How important are the pads on todays arrangers for you?

Personally i am a big fan of Tyros 5s midi pads, and since most of the arps in Motif are compatible with Tyros 5 i have a huge database of them...

They are also not that hard to create yourself ( with the exception of the midi pads using mega voice technollogy)

So how much use do you make of the pads?

I use them Very sparingly in my songs,....and if I use them it's almost always latin percussion of some sort as most others are too repetitious adding to the already repetitious styles arrangers use..

I have never use them on my Korg pa600.

I use them much the same as Donny above. Plus in 'dance' styles I'll go with some of the built in synth sequences, drop them in and out. As with anything else, use them tastefully, sparingly and intelligently.

I use them sparingly, but would use them more if the Pad Creator was better. It won't let you use an SA voice and I have yet to figure out a way to quantize the phrase, which is important to me, especially on a repeating one.
I do use a few premade ones, such as a steel drum or marimbe effect on some latin numbers.

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One of my good uses is with dance music, where i want more then 2 drum tracks in a dance styles, and mix with them, espescially for todays trance music having 4 extra drum beats to mix with is a godsgift...

I am still not happy that there can only be 2 drum tracks in a variation, i wish yamaha allowed user styles to change track type, i dont see any reason for this restriction at all..

You can use sa voices, just not the 22 SA2 voices and the organworld voices on the T5

I've edited a lot of the Pa900 styles to utilize pads I think fit better ... sometimes I delete an accomp track and use the pad instead ...
Like Donny, I also use a lot of Latin percussion pads ... pads of strings etc. are usually quite repetitious ...

I often use the pads for drum flams and ending. Adds a live feel to some songs. Can't overuse it though.

I use the pads often. Latin tunes give way for great variations to the pads. Increases interest in Latin variations.
Also use in various styles. Possible to overuse. Lloyd