What is your favorite pad synth?

[Alex E]

Post, explain, etc.

Personally, mine is the Juno 60 if only because I grew up with early Enya recordings.

[Stab Frenzy]

V-Synth. VA + Sampler + heaps of effects = awesome pads.

[Psy_Free]

V-Synth XT. Simply awesome for pads and much more beyond. So many modulation possibilites & some great effects. Plus you get a D-50 thrown in. (Don't use the Vocal Designer much though).

Close 2nd = JD-800. Up to 4 tones combined with very different setups = great evolving, shapeshifting pads.

[gcoudert]

Roland JV1080. And I should never have sold my Korg Wavestation. DX7 sampled then layered in the sampler isn't bad either.

[tomorrowstops]

Haven't found my 'favorite' yet, but I really liked what my Juno 6 could do pad wise. Shouldn't have let that one go!

Currently, I'm working with a Prophet 5. Its great for just about everything, but so far not 'the one' pad-wise. (But I'm still experimenting!)

I also recently bought a D-50/PG-1000 (*chuckles*). Lord knows when I'll get a chance to understand it, but for its type of 'that' sound it seems like it could slay.

I suspect that - A: since the Juno 6 was my first, the Roland sound is what I really like, and B: a Jupiter 8 is in my future

[rhino]

Roland JX-10, Ensoniq TS.

[Yekuku]

The D50, JD800/990 & Wavestation are my picks, especially when programming complex soundscapes.

[GuyaGuy]

Prophet 600 for thick and woozy analog
V-Synth and PolyEvolver for versatility, thinner pads that sit well in a dense mix, and spaced-out/whacked-out/evolving pads

[Big Gnome]

Depends what I'm after, but overall I have to stick up for my VFX - it can sound colossal, but it generally doesn't overwhelm a mix either. Given the ability to layer up to 6 voices with either samples or wavetables, 3 looping envelopes, an LFO, noise modulation, and 2 filters each, plus a still-excellent effects section, you can get some incredible sounds out of it.

Now if only those filters had resonance...

[CS_TBL]

you know which one

Why: sound shaping 'till you drop, evolving envelopes 'till you drop.. but also detailed and vast 'ordinary' pads.. classic and contemporary.

[adhmzaiusz]

My personal faves are the Virus for textures and the Chroma Polaris for evolving twisting soundscapes

[Rick N Boogie]

Since I just recently added a Virus KB to my arsenal, I'd have to say it's "the one" for me. Nothing else I own will even do a decent pad. I do love that morphing motion craziness it does. And I haven't even gotten too deep into the edit menu's yet.

[Ashe37]

I'd have to say the Ensoniq VFX.. (or SD-1, which is what i have currently on my stand. *almost* the same thing.)

[Solderman]

JP8 may have been the smoothest, but kind of basic. Strings were great, though.

More interesting has been the Virus b through a Boss CE-300 rack chorus, modified for line-level input. An example:

[CfNorENa]

For digital, I like the Waldorf Blofeld. Mixing wavetables and VA oscillators, all those envelopes, the huge modulation matrix -- it's just an outstanding set of tools for complex, evolving, never-heard-by-human-ears-before digital pads.

On the analog side, I'll go with the Roland MKS-70. Soft, mellow, warm. Fills up space in the mix perfectly, and somehow makes everything around it sound better and -- for lack of a better word -- "professional."

Runner-up on digital pads: pretty much any Korg ROMpler.

Runner-up on analog pads: Korg Polysix -- hypnotic.

As for the Juno 60, which has mentioned a few times, I never liked it as a pad synth. Tremendous bass, outstanding arps, phenomenal brass stabs. Great look, great sound, great machine. But for pads? Never worked for me in that area...