How to make a pad sound

Tips and techniques for Minimoog Analog Synthesizers
psicolor
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How to make a pad sound

Post by psicolor » Mon Dec 28, 2009 7:22 am

I know the voyager is not the perfect solution for pad sounds because it's monophonic. Thanks to modern recording techniques this is not a hindrance, you can record the first note of a chord, then the second note on a different track and so on. But i must admit that i couldn't manage to get a sweet pad sound out of the voyager yet. Do you have any suggestions how to make one? It's obvious that all pad sounds have long attack and release phases as well as a loud delay with a little feedback. But what else can I do to get a soul-opening vangelis pad sound.
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MarkM
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Post by MarkM » Mon Dec 28, 2009 10:49 am

I think the Voyager can make great pads. I often will tune the oscillators into different intervals. I would probably use more feedback in the delay and follow up with some deep reverb.
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psicolor
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Post by psicolor » Mon Dec 28, 2009 1:12 pm

Thank you very much!
Yeah, more feedback in the delay makes it!

I don't have a reverb unit, but I'll try to abuse my second behringer vintage time machine as a reverb (by setting a very short delay time) later.
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Christopher Winkels
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Post by Christopher Winkels » Mon Dec 28, 2009 7:51 pm

MarkM wrote:I think the Voyager can make great pads. I often will tune the oscillators into different intervals. I would probably use more feedback in the delay and follow up with some deep reverb.
Both excellent suggestions.

May I also suggest a good chorus and some long decay times to help "fill in the gaps".

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Post by Klopfgeist » Mon Dec 28, 2009 11:32 pm

Also try changing the filter poles for a less-intense sweep, and if you are going to drown it in delay and reverb, try not to go overboard with modulation routings.
So this thing only plays one note?

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coniglius
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Re: How to make a pad sound

Post by coniglius » Tue Dec 29, 2009 8:09 pm

psicolor wrote:I know the voyager is not the perfect solution for pad sounds because it's monophonic. Thanks to modern recording techniques this is not a hindrance, you can record the first note of a chord, then the second note on a different track and so on. But i must admit that i couldn't manage to get a sweet pad sound out of the voyager yet. Do you have any suggestions how to make one? It's obvious that all pad sounds have long attack and release phases as well as a loud delay with a little feedback. But what else can I do to get a soul-opening vangelis pad sound.
I'm not sure why you would say that the Voyager is inappropriate for pads "because it's monophonic". It's incapable of triggering multiple notes with more than one simultaneous keypress, but it's fully capable of playing up to 3 (or 4 if you're clever with your resonance) unique musical notes. You have 3 oscillators and these can be tuned to be major/minor triads and other chords, etc which is the stuff that pads are made of. Granted you are not going to get these super lush new-agey sounding pads out of this, but then again this synth's sound isn't really appropriate for that anyways.

If you're tuning/de-tuning your 3 oscillators to non-harmonic intervals, then trying to build more complex chords by overdubbing, you're not going to get a good sound by just playing the "C" key, then overdubbing with "E" key, then again with the "G" key (if you wanted a C major pad, for instance). In this case you'd actually be overlaying 9 individual notes (assuming you're using all 3 oscillators), so you'd have to make sure your oscillators are tuned to consonant or appropriate intervals. This could be why you're not getting a good sound by overdubbing for your pads.

Sorry if this sounds too pedantic or obvious just trying to be helpful.
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Post by ColorForm2113 » Tue Dec 29, 2009 10:22 pm

Maybe if your multi tracking you pads, after recording the 1st note try running back into the voyager when you record the 2nd, and so on. Then you can delete the orginal notes and have one track with multiple notes of a chord coming through the voyagers filter. Or leave the original notes and effect, re-eq, put them out of phase etc with the "chord" track.....or just buy a bunch of RMEs and poly chain them!
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Post by EricK » Wed Dec 30, 2009 1:13 am

Ive tried to do some pads on the voyager, but I haven't had a whole lot of luck. I guess I don't have a concept in my head of a predetermined pad sound.

You know how you can think of a genre of music and you can put together an example in your head of what constitutes that genre and build on that? I have a blank when it comes to a pad.

I have tried super long attacks and releases but they don't really do anything for me. They peak out, but are never just wonderful.
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psicolor
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Re: How to make a pad sound

Post by psicolor » Fri Jan 01, 2010 4:32 pm

coniglius wrote: I'm not sure why you would say that the Voyager is inappropriate for pads "because it's monophonic". It's incapable of triggering multiple notes with more than one simultaneous keypress, but it's fully capable of playing up to 3 (or 4 if you're clever with your resonance) unique musical notes. You have 3 oscillators and these can be tuned to be major/minor triads and other chords, etc which is the stuff that pads are made of.
I already know that I have three oscs, and I also tried to play chords this way, but i find it really hard to always have my left hand on the second oscillator's frequency knob, just to change between major and minor chords.

But i have to admit that at least my bandmates had a lot of fun watching me playing "chords" on the voyager.
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Post by EricK » Fri Jan 01, 2010 4:37 pm

Id be willing to bed that to the untrained eye, it really makes us look like we totally know what we are doing when we are actively tweaking.

Some people approach the panel and are really overwhelmed at the knobs and flashing lights.
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Post by monokit » Sat Jan 02, 2010 6:08 pm

http://geschnittenbrot.podspot.de/files ... Rim_V1.mp3

I tried some Voyager Padsound as described.

What helped the sound was to open the cutoff and add half third of reso.

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Post by MarkM » Sun Jan 03, 2010 3:50 am

Sounding good, Mono!
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psicolor
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Post by psicolor » Sun Jan 03, 2010 7:30 pm

MarkM wrote:Sounding good, Mono!
Indeed! Nice tune!

My padsound sounds a little less open than yours:
http://www.psicolor.de/music/Psicolor_- ... alaxis.mp3
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coniglius
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Re: How to make a pad sound

Post by coniglius » Mon Jan 04, 2010 4:16 pm

psicolor wrote:
I already know that I have three oscs, and I also tried to play chords this way, but i find it really hard to always have my left hand on the second oscillator's frequency knob, just to change between major and minor chords.

But i have to admit that at least my bandmates had a lot of fun watching me playing "chords" on the voyager.
Oh I didn't realise you were trying to do these pads "live", I thought you were recording them. Yeah that's a bit trickier then! But if you're recording you could always just record the 5ths and overdub the 3rd/minor 3rds later :)
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monokit
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Re:

Post by monokit » Wed Aug 18, 2010 7:53 am

Nice! Vangelis feeling!

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