pads

how do you usually make your pads. is it full chords, 3 note chords or just 1 note?
 

The "less is more" principle applies to pads.  If they are too thick / dense they can take over the mix (unless the pad is the mix).  It all depends.  The number of notes in the voicing really depends on the arrangement.  A single note can do wonders.  Or just sparse 2 or 3 note voicings can work too.

Yes, all of the above. At the moment I'm just working on an intro pad with 4 or 5 note chords, and getting a gradual shifting of chords by changing one note at a time.

90% of the time it's 1 or 2 notes. There's a fine line between thickening and muddying. I also tend to heavily EQ pads, because their role is to fill in the holes but not to leave noticeable lumps in the road.

Root and Fifth is a better combination of notes. Or 3rd and 7th. The most important thing is to keep them well spaced. I, III is not good for example, too close. Depends on the sound too. The more complex the sound the more you need to space them. Simpler smoother pads can handle chords a little more.

There is also an optimum place to play them where they sound best eg around middle C. Too high up and they sound thin and too low down they can sound muddy. Try to keep the two note voicings for example around the same spot so they sound as if they are not moving that much.

Even more importantly what is going on musically when the pad is present. If you have trouble hearing a pad then it is quite possible you have got too much going on while the pad is trying to do its thing. So thin things out musically so you can hear the black backdrop behind. Then when you get this right you can have a pad very low in a mix and still hear it clearly. Maximum illusion, minimum voltage. If you have have to have a pad loud in a mix in order to hear it then the music going on behind is wrong (too busy) and not allowing any space for it to exist. 

I agree with tbosco about the sound quality of the pad. I think one thing you have to do is just try the various chord voicings and hear what sounds good.

Another voicing I like is a bass note down in the same register as the bass player would be. And combined with a three note voicing up above and around middle C. Great 3 note voicings can be found in the book 'Jazz Rock Voicings for the Contemporary Keyboard Player' by Dan Haerle. 

You could use a 7, 3 6 voicing or a 3, 7 9 voicing over the root note. eg a CMaj 7 chord could be spelled with either E, B and D over the C root (for a Maj 9th sort of sound) or B, E, A over the C tonic note. (for a Maj 13th sound) One good thing about these voicings is that if the chords move in 4ths or 5ths only one or two notes need to change to reflect the chord progression. You don't want pads moving around too much.

In these cases the pad is going to give you a nice colour. Notice the nice wider spacing between the 3 note voicings. On the other hand a C and G up around middle C might also sound great too. Both right, just different colours. The C and G notes in this case is giving you the foundation or framework notes instead. The Maj 7 sounds needs to come from other parts.