00:01when I started getting into synthesis I
00:03heard this term thrown around quite a
00:04bit that I wasn't really familiar with
00:08pad Beethoven didn't use a lot of pads I
00:11guess it seemed to describe these sounds
00:13that were kind of tucked away in the
00:14background of electronic
00:25tracks usually playing chords or
00:28providing the sort of harmonic backbone
00:30to ATT track or maybe just as an
00:32underlying bed of textures that evolved
00:35over time beyond that I really didn't
00:37know too much about them but it didn't
00:39take me too long to realize that I
00:41absolutely love them but if you're
00:43anything like me and you make music with
00:45let's call them ambient Tendencies
00:48there's a tendency to get so intoxicated
00:50with pads that they get kind of stagnant
00:53after a while and I can easily get lost
00:55noodling around with scent pads for
00:57hours without ever actually making any
01:00music with them which is kind of a
01:02problem for me since that's what I want
01:04to do so today I'll show you some of the
01:06methods that I've used over the past
01:08decade and continue to use to this day
01:10to keep my pads more interesting either
01:13through sound design or perhaps more
01:16importantly like how we use pads in the
01:19music that we actually make and stuff I
01:21have one extremely general rule when it
01:24comes to syn Patches the more complex
01:26are busy the patch the less complex are
01:29busy busy the writing should
01:50be and the simpler the patch the more
01:52flexibility I have with the harmonies
02:09in other words it's more playable if
02:12it's more of a simple patch essentially
02:14I like to pick a leader either the sound
02:16design or the notes themselves and in
02:19that case I'm using the synthesis as
02:20more like orchestration but I'm also a
02:23big believer that if you have a cake you
02:26should also figure out a way to eat it
02:28so a little later in the video we'll
02:30talk about some ways to combine these
02:33worlds and sort of walk that line
02:35between those two spaces cool sound
02:37design and linear harmonic progressions
02:40that make the music have some sort of
02:42emotional and linear Direction and make
02:44it a little less stagnant but first
02:47let's talk about synthesis
02:49because I'm a huge nerd of course to
02:52have a synth pad we need a synth don't
02:55we I love a good old analog analog I
02:59love a good old old analog poly scent as
03:01much as anyone and they're really great
03:03for that second approach where you know
03:05we have a more simple sound that is more
03:07playable and it just sounds good like
03:10that's what they're good at but if we
03:11really want to get a little bit more
03:13involved with our sound design a little
03:15crazier maybe a subtractive analog synth
03:18is actually pretty limited so I'll show
03:20you some of my favorite types of
03:22synthesis that I like to use to make
03:25more interesting pads and I'm going to
03:27show you some specific scents and it's
03:29just because those are the scents that I
03:32have it's not because I want you to go
03:34and buy those I'll give you some
03:35software Alternatives as well as some
03:37free things that you can pick up and use
03:40right now by the way I'm sponsored by
03:42none of these gear manufacturers nor the
03:44software companies that I'm going to
03:46mention and that's how you can know that
03:48here on this channel
03:51I am making no money through
03:53sponsorships so let's do a speedrun
03:55through synthesis shall
03:56we instead of simple wave forms like you
04:00would find in an analog synth you know
04:02your triangle your Sawtooth your Square
04:04wave digital wave tables are capable of
04:07producing much richer and weirder
04:10harmonics which means you start with
04:11something a lot crazier and then you can
04:13still shave it down with filters or
04:15whatever if you want to do that but it
04:17also means they can sound really
04:19terrible and thin and nasal and really
04:23crappy for a long time I thought I
04:26absolutely hated wave tables but it
04:28turns out it's very dependent on which
04:30wave table you're using and the sweet
04:32spots that you can find within that wave
04:34table and getting that wave table moving
04:37a little bit is really important for
04:38creating evolving pads which is what
04:41we're specifically talking about
04:55today just getting an LFO or something
04:57or an envelope to sweep through that
04:59wave table provides much more
05:01interesting things than just having a
05:03stagnant wave table with its weird Buzzy
05:07harmonics just drilling away through
05:09your ear holes so experiment with
05:11modulating the wave table itself the
05:13wave table position it's a great way to
05:15introduce some movement into your pads a
05:18lot of you may have heard of serum which
05:19is a very popular soft synth has been
05:22around for a really long time but you
05:24can also download this free soft synth
05:26called vital and get started exploring
