deep, beautiful pads

[taylor h]

I've been spending a lot of time designing pads lately but feel like I'm missing a crucial element. I'd love to be able to produce something similar to the main pad in this:
youtu.be/27DBJPEV7Z8
or the kind that Deepbass uses in a lot of his tracks, but I find myself getting stuck. Is it really just about finding and stretching golden vocal samples or is there something in the processing phase common here that I'm overlooking? Thanks.

[Opnå]

Any examples of how close you managed to get?

This isn't exactly my strong point but it sounds like there's a fair bit going on in there, maybe multiple versions of the same pad with moving filters, panning etc all adding to that layered dreamy sound. There's also a resonating sound in there that might be from delay feedback (i've used that to create similar sounds at least) or possibly another sound layer.

Like I said, hard to say what exactly you're missing from your own versions without hearing it.

[Planar]

Just skipped through, but I was getting a granular synth vibe from the few seconds I heard.

[Alume]

Pads are a pain in the ass. Im always fucking around with resonance.

Take a look at this topic man. Some good info in there.

http://subsekt.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t= ... these+pads

[samnatur]

Having a good reverb plug-in helps alot.

Also yeah, granulars are your friend, check out The Mangler, it's pretty nice and simple but gets the job done.

Auto-filters usually work well in my experience, if you split the synth sound intro 3 then place a BP-filter on each channel then automate them differently you can get some nice variations/textures. With a reverb on the end of course

[taylor h]

Having a good reverb plug-in helps alot.

Also yeah, granulars are your friend, check out The Mangler, it's pretty nice and simple but gets the job done.

Auto-filters usually work well in my experience, if you split the synth sound intro 3 then place a BP-filter on each channel then automate them differently you can get some nice variations/textures. With a reverb on the end of course

I actually have the mangle! Prefer using it for percussive type granular synthesis tho. I feel like Alchemy would be perfect for your method though because you can get the 3 instances and independent BP filters all in one plugin.

[The_G]

I actually have the mangle! Prefer using it for percussive type granular synthesis tho. I feel like Alchemy would be perfect for your method though because you can get the 3 instances and independent BP filters all in one plugin.

Alchemy is amazing for pads.

[Merah]

Pads are a constant thing of mystery to me.. i like to take Two instances of auto filter, one for mid one for sides, low cut with resonance and lfo on mid, run both into ping pong delay

[Mattias]

Pads have a lot of common with bass;

It's easy to achieve a good result quickly but takes a life time to master.

[Stace]

I love Omni for pads, they are so rich, full and warm sounding. I like to automate the reverb a little, medium room size or something. The EQ in a nice curved shape cutting the lows and the highs. Really warms it up

[rktic]

Pads like that aren't really that complex after all. At the bottom line they start with a nice chord. That's the fundamental block. The one above can be achieved with any polysynth, a decent BP filter, a stereo phaser w/ left/right offset, and an EQ that gets rid of the annoying resonances.

[Esh]

Pads are always a bit killer for me.

There are two aspects that I always consider. The musical content and The sound processing.

Like rktic said the fundamental block is a chord. So you can also have a progression, and I've experimented a bit with my last tune and the difference in impact between choosing the right and wrong chord is huge. It plays alot with the mood of the track. This isnt even considering pitch modulation or timing of the chords themselves. I find this step even more difficult than the sound processing itself. I get a bit bored with this one flat pad for ages with modulation, everybody is doing it.

Which is also fucking difficult. One thing that did change my life a bit was mid/side eq. It helped maintain a bit of body and warmth in the pads, which always endedup sounding so thin. But it took me a little while to get my ears to register what was going on.

[Hades]

Like rktic said the fundamental block is a chord. So you can also have a progression, and I've experimented a bit with my last tune and the difference in impact between choosing the right and wrong chord is huge. It plays alot with the mood of the track. This isnt even considering pitch modulation or timing of the chords themselves. I find this step even more difficult than the sound processing itself. I get a bit bored with this one flat pad for ages with modulation, everybody is doing it.

