Pad

What it means

Pad designates, in electronic music, a sustained, soft sound surface that forms the harmonic background. Typical are a slow attack, a long decay, and a sound without a sharp onset, so that the surface appears unobtrusively and disappears again. Usually held chords in the middle register are played. The term also designates the corresponding sound setting of a synthesizer.

Musical use

In the arrangement, the pad takes on the task that, in other contexts, sustained string or organ sounds fulfil: it fills the space between bass and melody, keeps the harmony present, and provides cohesion without stepping forward rhythmically. Precisely because it stands out little, it strongly shapes the overall impression — remove it, and a piece suddenly seems thin and hard. The art lies in the dosage: surfaces too dense or too low make the texture opaque and cover bass and melody.

Performance practice

Keep pads in the middle register and avoid low, close chords, because they clog the bass range. Use the slow attack deliberately and set chord changes a little earlier, so that they stand in time. Take care that the surface does not overlap at harmony changes, unless a merging is wanted. Check the mix on various playback paths, since wide surfaces work differently on small loudspeakers. Leave room: less surface makes melody and rhythm clearer.

Bear in mind that surfaces easily take up too much room: they fill every gap, and precisely through this the tension that arises from empty spaces is lost. Check, therefore, whether a passage really needs the surface. Use filter envelopes or slow modulation, so that long surfaces stay alive. Set chord changes a little earlier because of the slow attack. Start the surface's entrance softly by lengthening the synthesizer's attack time.

Check whether a surface covers frequencies together with the bass, and pull it back there in the lower range.

Coordinate the pitch of the pad with the tuning of the other instruments, especially in recordings with acoustic instruments.