:D

[mj15]

[Touch The Universe]

post sound

[mj15]

[phreaque]

Pad implementation, regardless what music genre it is, it just make path, opening a road in your tune, widen your melody. So try to do this:

1. Separate the chords, as much as possible.
2. Lower notes must be chord roots, never add 2nd note of the chord at the lower area, it will sound muddy
3. EQ the patch, so it won't conflict with song elements.
4. Sidechain it
5. The purpose of it is to be there, not to be LOUD. Reduce its volume in the mix.
6. Stereo image. Tend to widen up the stereo image.

[mj15]

[Touch The Universe]

good ideas

[DJ Warmonger]

Pads tend to have wide spectrum, so you need to equalize them hard to make enough space for everything.

Second tip: choose different panning, stereo width or predelay time for each pad to make them find their own place in the mix.

[MOK19]

Sometimes a pad doesn't actually need to be playing to be 'heard'. Sometimes you can have the notes playing for brief, tactically chosen periods, such that the listener comes to listen to the rest of the song within the context that the pad had created. They know the part is there, they know the minor 7th or whatever was played, and anticipate that it'll happen again in 8 counts. Sometimes that's sufficient.

Side-benefit: it opens up rhythmic potential, when you don't hold a part.

You also don't need to play every note of the chord. Other instruments can do take over other voices in the chord, and it can be spread across the octaves. Personally, I frequently have difficulty managing a pad that's playing a full chord in closed voicing. It takes up a ton of 'space,' and kinda sucks the air out of the room that would otherwise let the song breathe. So I've found that the fewer notes/voices you can get away with, the better.

You could highpass filter the thing. Pads don't need all that spectrum real-estate.

And resist the urge to reverb, chorus, or detune, etc. Since the pad usually stays in the back, it's possible to get away with a very basic/clean/un-effected sound once everything else is playing along with it. Try out placing the pad on quarantine while you compose, and eventually revisit the pad late in the song. That way you only add the effects you need, and avoid occupying all that spectrum & stereo width during composition.

[mj15]

[sleeper_]

Yeah a good stereo mix is a great way to clear out room in the mix, the Fab Filter Pro Q plug in has a great 'Side EQ' setting that work really well

[sharke]

Yeah sometimes the right volume for a pad is low enough so that you don't really notice it, but when you mute it you can tell it's gone.

[JCJR]

Far a very long time was obsessed with arranging and recording music with "too many" musical lines and dense detail. And then suffering long torture attempting to mix the dense arrangement so that all the details were audible.

Then finally realized that sparse arrangements are more tasteful and drastically easier to mix.

[Mister Natural]

my fave tip on creating nice "pads" is TWO notes only
- one note sounds weak
- three notes or more sound too "confused"

peace

[fluffy_little_something]

What is a one-finger pad? To me pads always consist of at least two notes, else it would simply be a weak lead like a single violin or whatever

Anyway, since pads tend to be continuous and somewhere in the middle of the frequency spectrum, they are bound to collide with other instruments, let alone other pads. Maybe that is why I like 80s music so much, they were more minimalist back then, used few pads, but made sure each sounded very pleasant.
Today's pads are often quite aggressive, I don't like that, and it makes frequency conflicts even more likely. I never use more than one pad at a time.

[zethus909]

make it the middle of the eq spectrum. take out notches where you notice a good difference in the mix. use 3 notes but dont sustain. however if its only a pad playing and a lead like a violin then you can crank up that pad.