Pads: your first choice?

[wagtunes]

And the incredible Mellotron pad solo "Mysterious Semblance at the Strand of Nightmares" from Edgar Froese in the Tangerine Dream album "Phaedra". Nothing else than a Mellotron, with the addition of a phaser and a flanger:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8J2doVjui4

With an good practice it can be done with G-Force M-Tron Pro or IK Multimedia Sampletron or simply with the excellent free... Redtron MKV with a phaser and a flanger behind.

Oh come on. You're not playing fair. Tangerine Dream. LOL.

Yeah, we're all Edgar Froese. LMAO.

Great memories. But personally I liked "Stratosphere" a lot better.

Yes, my too. I fully share your opinion, for me "Stratosphere" is the summum of the Tangerine Dream albums (with "Rubicon"). I just wanted to show here an example which came to my mind of wonderful pads among others with simply a Mellotron.

Edgar Froese could make tuned cantaloupes sound good. LOL

[BlackWinny]

The dedicated instruments for pads are of course the string synths.

But really "pads" is above all a matter of perception by the mind. We generally imagine that pads have obligatory long envelopes. But no. Here is an example with a kind of pads that I love which is that kind, a bit more dynamic as in the very short last song of the Camel album "Rain Dances". Pete Bardens (R.I.P.) was a lover of the Roland RS202 (which curiously was not a paraphonic string machine) in the Camel albums, like here simply with the phaser as effect:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9q5jDXOqlzw

[MarlaPodolski]

This thread has been very helpful and a great reminder for me. Now I'm understanding why so much of what I hear these days sounds so similar -- same-y. Dozens of Omni, Diva and Zebra users here -- I'll be sure to keep avoiding these. My two favorites were only mentioned once in all these pages, so I might do best to keep them to myself.

[quantum7]

This thread has been very helpful and a great reminder for me. Now I'm understanding why so much of what I hear these days sounds so similar -- same-y. Dozens of Omni, Diva and Zebra users here -- I'll be sure to keep avoiding these. My two favorites were only mentioned once in all these pages, so I might do best to keep them to myself.

What are your two favorites?

I've had a lot of compliments on my pad choices for my last album, Transcendence ( http://www.seanchristopher.net/ ) and I used mostly Alchemy, Padshop, Omnisphere, and Zebra. Nearly all of what I used from those 4 instruments though, was 3rd party stuff which I edited and combined. What's also cool at times is on a 3-note chord, for example, is to take 3 different pad patches and assign each note from the chord to a different patch, hence 3 separate patches for a 3-note chord. It can be time consuming to find the right combination at times, but the end-results can be very fulfilling. Also, using open chords has become a favorite of mine over the years. I am self-taught so I unfortunately didn't figure that out for years. Open chords can make a boring chord arrangement into something so much nicer.

[xoxos]

for those of you who wouldn't think to open a xoxos thread, here's the mp3 demo for float -

http://xoxos.net/vst/mp3/float.mp3

this is a new oscillator algorithm which is nifty for unison/noise/ensemble stuff, eg. warm, atmospheric pads. now you know.

[BMoore]

Notepad. Every time.

[wagtunes]

for those of you who wouldn't think to open a xoxos thread, here's the mp3 demo for float -

http://xoxos.net/vst/mp3/float.mp3

this is a new oscillator algorithm which is nifty for unison/noise/ensemble stuff, eg. warm, atmospheric pads. now you know.

You know, I love the sound of your stuff, especially this latest creation, but unfortunately none of it works right on my 64 bit system, even with JBridge. Either I lose VST connectivity or my Axiom locks up or Cubase just flat out crashes.

Shame because you have some interesting synths. Any plans on eventually going 64 bit for Windows?

[xoxos]

i'm pretty sure ms schedules windows updates by when i'm capable of developing with the last one..

sent from my netbook..

[Arrested Developer]

You need a pad to play a sequence of beautiful emotional chords, and the first VSTi you usually load is..?

i have a piano, which fortunately has no loading time (besides of opening the lid).

But when it comes to synth pads, there is no general answer of course.
Because the question is not: where can i find good pad sounds (answer: everywhere), but:
where can i find the right sound.
And that's a question only your own experience will answer.

[BlackWinny]

i'm pretty sure ms schedules windows updates by when i'm capable of developing with the last one..

sent from my netbook..

I was wandering why each time I use your plugins I get suddenly the Blue Screen! Now I understand!



I'm kidding, eh... I love your plugins, Rurik!

[PatchAdamz]

Here are some nice pads and other cool synth sounds.

Yummy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOgOv3Gc5bM

[Vospi]

Kontakt with Nebulae II by Hollow Sun.

This is one of the best ever, everyone should check it out.

[fluffy_little_something]

Here are some nice pads and other cool synth sounds.

Yummy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOgOv3Gc5bM

The pad is really nice, a good old-fashioned pad actually, might as well be from the 70's or 80's. It's good because it's simple and effective and without competition in the song, it's probably not even a synth pad as such, but strings.

[fluffy_little_something]

I have already asked in another thread, but there was no reply

Anyway, I am looking for a synth that can make those lovely, soft, light, silky, polished pads that hover in the background like clouds, also with a certain formant/voice component optionally. I am pretty sure they are "digital", so my current "analog" synth just can't produce what I am looking for. What hardware did they use for such pads in the 80's?

Here is an example of what I mean, at 2:56 such a formant pad can be heard for a moment:
https://youtu.be/5k8tk0vwjZ8

[SuitcaseOfLizards]

Notepad. Every time.

Notepad++ beats plain Notepad, hands-down.