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So, what's your favourite use of a pad in a song?

Is it gorgeous and lush or dissonant, detuned and dark?

When do you think was the first time a pad was used and what does the term even mean?

I suppose machines like melotrons where among the first types and that a pad most of the time is a poly synth with a long attack, taking it's cue from a sound of a choir, violins and other bow instruments (like a melotron), but there might be more to it?

cheers

The first pad was used in 1702 by an american bruv called David Pad.

Sory but no a mellotron was not a polysynth that took cues from those sounds. It was an electro mechanical sampler of sorts that used tape with recordings of those sounds on that played when you pressed the keys.

like this

i steal them from 80s tv shows & put them in a sampler

best pads are the ones from Stone in Focus

Lush. <3

@wolf, I didn't write it properly but now it's edited .
I know a melotron is like a 'sampler', I meant the first 'pad - sound' conceptually.
A melotron is so cool- It's like a steampunk padmachine

Good shout raymond - probably the same approach here - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1K9H7kPCe4

best pads are the ones from Stone in Focus

In a certain mood, definitely a contender.

And this
Soundcloud

I like dark pads I guess. Normally stretch a violin sample of bounce one from Sakura, stretch it, maybe reverse it, gate it, add delay/reverb and then combine a gated and non gated version together so it has movement

Sakura?

hubb wrote:Sakura?

http://www.image-line.com/plugins/Synths/Sakura/

Brothulhu wrote:combine a gated and non gated version together so it has movement

Good idea this.

Something I like to do is take a keyboard part and program a midi part that mimics the main part but is 4-8x faster. Then bounce out that audio and paulstretch it back out to the same length as the main part.


Also, is the (production) tag really necessary?

SunkLo wrote:

Brothulhu wrote:combine a gated and non gated version together so it has movement

Good idea this.

You don't have to bounce it either, if you put the gate + effects on a send you can automate the dry/wet giving even more variation

Nice one.

Yeah paulstretch is dope. Also tuning recordings in melodyne. When you have those two progs there's almost no limits to what can become a pad.

I love the way pads are utilized in Downtempo, especially artists like Boards of Canada. Kryptic Minds always have lush and/or dark sounding pads. Sometimes I like to layer 2 different pads, one that sounds more airy/breathy and one that sounds like the string section in a classical orchestra. Makes for an interesting sound.

I normally use them to make the atmosphere and 'air' of a track, bare low in the mix and all wet

i like hipassing them(the pads) quite high and then use quite high notes, put them in he back of the mix and play them along with My basses.

Interesting idea. I do the 'opposite' from time to time and play pads so low they come closer to bass sounds. Layering is great.
Have you got an example or a soundcloud or something?

hubb wrote:Interesting idea. I do the 'opposite' from time to time and play pads so low they come closer to bass sounds. Layering is great.
Have you got an example or a soundcloud or something?

I like mine low but if you run them too low you have to cut them to allow your sub to breathe

A pad without some saturation and some 'analog' noise/field recording on it, doesn't really cut it for me!
Field recordings with lots of reverb + some subtle modulated pad is the key to my heart!

Oh yeah... And frequency panning is the shit for pads!

@ Brothulhu
Yeah.. I meant I'll sometimes make a bass sound out of a pad.

A pad without some saturation and some 'analog' noise/field recording on it, doesn't really cut it for me!
Field recordings with lots of reverb + some subtle modulated pad is the key to my heart!

Oh yeah... And frequency panning is the shit for pads!

Definitely. I usually find some fx'y recording with some personality/character and then pitch it to the nearest clean note in melodyne and then build a scale from that note. If it's a three note chord I would probably use different 'instruments'/layers for each note and then put that thing back in a sampler.