well....i just mess about, im certainly no expert on such things. I like presets really, despite the fascism often a good starting point for a sound. I spose its what you do with them that counts. Its more fun to build em from scratch imo and you can tweak em easier cos you know how they are put together. Takes a while to get anywhere with it but tis worth it. What kinda sounds do you wanna make? A basic tip might help someone: Pick yer synth, create an initial/default patch by resetting all envelopes[a0,d0,s127,r45] and filters to fully open [LP 12db] so you basically have 1 osc running. save it. Now you can build yer patch. work out what kinda sound u want. Mix oscillators till u have a rough approximation of the texture u want to subtract from. Use detune, or modulate some of the oscillators or whatever. Then use the filters and envelopes to sculpt the sound. use modulation for movement over time etc add effects when yer done save as whatever. repeat. try different combinations of envelope/lfo speed/depth modulating filter/osc pulsewidth/osc tune etc zeta has massive possibilities for this kinda stuff. bass basics: for subs/basses use a square/saw osc [x3 or 4] and lowpass filter [24db] and pull the filter down till it removes the higher harmonics, maybe boost the resonance to enhance the cutoff frequency a bit. for techy lead sounds: detune saw waves, modulate sync or pw, use widebandpass/hp filters or swept notches. Basically though if ya wanna learn about this theres shitloads of tutorials online. search for subtractive synthesis first as most vsti's are subtractive. Also check out fm/additive or modular synthesis as well. deffo helps to have some kind of midi controller too. Then you can PLAY music being able to audition sounds across the keyboard helps tons. Often you wont realize how dope a sound is low down for example. Hopefully it will have a mod wheel and pitch bend then u can set these to control some part of your creations. Anyway enough ranting Hope this helps someone. o1k