Soft pad

A pad is a soft, sustained sound that fills the background. This one is two detuned saws playing long chords.

Long chords; change the swell and the color.

Waveform: two cycles of the sound

Spectrum: low to high frequencies

Volume envelope (Attack, Decay, Sustain, Release)

Drag the squares on the envelope, or turn the knobs: they move together.

Attack600 ms

Release1.20 s

Cutoff1.80 kHz

Detune+12 ct

Open in TuttiDAW

The recipe: a slow Attack so chords swell in, a long Release so they blur into each other, a lowered Cutoff for warmth, Detune for width, and a slow LFO gently moving the filter.

Shorten the attack for a brighter, more direct pad. Push Cutoff up for a shiny one. Set Detune to zero and hear how much narrower it gets.