There's this myth that producers should design their own synth patches if they want to be creative and not sound like everyone else. In reality, when I'm launching a synth in my favorite DAW (which is Ableton Live, don't @ me,) I don't want to lose my momentum by fussing around with stupid oscillators and filters. I'd rather spend that energy on creating actual tracks. Good synth presets save you time, and they're one of the best investments you can make to become a pro-sounding beatmaker.

That being said, it's all about finding the high quality presets suited to your style and your sound. Having too many presets in your favorite synth VST will just clog up your creative presets because you'll have to go through all the junk just to find something good. Here are some of my favorite designers to get you started.

Echo Sound Works

Echo Sound Works isn't the kind of company that will release packs every other week just to get your money. They take their time to come up with new products, and this attention to details shows in the quality of their products.

ESW specialises in modern music genres, anything from EDM and future bass to hip hop. But their sounds are as versatile as they are edgy, and they can be used across many genres.

For trap, I'd recommend getting Vivid, their recently-released preset expansion pack for Xfer's Serum. It contains really sweet sounds that never fail to inspire me when I'm producing hip hop tracks. Echo Sound Works also offers a bunch of fun freebies, just sayin...

Audio Juice

I discovered Audio Juice when I was looking for Analog Lab V preset expansions. If you're not familiar with the name, you might recognize them once you cycle through their patches. These sounds are all over the tracks of dominating the chart at the moment!

Audio Juice offers sounds for all sorts of urban genres, from hip hop to R&B. If you make trap, preset packs like Aquarius, Visions and Lily of the Valley are absolute must-haves.

Just don't forget to grab yourself a copy of Arturia's Analog Lab V, and you'll be ready to take the Billboard 100 charts by storm!

Reverb Machine

Offers something different than other preset designers on this list. Rather than creating random sounds and sonic textures, they're mostly known for their faithful recreations of patches that visionary artists have created using vintage synths.

Whether you like the sounds of Tame Impala, Mac DeMarco, Daft Punk, or even Frank Ocean, Reverb Machine has you covered with presets that could go on your next album without much tweaking or mixing.

These presets aren't expressively designed for trap, but they will have a really original and unique character to all your type beats. I'd recommend starting with some expansions designed for TAL-U-NO-X, an excellent plugin based on the Juno 60.

Splice

A problem with buying whole preset packs is that sometimes you end up using a few sounds of a pack, which means you paid for a bunch of presets you're never going to use!

That's why the Splice model makes a lot of sense: Cycle through patches from different designers, and pick and choose the ones you're going to buy.

Splice offers presets for various synths, but I'm seeing more and more presets made for their signature synth VST Astra, a plugin available as a bonus when you sign up for the Creator or the Creator+ plans.

The upside is that when you fire up Astra, you're not overwhelmed by millions of random presets, you can just go through the few presets you've curated, which should save you some time.

For more inspiration, check out our post about the best synth plugins for trap beats. And sign up to our newsletter if you’d like to receive some cool royalty-free loops and fun freebies 👇

All products featured in this post are independently selected by myself. However, when you buy something through my retail links, I may earn an affiliate commission.