How to create AMAZING Pads & Drones (for any genre) - Sound Design Tutorial

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm……..lushness! Pads & Drones give LIFE, movement and evolution to your music. This is the ultimate pad and drone guide to sound design.

Shout out to my Accelerator student, Phil Able, who just had his new track signed and supported by Ferry Corsten! Listen to Ferry drop it in A State of Trance here, and support if you dig:

💪 WORK WITH ME
Learn how to produce chart-topping electronic dance music and make money from it in a matter of weeks not years.

In this sound design tutorial I show you how to make pads from scratch. It’s also a drone sound design tutorial, so you’ll know how to make beautiful pads, dark drones and how to mix them into your music. Need to know how to make ambient synth pads, a warm synth pad or how to make drone sounds? No problem - we cover it all in this sound design tutorial - including synth sound design, using samplers to make pads and drones and layering.

In this tutorial, we cover…

00:00 – Intro
01:00 – Pads vs. Drones
01:44 – Have an intention
02:12 – Basic Pad Settings
02:53 – Evolution, Movement & Modulation
04:20 – Layering Oscillators
06:22 – Adding Richness
07:33 – Creating Depth & Size
08:07 – Auxiliary Effects
07:48 – Plugin order
10:20 – Adding character
13:09 – Laying multiple instruments
14:00 – Using a sampler to create a pad
15:55 – Layering with composition
19:05 – Group processing
20:01 – Creating drones
23:28 – Layering drones
24:48 – Mixing pads & drones
28:34 – Adding MORE character!
29:36 – Your signature sound

📝…And here’s the blog version of this video: ???

Here's the gear I used to make this video!

🔈 My Audio Gear:

🎛 My Plugins:

….AND SAY HI ON THE SOCIALS, BRAH:

Cheers, and happy producing!
Will

OTHER VIDEOS TO CHECK OUT:

AND…

#sounddesign #abletonlive #xferserum

[EDMTips]

Let me know what you think of this video in the comments below. If you liked this video don't forget to smash that subscribe button so you don't miss out on any of my upcoming tutorials!
🔥
Question of the Day ⚡What do you think is lacking in your productions to reach that next level sound?? Drop your answer below! 👇🏼👇🏼
👉🏼 WOULD YOU LIKE TO WORK DIRECTLY WITH ME FOR AN ENTIRE YEAR? Click here to submit your application to join the EDM Tips Accelerator Program and see if you’re a good fit👇

[OperculumAudio]

Every time I try and find the right ambient sounds for my song, this little voice pops in my head and says "These are not the drones you're looking for".

[Andrukas]

Its amazing to see your enthusiasm and excitement as soon as you come up with that sweet sounding sound, truly inspiring stuff.

[Ryzasu]

Creating rich pads is one of my favorite things about music production (apart from creating sick drums) and its cool to see ive actually been doing all of these tricks already. I really like using the max for live LFO tool the possibilities are just endless

[Cluniocu]

Thank you Will for sharing one complete example about how we could use the Pads and Drones together, with other types of instruments or effects like Kicks, Drums, Bass, Pianos or Vocals

Is important not only see the Pads or Drones alone as a lot of people share on YouTube, but also see all them within the context os a song

Excellent video and very instructive

Thanks a lot for sharing your knowledge, and how you mix all to get the final result

[VonSC]

Will, I started with Ableton (2?) back in 2003 ... then made a career with it producing / teaching / studio services / DJing in clubs in Orlando for about 5 years. Other than the manual, the Ableton forum, a few ragtag blogs and my producer DJ buddies sharing tips I was almost completely self taught. We had nothing like this back in the day. I put it all aside for a new career in 2010 but recently I busted it back out and looked for a way to get back up to speed. Your channel is hands down TOPS, you brought it all back to me AND walked me through features / processes that I never got around to digging in on AND you are teaching me stuff where I'm like "Oh shit that is 🔥. Great work ty for putting it all together the way you do 🙏!

[ghostbuska]

Another awesome vid Will. Pads were always a weak point in my productions so I checked this out. Can't believe how much I've learned in 30 mins! On the way to honing my signature sounds now, thanks so much for this video!

[carloschowell]

Will, the level of quality in your explanations is so high! I deeply appreciate your dedication. When you added the ensemble character to the synth layering it was majestic! Thanks man!

[Trax_travels]

4 Minutes In and I'm already smiling. Thank you for your content man. Just starting my production journey but I keep finding my way back to your videos.

[Almaltz]

So I don't know if anyone knows this, or if everybody knows this, or if anyone will ever even see this comment, but the people that make Serum have a plugin where you can put the Serum effects on anything. Pretty handy. I had no clue it even existed until the other day.

[matthiasgarnier]

I don't even finished watching your video but I have to leave a comment : even though I produce techno and not EDM at all, your demonstration and the way you deliver it, the vibe you emit, I feel so grateful for this, thank you so much!

[vmurmis]

This is one of the most valuable videos produced on the topic by far. I've learnt a lot. Thank you.

[darrenrobinson]

This is right up my street at the moment, I'm right in the mood to make a deep chill pad track, cheers Will. 🍻.

[defectiveresistor]

And only this evening I was attempting to make my own pads and drones. Looks like I’ll be going back to it tomorrow with a new knowledge. Thank you very much.

[d_futureguy]

Will, thank you again for everything you do… been doing this for few years now and I always pick amazing ideas to experiment with from you… like here which I will use in something other then a pad ( it was the crystallizer on the reverb return) so thank you so much…you make us all better producers ❤

[Muryk]

I don't know why but your videos are such a nice chill Sunday evening watch, you're pretty funny too, love it, keep doing what you're doing!

[theTIREDman]

Thanks for everything you do! I would love to see more in depth tutorials like this one. Absolute gold.

[Edreak]

Thank you Will, I was literally working on a pad when I saw this video and thought hey let's see what it can add... it added a lot :)

[deejaysoulution]

High level quality content but explained easy!
I love your tutorials 💜🙂

[christophersinn]

very cool video.
if you hold shift in the clip view, you can also transpose (up, down) in octaves instead of semitones, same as in the piano roll.