Hi, there,
So I’ve been reading some online reviews of synths. And in them I always encounter a sentence like this:
“great for leads, basslines and pads.”
So I feel like a total dummy… I’ve been making electronic music for over 20 years (though generally not in a pop idiom) and I’m stumped! What’s a pad?
Help!
Cheers,
John
I think a “PAD” is like one of those patches where it is something with a super long attack and decay and usually sounds tranquil or something for the background.
The best thing I can offer is if you were to download the arturia Moog Modular demo and look at their presets, choose pad and see what that sounds like.
Here is the wiki:
Synth pad
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A synth pad is a sustained tone generated by a synthesizer, often employed for background harmony and atmosphere in much the same fashion that a string section is often used in acoustic music. Typically, a synth pad plays many whole or half notes, sometimes holding the same note while a lead voice sings or plays an entire musical phrase. Often, the sounds used for synth pads had a vaguely organ, string, or vocal timbre. Much popular music in the 1980s employed synth pads, this being the time of polyphonic synthesizers, as did the then-new styles of smooth jazz and new age music. One of many well-known songs from the era to incorporate a synth pad is “West End Girls” by the Pet Shop Boys, who were noted users of the technique. Synth pads continue to be widely used today and they are starting to become more popular again in the late 2000s.
Fixed
ahaahahaahaha A+
It’s funny because it’s true. 
Mmmm…pads…
http://www.wohmart.com/a6/audio/SWSYNTH-SpaceStrings.mp3
That last one reminded me of Dream Weaver, though that was a mini.
Eric
Pads are the background, leads the foreground.
I would say pads are short for “padding” as in padding out the sound. Typically a long sounding background tone that forms a foundation upon which melody and rhythm can base themselves. Pads tend not to strictly be the area of monophonic synthesis as they often are chord based. However they are not exclusively polyphonic. Ambient music and the like tend to use pads as the forefront of their style minimalising melody in favor of a more atmospheric approach. Just my tupence.