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What kind of VST would I use to get good pad sounds? I'm struggling and can't be bothered using the same old sytrus pads.

Crystal? its a free vst with lots of pads

i'd get a sampler vst of sorts. otherwise atmosphere is amazing, blizzard.

Cakewalk Dimension Pro?

yeah crystal, blue, z3ta, albino, most synths have pads.
i'm not a big fan of pads though so don't trust me!

make em outta samples

strech em, layer em, effect em, layer more sounds into it

Paulstretch is amazing for making pads out of any sound.

On a completely different note, I've been using Vanguard again recently for pads. Works a treat for what I'm doing. Definitely trancey but not cheesy. Just some good deep space pads.

FM8's also an option.

Chimera is a nice white noise synth that does some pretty nice ambient stuff. Wish they made a AU version....

I'd recommend Native Instruments Absynth 3 or 4. It was designed with creating pads and soundscapes in mind and you can hear it on many video game and film scores!

Daft tnuc wrote:Paulstretch is amazing for making pads out of any sound.

it must av been you that i heard about that from on here!

is pretty sik for that kinda stuff

Just been playing w/ a couple free ones from DSK - the Odisea and Darkness Theory. Not too bad, especially for the price.

http://dskmusic.com/blog/?page_id=3

My friend swears by Chameleon5000 and I've heard some really nice pads come out of his studio, so I'd say that's a safe bet.

http://www.camelaudio.com/cameleon5000.php

I really like 2 Image Line synths Poizone and Morphine for pads. Also, a newer synth called Sylenth1, it's a super powerful, ultra flexible synth with a simple to use GUI and very intuitive programming structure..plus it's cheap! I've noticed it's becoming more and more of a go-to synth for me.

http://www.lennardigital.com/modules/home/

Chimera, occasionally V-Station

Paul Stretch and some random sounds off of Snap Sound, guitar sound are good to use with PS. Also stick some strings and choir sounds if your sampler and loop and and add some fx, I get some nice results with that.

if you use lots of pads i would recommend trying to write tunes without pads that sound full as an excersize. when i started writing, i used pads in every tune. i read that this is done alot because pads tend to cover a large frequency range, so to the ear, they make the tune sound a lot more full. as an excersize, I would suggest saying to yourself you will not use a pad in your next 5 tunes or something like that. instead use eq and compression to fatter everything up. i did this and it was probably the best thing i ever did for my production. but if you use eq and compression well, then absynth gets my vote or crystal 2 if you are on a budget:-)

Future Producer wrote:Paul Stretch

Oh my god, this. Was pissing about with a nelly furtado a capella, whacked it into this and stretched a tiny bit of it out, chopped that up and got the eeriest sound i have heard in ages.

Have to try this with some orchestral music actually, that will be interesting

Slim wrote:

Future Producer wrote:Paul Stretch

Oh my god, this. Was pissing about with a nelly furtado a capella, whacked it into this and stretched a tiny bit of it out, chopped that up and got the eeriest sound i have heard in ages.

Have to try this with some orchestral music actually, that will be interesting

is that only mac?

NoSpin wrote:

Slim wrote:

Future Producer wrote:Paul Stretch

Oh my god, this. Was pissing about with a nelly furtado a capella, whacked it into this and stretched a tiny bit of it out, chopped that up and got the eeriest sound i have heard in ages.

Have to try this with some orchestral music actually, that will be interesting

is that only mac?

Nah, i use it on a PC, should be fine.