Rhythmic Pad Secrets: Recreating 1986 Synth Pop

I’ve always loved the sound of gated pads but for a long time I couldn’t get the sound right. This is my story of how I eventually found and fell in love with the Drawmer DS201 Dual Channel Gate. I then use my dawless setup to programme a synthpop track on my Squarp Pyramid (heavily inspired by New Order’s ‘Bizarre Love Triangle’) under time pressure and do the whole thing in less than 20 minutes. Then I do a live performance where I improvise gated pads in real time over the backing.

00:00 Intro

MY STORY
02:03 My ‘gated pads’ story

DAWLESS PROGRAMMING AND GATE SETUP
13:17 Timer starts
13:34 Basic drums
14:15 Setting up the trigger key for the gates
15:04 Gated pads and classic Drawmer DS201 setup
16:15 Moog bass
16:55 Strings
19:34 Fantasy
20:10 Slap bass
20:49 FM bass
21:18 Snare fill
22:30 Orch stab

PERFORMANCE
23:50 Dawless performance with live gated pads

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