05:29wave table right away not right away I
05:31mean you should finish this
05:45it this is a profit 12 it's an older syn
05:49now but I just picked mine up last year
05:51because Tony Anderson made me do it
05:53first of all it was my first synth and
05:55anyone who gets rid of their first synth
05:58is also murderer on the side and I've
06:02discovered that it's really incredible
06:03for these types of evolving pads that
06:05we're talking about it's also a wave
06:08table syn but it also can do FM which
06:11when I discovered that and figured out
06:13it's actually a for operator FM synth it
06:17really was like you know a mind-blowing
06:19experience and it really opened up the
06:21synth for sound design now this brings
06:23us to FM which is one of the weirder
06:25types of synthesis and uh you may have
06:27heard about how complicated it is is but
06:30fortunately I hate math so I'm not going
06:32to talk about any of that Okay I lied
06:34let's talk about it just ever so
06:37slightly to put it in its simplest terms
06:39in FM synthesis you basically have
06:41oscillators controlling or modulating
06:45oscillators they're called operators in
06:47the FM world for some
06:49reason but that really doesn't matter
06:52because you're modulating oscillators
06:53with high audio rates instead of a slow
06:56LFO or something you get really crazy
07:27results it can be really really
07:29unpredictable and get out of hand very
07:32fast and you also have to kind of watch
07:34you know transposing your patch
07:36unintentionally because when you use one
07:38oscillator to control another oscillator
07:41it can change the pitch of that first
07:44oscillator and then everything is
07:46playing in all kinds of weird atonal
07:49ways and it you just have to kind of use
07:53it judiciously when you dial it in
07:55precisely with math and stuff that's
07:58when you get like you know the DX7
08:01presets electric posan bell-like sounds
08:04you know piano sound alikes maybe those
08:06sounds that you associate with FM
08:09synthesis but fortunately for you I
08:11don't care about any of that that's not
08:13what I like to do with FM synthesis at
08:38it's really fun to explore the cracks in
08:41between all of those right ways to use
08:44FM instead I'd rather find weird sweet
08:47spots that are slightly disgusting a
08:50little gnarly uh but also evolving and
08:54have some hair on them like right on the
08:56verge of disintegrating and falling
08:58apart in entirely but still usable in a
09:02musical sense or a playable
09:12sense one other thing to note about FM
09:15just as a side note if you use sine
09:17waves that's kind of the most
09:19predictable way to use FM in a musical
09:22sense once you start getting into using
09:24waveforms with more harmonics like a
09:26Sawtooth wave or God forbid a wave table
09:29then you can get some really crazy
09:31results and that's worth experimenting
09:33with I've actually discovered some
09:35really Unique Sounds by just trying
09:41things there's almost nothing better
09:44than a great granular
09:58head great ular synthesis is a different
10:01kind of synthesis entirely it is
10:03dependent upon a sample and it takes
10:05that sample and it chops it up into all
10:07of these teeny tiny bits of samples that
10:11it then sprays across you know the
10:14stereo field or the frequency spectrum
10:16or whatever in various ways it kind of
10:19goes without saying but I'm going to say
10:21it anyway that whatever you feed into it
10:24the sample is going to determine what
10:26you get out of it it's incredibly
10:28dependent on what what you give it so
10:30something static that just you know
10:32sustains the same sort of thing and then
10:35never does anything else like I don't
10:38know let's say a pipe organ I don't know
10:41who would do that sort of thing but a
10:42pipe organ the sound doesn't really
10:44change a whole lot after you play the
10:46note and the note sustains until you
10:48release it so you can find some
10:50interesting sweet spots with sounds like
10:52that but I found that sounds that have a
10:54clear transient like I don't know a
11:03are really really good in granular
11:05synthesis I've also done some stuff like
11:08singing into a granular synth and
11:10changing the vowel from like o to a and
11:13stuff like that and that works really
11:15well because it's evolving over
11:28time you you could also granular IE one
11:30of your other evolving synth pads you
11:32know an FM pad or something that you
11:35just learned how to make in this very
11:36video something like Native Instruments
11:38stray light does granular really well
11:40it's something that I use all the time
11:42in the software world or you could grab
11:44something like archu is pigments which
11:46does pretty much every type of synthesis
11:49that I'm talking about today and does it
11:51all really well and combines it in
11:52unique ways uh pigments is really good
11:55it's kind of like having the aridium in
12:01that's the idium it it grew a keyboard
