Let’s face it, synthesisers were made for pad sounds (except for the ones that were also made for bass, lead or any other sound) – the march of the synth pad is pretty undeniable, and relatively unstoppable. As early synthesisers developed, it didn’t take very long for programmers to notice that you could create pretty cool effects by detuning a second oscillator, to play in harmony against the first oscillator.
There are many examples of this in music which exploit early synth technology, but in 1991, a track from the first album by Seal, seemed to bring this concept into a digital age. We say digital, because the wholly identifiable sound used on the track, which brings Seal’s first album
