Usually the most useful presets are the least sexy ones. The sounds used by Vangelis, Jarre, Wendy Carlos, Larry Fast, etc. were all very basic sounds. When presented in the context of the songs and mixed with other sounds and melodies, they sound great, full and rich.
Absynth has some beautiful "1 note wonder" presets but most of them are useless or they have such a personality that if someone uses one on an album, it will make everyone else seem like copycats or like they are ripping the other person off. It's like you a bunch of mini ambient songs instead of patches. I'm not baggin on Absynth because I love it. But it needs to tweeked so that it will fit into songs.
If Tangerine Dreams Exit album would haave been popular, everyone would have realized that Michael Jackson's Thriller used the same sound at the beginning. A synth guy who worked on Jackson's album actually took credit for making that sound in Keyboard Magazine when TD had done it a couple of years earlier.
As a sound designer, for the CS-80v, Alesis QS series, on another software synth and for about 200 TV shows, the best sounds are the ones that will layer and play nice with other sounds. I've never found a single sound that work for a car chase scene. You've got to spend time building the sound that works for that specific scene. If someone built a sound library of car chase sounds, it would never fit the job and would be less useful than giving me a library of car sounds that I could assemble. It may sound nice but it would be useless. I try to give people a bunch of flour, sugar, milk, and eggs and allow them to add their own flavors and make their own cake, once in a while I'll throw in a cookie or two to show what the product is also capable of.
I think the CS- 80v has a ton of very useful presets and some good "1 note wonders too". But ultimatley it's up to you to make the cake.