12:03since some of the demos that you're
12:04seeing in this video so now we have some
12:06really cool ways to make interesting
12:08sounding pads that have texture and they
12:11evolve over time and they're just fun to
12:13listen to and now we just have the most
12:17important part which is what do I do
12:22them pads can take up a lot of space in
12:25your track both harmonically and in
12:27terms of the frequency spec that they
12:29take up when we think of pads we usually
12:31think of cords and when we think of
12:34cords we usually think of groups of
12:37giant notes together big chords we want
12:40our music to sound huge and massive so
12:43obviously the more notes we can cram
12:45into a chord the better it's going to
12:48sound the bigger it's going to be and
12:52the opposite is actually true the
12:54simplest definition for a chord is any
12:56group of two or more notes
13:00H so what if we thinned our chords out
13:02to only three notes and then that
13:05allowed more space for I don't know the
13:07base or the lead or Arps or sequences to
13:10happen around that and everything is a
13:13bit more clear what if we only use two
13:15notes at a time with a pad-like sound on
13:18a synth well then we have to figure out
13:21like how to write good parts which is
13:37but you'll notice that everything is
13:39really clear you can hear everything
13:41that I want you to hear when I'm only
13:42using two notes at a
13:50time you create more space but then the
13:53notes that you do choose to use become
13:55more important and I like to think in
13:57this way more linearly so rather than
14:00chord progressions I think in terms of
14:02part writing a lot of the time and if
14:04you want to read more about that or
14:06understand that more I have a free ebook
14:08on composition that kind of goes over
14:10some of these techniques that I like to
14:11use the most it's down in the
14:13description below and it's free you can
14:16also have your pads interact with the
14:18other elements in a track like say some
14:21of the more rhythmic elements in a track
14:23if you have rhythmic elements in your
14:26track I don't always have drums in my
14:28music but even something like an ARP or
14:30something with a transient attack
14:37transient that's the one side chaining
14:39is a common technique in electronic
14:41music you can use it to make more space
14:44in your mix so that I don't know let's
14:46say when a transient hits the pads the
14:49sustained elements kind of duck out of
14:51the way and make room for
14:55that things were much better
15:09couldn't or you can dial this up for a
15:12more creative effect like you'll often
15:39and that actually serves the purpose of
15:41giving your pad some rhythmic element as
15:43well and when you trigger that rhythmic
15:45movement with another element that
15:47exists within your track that creates
15:49this sort of symbiotic relationship
15:52between all of the elements of your
15:53track if you didn't grow up watching
15:55Star Trek Deep Space 9 that just means
15:57that they work together and play off of
16:02other sometimes it's better to take
16:04stuff out than to add more stuff I think
16:08a lot of times for me I find that to be
16:10the case if you have a track that you
16:12started with the pad which often happens
16:14for me because I I tend to improvise
16:16with my pads in a linear sort of fashion
16:18like we talked about so I'm starting
16:20with the pad and then I leave the pad in
16:23for the whole track you start to forget
16:25just how much of the frequency range
16:27that that pad takes up it takes a lot of
16:30space so try picking a few moments in
16:33the track and muting the pad and see if
16:36everything that you've built around that
16:37pad starts to kind of spring into action
17:07after you've experimented with trying
17:09this in a few different places once you
17:11find those right moments it can really
17:13breathe life into the track without you
17:15having to go and add a bunch of stuff or
17:18create new sections to try to add
17:20contrast maybe you just need to take
17:22this thing out for a few measures I'm
17:24planning an entire video as we speak
17:26about subtractive Arrangement as I like
17:29to call it which is this very technique
17:31it's taking things out rather than
17:32feeling like we have to cram more stuff
17:35into our tracks all the time because
17:38that's when things start to get
17:39cluttered and a little messy and if you
17:42want to see that you can subscribe to
17:43the channel but for today I hope that
17:46this has given you some ideas on how you
17:48can use pads more effectively not only
17:51how to spice up how they sound but also
17:53how to actually use them in your music
17:57because that's why we're here I also
17:59have a bunch of other videos about
18:00composition and synthesis and using
18:02those two things together they'll be
18:04here for you if you want to check them
18:05out but for now thanks for watching and
18:09get out of here go make some
