ambient droners & soundscapers! help

[zerocrossing]

I'd stay where you are DAW wise. You could easily use any DAW to make ambient music but Live's audio and midi loop tools are great especially if you "perform" ambient rather than just "compose."

[Trakstar]

what about lives built in repeat effect ran through lives flanger set to massive amount of feedback and modulating the delay time. This gives some serious metalic textures and the repeating gives some serious movement. Try layering under beats with sidechain gating and filtering into the snare and then out of the snare for some really pumping textures. Im sure Lives drum kits are done this way, some of the experimental drum kits through a rack. In fact the drum machine has some pretty great standard controls for really glitchy atmospheric drums

[whyterabbyt]

what effects are essential to an ambient composition besides reverb and delay?

no effects are essential. Depending on what you're trying to do, and why, any given class of effects may find a use.

Take all suggestions of what you 'need' with a heavy pinch of salt; work out your 'what' and 'why' first. Unless you develop a sonic signature/identity of your own, you run the risk of sitting in 'cookie cutter' territory, and no idea of how you got there. Start thinking in terms of process /rationale, not tools.

[GaryG]

Though I'd say Reaper is my main host, I always reach for energyxt when messing around with anything 'ambient'. I think any modular host (audiomulch, plogue, usine etc) is good for this, you can just throw plugins around, wire them up anyway you want without having to think in traditional 'linear' terms. The routing in Reaper is very good but you have to work at it sometimes, ensuring everything is being routed exactly where you want. Not an issue in a 'visual' modular host like the above.

And reverbs, lots of reverbs. Don't assume you have to buy the lushest one around; sometimes for these kind of sounds, a network of free ones all 'verbing like crazy can get you some astounding textures.

[Trakstar]

what effects are essential to an ambient composition besides reverb and delay?

no effects are essential. Depending on what you're trying to do, and why, any given class of effects may find a use.

Take all suggestions of what you 'need' with a heavy pinch of salt; work out your 'what' and 'why' first. Unless you develop a sonic signature/identity of your own, you run the risk of sitting in 'cookie cutter' territory, and no idea of how you got there. Start thinking in terms of process /rationale, not tools.

I agree to develop your own sound rather than just copy every other with the fx. But, saying that, its better to experiment for a long time and find what you like and dont like, what you find innovative and what wastes time. Point i put all these FX up is because stuff like DFX transverb can truly make unique sounds that
catch your ear. Sometimes you can build entire sonic layers and atmospheric fx up just from this one processor. These fx have been around for ages but can truly mangle a sound into proper ambient and electronic destruction in no time at all. Its great to have a wide selection of tools rather than just the 1 that you will probably get bored with in no time at all, thus the reason they keep making more in the first place. So people can "EXPERIMENT" and find and make their own sonic fingerprints.

[whyterabbyt]

I agree to develop your own sound rather than just copy every other with the fx. But, saying that, its better to experiment for a long time and find what you like and dont like, what you find innovative and what wastes time.

Yes, that's sorta my point. 'You need an X' is pointing people at the opposite of that.

Point i put all these FX up is because stuff like DFX transverb can truly make unique sounds that
catch your ear. Sometimes you can build entire sonic layers and atmospheric fx up just from this one processor. These fx have been around for ages but can truly mangle a sound into proper ambient and electronic destruction in no time at all.

That can, however, be said of just about any specific tool. The question, though, is whether its better to point someone at a tool and say 'you need this', or whether its better to say 'try some tools, see which you can make yours'

As far as I see it the only two possibly correct answers someone else can give to 'what tools do I need' are 'all of them' or 'none of them', both of which merely more correct than 'use what works for me'.

Its great to have a wide selection of tools rather than just the 1 that you will probably get bored with in no time at all, thus the reason they keep making more in the first place. So people can "EXPERIMENT" and find and make their own sonic fingerprints.

Again, that's my point. I actually think 'you need X' precludes an inclination to experimentation.

However some people work well with a wide selection of tools, some dont. Mine happens to be stupidly wide, but I think if you're rooted in the 'what and why' you should be able to retain a sonic fingerprint whether you're using a barbie microphone or a modular synth and umpty-dozen plugins. And I use both, FWIW.

[Trakstar]

I agree to develop your own sound rather than just copy every other with the fx. But, saying that, its better to experiment for a long time and find what you like and dont like, what you find innovative and what wastes time.

Yes, that's sorta my point. 'You need an X' is pointing people at the opposite of that.

Point i put all these FX up is because stuff like DFX transverb can truly make unique sounds that
catch your ear. Sometimes you can build entire sonic layers and atmospheric fx up just from this one processor. These fx have been around for ages but can truly mangle a sound into proper ambient and electronic destruction in no time at all.

