The Audiotent experts on creating rhythmic pads
Introducing rhythmical movement to your pads retains the energy flowing within your track. Here’s how to get those pads moving…
PRODUCTION
Pads are great building blocks for intensifying the emotions of your composition. Most pads feature a slow attack and long release amplitude which represents a traditional bowed string instrument.
This amplitude setting is ideal for creating drama in cinematic music, but when working on fast-paced club tracks, pads slow the music down too much. If you introduce rhythmic movement, you get a sense of urgency.
There are a few ways we can achieve movement within synthesis. Some of the prime components for modulation sources are envelopes, LFOs, sample & hold and sequencers. In this guide we’ll focus on the LFO. To be more precise, ramp LFO is recommended here, as it tends to accentuate the transient portion of the LFO cycle. The ramp LFO can then be assigned to a variety of destinations depending on the sound you want. Here we assign the LFO to the filter cutoff, as well as the Osc A pitch fine tune. Sharing the same modulation source across destinations can give unity to your patch.
After reading the guide, don’t be afraid to further develop the patch. Try using sample & hold as a more unpredictable modulation source to your filter cutoff. Another destination to experiment with would be the LFO to the main VCA amount. Also, try LFO to pan control to intensify the stereo field. Experiment away!