How can I acheive good pad sounds?

[sizzlemeister]

Gah so many useless comments here. I think the question, which is a perfectly good one, is "What elements of synthesis make up a good pad?" That seems like a good interesting topic. Answers like "download a patch nub!" are inane. I've struggled with pads myself, though I've only dabbled with them.

 

 

 

How does one define a "good pad"? Chas, I mean, the OP, keeps saying all it makes are crappy string sounds. Strings make for good pads when in the right context.

 

Nearly anything can be a pad. WTF kind of "pads" are you looking for that aren't covered already by the suggestions in this thread?

 

If you have a SYNTHESIZER, then move parameters around, and, most importanly, OPEN YOUR EARS, and you tune in the "pads" you're looking for.

 

If you can only get close, then record what you have, submit it to the forum, and say "this is where I'm at with my pad, but I want it to sound more like this..." and describe what "this" is using words and/or audio examples.

 

"Pads" is perhaps the most nebulous term of any term used to describe synth sounds - so to expect the rest of us to read your mind(s) is useless without more details and HELP from YOU.

[xmlguy]

Gah so many useless comments here. I think the question, which is a perfectly good one, is "What elements of synthesis make up a good pad?" That seems like a good interesting topic. Answers like "download a patch nub!" are inane. I've struggled with pads myself, though I've only dabbled with them.

 

 

Sometimes I wonder why I ever bother to post here.

Maybe my comments are just a bit too cryptic for many people here to understand?

[AfroRouge]

Golly, I hope your ego gets a boost from posting these snide comments, because otherwise, they serve no purpose.

 

Sizzle, you need to calm down and open up to a discussion of pads in general, rather than freaking out about the definition of "pad." I think you're alone in thinking that you're alone in understanding that "pad" is a complex term.

[Tusks]

If your pads are crappy strings, the sound is too bright. Either your (LPF) filter cutoff is too high or your filter envelope is too fast.

 

Or both.

 

If the sounds boring after fixing the filter issue, do some of the things suggested in this thread. Delay and reverb are your friends too.

 

Jerry

[Yoozer]

 

I just want to program good pad sounds that's all. I don't want to use presets.

 

There's no difference between a patch I made and a patch someone else made and put in the factory set, except from the fact that they went through the trouble of storing it and naming it and I didn't.

[AfroRouge]

That's my point. There's no use to being rude other than ego puffery. A rude tone destroys good information.

 

My chest is fully analog when I thump it.

[TechEverlasting]

It really is a good suggestion to carefully analyze the parameters of a pad you like on a synth you own. I would go so far as to write down all the settings for your favorite Virus pad and then enter them one at a time into an initialized patch, listening to how each parameter affects things. If you want to learn to improvise you transcribe your favorite soloist and learn the licks slowly. This is the same concept. As others have mentioned you might have your low pass filter cut-off set too high - that would make things sound more like strings, especially if you're starting with sawtooth waves. Try lowering the cutoff until you barely hear any sound and then using a filter envelope to slowly open it up - maybe also assign a slow LFO to add some gradual motion. Make three similar layers panned across the stereo field and slightly detuned, and try putting a different waveform on the centered layer. Try varying the speed of the filter modulation sources across the different layers, and use chorus and reverb if available.

[electrik force]

Thanks for all the help guys. Sorry for making things a bit too general. I'll post a video example so you all can get a clear example of what I'm looking for.

[electrik force]

How does one define a "good pad"? Chas , I mean, the OP.

 

 

Just because I'm from Florida doesn't mean I'm Chas.

[electrik force]

Ah...here's a good one but it kind of voids the question a bit because I don't have a v-Synth. I do own a virus B and Radias.

 

 

 

 

[mrcpro]

 

Hello all, I love programming synths but the most hardest sound I have programming on a synth are pad sounds. I don't know the correct way to set up the envelopes to the sound I want. Here's the kind of pad sound in general I'm looking for: - Very smooth and mellow, Vanilla like. - I trying to get those long sustained pad sounds where the filter drops but still the sound is audible. The main thing here is...whats the correct way to set up the envelopes to the needed sound?

 

 

Go with Roland rompler, in particular an XP-60. Their envelopes let you perfectly counter-program loss of volume from a lowpass filter closing with an increase at the amplifier envelope. Since they're time based all you need to do is enter exactly the same time values from the filter envelope in the amplifier envelope but with inverted levels. It's really simple. On an XP-60 the envelopes are graphically represented on the screen, and unlike Yamaha, Roland rompler envelopes edit in real time and there's a num pad for data entry.

 

XPs have absolutely great raw waves for pad construction that get away from the typical multi-saw results of analogs...the Fantasynth, Synvox, and Orgvox wavesets... the EP loop waves are also great for smooth distinctive pads. And the aperiodic nature of Roland's chorus is still my favorite for organic movement.

[Dr.Innovation]

The problem seems to be that you think envelopes are an important part of creating good pads. They aren't. They're just the last, least important step of a pad. Necessary yes. Important no. It's all the other structure in the synth engine that's important for pads. Oscillators/waves, unison, detuning, lfo modulations, FM, and filters.

 

 

How is something necessary not important:confused:

[urbanscallywag]

Concur. Effects make the pads.

[Delicious Lamprey Problem]

[sizzlemeister]

:poke:

[Delicious Lamprey Problem]

I guess that was my outside voice.

[drxcm]

Concur. Effects make the pads.

 

 

Yes and no.

 

Don't get me wrong, good effects can turn a fart into the most beautiful pad you have ever heard. But there are plenty of good pads to be made with synthesis alone which don't require any effects. Its just a little trickier than dialling up an effects preset.

