Looking for ambient soundscapes, lush pads

tomlange1 · 2025-04-03T18:25:04+00:00

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I received a $99 voucher from NI when I bought Kontakt 8, and have been searching the site for days, looking for something that's not pop/rock/drums or cinematic scoring.

I'm looking for ambient/lush pads because what I'm creating is on the meditative side of things - but the vast majority of what comes up in the NI site seems to be oriented towards rock/pop/drums/guitar or else cinematic sounds and massive libraries, and these are not what I'm after.

Outside of Kontakt, I've been building up a nice library, but I want to make the most of this voucher without going much over a hundred. Seems most of what I'm finding that has the sounds I like are ~199.

Any recommendations for lush pads, meditative sounds and ambient soundscapes?

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Vocalpoint

My go-to for any pad work - if Kontakt is a requirement - is Lunaris 2 from Luftrum.

Worth every penny

tomlange1

I found out how limited their vouchers are after further digging…. nothing from NI partners drastically reduced my options. No Luftrum, no Soniccouture…

But I'm curious based on your comment - if Kontakt is not a requirement, what would you recommend?

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/219795#Comment_219795

Vocalpoint

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/219811#Comment_219811

If you want to stay close to the NI yard - Massive, Massive X and Absynth could easily cover pads.

To step outside the NI yard - it’s Omnisphere at the top of the list with Pigments (Arturia) and then my essentials from u-He (Diva, Hive and Zebra) covering every potential pad sound you could ever dream up.

tomlange1

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/219812#Comment_219812

Omnisphere is out of my price range, but I've been considering Pigments. Been exploring Vital for now, but can see how Pigments could expand options greatly - also heard that the new Serum update gives it a run for the money.

With finances how they are at the moment, though, I'll continue learning with Vital, exploring Pianobook, and uncovering the random amazing preset here and there. I'm finding Ethereal Earth has quite a few that resonate with me. And then there are my acoustic instruments that I'm working into each session.

Vocalpoint

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/219991#Comment_219991

Vital is awesome too and will provide years of sculpting power for pads and soundscapes. Lots of preset packs out there too.

oobe79

Yeah, the $99 voucher only works for NI-proprietary Kontakt-based products. I don't think it even works for Reaktor instruments. I'm not sure there is a Kontakt pad instrument that would suit your needs here. Personally, I spent the $99 on the new Session Percussionist, which was $99, so it cost exactly $0. However, I personally think the Native Instruments Light trilogy (Pharlight/Straylight/Ashlight), which are designed as cinematic instruments, still sound pretty great when used as pads for electronic music.

For synth pads, the Reaktor user library has some gems. For classic 80's Roland Juno emulation, the Softube Model 84 supposedly takes the cake. I don't have this and choose to use one of the Reaktor custom user library Juno emulations, which cost exactly $0. For a more versatile virtual analog emulation, the two best I have for ridiculously lush and thick pads are Arturia's CS-80 and u-He's Diva. But if I just want to make a classic string synth pad, my personal go-to is the Brainworx's Oberhausen 90% of the time. This is a faithful SEM clone, and to be honest, is the better than all the other SEM clones out there.

For a more modern pad sounds, Minimal Audio's Current I think sounds the best, mainly because of how much you can do with effects and movement using macros.

tomlange1

I appreciate your suggestions, thanks for giving me some pointers!

DunedinDragon

I'd also mention some of the more specialized cinematic libraries such as Fables, Lores, Sequis and Piano Colors. I've found uses for all of them on different projects.

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