Anyone recommend a voice to use as a basic pad on the CTS-1 behind piano?

[Piano Tone]

Hi all!  So I'm loving my CTS-1, but I'm surprised there is no standalone pad voice to use for layering (I know there are the built in pads behind the piano, guitar and synth, but since those work in a very specific way [triggered by 3 notes at a time] they don't necessarily work well in all situations).

 

I've tried a few different ones so far behind piano, and the closest I've found so far is the movie soundtrack one (Tone variation C6) but it's still a bit "swirly" for a pad.  I so wish they'd included at least one pad instead of one of the "nostalgic" sounds from old Casios.

[dwsel]

This question has been bugging me for some time, and I think I've found the answer. I can share two setups that I you can try on CT-S1 as a "backing pad":

 

MAIN: Piano of your choice (I've tried with default one so far)

LAYERED: VZ SEEGOD (doesn't sound by itself like something that can become pad, but it happens to work very well in the context)

 

1. Turn on the SUSTAIN function

2. Lower the LAYER VOLUME to your liking (try around 40-50)

3. Select the biggest Reverb of all available (Stadium, Cathedral or Pan delay are good starting points)

4. If you're using PEDAL it's a good idea to disable the PEDAL FUNCTION EFFECT on the layered part
Additional ideas:

5. Play with the OCTAVE SHIFT of the layered part.
6. Set EQUALIZER to Mellow
7. Set MAIN PART (piano) SUSTAIN TIME to lower value or to 0

 

Another much more subtle idea was to blend the piano with the sustained digital piano
MAIN: Analog piano of your choice

LAYERED: Any digital piano with naturally long tail, preferably without the strong FM-like transient

I've found these to work really well: PHASER E.PIANO, DYNO E.PIANO
If you can live with the strong attack part then: LUCENT E.PIANO or GALAXIA E.PIANO

 

Then you basically follow the same steps as above. The only difference is, to hear anything at all you might need to increase LAYER PART (e-piano) SUSTAIN TIME to the highest value (9).

[Howied99]

On 3/15/2023 at 5:17 PM, dwsel said:

This question has been bugging me for some time, and I think I've found the answer. I can share two setups that I you can try on CT-S1 as a "backing pad":

 

MAIN: Piano of your choice (I've tried with default one so far)

LAYERED: VZ SEEGOD (doesn't sound by itself like something that can become pad, but it happens to work very well in the context)

 

1. Turn on the SUSTAIN function

2. Lower the LAYER VOLUME to your liking (try around 40-50)

3. Select the biggest Reverb of all available (Stadium, Cathedral or Pan delay are good starting points)

4. If you're using PEDAL it's a good idea to disable the PEDAL FUNCTION EFFECT on the layered part
Additional ideas:

5. Play with the OCTAVE SHIFT of the layered part.
6. Set EQUALIZER to Mellow
7. Set MAIN PART (piano) SUSTAIN TIME to lower value or to 0

 

Another much more subtle idea was to blend the piano with the sustained digital piano
MAIN: Analog piano of your choice

LAYERED: Any digital piano with naturally long tail, preferably without the strong FM-like transient

I've found these to work really well: PHASER E.PIANO, DYNO E.PIANO
If you can live with the strong attack part then: LUCENT E.PIANO or GALAXIA E.PIANO

 

Then you basically follow the same steps as above. The only difference is, to hear anything at all you might need to increase LAYER PART (e-piano) SUSTAIN TIME to the highest value (9).

hi my friend 

 

 

thank you so much for posting this, I’ve just got a CTS1 and after playing with it realised the piano pad sound on it is really unpredictable and hard to maintain a consistent good sound. 
 

so I googled and found your amazing post that had the same findings! 
 

I wondered if you could help explain how to layer sounds on it…. I also cannot work out how to change the reverb. It says press fun too and then some notes but I can’t hear it doing anything. I can’t access delay effects either. Am I missing something?

 

What I’m really looking for is piano and strings as well as pads and to be able to adjust the expression and volumes of the strings and pads in the back of the piano if you know what I mean. So that they don’t over power the piano and are just a complement layer.

 

 

do you know how to do this? 
 

I assume I select a piano I like, but then how do I layer it with another instrument….

 

 

Hope  you can help me :)) 

thank so much