Patch

A patch is one complete synth sound, stored as the setting of every control. Load a patch called Fat Bass and the synth sets its oscillators, filter, envelopes and effects to where the sound designer left them. Move one slider and you have edited the patch. Save it under a new name and you have a new patch.

The word comes from modular synthesizers, where you built a sound by connecting modules with patch cords, a name borrowed from telephone switchboards. The wiring was the sound, so the sound was called a patch. Synths such as the Minimoog could not store sounds, so players wrote their knob settings on paper charts to find a sound again. The Sequential Circuits Prophet-5, released in 1978, was one of the first synths to store sounds in memory, and the name patch stayed.

Related words you will see:

• Preset usually means a patch that came with the synth or app.
• Program is the word some hardware synths use for a stored patch, often with a number. MIDI calls switching sounds a program change.
• Init patch is the blank starting point, often a single saw wave with the filter wide open and an organ-style envelope that starts at full volume and stops when you let go.

Scrolling through presets is a good way to learn. Pick one you like, change one control, and listen for what moved. Saving your version under a new name keeps the original safe. How a synthesizer works walks through every control a patch stores, and types of synth sounds shows which settings turn a patch into a bass, a pad or a pluck.

Gelato Synth calls its patches sounds. It has 52 presets in seven categories, a blank Init to build from and a dice button that rolls a random sound. The free version includes a few presets in each category; the one-time $4.99 purchase adds the rest and lets you save your own to My Sounds.