Limiting voices is a really easy way to keep your pad sounds clean.
I had a conversation with a friend of mine recently about his general distaste for pads.
As I questioned him further I realized the problem he was having was that it felt like the notes that he played on a pad sound never actually stopped sustaining.
In part, this is because he tends to use a lot of pedal, but that aside, there is one simple and glaring solution that takes care of his problem.
Limiting the number of voices you allow your synthesizer to produce.
How to Limit Your Voices
In every synth capable of producing more than one note at a time, there will be a way to set the maximum amount of notes to be played.
In Ableton’s built-in “analog, this can be done by navigating to the master tab by clicking the area circled in red (pictured below), and adjusting the voices and priority (Circled in green)
Voices
“Voices” sets the maximum number of notes analog will play at any time. Setting voices to 1 will make your synth monophonic, while anything higher than that will make it polyphonic.
As a keyboard player, I find that setting this to 8 works nicely to help keep things clean.
Priority
“Priority,” tells analog in which order to phase out all notes. There are three options.
- Last
- High
- Low
For these examples, I will use a synth voice set to 2.
Choosing the “Last” priority option will remove the earliest note you played.
For example: When you sustain C,D,E in that order, you will be left with only the notes D and E.
The “high” option gives preference to notes that are higher in pitch.
For example, when you sustain the root, five, octave in that order ascending, you will be left with the 5 and the root.
The “low” option gives preference to notes that are lower in pitch.
For example, when you sustain the root, five, octave in that order descending, you will be left with the two lowest notes.
Do You Love Synthesis?
Me too! I love it so much that I’ve created a few great synthesizer resources for keyboardists just like you.
If you haven’t yet, grab a copy of the quick synth map. It gives a fantastic overview of all the parts of a synth and some common uses.
If you are ready to go all out and master synthesis from the context of playing live keys, sign up “Practical Sound Design For Keyboardists”