How to Make Liquid D&B Pads (with Serum, No Music Theory Needed)

Liquid Drum & Bass Tutorial on how to make pads. No music theory required.
Writing chords and pads could be intimidating when you have no music theory. In this video I show you a few tips to get around that so you can start writing pads immediately with very little music theory. I then show you the settings on designing a lush liquid D&B pad with Serum. Of course you can practice this with other synths too.
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0:00 Intro
1:30 Writing Chords with No Music Theory
6:14 Designing the Pad

[@richardguy6776]

Legend :) Pretty much guarantee you're inspiring many future stars with these videos.

[@strayburn9595]

Nice! I love the simple music theory tricks that don't hurt my brain. Nice and easy, but sounds great. Thank you!

[@MarctheDarc]

All white keys starting on E is the E phrygian mode. Very close to natural minor scale, but with a flattened 2nd. E minor have F# as its 2nd.

[@BookooZenny]

Tapping the Up/Down arrow keys while holding Shift will transpose by an octave! :) Also, for anyone who sees this, PLEASE don't be afraid of music theory! It's not as intimidating as it seems, it absolutely WILL NOT hinder your creativity, it will UNLEASH it, I promise!

[@caleb4369]

music theory is one of the most key aspects of producing. its a shame that a lot of producertubers avoid teaching it

[@OwnDialect]

yesss

[@aarons2632]

Thanks for the tip. Didn’t know that trick about the arrow keys. It’s literally little bits of info like this that make reading the comments valuable.

[@Strafuzz]

If you're good at maths, it's even easier to learn!

[@K0xm4N]

This is pure gold man! A lot of useful knowledge in this video ;)

[@M-SES]

you explain everything so good and understandable! thank you!

[@alanattias]

Didn't think the same notes as the bassline would work but when it's the chords it just blends so well. My go-to guide for all future productions right here! Thanks

[@miridian6328]

This video was really helpful to me for building a nice thick pad sound in F minor. My theory progression lags behind my production skills so your folding trick to show only notes within a scale was really helpful. I am sure I will use it all the time moving forward. Thanks man

[@fatze3978]

Super cool Tutorial for some Serum functions and for building chords. Thanks Stranjah! 😎🤜 I like your videos very much.

[@iansooklal3075]

Big ups man. for sure leveling up with this

[@1disturbedjunglist]

So glad i found these tutorials, everything's so well explained. If you could do a breakdown of Redemption-VIP or Decadence, that would be sick coz their opposite ends of the spectrum. Big up.

[@dmitriykuzmin3262]

Wow man! You are the first dude who clearly described what pad is and how to create basic cords! Thank you for that so much. I've watched plenty of useless videos... Stupid youtube started to suggest your videos randomly and only now :) I hope that I've come across with your channel!

[@Shichman]

Another good one! Thanks!

[@anonarc-q4d]

stranjah youre my hero ive learned so much from you thank you

[@Dripment]

very solid video, love liquid dnb

[@DrVimto]

love that bass scale you used on this.

[@tabermandnb7210]

Really enjoyed this video series! Got me out of a rut and writing tunes again and applying some of the subtle tricks I learned along the way.

[@STRANJAH]

Great to hear that man!

[@michaelfoy6831]

your videos are actually amazing thanks!

[@STRANJAH]

thank you Michael

[@djid2122]

best tutorials you rock man keep it up

[@soup4242]

big up urself g nicely explained as per

[@krystalleite]

awesome sweetheart just learning sound design thank you, it helps a lot

[@notricx8918]

You are a gift, thanks man

[@dantaylor2287]

Sick vid as always mate thanks a lot :D

[@joshuajoyce672]

Great tutorials bro!

[@maecknyc]

great content !

[@spankrocketgaming294]

That is so cool, il practice that away, liquid drum n bass is the coolest music ever

[@phooka]

Very cool!

[@freshlybakeddnb5330]

Love the way the pad changed with unison 👌

[@rhysmoore-haines4828]

Amazing!!

