There's gotta be a Kontakt library with sounds like these?

Chrisulrich · 2023-08-26T21:39:52+00:00

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Dear Anyone.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FaRrq7cYu84&t=306s

and/or (preferably 'and'!)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUOFj0ztpSU

Anything that's not the piano (I call 'em pads, but I'm dumbass on music techie terms so you experts might call 'em something else) in either/both tracks.

I've come to the reluctant but sad conclusion I'm too thick to create these kinda sounds myself using VST synths, so I need a bit of help from a library of Nice New Age Backing Pads (or worship pads, like Mainstage on Mac uses, they'd be awesome. Prob. is I've got a PC, not a Mac, with Windows 10.)

Freebies would be nice (of course!) but I've got a bit of money for t his - what do I buy? Please - not a library used for horror movie soundtracks, or video-game dead city warfare-against-zombie-monster soundtracks - nice New Age pieces. Like Real Music, or Private Music, or the British label New World Music release. I know the other composers create their own but I've tried and tried and - nah. I needs a library or 2 to keep me going. Warm pads, stringpads, choir-meets-synth pads, pwetty pads(!), imagine you're writing a clone of either of the above tracks (or playing Worship Keys and wanted Mainstage-type sounds.)

Does Komplete Start (yup - the free version!) have any pads-or-whatever-you-call-em sounds like these? If so, is it just a couple amidst a ton of horror movie sounds - I keep being given those, can't really use 'em - or is it a nice collection of NICE sounds like the examples?

Yours hopefully

Chris.

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JesterMgee

Prob. is I've got a PC, not a Mac, with Windows 10.

Not an issue really, in fact lately it's been more beneficial for trouble free usage with plugins to be a PC user with the bumpy road that is Apple Silicon, but really makes no difference in terms of what plugins you can use.

From the 2 seconds I listed to of each, sounds like just typical bell-type pads really. Omnisphere is my first suggestion if you like Pad styled sounds, it offers almost endless possibilities here and has thousands of ready made presets to get you going.

For something a little cheaper but purely synth based (not hybrid synth/sample like Omnisphere) some of the Cherry Audio plugins like Dream Synth could be a good, more cost effective option.

You also have the likes of Steinberg PadShop, UVI and Arturia both have loads of modelled vintage synths that have a plethora of pad sounds and with Arturia a good bet is Pigments.

If you have not already done so, check out Komplete Kontrol or Maschine as a browser for presets. It will list all the NI instruments and allow you to select "Pads" as a filter so you can see what is actually available in the NI content as a start and step through them to hear the sound previews. Then you can look into other NKS enabled instruments like Arturia or anything in the link in my signature as other options to easily browse.

I could suggest probably another 50 plugins since Pads are pretty common with most synth plugins, however really depends what pad sound you are after. From the examples my money would be on Omnisphere.

Murat Kayi

If you downloaded the free Komplete Kontrol software you can search Komplete Start for pad sounds across all plugins, there should be loads of them.

But I would suggest keeping your money and looking up how to create a pad sound. YouTube will smother you with tutorials on this. Ask an AI bot. Read it up, I don't know. I say that, because a pad sound is so easy to make and you can basically turn everything into a pad.

Does what you use have an Amp Envelope? Mostly a so-called ADSR - Search for it.

High Value on attack means slow attack: makes the sound creep in

Decay: turn it down, it's the time it takes for the sound to lower to the next volume level which is...

Sustain: turn it up

Release: for smooth transitions between pressed notes, turn it up, now the sound keeps playing for a bit when you let go of the key

The shape of this envelope is the reason people call that sound a pad.

Spend the saved money on travels and Longdrinks.

dexl

Check out this free library for your ambient sounds:

https://www.darkskyaudio.com/xperiments/

DunedinDragon

There are definitely a very wide range of multi-timbrel and layered synths available from NI, but it depends on how serious you want to get with the things you want to do.

On the simpler side you have things like the Factory Library 2 which contains a fairly decent selection of of synths and pads and more complex libraries such as Ethereal Earth, Vocalise, Lunaris, Piano Colors, Valves and Vocal Colors which have stunning collections of combined synths and sampled instruments/voices. But the more stunning and amazing the libraries are the more horsepower you'll need on your PC and many might not work with the free version of Kontakt.

I'd suggest you visit the Native Instruments web site and just demo a few different libraries to get a feel of what you might like and read the specifics on the requirements for running them.

Sausagefingers

I would suggest Lunaris as a starting point - it is specifically for pad sounds, and comes with loads and loads of presets. I also have Wavestate Native which is actually a stand alone VST. It has a load of suprb pad sounds, but also can give you rhythms and loops - it can create incredibly complex soundscapes, but is a bit complex to program. However there are loads of people who create soundsets - I have bought 8 or 9 of them! But I would leave Vocalise till later in your journey. It gives you some beautiful pad sounds, but they are based on vocal samples, and is aimed mainly at the film scoring community, and is a bit unusual in how you use it. It is still stunning, but not best for someone starting out in VST-land!

Good luck on your journey, but there is a word of warning. Once you have bought a VST or two, you will be hooked and will want to buy them all. It happens to guitarists - think of guitarists you know who have a whole stack of guitars, and who take most of them out to a gig, but only play 2 or 3 of them! Bikers also get this disease, but in their case all they buy are bike parts!

Chrisulrich

Dear All.

Thanks for your wonderful suggestions. I'll be putting money aside for the paid-for options - take me about a month or so and will definitely be an incentive NOT to go down to bars for awhile! Till then - Dexi's free library suggestion is an awesome collection and will be being muchly used!

Sausagefingers, re. your comment about bikers.....

This guy's 31! And that's his house!! And Jester MGee, I was considering Padshop till I noticed what it does to your hair....

(Guess it's lucky I don't have any so I'm prob. buying it anyway!)

Thanks again,

Yours respectfully

Chris.

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