by andyg » 12 Aug 2018 10:47
That's only a tiny part of it.
There are several different uses for Multipads
1-extra percussion sounds, you might add bongos and congas to a rhythm. These loop and play along with the rhythm.
2-extra rhythmic instruments, primarily guitars, but you'll also find brass figures and those arpeggios you mentioned. These also loop.
3-stabs, one off sounds, perhaps short brass phrases or chords, orchestral hits, or 'one-off' arpeggios. These do not loop but stop at the end of the pad.
4-sound effects, again these are one-off and don't loop
Then comes the most exciting type, for me anyway. Programmable pads. These can be made to do anything in the above four groups but can do rather more. I now tend to use them as an 'extra hand', playing extra chords or a counter melody along with what I'm playing. Obviously, you have to record them exactly right, and trigger them at the exact right time for this to work! You can record them within the keyboard itself, but if you want to take things to the ultimate level, you can take a very basic set of pads across to something like Cubase (or a MIDI editor) and then get really creative. You can add in all sorts of things that you can't do in the keyboard itself, like fading instruments in and out, or even changing instruments part way through. This is a bit like multi-tracking in a way, as it uses the same techniques whether you record the pads live or use a computer. But the playback of the pads is done manually as you play live.
As a group of four User pads can be a mixture of any of the above, the sky's the limit!