[@TiemenL]

Professional and usefull, thanks a lot !

[@freq_beatz557]

Thanks man ❤️

[@8odycount]

Who the fuck gave this a thumb down? :D I restarted producing DnB after 7 years of abstinence and only making Blues music :D And I learned a lot in 2 days. Thanks for that. :)

[@STRANJAH]

Most welcone

[@jasonversatile9807]

Very nice tutorial. Thank you. :)

[@STRANJAH]

Your welcome glad you enjoyed it!

[@juicewu8420]

perfect❤

[@nickw2726]

Thanks man!

[@STRANJAH]

Welcome!

[@durotimiadebutu8450]

cant wait for this channel to blow up

[@companydrew]

thousandth like - keep it up Stranjah

[@basic7536]

thanks for the video :)

[@STRANJAH]

Your welcome!

[@ryde2012]

Love 💓 your channel it really motivates me to get in my studio knock out some beats 👍🏾

[@StanAllDay]

nice big ups

[@Ex0rz]

Every time i watch a tutorial and im half way ++ in and thinking "Wow this sounds like crap!", but then the end result always sounds great after the final adjustments. Over the years I have realized that simply adding one single effect like a reeverb can make pretty much anything sound awesome. Some reeverbs have these HUGE presets and they can make a regular one voice sinewave sound like its from another universe :D

[@STRANJAH]

Yes precisely!

[@Tr18Music-hl8qq]

Awesome

[@ASH-ou4cg]

BTW, I really like the in screen video of you in the top right, vs the bottom right. Much better visually, to see you there. Great job, thanks for sharing and keep up the great work!

[@STRANJAH]

Thanks I noticed before the bottom right would cover some of the keyroll. Should I keep up there for future videos?

[@ASH-ou4cg]

@@STRANJAH Yes, I would.

[@STRANJAH]

@@ASH-ou4cg Gotcha

[@durotimiadebutu8450]

jeez man why're you so good

[@ozzy3ml]

talent and 20+ years experience

[@potsandjacks]

Also try setting the velocity of each note in the chord to a different velocity level to give the chords a different timbre.

[@TeamLocalGaming]

I've noticed bringing the random knob down to 0 adds initial phasing as the voices grow out

[@mrpiksi]

yes

[@koriedae2019]

mind. is. blown.

[@danbrowne]

Legend

[@STRANJAH]

Thank you Dan!

[@JIBLET]

great vid

[@STRANJAH]

Thank you!

[@Flux_One]

Great stuff as always. Could you make a tutorial on how to make evolving pads with samples like bird songs and twinkly sounds etc. Maybe it's multiple sounds layered together, not sure. Cheers

[@tomfrascina5846]

Check out the korg wavestation vst, it's great for pads like that. There's some tutorials on KZbin too for dnb pads with it

[@grizzlyflaps7949]

Make this a song it’s soooo good

[@likadsplit]

can be applied to any synth as long as you know what hes talking about :)

[@STRANJAH]

That's true, hopefully I'm explaining it in a way that you can understand.

[@Ex0rz]

You wish haha... Im trying to apply this to Sylenth and just cant get it to work... Well i did it before watching this tutorial actually, but somehow my LFO seems to do absolute jackshit... Probably should download the update its been offering me for months haha...

[@anthraxander]

14:35 might be a naive question, but does adding the transposed roots make any difference here, considering the hi-pass filter?

[@l-24official41]

Nice tutorial dude! Would love to see you make a dnb track using free/stick plugins!

[@STRANJAH]

That's a great idea, any free plugins in particular you'd like to see?

[@l-24official41]

@@STRANJAH helm by matt tytel is a very good free plugin for dnb sounds imo. Has a very similar workflow to serum! The problem though is that the synth only has a mono output so to widen up the sound you need to do that in post

[@sudsoundpunkz8189]

Gread Vid, thank you. Is this also possible with the ablton synth wavetable. Are you familiar with wavetable?

