Dear Anyone.

I know this will sound dead elementary to you lot, that's because you can do it! I can't and it's killing me as a composer.

What am I talking about? Creating backings like HERE....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kkj8dJHoYVA

or HERE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFM0s88RWIo

The whole piece is composed of lovely pads in the second example, in the first I chose a chunk where the pads stand out, not that I want them that loud, but just so you hear what I mean.

I've been trying to get the hang of finding/layering/using sounds like these for what feels like a lifetime and had absolutely zero luck. Please, as far as buying VSTs goes, as it's just those kind of paddy sounds, I've got Kontakt Player on Windows 10, Sampletank, Reaktor, ZynAddSubFX, the Korg Legacy Collection, Synth1, The General, P8, some of the HG Fortune ones. I used to use Proteus VX but it doesn't work properly on Windows 10, it says it can't load its sounds. No idea why.

If I need to buy anything else, I will do, but if it's cheaper I'll buy it quicker! If you know soundfonts that would be good enough, I've got good soundfont players (the RGC SFZ+ and Plogue Sforzando) I just need to be taught how to find the sounds, how to tweak/layer them properly. I've tried a ton of YouTube videos but you can't ask them questions if you get stuck!

All help gratefully acknowledged and will be used - I'll prob. post stuff for critique, I just want to get the hang of doing it/using synths properly!

Yours hopefully (or hopelessly!)

Chris.

If you've already got all that stuff you should have more than you need for backround pads. I don't exactly know what our looking for and not telling you to buy one but my Roland BK9 has a whole section on that. I would never bother creating my own as there seems to be something for everry one there and I'm really lazy LOL! I use a few but when I want a backround pad I usually go for voices, my favorite is the famous Scat Voice so I can comp with my LH and get different effects. Good luck..

Dear Bill.

It's not I've not got the stuff, it's just I don't know what I'm doing wrong using it. I mean I watch YouTube videos. I set my oscillators/ gates/whatevers (highly technical term, that!) exactly the way they do on their VST (usually it's a different VST, true, but it's got saw waves, I got saw waves, so if I do to my saw waves what they do to theirs, I should get the same results, right?

Wrong. They get lovely pads, I get bull seal farts. Every time. And I've absolutely no idea what I'm doing wrong. So I asked a New Age label owner/composer how to get the sounds and he told me to buy Omnisphere. You seen the price of that thing? So I looked up reviews on it and - sounds from a burning (literally!) piano - check. Guitars made to sound like aeroplane propellors - check. Voices from an African village, check. Who's that thing written for, Luke Cage and Harrison Birtwistle (if you don't know them, they're the kinda guys who hit all the notes on a keyboard at once, smile sweetly and call it Free Composition!)

Then I listen to people like Yakuro, Aeoliah, Yellow Brick Cinema, Medwyn Goodall and hear lovely background pads again. Please, Bill, if I showed you pictures of how my most capable-looking (I say LOOKING cos I've never really gotten the hang of it) synth VST is laid out, could you help me come up with a few presets I can actually USE?

I promise I have really, really tried for years. Can hear all I want in my head and in others' compositions (no, I'm not ripping 'em off, it's just like you hear a violin tune for example) but I can't make the synths. do it. Like you, I know they COULD - if only I knew HOW.

Yours hopefully - same question goes out to anyone else who reads this, if they're prepared to talk me through using the things they'd have a really grateful guy this end of the keyboard -

Chris. King of creating Bull Seal Farts (and strangled cats, tortured leopards, alien bullfrogs.....!!)

Each type of synth/VST is different so copying settings from one synth to another won’t work.
The type of pads you want are specific only to you and how you create them is also down to you as no one knows what is in your head.
Find a pre-set pad that has a similar characteristic sound to what’s in your head (If you can afford Omnisphere you are in heaven) and use that as the basis for your sound, then twiddle the knobs and settings to see what they do until the sound you hear in your head pops up, it is all down to experimentation and your personal preference which will be different to anyone else, hence you have difficulty transferring YouTube videos to your equipment as you don’t know what is in their head.
WARNING: Don’t try creating from scratch until you are very very experienced, otherwise you will get nowhere. (You will find most pad type sounds used by players are based on pre-sets, not created from scratch)
Have fun

Bill

Omnisphere is still a bargain compared to a hardware synth...

Hi Ulrich, Firstly, are you using a DAW? And are you comfortable with it? Omnisphere is terrific but pricey if you're on a budget. Google "Luftrum Sound Design", he made a VST called Lunaris. Listen to the demos. Its $159. It only needs the Kontakt Player. I have Logic Pro x --but I found it easier to get a multi track recorder and record from my laptop into an audio interface. well, if you have any questions let me know. Frank

I’d just point out that Omnisphere is far, far more than just pads. Percussion, bass, leads, drums, you can make amazing music with it alone. Blowing 1/3 of its cost on a one trick pony VST doesn’t seem like good budget management...

Under $500 invested now could save you a fortune chasing cheaper solutions that don’t impress as much...