Making sound more spacious...

[himalaya]

Panning combined with reverb/delay, echo will create a sense of space and pseudo-surround.

Would do you propose? Doubling the track and apply different reverb settings on it, or what?

No need for that. All you need to do is to experiment with a chain of several effects. I love my pads with lots of ambiance and depth, and I often use something like this:

chorus-reverb-phaser-delay

a basic signal chain for a lot of my pads, which will give great results provided the reverb is of a very high quality.

I like to have a phaser after the reverb, as I love the sound of a creamy phaser modifying the reverb decay. Set it so that you can add the phaser mix during play with a controller, so it's not a constant effect (which would get boring very soon) and you will have a juicy sound. And since there is delay at the end, the phaser wooshes get scattered all around. Have another controller knob/slider control phaser rate too.

There are no rules, so experiment with any signal chain you fancy.

Throw a pitch shifter somewhere in the signal chain to get some cool effects, follow by reverb+delay...or use some kind of LoFi effect, follow by a chorus to give shine to all the bit-reduced edges, then reverb + delay...just make sure you use a good quality reverb.

Also, a lot of the time, the space is not created by how long the reverb decay is, but by the reverb mix amount.

[himalaya]

One very cool trick is to sample the pad chords in your tune, then transpose it down an octave or two...suddenly a new sonic world will be revealed. Try it! But sample the sound with a lush reverb+delay.

[Gridlocked]

Too many people judge reverb to be a bad thing...Without trying to plug myself here I like to think I get some good space on tracks with pads and personally I use a lot of reverb!

A lot of it comes down to how you use the reverb, to me it is an instrument in itself and can be treated as such if you wish to, as opposed to an after effect. It also means that if in the same song you want something upfront, the effect of having no reverb on that sound is magnified!

I often find myself thinking of music as a 3d space, so the height is the range of bass to treble, the width is your stereo field and your distance is (usually) controlled by your reverb...

Hope that makes some sense!

I've never heard that people judge it to be a bad thing, just something that's used indiscriminately and to excess.

I don't think it's bad when used to excess, but depends on what you are trying to achieve with the song as well I guess!

[Gridlocked]

Too many people judge reverb to be a bad thing...Without trying to plug myself here I like to think I get some good space on tracks with pads and personally I use a lot of reverb!

A lot of it comes down to how you use the reverb, to me it is an instrument in itself and can be treated as such if you wish to, as opposed to an after effect. It also means that if in the same song you want something upfront, the effect of having no reverb on that sound is magnified!

I often find myself thinking of music as a 3d space, so the height is the range of bass to treble, the width is your stereo field and your distance is (usually) controlled by your reverb...

Hope that makes some sense!

I'd also add to what I wrote and say try layering some pads, making sure they all have unique qualities to add to the sound...

[BehindEnemyDeadlines]

Too many people judge reverb to be a bad thing...Without trying to plug myself here I like to think I get some good space on tracks with pads and personally I use a lot of reverb!

A lot of it comes down to how you use the reverb, to me it is an instrument in itself and can be treated as such if you wish to, as opposed to an after effect. It also means that if in the same song you want something upfront, the effect of having no reverb on that sound is magnified!

I often find myself thinking of music as a 3d space, so the height is the range of bass to treble, the width is your stereo field and your distance is (usually) controlled by your reverb...

Hope that makes some sense!

I'd also add to what I wrote and say try layering some pads, making sure they all have unique qualities to add to the sound...

Yeah that's a good idea. Then you can put the different layers in different places in the stereo field, eq everything out of each layer that doesn't contribute anything useful to keep space in the mix and, with any luck, it should sound like one massive pad.

[Aloysius]

I think every suggestion here is equally valid. It's good to have a range of techniques (possibilities) that you can use. Keep 'em comin'.

[eduardo_b]

All you need to do is to experiment with a chain of several effects. I love my pads with lots of ambiance and depth, and I often use something like this:

chorus-reverb-phaser-delay

a basic signal chain for a lot of my pads, which will give great results provided the reverb is of a very high quality.

A lot of people want to know what synth is best for pads, but really pad magic does come from using a chain like this and being creative with it.

[Gridlocked]

All you need to do is to experiment with a chain of several effects. I love my pads with lots of ambiance and depth, and I often use something like this:

chorus-reverb-phaser-delay

a basic signal chain for a lot of my pads, which will give great results provided the reverb is of a very high quality.

A lot of people want to know what synth is best for pads, but really pad magic does come from using a chain like this and being creative with it.

And layering...

[eduardo_b]

All you need to do is to experiment with a chain of several effects. I love my pads with lots of ambiance and depth, and I often use something like this:

chorus-reverb-phaser-delay

a basic signal chain for a lot of my pads, which will give great results provided the reverb is of a very high quality.

A lot of people want to know what synth is best for pads, but really pad magic does come from using a chain like this and being creative with it.

And layering...

Yes, and definitely layering.

[tetraplan]

Less effects, they just create clutter. Layering is the way to go: copy your pad to two additional tracks. Pan one very far to the left and one very far to the right. Shift one of those slghtly forward and one slightly to the back. Tons of space right there.

Groet, Erik

[eduardo_b]

Less effects, they just create clutter. Layering is the way to go: copy your pad to two additional tracks. Pan one very far to the left and one very far to the right. Shift one of those slghtly forward and one slightly to the back. Tons of space right there.

Groet, Erik

Until one converts it to mono.

[niewysoki]

Thank you all guys. Aloysius - that's EXACTLY what I meant!! Finally someone understood me - Nugen Stereoizer does the trick. It's shown on this video

[Igro]

Here is my pad from last song. Waldorf Largo with unison spread(bit detuned) and AD EOS. No need to use widener vst for getting this wide effect:


http://www.ziddu.com/download/8504272/pad.mp3.html

[Aloysius]

Here is my pad from last song. Waldorf Largo with unison spread(bit detuned) and AD EOS. No need to use widener vst for getting this wide effect:


http://www.ziddu.com/download/8504272/pad.mp3.html

Which EOS algorithm have you chosen? Thanks . . .

[Igro]

Here is my pad from last song. Waldorf Largo with unison spread(bit detuned) and AD EOS. No need to use widener vst for getting this wide effect:


http://www.ziddu.com/download/8504272/pad.mp3.html

Which EOS algorithm have you chosen? Thanks . . .

It was HALL.
Btw, i just started making full bank of pads only. There will be a lot of stuff, which i just can't find in other synths. Different types of Ahhh and Ohhh pads and so on.