Dear Anyone.

I'm disabled AND a noob - so if I'm in the wrong forum/wrong part of this forum, have patience!

I do everything with mouse/notation package so we're talking VSTs here (PC). Think composers like Aeoliah, Mike Rowland, soft keyboard/pad spa music, relaxation music (New Age as opposed to chillout, which is different...) even those Peruvian groups who use panpipes, rhythm - and BEEG fat pad in the middle of the sandwich.... where do they get their pads from? I've downloaded all sorts and they just sound like Skrillex meets Star Wars - no gentle softness. Yet I keep hearing the same (or similar) sounds turning up all the time on tracks, so they've gotta be presets on SOMETHING - but what?

If anyone knows any methods of creating such pads - I'm happy to learn those, too, if the poster has a bit of patience with a dumbass. Yes I've learned how to create some sounds on YouTube - but it's like cooking, one recipe gives you one result and I don't see how to use the 'recipe' to create other sounds...

I've got a good soundfont player Cakewalk SFz+ Legit Freebie.) Got the Korg Legacy Collection. Got Kontakt (which is bad on obeying MIDI commands) Wahsyn Fat Mama, A ton of soundfonts, inc. Gort's Double-Decker and many synthy soundfonts - but they all seem to be optimised towards dance and I can't 'soften' them, they're the right idea but too harsh and I can't de-harshen them. Even got Omnisphere but unless I'm missing something, it's all weirdo 'avante-garde' sounds, nothing really usable (burning piano, African township, guitars sounding like aeroplanes, bicycles played with violin bows, Schoenberg/Harrison Birtwistle, John Cage, maybe. Me, I'm New Age, or wannabe!)

Other composers, Phil Chapman, Ethno Music Project, PaulFromStoke (he's all over YouTube like a rash right now), Med Goodall,Tranquility, OK, even Lift Muzak played on synths.... You know the stuff. I just want to know how to do the sounds, it's up to me if I write good music with 'em afterwards!

VSt's, demo versions of, inexpensive preferred, will splurge out if I'm certain they do the soft sounds I want easily (while I'm learning how to use synths....)

Over to you.

Yours respectfully

Chris.

Definately checkout http://www.arturia.com/ and try some of the Classic Synth VST plugins because I think they have the fat warmth you are looking for. You can download 15 day demos from http://www.arturia.com/evolution/en/downloads/demos.html
And I see you can get them all in a bundle in Dream Studio which looks like good value for 10 classic synths. Arturia have a great reputation for their VSTi synth emulators. And you can bet that almost all those warm fat pad sounds you like were made with analog synths. And often the pads you hear in New Age compositions the analog pads may be overlayed with digital sounds such as strings, flutes etc to create a more complex pad. But the analog pad always carries the warmth and body of the sound. So be prepared to sometimes use more than one synth engine to build the sound texture.


Also watch this Youtube featuring the Top 10 Free Soft Synths. There are some nice fat pads in this demo. By the way have you tried Crystal http://www.greenoak.com/crystal/dwnld.html ? It is an old one but free.