Guitar Player needs help

[amiller]

Yes, I confess, I'm a guitar player. I'm one of those unwashed heathens.

I have a Roland XP-50 that I'm using to help write some of my songs.

Question...what's a PAD?

 

[b3maniac]

From Wiki
"
A pad is a sustained tone generated by a synthesizer, often employed for background harmony and atmosphere in much the same fashion that a string section is often used in acoustic music. Typically, a synth pad plays many whole or half notes, sometimes holding the same note while a lead voice sings or plays an entire musical phrase. Often, the sounds used for synth pads had a vaguely organ, string, or vocal timbre. Much popular music in the 1980s employed synth pads, this being the time of polyphonic synthesizers, as did the then-new styles of smooth jazz and new age music.."

Basically, it is usually a sustained chord, or chords, typically in the backgound which help fill and/or set mood or tone for a song.

 

[Sargas]

Here's an example of how it usually sounds