www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZJGimr3CjM

I'm totally inspired by the sound of the synth in this song, but as I am new to synthesis and electronic production, I have no idea how to even begin to achieve that kind of sound. Where do I start? With which synth? What makes it sound so unique?

 

there are some atmospheric pads, a bell, a muted horn, etc.

what portion of the track do you mean specifically?

 

Search sister site: "demystifying audio synthesis" - a couple of video tutorials there that could perhaps help get you up to speed.

 

The pads are what interest me most — I find it impossible to make any of my synths sound even similar to the sound of the pads in that song.

 

There's so much going on in this track. Even the pads morph into vocoder. You first need to be able to train your ears to break a track down into its parts. Make a list. It helps if you have an understanding of subtractive synthesis since this will for the bedrock of all that will follow. I can hear a monophonic line that sounds like a 10% square wave. Thin and nasal. The bass sounds rely more on knowing about attack and decay. Then filtering, resonance and cut off. These things are hard to do with software, so if you're serious, I'd recommend buying a hardware synth. Second hand with knobs. Knobs will give you a sort of musical muscle memory.