how... those 90's atmospheric dnb pads?

Analog Poly, VA, or Digital synth plus some large chord m7 m9, etc. Play a chord then use the pitch bend to shift to a different chord. That's one technique.
 
Just play different keys, detune 2 oscillator square sines, by half of an entire key. Play it in different octaves to see if it sounds better deeper or higher pitched and toned. Play 1 oscillator but with two adjecant keys that blend well together and play in harmony together. Add a reverb or something, Low pass, adjust cutoff and adjust resonance so you have something highly resonant in the region of warmth and low mid and high end its occupying. Just one example though your best option man is to play with it! Thats the way you learn! I taught you one way but literally you can create millions more ways! <3 hope this helps too!
 
LikesItHardware said:
https://soundcloud.com/https%3A%2F%2Fsoundcloud.com%2Frogue-ai%2Fatmospheric-dnb-with-a-touch

Here's what I mean. This track I'm working on uses Eb6 chords and pitch bend.
Click to expand...

Not bad; could do with a bit more harmonics, a couple of keys I suppose one higher octaved and one lower. Something I've been doing recently is splitting my notes and doing filter and effect adjusting per-note, gain adjusting per-note too. I got the idea from people always saying that's how they go about getting those nice harmonics in their sub-basses, so I figure why not apply that to pads as well? Of course things still need to stay in a certain frequency range but I figure the key is to not overdo the effects on any given note and to get them sounding in concert.

And you probably know this one by now, but make sure the stereo width is present for movement, add in some echo but not too much, same with reverb. You don't want notes lingering on for too long. Hope any of this has been helpful.
 
Not really helpful since I use hardware. And besides. I've created a lead with my sampler that has some amp/pan modulation with a long release so it sounds like a reversed reverb/delay.

The pad is made up of a Roland JX-3P (1983) and a Kawai K1r (1988) so not really possible to do the filter thing. If there was more stereo movement in the pads it would clash with the lead (not in the file I uploaded).

update---

I found that I somehow stumbled on some sort of jazz scale as a few notes in my bassline aren't a part of my chords. I don't use software instruments much, but decided to use a Rhodes patch for the lead. Sounds nice and jazzy.

https://soundcloud.com/https%3A%2F%2Fsoundcloud.com%2Frogue-ai%2Fatmospheric-dnb-with-a-touch
 
Last edited:
Back
Top Bottom