You are correct, my bad
Smooth, atmospheric, soft, wide, deep, droney, evil
BTW pad is my nickname, hence my username. 
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SOS article on creating pad sounds. Shame they don’t mention orchestral music, because it’s highly likely the idea of adding pad sounds to 80s pop songs was inspired by the use of Mellotron in the 60s/70s, then real orchestras before that.
https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/creating-using-synth-pad-sounds
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Pads reinforce the harmonic structure of the song without taking too much attention. The equivalent of rhythm guitar in rock music, but without the rhythm. Typically harmonically dense, slow attack and release.
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Not sure if I have general order for how i use pads, but to explain the way i feel about them or how i use them;I kinda imagine the song like a painting where the the main parts of the song(percussion, bass, rythm, lead) are a structure, like a building, and the the surrounding scenery/landscape/atmosphere is the pads
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Pad for me is not the same as a drone, atmos, or sustained effect.
Pad: sustained single note but this can become a ‘lead’ if up front and legato. Pad usually a full chord or 2 note interval in the same way a ‘sustained’ string, brass or wind full section would perform.
Pad: can be played isolated or part of an arrangement.
Pad: can have many different tonal qualities and movement during its sustained duration
Pad: should work hand in hand both tonally and harmonically with an arrangement.
Pad: when does it become part of the ‘rhythm’ section? For example by applying a sync LFO or envelope filter or volume to it. Then it might not be a pad anymore?!
Pad: usually part of the foundation for something on top, e.g vox, leadline.
A drone or atmos usually has far more complexity and micro tonality, noise etc.
Pad: where you hang out after playing about with pads.
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Nice
How many notes do folks use in their pad chords?
(Context: I am thinking about the 8 note polyphony of the Digitone, once I off-load drums to ND2)
Y’all getting way overcomplicated. A pad is simply as sound (in any combination of notes) that fills a composition the same way a sustained string or string section does in classical music.
I don’t know this for sure, but I always felt the term “pad” referred to a tonal bed for melodic or percussive parts to lie in.
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Yeah. This is the case especially for compositions where the piano is leading the orchestra (and the conductor too). Even the violin takes a back seat often to the cello and viola.
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