Below is a link with the audio, the first 13 secs is the original song with the pad I'm trying to remake and next comes my attempt
https://soundcloud.com/user-920148253/pad/s-qHGYz
I started just using a pad and band passing it, but when I noticed how far I was I got serious, started Serum...
Next I bounced every path I thought could help with the layering. (like 12 pads, which I suppose was a mistake)
Now I think here is my first error because although I removed any stock reverb and delay, I didn't touch the other settings so every pad had a different attack, decay, release, sustain setting as I just focused on tweaking the filter's settings.
The second mistake I think was using different chord voicings for different pads, instead of using the same voicings for all.
I noticed the original must be layered with a bass synth, so I added one.
For a while it was sounding promising.
I produce on headphones and have never used monitors (can't use where I live), so stereo imaging gets kinda confusing to me.
When I listen to the original, it sounds wide and punchy in the sides.
I tried widening with stereo imager, multiband widening, ping pong delay, reverb, panning, mid/side processing, and still didn't get it to hit where the original hits.
That's talking stereo image, I also didn't come close to the "warmness", I used sends with saturation, distortion, parallel compression, exciters, along the way it started sounding overprocessed, muddy and not warm, thick and quiet like the original.
I also added a white noise sample and processed it to make the pad fuller then high passed it.
I was A/B'ing the whole thing from the beginning, and even used direct reference EQ multiple times.
Still didn't get it how I wanted in any regard: voicings, warmness, and stereo image.
Can someone help me give me some tips of what I'm doing wrong, I feel like even if I go back and made it again correcting the mistakes I noticed it would still sound off.
Maybe the producer used an analog synth and that makes a huge difference or what else I am missing?
EDIT: If anyone's wondering here is the full song https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c73Cu3TQnlg
EDIT 2: this happens to me with every song not just this one, when I compare my pads to those in pro songs, let's say an Ariana Grande's song for example they sound nothing like it.
Submitted May 17, 2017 at 10:40PM by eatliftrave https://www.reddit.com/r/edmproduction/comments/6bt63x/spent_7_hours_across_2_days_remaking_a_pad_still/?utm_source=ifttt