Been on a quest to create the best pads ever since I heard trance so heres a few tips:

• Use lots of voices. You can use a low amount of voices on your osc if you want, but more voices adds atmosphere and weight.
• There's no way around it... using a lot of voices with multiple oscillators WILL induce some phase cancellation. When this happens, the volume of your pad will randomly fluctuate. So, in order to have a consistent pad, apply saturation or a limiter to push down the volume to a point where you find it acceptable. 
• Utilize pre and post filtering. What I typically do is have a little decay on my cutoff filter for the oscillators; just a little something to adding energy. Then I'll apply FX like reverb, delay, etc. THEN I put a second filter on without any ADSR tweaking in order to filter the FX. It typically ends up working quite well and creates a less 'violent' pad.
• Reverb. Your pad is specifically an instrument that A) supports the other instruments, and B) creates atmosphere/area.
• Do not over complicate your chords. Unless your pad is the center of attention, I recommend keeping it VERY simple. If you're dying to get a complicated sound, look towards how you design the sound, not how you compose it.

Iowa State University!

Also, thanks dude! No worries I completely understand. All I needed to hear. haha

Nexus all the way. But if you want to go cheap - if you're using FL Studio, FL Keys works wonders if you know how to tweak it a bit.

THIS!

I always EQ before sidechaining. Most other FX as well.

Quote from: ErikF on July 06, 2016, 10:46:16 pm

I've found that Serum is the best for creating simple bass shots. I used Spire before, and it was always tough to get that "grit".

A good way to get that grit is to use aggressive distortion.

ahh to get grit in spire, you have to use the shaper FX, tube etc, but you have to make good sound first before applying FX, yeah its the distortion FX in synths to get grit, i think massive, serum and spire are good for bass

Ye the shaper in Spire isn't as good as Serum's IMO. Spire is still amazing though!

Oh cool, I can find "studies" from Huffington Post blogs that are more recent than your debunking. I can find multiple of them so best case scenario is that both of us are arguing over something that isn't fully hashed out and unless you're saying that you're not in favor of equal pay for equal work than we're both on the same page in wanting assurances on the books that there will be equal pay for equal work.

Quote from: ErikF on July 07, 2016, 01:27:23 am

Yes, because it has been statistically proven (for the most part) that to stay out of poverty, you must do 3 simple things:
1) Don't commit illicit activities.
2) Don't have kids out of wedlock (doesn't have to be for religious reasons)
3) Get a job. Any job.

Provide those statistics, because I can find examples where you're wrong.

I cited that Huffingtonpost article because the author of it was the woman who conducted these studies. Christina Hoff Summers is her name. I urge you to research her work.

Regarding the "more recent study" you cited: It does not matter how new that study is if it was conducted in a fallacious procedure. I quiet honestly do not think I need to explain why that is...

The examples that you found to prove me wrong, don't actually prove me wrong...
They don't show how the described poor person is going through the steps (that I cited earlier) in order to lift themselves out.

Of course, I'm not saying all people are born equally, and that the weak slip into poverty. Some people are born into poverty, some people are not. The beauty of capitalism is that if you are born into poverty, you can guarantee that if you work hard enough, you will see progress. Sadly this process is being destroyed by the left with increased regulations and limits. I've seen it first hand.


Evidences: http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/research/files/reports/2015/12/aei-brookings-poverty-report/full-report.pdf

Women earn 79 cents on the dollar for doing the same work as a man, working in the same position, with the same amount of qualifications and job experience.

False. The study conducted was fallacious at its core. The reason for this is this: The study did not take into account the people who choose to stay at home AND NOT WORK. Women in America tend to choose to stay at home and "take care of the house & kids".

An unbiased study came to the conclusion that women are paid at the same level if not more so than men.

EVIDENCE: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/christina-hoff-sommers/wage-gap_b_2073804.html

I "had" this problem a year ago. I conquered it by changing my "production mantra":

Make music for myself, not for others.

When I realized that, everything changed. I didn't need to compare my music to top notch productions.
This changed my attitude on my goals of production. Now, I'm learning to better myself for myself.

Hope it goes well dude! Just remember this: if you continue, you WILL get better. You're in a slump, and it will only last for a little bit. Just keep pushing through!