[Don Solaris]

 

I love programming synths but the most hardest sound I have programming on a synth are pad sounds.

 

 

My favorite pad machines:

 

- Ensoniq TS-10 [pad demos]

- Roland D-70 [pad demos]

- Roland JD-990 [pad demos]

 

A better sounding pad takes about 30-40 minutes of programming.

[electrik force]

 

A better sounding pad takes about 30-40 minutes of programming.

 

 

Thanks Don. How would you go about programming a Pad (as the ones I describe)? Prehaps a JD-990 or XV-5080 with a Eventide (are the new ones such as the 1-U good?) would do things for me but I have no money.

[urbanscallywag]

Yes and no. Don't get me wrong, good effects can turn a fart into the most beautiful pad you have ever heard. But there are plenty of good pads to be made with synthesis alone which don't require any effects. Its just a little trickier than dialling up an effects preset.

 

 

Yeah certainly there are pads to be made without effects.

[Yoozer]

Again: try to start with the waveform itself. If the filters aren't mellow enough, choose a "pre-rounded" waveform.

 

As for the Youtube video, you can achieve the swirling effect by splitting the signal of the oscillator (filters in parallel). Put a bandpass filter (slow LFO> cutoff) on one and a 12db lowpass on the second.

[soundwave106]

Gah so many useless comments here. I think the question, which is a perfectly good one, is "What elements of synthesis make up a good pad?" That seems like a good interesting topic. Answers like "download a patch nub!" are inane. I've struggled with pads myself, though I've only dabbled with them.

 

 

Pads can be many things to many people.

 

I think that one thing that needs to be emphasized, however, that hasn't been said before. is playing style. Making a pad sound may be nothing more than cranking the release on the ADSRs and running it through a reverb -- layers and swirls of course help. However, if your playing isn't appropriate for a pad, it will fall apart. Familiarity with chords helps.

 

Here is an example pad I pulled up from some snippets I've saved. (Ignore the clicks, I was testing buffer settings with this sound.) The sound is kind of simple in some ways. It is layered -- Glass Voices (or some other similar D-50 preset) covers the high end, the Andromeda covers the middle, and I think there's a layer from Atmosphere in there somewhere. And of course there is reverb from the MPX-1. But it's not a complicated sound, to be honest. Some of this sound is in how you play it...

 

Another example pad shows what layering can do. Here, an Alesis Andromeda (some sort of nice analog pad sound) and Atmosphere (modified Cathedral Strings) are layered with Circle (filtered sound with some modulation controling the cutoff), a D-50 (the S&H sound), and Tal-U-No 60 (the phasing sort of sound). All running through a Lexicon MPX-1 on the ChaseEkoPan setting. Most patches, of course, are tweaked -- the Cathedral Strings for instance is set to swell upward way after you hear the first notes.

 

I like to combine tweaked presets with my own stuff, often. Like its been said before, creating pad sounds from scratch can take a long time because you really want to get modulations to make it interesting. So for instance on that very layered patch, only Circle and Tal-U-No 60 were from scratch. The D-50 was a stock (card) sound, the Andromeda was tweaked from a patch I'd save previously, and Atmosphere was tweaked from a preset as mentioned.

 

These are more ambient type examples. In other types of scenarios (pads underlying a rock song), for instance, you may have to be more subtle (and have quicker envs) as your goal is to support and flesh out the sound... not dominate.

[synthman1]

You can make a quintessential "pad" sound using a standard sawtooth waveform.

1. Turn down the cutoff and resonance on the filter. This will produce your smooth mellow "vanilla" tone your looking for.

2. Adjust the attack on the amp envelope so the sound fades in to your liking.

3. Adjust the release on the amp envelope so the sound fades out on key release to your liking.

4. Add desired effects.

Your LFO's should be set to a relativlely slow rate otherwise you may cross into making a string sound which tends to have a tremelo motion to them.

By contrast, turning up the cutoff/resonance will result in creating brass or poly synth type sounds and using a sort release time on the amp envelope.

[Don Solaris]

 

Thanks Don. How would you go about programming a Pad (as the ones I describe)? Prehaps a JD-990 or XV-5080 with a Eventide (are the new ones such as the 1-U good?) would do things for me but I have no money.

 

If you got any of these two, there's no need for Eventide. No need to layer 183 synths to achieve good pads, neither. Even with two tones on JD you can make a good pad. 4 tones are ideal. Above that is overload. For start you can use two tones per patch, slightly detune and apply random pitch to each and also set global Analog Feel parameter to 20%. This should thicken up the sound, as opposed to permanently pitch fixed tones which phase cancel each other. You can start with string waveform and close the filter and apply resonance. The rest is the work of LFOs and effect processors. Takes a lot of practice. My first pads, 13 years ago on Super JV sounded like {censored}.

 

It is hard to teach someone get the "feeling" for pads - doesn't go like that. You need to know programming things out first, then apply that knowledge for pads. That part unfortunately comes from hard work. You won't learn making good pads in 5 minutes. More like 5 months with 8 hours a day. Personally i never use synth presets, nor modify them - first thing i do when i buy the synth, i completely erase its ram. Take the manual and start building things - that's the best way to learn the synth. If you did that part already, and still don't make good pads, then there is something wrong somewhere.

[soundwave106]

You won't learn making good pads in 5 minutes. More like 5 months with 8 hours a day.

 

 

That mellow "analog pad" sound can be created on a Juno 106 in five minutes. Again, it depends on what the user wants. You are right that the more familiar with synthesis you are, the more that you can do.

 

Pads don't take five months to create, however, it may take five months to really get to know some of the more complex synthesizers so that you can create those awesome pads you want. *shrug*