I've been a closet-trance producer for almost a year now and I feel like I've reached the pinnacle of what I'm able to do by myself, as I continue to walk in the same footsteps over and over again and not getting anywhere.

As most, if not all, of you, I started out by using only presets. Naturally, I felt the need to explore outside those bound, as they're both generic and limiting. So I started creating my own sounds, as the presets didn't fulfil my needs. I know it can take years before you get the hang of it. What you get "good" at is actually that you develop a good ear. Of course, you need the skills to know your way around the technical parts.

This is wear I struggle.

I know what sound decent and what doesn't. I can make awesome plucks, percussion loops, effects and decent bass lines. But when it comes to making pads and leads, I'm in dire need of some guidelines. All I hear now when I make my pads and leads is just generic crap. And with "pads," I refer primarily to the wide pads for atmosphere and harmony.

I know the key is layering, but the only pad I can make sound good is the detuned saw pad with a low pass filter(which I presume to be the most generic of all pads) so I have nothing to layer it with really. OF COURSE I've tried experimenting a lot, but everything I manage to create is either not wide enough (which would be a lead pad I guess) or sounds to similar to the saw pad.

So what I'm looking for here is primarily guidelines, but also concrete examples that I can use to open my eyes a little bit (because of the "walking in the same footsteps" thing).

When it comes to the lead, I can make a few varities, but again - they're all very generic and frankly, the quality of them isn't even that great. I like really fat, energetic stuff. Andy Blueman has awesome leads, even though I'm not making uplifting trance myself. Same thing here, I'm greatly thankful for both guidelines and examples.

By guidelines, I mean the bullet points you would mention to a beginner. The stuff that goes through all the professionals' minds and
the vital tricks they use.

Any help is appreciated. Thanks!

Leads should be very similar to pads but with more resonance, higher filter cutoff etc. so I'll mostly just give advice for pads.

Try putting on phaser, chorus and flanger to start with, they might help add a bit of interest.

Try adding some modulation, so a subtle slow lfo on the pitches of the oscillators, and the filter cutoff.

Then add some more different wave types, if you have a synth that can use those, and link them to the LFOs and envelopes.

Finally, try modulating the oscillators themselves if your synth supports it, by using FM/Ring mod/AM/PM methods. Link the audio rate modulation to some LFOs and envelopes etc.

Its all about adding movement and interest really. Also remember that a lot of pads are actually samples that have either come off a workstation or have been heavily manipulated. These are usually my favourite kind of pads.

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Yet more "genric crap" here as you put it but the video shows how each part is layered to create 1 sound.





Its all nexus stuff so everything kit has mentioned goes straight out the window lol..

To me, 4 layers is a bit ott but each to their own.

Last edited by Andy28 on Mar-15-2011 at 11:21

Layering a bunch of presets hardly requires a tutorial IMO.

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True, but aswel as the info you give him, its kinda what he's asked for, the video shows how the guy went about eqing each part to fit them together, its not like he just slapped them all straight on top of each other.

quote:

Originally posted by Sylee points you would mention to a beginner.

Its a starting point of how to layer in general, thought it was easier to post that than to try and explain it.
If its no use to nobody then my bad!

quote:

Originally posted by Andy28 True, but aswel as the info you give him, its kinda what he's asked for, the video shows how the guy went about eqing each part to fit them together, its not like he just slapped them all straight on top of each other. Its a starting point of how to layer in general, thought it was easier to post that than to try and explain it. If its no use to nobody then my bad!

It was SOMEWHAT of use, thank you. Watching other people work is a great way to learn, as you see how you can approach things differently. Sadly, that's the pad I am already familiar with, and as kitpphillips said; it only shows the layering and eqing.:/

kitphillips: Thanks for the input! Definitely gonna try these things out.

Btw, can you explain further what you meant with "Also remember that a lot of pads are actually samples that have either come off a workstation or have been heavily manipulated. These are usually my favourite kind of pads." How would I go about making one of these?

Thanks!

There were lots of workstations around in the 90s and early 2000s which had lots of choral sort of pads. The last one in that video is similar to what would have been on those machines. Keyboards like the Korg Triton and Roland Phantom had lots of pad presets which were created using real string samples, real choral samples etc. Then you've got all those old machines like underworld used for long dark train to make that choral sound there, which was mentioned on here a few weeks ago if you use the search.

On top of which, some of my personal favourite pads that I've made have come from messing around with samples, using granular synthesis, frozen reverbs, time stretching, found sounds etc... There's a lot to be done in that vein and sometimes those sound sources can really add some polish and interest to your pads.

So basically, there are lots of pads that can't be made using traditional synthesis methods, and sometimes they're really useful. A lot of the most distinctive pads you'd recognise aren't from synthesisers at all.

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Thanks for the answer! Some nice ideas there that I will definitely try out.

Following up on Kits points, I do have a Roland Fantom7 hardware digital synth which does indeed have great pads. I have yet to find as nice a pad on any of my own softsynths, althought the softsynths are often better at other sounds.

But of course you can create great pads on software synths - it's all about you needing to spend time experimenting and don't forget things like making the reverb just right - listen to some pro tracks and try and pin point the reverb style.

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