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Placing Pads in your Mix (Always trouble)
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| AirPole |
After 10 years of making music, I still don't know how to place pads properly in the mix. I just can't seem to get them fit really right in the mix. They always seem to be a bit too present or something. What are your techniques? Do you give them the same reverb as the rest of your parts? Or do you double them up, then pan one part utter left, one part utter right, and then treat one of them with different FX? Or do you give them a different reverb as the one that is your main send reverb? Sidechaining helps alot, but then there's also how to EQ pads properly. Kill everything below 500 Hz, and then boost the upper mids and the highs a few DB'??
How do you people fit them? |
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| Andy28 |
Was guna write a similar post myself. Like you said, do people double up and pan 1 to each side or do you guys use stereo spread to give them more width? I always do the latter but lately I started splitting the pads on 2 track's and panning to each side as I find it leaves more room in the middle for other things to be going on
As far as reverb goes I use the same as the leads but make it more wet for the pads, but my leads and other sounds just seem to mush together and don't stand out as much as I would like them to (is this down to eg and compression?)
The eq on my pads, well on a break if there is no bassline playing I will probably kill just around 30 Hz, maybe 150 Hz if I have a deep pad in there playing single notes (with hardly any width), but when the track kicks in and there is basslines going on I will roll it off to around 250 ish Hz. (and sidechain :) )
Interested to find out how others approach this. |
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| Subtle |
| quote: | Originally posted by AirPole
Kill everything below 500 Hz |
This for me. |
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| Lunar Phase 7 |
I think there is a lot to be said for stereo width on pads.
Use EQ wisely. Make hard cuts where necessary but obviously don't destroy the sound. You may also want to automate the pad so the EQ comes into play when other elements do.
Side chaining is another technique. Again, be clever with it.
Another technique perhaps add some phase or flange on it to give it some space.
Are you wanting your pads to be stand out kind of thing and the key part of your track?
Or are they gonna glue the track together? If it's the latter don't worry too much about clarity on them too much, make sure other stuff can punch through them and just let them blanket the spaces in your track with lovely warmth and harmonics. |
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| Kenny Rogers |
| this is going to sound lame. sidechaining! the place where it really belongs. no kidding. and ofcourse highpass. |
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| mathieu |
| when i used to make trance i had the same problem as you, i ran it through an insert reverb with very wet settings (70% - 80%) then sent it to my reverb send with the other synths. that and good eq made it sound good |
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| Bren-F |
Be vary careful with your reverb settings. Too much reverb can really muddy up your mix.
Also, as mentioned, be sure to cut out any un-needed frequencies, especially the low end. You can always automate the EQ levels if you need them to sound bigger for any breakdowns etc. |
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| Morvan |
| The answer is volume control. Mute your pad and gradually fade it in and see where it starts working its magic and seems to become part of your lead and other instruments without actually demanding much attention from the listener. |
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| derail |
I'll generally use a highpass filter to cut the very low end. Often I'll also cut somewhere else between 250-600 Hz. It depends on the pad sound and the other sounds around it, but often the pad is a bit boomy in this range.
In terms of reverb, have you guys tried not using any reverb on your pads at all? It sounds counter-intuitive, but actually works surprisingly well. I tried this after reading about another engineer who does this, and now I'll often leave the pads completely dry and they sound great.
If you do use reverb on them, make sure to EQ the reverb a lot as well - reverb will quickly muddy up a mix. I normally roll off a fair bit of low and high end, and other troublesome frequencies. |
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| MSZ |
| general tip here, so many good ones have been said already. Solo your instruments always at some point, and keep full spectrum in mind(group solo as well). You definitely dont want pads in the lower spectrum when everything else is playing. frequency segregation is key, and ofcourse the magic in the pads are in the mids. i generally dont highpass but massive eq cut, but whatever works and is audible. practice makes better. |
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| Lunar Phase 7 |
| quote: | Originally posted by Morvan
The answer is volume control. Mute your pad and gradually fade it in and see where it starts working its magic and seems to become part of your lead and other instruments without actually demanding much attention from the listener. |
That's actually ing genius and would work well with any element!
Nice one bruva! I said nice one! |
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| Kysora |
| I always have a lot of pads going on in my tracks and I think it's the biggest cause of muddiness in my songs. I'm finally starting to get a hang of them, though, it's not as hard as I thought. Just highpass them pretty hard on any low freqs that overlap the kick and bass, and make the volume as low as you can possibly get them and still have them come through in the mix. I used to try and draw a lot of attention to pads, making them louder than they should be. Ideally they should compliment the track, but not stand out too much at all. |
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