Sounds and Presets: The Best Presets of 2024
What really caught my ear this year!
4,3 / 5,0 | 
This week, I take a look back through my Sounds and Presets column to pick out the best presets that we featured in 2024
When my editor suggested I do a weekly column on presets, patches and samples for synthesizers every week, I honestly thought this column would struggle after a few months. And yet, nearly a year later, and I’m finding a healthy bunch of content to share with you every week!
As 2024 draws to a close, I thought I’d pick out some highlights of the year, in no particular order, be they specific banks or developers. Before we dive into what I think are this year’s best presets, I’d like to personally thank the many sound designers out there who do amazing work and inspire our compositions daily.
Sounds and Presets: The Best Presets of 2024
Expressive Suites by Expressive E
It’s been a great year for expressive synthesizers. It’s also been a great year for Expressive E and their Osmose. But what has really caught my attention this year are the Expressive Suites packs they have been releasing.
Each of these three packs focuses on an MPE-capable software synth. For that synth, the sound design team at Expressive E have created 300 presets that show off that synth’s MPE clout. The idea here is to encourage Osmose users to explore other instruments with their unique controller.
But you don’t need an Osmose to make use of these packs. Any MPE-capable controller or synth should be able to take advantage of most, if not all, of these patches. And Expressive E have done some amazing deals, allowing you to pick up the presets AND the instrument for a discounted price.
They’ve even split the presets up into smaller, bit-sized packs of 100 presets each. Spread the cost, or just buy the sounds you really want.
They kicked off with Kilohertz Phase Plant, and followed that up with u-He’s Hive 2. Most recently, they teamed up with Synapse Audio and their Legend HZ plugin. It’s a brilliant concept and one which you should snap up whether you have an Osmose or not!
Check out the Expressive E Suites here.
Scott McAuley Sounds Lustral Vol.1 for Arturia PolyBrute 12
In case it wasn’t apparent, I’m a huge fan of the PolyBrute 12. I’ve waxed lyrical about it to any and everyone who cares to listen and many others who don’t! I was an early adopter of the original and fell in love with that pretty rapidly. The PolyBrute 12 just took that love to another level.
Since ASM kickstarted the whole polyphonic aftertouch thing again (and I’m so glad they did!), it seems that everyone is finally getting the message. Arturia took that message and went beyond with a keybed that redefined expression in the analogue realm.
There are a great many things about the PolyBrute 12 that I shan’t revisit here. You can always check out my review of it here. But one thing that is, or should I say was, lacking are third-party presets. I guess that it takes a while for synths of this price and calibre to filter into the hands of sound designers.
But it eventually did, recently, when Scott McAuley finally grabbed one and delivered what I think is the first dedicated PolyBrute 12 patch library with Lustral Vol.1. One hundred brilliantly crafted sounds that take advantage of all of the PolyBrute 12’s features.
There are awesome pads, razor-sharp leads, thumping basses, brilliant sequences and patches that use the amazing matrix routing to manipulate pitch, filters and envelopes with almost infinite possibilities. This bank should be an instabuy for any PolyBrute 12 owner. It is quite simply the best presets collection for the PB12. Volume 2 is due any day now too!
But Lustral Vol.1 for the Arturia PolyBrute 12 here.
James Dyson Soundsets
Little is known of James Dyson except that he’s constantly getting mistaken online for the infamous cyclonic vacuum cleaner inventor and purveyor of those hand driers that nobody seems to be able to use properly!
Our James Dyson, as I like to call him, is a hermit-like creature, rarely comes out into daylight and prefers to fester in his pit of ingenuity, crafting some of the best presets for many synths that you will find this side of the Watford Gap.
James is a regular with the Cherry Audio crew and his best presets adorn almost all of their synths but a recent one really caught my ear and it is for Cherry Audio’s second biggest launch of a synth ever, their brilliant P-10.
Exponents for P-10 further extends James’ work on this instrument as he was responsible for many of the factory presets, and at a mere $9.99, you’d be foolish to overlook it. It will do one thing and one thing only. Make your P-10 experience that much better.
Buy it now, direct from Cherry Audio!
AcousticSamples V Winds Clarinets v2 for UVI Falcon
AcousticSamples have been doing great work over the years, but their VWinds collection is some of their finest work ever. Their clever use of sampling and modelling deliver some of the most authentic orchestral wind instruments ever.
Using the UVI platform, which means you can use the completely free and incredibly capable UVI Workstation, they have delivered a degree of realism only seen in some of the most advanced sample libraries. And yet, the footprint on your hard drive is minimal.
Powerful scripting on the interface allows for nuanced control of all the required parameters to fool even the keenest of ears that you’re not Acker Bilk raised from his grave! VWinds Clarinets v2 contains a number of versions of clarinets of different tunings and sizes, each capable of superb accuracy of sound.
Add the fact that you can position your instruments in specific room locations with different mic settings, and you are able to mimic a whole host of physical spaces, virtually, and with complete control. Capable of responding to MPE, they’ve even made it easy for users of MIDI wind controllers to take full advantage.
You can buy this exceptional collection direct from AcousticSamples for just €199
Appalachia for Kontakt by Indiginus
Last and definitely by no means least is Appalachia. Honestly, you never knew you wanted a Mountain Dulcimer library so much until you’ve heard this beautiful piece of work by Tracy Collins of Indiginus. Tracy has been building exquisite sample libraries for many years, and this is just one more in his fine body of work.
I first discovered Tracy and his work back in the day when I was working for and with Akai on their S5000 and S6000 samplers. In conjunction with Hollow Sun, I was pretty familiar with the workings of these beats, which I still regard as some of the finest hardware samplers ever created.
Hollow Sun’s founder and my mentor, the late great Steve Howell, was not easy to impress. He’d been crafting brilliant sample libraries for years, but when he and I met Tracy and heard his work, he was genuinely impressed.
Tracy has continued to build a considerable portfolio of brilliant libraries for Kontakt, with Appalachia being his latest addition to that collection. Superb scripting and amazing programming ensures that all possible performance styles are not only recreated but enhanced, breaking the shackles that would restrict conventional Mountain Dulcimer players.
I implore you to check out this and Tracy’s other libraries, as I am certain there will be something you can use. You can pick up Appalachia for a mere $49 over at the Indiginus website.
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