said:


> I learned to accept criticism from everyone, Bill. I am actually making friendships out of it sometimes. The secret ingredient of success in this life is to smile to everyone.
> 
> Peace.


We'll agree to disagree, but to each their own.


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## proxima (Jan 8, 2020)

While I often prefer reading for learning in other contexts, with music software it doesn't work as well because you simply have to _hear_ how things work. So a manual is only useful if you're sitting in front of the synth trying it right alongside, but that's still pretty unguided. Most synth manuals (as an example) are not intended to teach you synthesis, they're trying to document the features of that synth. Likewise with sampled instruments - no amount of studying those manuals will teach you orchestration.

Videos are stronger, but still passive. Videos + lessons are helpful, and lots of online courses are available fairly inexpensively.

If you're trying to learn synths (and there is always more to learn), I strongly recommend Syntorial. You will learn, with trial and error and your ear, how to handle the basic features of subtractive synthesis. Even if you go on to use much more complicated synths, there are common elements of subtractive synthesis essentially everywhere. It's expensive, but given how much we tend to spend on the instruments themselves, it's totally worth it. A bonus is that the ipad version is included, so you can do the lessons on the road if you have one. I have no affiliation with Syntorial except as a happy customer.


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