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Right now, I've been spending a lot of time learning every facet of Massive because it is so freakin versatile. However, one thing that I am having a lot of trouble with on Massive is making pads. All of my pads are either too experimental to fit anywhere in my tunes or they all sound under-produced. This probably has more to do with my synthesizing abilities than with the synthesizer I am using but nonetheless: Do you use Massive for pads? If so, what kind of things do you like to play with to make your pads? If not, what synthesizer do you use and what about it do you like?

Massive and FM8 though I do actually use some stock FL plugins what are pretty handy for making pads with.

Take a square wave at -12, a sine a 0. Slowly modulate the filter using envelopes and/or lfo's. Use some chorus or phaser or flanger or something, put on a bunch of reverb... adjust to taste.
Also: ring modulation+sine wave+reverb
Oh didn't read... Massive is perfect for pads, although I do like it for pretty much everything.

FM8 is so good at pads and atmosphere sounds, its my goto for pads everytime.

Omisphere is the granddaddy of all pad generators.

Nexus makes some versatile pads.

alchemy from camel audio is pretty sweet...using it in a new tune and its giving me all types of sounds!

FM synthesis (FM8 to be exact) is pretty much my go to for pads. Modulate loads of parameters and modulator volumes and you've instantly got a pad with a ridiculous amount of movement.

sine waves are my go-to for pads. take a bunch of sine waves (4 will do fine, even) at different frequencies and automate the amplitude of each one very precisely. You gotta get detailed with this stuff.
The end result will most likely be something like this (I've posted this example many times before)
http://soundcloud.com/rjisreal/sytrus-pad-sound

Another alternative is to take virtually any sound (some are better than others) and timestretch > heavy reverb.

Omnisphere and Nexus are more romplers, not really synths... though Omnisphere kind of blurs the line between rompler and synth now, and is kind of in its own category.

But Massive will make some amazing pads. Experiment with the voicing section, especially unison and make good use of the macro controls to modulate the sounds. Put envelopes on a lot of the controls, long decay and release times. Modulate the envelopes with more envelopes or slow LFOs. Stick to playing chords.

you can make decent pads on massive. i just turn the unison up, detune a bit, modulate some parameters and add some verb and other fx.

You can make a really cool pad in massive by taking two sines, tuning one up a fifth (+7) and putting an LFO on their Amps. Put both the amps at 50% and put the LFO's going opposite. So one is all the way up when the other is all the way down. Then add some delay (most important part, really makes the sound) and verb to it. Its really beautiful. Mess around with that and it sounds awesome! I can upload the patch if you want.

Thanks for the ideas guys, I 'm going to have a lot of fun when I get home tonight. Keep em coming too! I'm sure that I'm not the only person who has trouble with pads

@CE9958 Sure, upload it. I'm curious to see how you use your synthesizers.

Check it out... pretty rough just threw it together real quick but it meets what I was talking about. Edit it a bit changing the LFO speed and try different filters in the filter 1 place to get different cool sounds as well as changing oscillator 3 cause thats what gives it the variation!

http://www.mediafire.com/?kec722kw932d9by

I have quite a few plugins that I use for pads, but massive is my go to synth for making something real quick because its easiest for me. When youre making a patch, just turn a knob back and forth, and if you like how it sounds, assign an lfo or an envelope. also, i didnt know about this for a long time, but the macro section in the bottom right corner is really cool, you can alter multiple parameters different amounts using one knob.

My favorite for pads lately has been synplant. god, i cannot tell you how much i love that thing.

Omnisphere and Nexus have great stuff out of the box, but I've been using Alchemy and Gladiator lately to horrifically beautiful affect. Alchemy is just dope for ANY and EVERY sound. If I could only have 1 "synth", she would be it. But the big tip here with pads is layering! Layer!!

Manic Harmonic wrote:My favorite for pads lately has been synplant. god, i cannot tell you how much i love that thing.

Played with the demo a few years ago, loved it. But remember that there was no automation, is this correct?

Project EX wrote:

Manic Harmonic wrote:My favorite for pads lately has been synplant. god, i cannot tell you how much i love that thing.

Played with the demo a few years ago, loved it. But remember that there was no automation, is this correct?

You can automate pitch, mod wheel, effect (reverb), atonality, wheels scaling, velocity sensitivity, volume, and release. You can also automate the rotation of the plant and the lenfth of the branches. you can't automate the dna controls though, like attack, lfo speed, etc. The available automations are enough for me. there is, however, a max for live patch for synplant that supposedly allows you to do this. i just downloaded it but i haven't tried it yet, but it looks pretty cool, it's got a step sequencer and some other stuff.

You should check out microtonic as well, it's a drum machine that's just as crazy as synplant, and the patternarium on their website randomly generates patterns and presets.

I check their website like once a week to see what's next...

Manic Harmonic wrote:

Project EX wrote:

Manic Harmonic wrote:My favorite for pads lately has been synplant. god, i cannot tell you how much i love that thing.

Played with the demo a few years ago, loved it. But remember that there was no automation, is this correct?

You can automate pitch, mod wheel, effect (reverb), atonality, wheels scaling, velocity sensitivity, volume, and release. You can also automate the rotation of the plant and the lenfth of the branches. you can't automate the dna controls though, like attack, lfo speed, etc. The available automations are enough for me. there is, however, a max for live patch for synplant that supposedly allows you to do this. i just downloaded it but i haven't tried it yet, but it looks pretty cool, it's got a step sequencer and some other stuff.

You should check out microtonic as well, it's a drum machine that's just as crazy as synplant, and the patternarium on their website randomly generates patterns and presets.

I check their website like once a week to see what's next...

Ah nice thanks, sounds good especially the lenght of the branches. Don't use Live tho. Will grab this in the near future if I have enough money.

Manic Harmonic wrote:I have quite a few plugins that I use for pads, but massive is my go to synth for making something real quick because its easiest for me. When youre making a patch, just turn a knob back and forth, and if you like how it sounds, assign an lfo or an envelope. also, i didnt know about this for a long time, but the macro section in the bottom right corner is really cool, you can alter multiple parameters different amounts using one knob.

My favorite for pads lately has been synplant. god, i cannot tell you how much i love that thing.

I just found myself watching the dancing branches.
It has a good sound it was too much of a gimmick to me.
just my opinion though.
It could make some great sounds though.

I really enjoy using Oatmeal, Crystal, Rhino, Zebrallette, Rez 4, Tyrrel N6, etc.