def METHOD_NAME(x, pad, side='both'):
    # NB - this is just a quick method i need right now
    # i.e., it won't generalise to other shapes/dims
    b, t, c = x.shape
    total = t + 2 * pad if side == 'both' else t + pad
    padded = np.zeros((b, total, c), dtype=float)
    if side in ('before', 'both'):
        padded[:, pad:pad + t, :] = x
    elif side == 'after':
        padded[:, :t, :] = x
    return padded