Pads & Leads

Pads and leads sit at opposite ends of the same synth: a pad is a slow, wide atmosphere; a lead is a fast, narrow voice. Same knobs, opposite settings. Build both from Init:

Recipe 1, Lush pad: two saws, detune ~15 ct (the shimmer from lesson 4), attack ~1 s, release ~2 s, sustain high, cutoff ~1.2 kHz, LFO → Filt at 0.3 Hz / 25% depth for slow breathing, delay mix ~40%. Hold a chord with Hold latched, close your eyes.

Recipe 2, Cutting lead: one saw (turn Osc 2 off, width makes leads mushy), instant attack, sustain ~70%, cutoff ~2 kHz, resonance ~4 for presence, filter Env Amt ~40% so notes spit, a little Drive, short delay (~200 ms, mix 20%) for space. Play melodies up an octave.

Recipe 3, Plucky arp lead: Recipe 2, but sustain 0 and decay ~250 ms. Every note becomes a percussive dot, the backbone of a thousand arpeggios.