That can, however, be said of just about any specific tool. The question, though, is whether its better to point someone at a tool and say 'you need this', or whether its better to say 'try some tools, see which you can make yours'

As far as I see it the only two possibly correct answers someone else can give to 'what tools do I need' are 'all of them' or 'none of them', both of which merely more correct than 'use what works for me'.

Its great to have a wide selection of tools rather than just the 1 that you will probably get bored with in no time at all, thus the reason they keep making more in the first place. So people can "EXPERIMENT" and find and make their own sonic fingerprints.

Again, that's my point. I actually think 'you need X' precludes an inclination to experimentation.

However some people work well with a wide selection of tools, some dont. Mine happens to be stupidly wide, but I think if you're rooted in the 'what and why' you should be able to retain a sonic fingerprint whether you're using a barbie microphone or a modular synth and umpty-dozen plugins. And I use both, FWIW.

Completely agree with what you say, you "Dont need any of them" because without good ideas in the first place youre going nowhere fast. I just thought i would put up a few plugins for the OP to give a try and see what he thought.

quote_

way to keep me busy and directed, Trakstar

pretty cool
----
"Je est un autre"

[Trakstar]

http://www.audiomicro.com/royalty-free- ... oundscapes

http://www.ambient-mixer.com/

[allofdrab]

My suggestion: if you're going to try AudioMulch; don't drop it unless you have explored/learned the basic functionality of the Metasurface - it offers very different ways of composing, performing and combining the two from any other app.

[djpuzzle]

advice I got from Steve Roach himself , put some verb on it

[roringtonsmithe]

Whitenoise+reverb+chorus+phaser+filter delay+resonators= a world of sound (mix 'em up for different tones).

Resample. Set mad loop points. Experiment.

also, paultretch.

[vurt]

combscape sounds interesting, I'll check it out

audiomulch too

audio mulch plus reaktor.
youd never need anything else!
as stated though nothing is "needed" its the ideas that count

personally id avoid omnisphere until user sample import is added (if ever) it is a great piece of kit, but coming from the ambient drone side of things i love just recoording local outdoor sounds and using these as sources, omnisphere currently doesnt support this kind of work flow.
although it depends what you want to do.
this said, i am not knocking the included audio with omnisphere, professionally done and such a wide range, just nothing with that "personal" touch.

[GaryG]

audio mulch plus reaktor.
youd never need anything else!
as stated though nothing is "needed" its the ideas that count

personally id avoid omnisphere

I'd make a distinction between Reaktor and Omnisphere in the 'need' stakes; though many just use the ready made ensembles, it's fundamentally a tool for creating whatever you want, an ideas machine for sure. Whereas Omnisphere is, well, gorgeous sounding but too easy just to pull something up and hold a chord for a while.

I've found myself using the simplest of synths (Charlatan in particular) recently, it's the processing afterwards that really makes the sound.

[Xenos]

I would highly recommend Spectrumworx:

http://www.littleendian.com/overview

Really a great plugin for mangling found sounds, field recordings, etc.

[vurt]

audio mulch plus reaktor.
youd never need anything else!
as stated though nothing is "needed" its the ideas that count

personally id avoid omnisphere

I'd make a distinction between Reaktor and Omnisphere in the 'need' stakes; though many just use the ready made ensembles, it's fundamentally a tool for creating whatever you want, an ideas machine for sure. Whereas Omnisphere is, well, gorgeous sounding but too easy just to pull something up and hold a chord for a while.

I've found myself using the simplest of synths (Charlatan in particular) recently, it's the processing afterwards that really makes the sound.

yeah, im defineitely not putting omnisphere down, it is a beautiful instrument, great sounding indeed
just that, like you say reaktor offers a more open ended ideas platform, it covers any sound source from simple subtractive synths to samplers and random noise generators, not too mention all the fx available too, and yes the ability to build your own ideas up

i wasnt really comparing the two either, they are very different beasts and both are great products


but yes i would also agree, the simplest of sound sources and then play with fx
not to spam the thread, but i made the following with a radio and fx...
http://soundcloud.com/vurt/crushedradio

and this one is some recordings i made with a zoom h2 of breaking glass, some trains and a recording from my old garden, all cut up and processed with various tools...
http://soundcloud.com/vurt/breaking-glass-trains-in-the

its the ideas that count, then just do it, use what you have and experiment, you will find a workflow that suits you and will from this make your own "sound" whatever that means
the main thing really is to have fun, try something, if it works for you great, if it doesnt then take it off