Pad Sounds

OP-1
1

Any nice formulas to make warm pads with the OP-1? Anything that comes close?

2

FM, Cluster, or Dr Wave are mostly what I use, nice slow envelope, run it through nitro with top and bottom end cut to taste.

3

The Punch effect works great for warm pads too. I sometimes use String for the synth but when a voice gets stolen there’s an audible click. Make sure you keep the level low (set using the orange knob on the tape page).

4

CLUSTER

5
CLUSTER
god damn yes, I've made some super analog sounding pads with that. Fitting name too—most of the sounds I come up with using that machine sound like synths from Cluster songs :D
6

env + some cutoff + a little lfo>pitch into generous delay or spring

7

great suggestions, thanks!

8

Certain settings of Pulse make excellent pads, since it has parameters very useful for getting different subtleties of pad sounds. However, you have to know the magic trick to get rid of the obnoxious attack variation. The magic trick is as follows:

1. Make an envelope with a reasonable attack for a pad. This will certainly catch some part of the attack’s “twamp”.
2. Set Green synth param to 0, which will completely kill the sound. (Useful setting, right? In the ideal world this would vary sound character without making a dent in loudness, but for some reason it doesn’t.)
3. Use Element LFO to channel envelope to Green synth param and set it to some reasonable two-digit number.

Here. With this you get a reasonably fast attack without the “twamp”. I feel proud for figuring this out, but I would much prefer if the white knob did the same thing without messing around with LFOs at all.

Edit: Ah, this only matters for lower octaves. On 1+ you don’t need anything aside from slow envelope, because the “twamp” fades away much faster. If you stick to higher octaves Phase can make some interesting pad sounds if you filter the heck out of it.

9

great tip gambler!
making some nice hollow pads with pulse now…