Sorry if I sound like an arrogant wanker now , but having had a classical piano education ages ago in my life,
your words almost made me spill my beer on my keyboard here Esh.
Of course the choice of chords is gonna make a massive difference.
Why do you think for example that some piano solo compositions sound way better (or emotional) than others ?
I mean, it's the same instrument (=sound).

Melody and harmony. People should really try and spend more time with that shit.

Most pads have not enough modulation going on actually, and if they do play the same chord for the whole track,
it's used more in a texture kind of way than in a pad kind of way.
I think that is an important difference.
I once read that pads are usually used for 3 purposes :
1. the almost key ingredient (or lead element) in the track (most likely chord progressions, really giving all the emotion and flavour to the track)
2. as a sort of glue, to make everything gell more together (could be a pad, but could be more a texture thing)
3. as a background, to give atmosphere to the track (almost always textures, and if not, it's usually a single chord or single note pad)

So yeah, if your pad has to function as one of the key ingredients in the track, you need to have proper chord progressions going on.
Or at least have counter melodies playing with your pad melody to keep things more interesting.

Which is also fucking difficult. One thing that did change my life a bit was mid/side eq. It helped maintain a bit of body and warmth in the pads, which always endedup sounding so thin. But it took me a little while to get my ears to register what was going on.

Totally agree !
mid/side is great for pads. There are very few times when I don't use it on my pads.
Though I have to say I usually leave just a little bit of the mid part in there, just to make sure they don't sound too thin (which does tend to happen when you go totally side for your pads and kill the mid part). I wonder why that is the case ? Is it that our ears automatically presume the more mid sounds as "warmer"/fatter/having more presence/whatever you wanna call it ??

[Dattington]

I've been spending a lot of time designing pads lately but feel like I'm missing a crucial element. I'd love to be able to produce something similar to the main pad in this:
youtu.be/27DBJPEV7Z8
or the kind that Deepbass uses in a lot of his tracks, but I find myself getting stuck. Is it really just about finding and stretching golden vocal samples or is there something in the processing phase common here that I'm overlooking? Thanks.

That tune is fucking amazing. Just went and bought 001 and 002 so thanks for the heads up.

In terms of pads, and as mentioned earlier in the thread, you can build a number of ways but remember that you don't always need to have the full chord being played by a single synth. You could, for example, choose a really low evolving sound playing the root and then a second synth playing a second and (if you wanted) third note of the chord. Process each differently (prob need different distortion/compression/EQ/ per channel) then send to a group to control and process further I needed.

You can get some really complex and interesting timbres by doing the above.

[Lost to the Void]

Well, listening to the pad in the OP`s video.

You can do that pad sound with any basic anal-poly or vst anal-emulation.
It sounds pretty simple, filter sweep on the envelope which at some point seems to switch over to an lfo, bunch of reverb, decent minor chord, bobs your teapot.
Should take no longer than 10 mins to set up a sound approximating that. It`s aqll about the space around it, what is actually being played, and how the elements all fit together in this case, because in terms of complexity this tune has none really, just some good production and mastering.

A lot of the time it`s saw triangle filter reverb and delay for these type of sounds, easy squeezy.

[Críoch]

So you'd recommend grabbing a few soft anal-logs for this one Steve?

[Lost to the Void]

Any kind of Anal-log would be fine, it all ends up in the same place.

[TimBuys]

Does anyone use Granulator for their pad sounds?

[Críoch]

No.. But I've been messing around with some anal-logs this evening.. & its turned into a right shitty mess.

_______

Seriously.. Thanks for reminding me about that. I hadn't reinstalled that one after updating my Mac.

Granulator II is out, just DL'd it there. Fucking beautiful.

https://www.ableton.com/en/packs/granulator-ii/

I really enjoy bringing stuff into simpler & drilling down on it. Quick, dirty & easy.. but theres a lovely smoothness when doing the equivalent in Granulator. Gonna have a good time with this again!

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

[Lost to the Void]

Does anyone use Granulator for their pad sounds?

Granulator 2, I use it a lot, know the thing inside out, fantastic synth.