What are the Ingredients to Good Pads?

All instruments that aren't guitars (or bass guitars).
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Unicorn Warrior
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What are the Ingredients to Good Pads?

Post by Unicorn Warrior » Wed Dec 25, 2019 10:52 pm

I have limited knowledge on the synth but grabbed a deepmind 6 in order to try to create nice pad soundscapes for the music in my head. Looking to create warm pads similar to Slowdive and Cigarettes after sex. I realize that these are two different flavors; but are somewhat in the same vein. Here are two vids for reference:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=1zRkbWpJ988

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=HcAxgErAkTw

Where do I need to start when making a new pad?

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redchapterjubilee
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Re: What are the Ingredients to Good Pads?

Post by redchapterjubilee » Sun Dec 29, 2019 4:25 am

Rachel got the sub and chorus going on her 106 in the Slowdive video.

I find it really depends on what’s going on in the song I’m playing/recording. If there’s a lot going on in the mix I use high pass filtering and more resonance to make a more gauzy, light sort of pad to sit atop a mix. If I want something more chunky I turn the resonance down, maybe turn the cutoff lower. I almost always have long attack and release for pads, lower resonance, and modulation of some sort going, either chorus, delay, phasing via pedal or onboard LFO sweeping the filter. Generally something that evolves to keep the pad from sounding static like a wind organ. Your Deepmind has lots of LFO’s and mod destinations. You should be able to program lots of movement. Also don’t be afraid to have something maybe boring or cheesy sounding on its own. In a mix with other frequencies around it you may have something that sounds cooler surrounded by other things than what it sounds like soloed.

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