What is a pad (to you)?

The Lounge General Discussion
#1

What is a pad (to you)?

So, trying to keep my messages short: I come from a drumming background. Now I’m making electronic music for a while, and it’s apparent to me that if I just make music coming out naturally, it’s mostly always very percussive, staccato, rythmic, one-shots in nature. Even melodic parts.

Perhaps because it comes from only mostly having real experience with transient kinds of instruments.

Only when I’m trying to analyse songs I like, to recreate bits from or to learn from, I sometimes make some adequate pads. But back to writing tracks from my own inspiration, they’re gone. Sometimes I do miss them though, because lots of transient rhythmic stuff can become busy quickly.

So, the Question:

Instead of asking: how to make a pad? I’m curious to ask: What do pads mean to you? How do you use them, where, why?

Are they subtle background atmosphere or main hook? Are they noisy or chromatically melodic? When are you inclined to use them? Intro / bridge / always? Etc. Do they carry over multiple bars, front to back, or do you apply them sporadically? Etc.

Curious to just understánd the thing that is pád (very multifaceted I’m sure), before emulating it as a hollow esthetic. I’m mostly working in the techno realm, but open to all metaphysical and practical things that pad to you in whatever genre.

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#2

I love hearing a well done pad sound that fits into a song well.

I sometime have difficulty, in that my pads become a dominant part of the song in a way that is against what I’m aiming for, which is a subtle but effective enhancement. It’s an ongoing struggle.

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#3

Interesting topic.
I think it is any sustained synth sound that isnt a string or any type of emulation.
I use pad sounds as “frequency fillers” or something. Although I don’t use them a lot. They are fun and easy to program

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#4

Pads feel to me to be kinda the instrumental antithesis of all the transient-heavy material, in a techno context. Very atmospheric, sort of like the type of reverb you’re using, but a bit more concrete.

I also find it nice to force a bit more mechanical movement (?) onto a free running pad, like giving it an additional filter envelope somehow related to the rhythm of the track – underneath the rhythmically unrelated pad.

They’re fun to make and explore, but kinda hard to generate them when you’re trying to nail a specific texture, at least to me.

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#5

I looked up some definitions because I got curious.
It is heavy related to ambient. It is produced by a synth. It is sometimes described as a two voice chord with the root + the perfect fifth. So always major. (2nd oscillator raised 5 steps)
In acoustic music, a softer string ensemble is similar.
I still dont know where the word “pad” comes from…

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#6

Let the debate begin;))

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#7

I find the translation in german kinda nice, it’s “Fläche” – area, surface, plane.
Maybe this geometric notion is where my comparison to reverb came from.

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#8

diminished. or hungarian minor.

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#9

It’s just a sustained chord of any type.

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#10

Taken from musicianhq.com:
Quote: “ However, it seems to be widely accepted that the word reflects the fact that a pad ‘pads out the musical mix to fill the space’. I like this definition as it describes what I believe a pad to be quite nicely.”

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#11

I like this

#12

And this

#13

It’s the ocean that you put your boats in.

image

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#14

Pads to me are a big part of setting a mood or emotional content along with melody, they form a back drop on which to lay hooks and riffs to give context or contrast.

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#15

I’m using a lot of pads at the minute for texture and adding harmonics to tracks. I’ve been using the Digitone to layer 3 or 4 pads together, then creating Pseudo-rhytmic layers with the Lyra, using my Digitakt through the CV voices input to create odd sidechain effects.
It’s interesting what your brain will interpret as a melody when all you give it is a bunch of different textures and harmonics to play with.
For me, a good pad is something that probably sounds shit on its own, often goes unnoticed in tracks but would leave a big, noticeable hole if removed.

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#16

I think pads (which like the post above said, I always associated with ‘padding’) are atmospheric elements that support or enhance the main chords. They can cross the line into the main chords themselves if the track is already busy/full with synth bass and lead. In fact, they’re my favourite synth sounds :yellow_heart:

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#17

I love pads.
To me they are sustained sounds that fill the background of track. I usually have several of them layered in a track, complementing each other.
They feel like a bed you want to put yourself in.
I‘m a big fan of subtle pads, with only 2-4 notes, even only one note quite often.
I love to tune 2 oscillators to a nice interval and just play single notes.
I don’t like big cheesy 80s swell pads that draw to much attention.
Cold digital pads can be great. I love fm or slow wavetable scanning pads for example.

But they can be great hooks too, if you use it as a memorable chord progression

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#18

A pad helps me not be as leaky at the end of the month, you can buy them pretty much anywhere, good deals at Walmart.

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#19

Are they good for fingerdrumming though?

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#20

So do you often start with pads or the other way around?