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I've made quite a percussive track with lots of congas and a midrange bass, how can i get my pad not to interfere with the previous sounds?

high pass/eq low end out, stereo spreading, stereo effects, lfo panning.

100% wet reverb often works

Both nailed it. Simply panning adds an amazing amount of space to tunes.

Yeah push it back and out to the sides of the mix. Reverb and chorus can do this.

Also see if you have an empty spot in you frequency spectrum to put it in.

And amidst the chorus of ensuing boos, fucking side chain that bitch to everything. <-- that's the most grammatically ambiguous phrase, ever. Anything that you don't want to be covered up by the pad, send to a side chain compressor (or dynamic eq) on the pad. Also doesn't mean that you have to totally knock the pad out when other hits, but depending on the spectra involved, you can just take the pad down a bit.

green plan wrote:Both nailed it. Simply panning adds an amazing amount of space to tunes.

I agree.

I would say w/ Pads, unless they are your main element, you can afford to really cut them w/ EQs, they may sound thin if you solo them, but generally will fit better in the mix.

All good advice, but don't use the stereo field as a crutch. Your mix should sound pretty clear in mono too. Get that right first, then use panning and widening as an embellishment.

Depends on the kind of track you're making, imo. Club track, headphone track, etc. Doesn't hurt to work towards cleanliness, though.

I find if you put the pad in the right octave and you're happy with the timbre, you generally only need subtle EQ + side chaining but only if it really is conlicting with the drums.

Also this:

static_cast wrote:All good advice, but don't use the stereo field as a crutch. Your mix should sound pretty clear in mono too. Get that right first, then use panning and widening as an embellishment.

As someone else said EQ out low end and high pass till you find the sweet spot, and it "should" mix its self. A lot of verb sounds great on pads and creates so much space.