[@STRANJAH]

Thank you and yes this is possible with wavetable. It has all the functions you need. Filter, LFO, various waveforms. Let me know if you have luck.

[@RidesInforests]

New wavetable in 10.1 with the adding samples option is killa!

[@suspektsound]

which videos are part 1 & 2?

[@vnayini]

Another excellent video! I appreciate you starting from the fundamentals. Question: what is the significance of pointing out @13:50 that "220Hz = the note of A"?

[@STRANJAH]

Good question. The reason I roll off 220Hz (note of A) is to allow for a more succinctly placed cutoff frequency - say if I roll off at 210 or 230, it is more random, compared to 220 which is aligned with an actual note on the scale - so I like the harmonic symmetry this provides.

[@vnayini]

@@STRANJAH Great, thank you!

[@STRANJAH]

@@vnayini Welcome!

[@nathanbryers]

Let’s see some colour bass - Stranjah style 😉 Tbh I dig the technique, but it’s the kids doin it. Too cheesy Pretty doesn’t need to be cheese. I’d LOVE to see you do a series on this… drumstep colour bass???

[@ASH-ou4cg]

This was great! You turned a boring waveform, into a thick and juicy, vibe inducing, part of your track! I really liked the visual cues you gave during this video. The on screen text, giving definitions of given statements, as well as the numbering of your key editor, etc. This really helps to drive home important aspects, to those that tend to remember better with visuals. I was really disappointed in one aspect though... no Hyper Dimension?! You really cut corners on that one! ;)

[@STRANJAH]

Thanks for the kind words - you know what, I could have added Hyper Dim, however the stereo width created from the spread of unison mode was enough. I see Hyper Dim is your favourite effect isn't it?

[@ASH-ou4cg]

@@STRANJAH Actually, I have never used Serum in my life, I just always see you using Hyper Dim when it comes to effects and thought for sure, you were going to follow your usual lead and was surprised when you didn't.

[@STRANJAH]

@@ASH-ou4cg haha I thought that was funny little jab when you mentioned it. I don't actually use it that often! Only for certain sounds.

[@ASH-ou4cg]

@@STRANJAH ... most sounds... except this one ;)

[@kpopmusic7808]

How make to tip chord vocal drum and bass 😃

[@gabrielberton4266]

that A on top of the 4th chord could be down an octave then it would be perfect

[@NoahIIF]

did this one see a release yet?

[@spenwozhere]

Do you take it personally when people say "Don't be a stranjah" in real life? Thanks for sharing these tutorials sir!

[@Daniel-ku4dp]

How much music theory do you have? It's a lot to take in for someone who is just learning and messing about. Even things as simple as playing in key. Any videos or sites you can recommend that can easily correlate to dnb/electronic music production?

[@DunnoBro92]

It will take time, as all things. Just take 1 piece of information each day and you'll eventually flesh out your knowledge.

[@karimayoubi74]

Being able to fold your keyboard to show only the notes of the scale you are using is really helpful. I don't think Cubase does this, sadly. :-(

[@STRANJAH]

yes its a neat trick for those without theory

[@STRANJAH]

wonder if Cubase has key quantization? ableton has that so if you play the wrong key it will correct u

[@karimayoubi74]

​@@STRANJAH - knowing the scales is easy, but training your fingers to know them so you can jam along in that scale... not so easy! I dont' know if Cubase has key quantisation, I didn't even know that was a thing! Dayyum, the more I see of Ableton, the more I want to make the jump from Cubase! :-\ Keep up the good work buddy. Synth programming was the hardest thing for me to get to grips with - it's one thing having a sound in your head, it's another thing getting it to come out of your speakers. Your videos have really helped in that regard. Thank you.

[@CoreyHague]

Cubase has a chord plugin, it’s a midi plugin and it lets you play chords with one key.

[@banton9368]

You deffo want random phase alignment when youre using detuned unison otherwise you get massive flanging

[@prototype9000]

Shouldnt be called music theory if its being used in practice theorys are usually challanged changed and unprovable untill theres practicle application