Phat pads Virus KB question
 

Hey guys. Let me start off saying I am a total noob on programming synths, but I`m eager to learn. Been doing some producing for the last couple of years with some success, but nothing big though.
I`ve always been using factory / commercial patches and fiddling with them to get the sound i want. But i always seem to get short when it comes to phat evolving pads. I like trance/progressive and thats usually what i strive to reach to some extent with my own productions. though with a twist, I own a Virus kB wich is great but as stated earlier i`m a total noob at programming it. I usually (please dont ban me;)) use my kB as a masterkeyboard, controlling some vsti`s and so on.
So I was wondering if some of you had some hot tips when programming pads? Are there any cool tricks you guys use ? If you have some cool patches to play with it would be greatly appreciated :)

have a great day!

/Abnorm

Mate,
First of all, please stop apologising for being new to this! you dont have to...

Nothing beats opening a fat evolving pad patch you like and understanding how and why it sounds the way it does. What that means is, going through every part of it, oscillators, then filters, then envelopes etc...and figuring firstly, what makes a pad sound like a pad ( typically the slow volume envelope attack and long release), then why the fat pads sound fat ( the filters and oscilators)...and after that you understand how to make it evolve in an interesting way ( usually through the filter envelopes and LFOs...

Open them up, digest them till you OWN them. Practice this a lot and you will get better and eventually good at it.

Thanks for the tip :) I`ll dissect them to death!

If you haven't yet, go and read Howard Scarr's "Programming Analogue Synths" tutorial; I don't know if that's still its name, some refer to it as Howard Scarr's Virus C tutorial but it's quite useful to understand what's behind some sounds. You'll lack some Virus C functions but that shouldn't stop you.

allright! thanks for the tips :)