KVR Audio

Amberience · Post by **Amberience** » Mon Dec 27, 2004 2:50 pm

If it helps, I don't use Reaktor. The soundscapes I produce come from work with Absynth and Reason. I have Crystal, but it rarely gets a look in with Absynth being my workhorse.

I use very little gear, but I know it well.

Amberience · Post by **Amberience** » Mon Dec 27, 2004 2:50 pm

http://www.electromancer.com/artist.php?id=d029202903

carrieres · Post by **carrieres** » Mon Dec 27, 2004 3:53 pm

hi,

I do ambient stuff too, have for about 7 or 8 years now

it's good to see that "composing" music is not for an "elite" now.
to answer to your original question, why are we so many ?
cheap computer, sound card included or cheap, free synth or cheap against a home studio (10 years ago), 1 synth 1000$

if you want a second synth multiply by two and add a mixer

again ! and you need to add some effect

sorry to come here with my financial problem but i bought a Future Music in 1994 just to learn that i would not be able to compose music the way i want

chao
chris

Sicklecell666 · Post by **Sicklecell666** » Mon Dec 27, 2004 4:27 pm

ahja wrote:Just curious... and I don't mean to offend anyone by saying this, but what makes everyone flock the ambient genre? Is it because you can just load up a reaktor ensemble, press random, crossfade a few samples and call a tune? Or you just sit there fiddling with a sound, drown it in FX and think you're the greatest? Instant gratification maybe? Again, I stress I'm not trying to offend anyone...

I guess it's time I tossed in my two cents:

1st, You're entire post is pretty f**ked up man..You're basically saying 'I don't mean to be an insulting asshole, but I'm gonna be one anyways'.

That out of the way, the reason I've stepped on your sacred toes are these:

I have always been a huge fan of dark ambience, & I don't mean the Vangelis spaced out crap either, I mean specifically the sounds playing in the background of the scene where the woman sees her own corpse in 'Mulholland Drive'. My influences are Morricone & Badalamenti, not Vangelis..I particularly enjoy hearing stuff that has alot of tension & claustraphobia applied to it, and have sought to emulate it for some time, with only very recently decent results. That being said, Reaktor, as you have accused me(and yes, I feel you have singled me out here, so I'll address this whole thing as personal), is my weapon of choice, and the reason you are bent out of shape that these ensembles are used is because through collective experience they are becoming fine-tuned for especially generating these kinds of atmospheres to the point where they are actually usefull..What you are saying is essentially, 'It's not fair..I used to have to walk 10 miles every morning in threee feet of snow uphill to get that sound you are randomising with one button..'

The point that you are missing out on here is that very specific instrument parameters are getting randomized, & these parameters are are selected because of their conduciveness to generating a very specific element. I'm not randomizing a pro-53 & calling it ambient, I'm randomising ensembles of my own creation that were tailormade to perform within pre-determined specs relative to this dark ambient genre. Happiness is simply not generated using my ensembles, & that's what they are all about: dark atmospheric generation. I have ALWAYS wanted to craft these 'enviornments' for as long as I can remember; I am just now getting to a point where I don't feel a strangling paranoia about my tracks getting completely rejected..yet here you are rejecting them on general principles, & false ones at that becuase I wasn't doing this 20 years ago..I'm no f**king kid, man..and I have NEVER called myself a f**king Producer..

And about tracks getting uploaded that are crossfades of randomized recordings, well..I never said that those tracks were to be considered 'songs' at all. I have designated the uploads I considered complete tracks, and the others were designated as 'examples' & 'experiments'. Almost all of my recent uploads have been nothing more than demonstrations of what some of my ensembles are capable of doing in YOUR hands; they aren't tracks in & of themselves. The time I have spent making these in the intrest of persuing my own music creation has been sharply replaced by sharing with my peers here to the point where I simply haven't had any time to do any of my own music, but I don't complain about that, because I've seen much gratitude from others, and I'm highly flattered seeing others use them in their arsenal.

Yet you come along & say what you have..but you don't wanna offend anyone, right?

Go back to treading miles up-hill in the snow, jerk-off.

I apologize for defiling the Sacred Temple with my muddy footprints.

I should have torn the f**ker down stone by stone instead.

ciao,

Mighty_Hero · Post by **Mighty_Hero** » Mon Dec 27, 2004 4:35 pm

intel wrote:

I saw some blokes playing guitar the other day and I thought "bugger all... there goes my special little world."

Seriously though for a minute, I have noticed here recently I am composing more ambient stuff. For me, I just love to be able to show you a scene with music, and I feel ambient covers this very easily.

For me, ambient is very personal, and usually quite lovely

Amberience · Post by **Amberience** » Mon Dec 27, 2004 4:36 pm

I'm agreed with Sickle on the point about singling him out. When I read your first post, his newest ensemble collab/release sprang to mind.

I can't use it, but I would love to be able to use it. It has been made to alter specific CC's, and you can then feed those CC's to anything. Its not like it generates an LFO .. its complex.

I like so many different types of ambient music, and to say that there is only one genre of ambient music is like saying there is only one genre of metal.

ew · Post by ew » Mon Dec 27, 2004 4:50 pm

I apologize for defiling the Sacred Temple with my muddy footprints.

I should have torn the f**ker down stone by stone instead.

That's priceless,Donovan

Couldn't have put it any better myself...
ew

experimental.crow · Post by **experimental.crow** » Mon Dec 27, 2004 5:04 pm

just to note ...

it's not officially fashionable until
hitman8081 posts a thread asking what to buy so he can make these sounds ...

Sicklecell666 · Post by **Sicklecell666** » Mon Dec 27, 2004 5:07 pm

Threads like this make me regret sharing the tools & methods I developed for my own use..

I would have been just as satisfied with comments like, "How the hell did he do that?"..

It's a drag that being open-ended in sharing what little techniques I consider my own earn other people's contempt..

dburgan · Post by **dburgan** » Mon Dec 27, 2004 5:27 pm

ahja wrote:You gotta admit ambient has grown to be the new trend around here... and I'm just curious to know "why"?

Ambient is attractive to me because it has no *rules*. There is more undiscovered territory in the ambient realm than in any other genre, just for this reason.

I also love it because the medium is part of the message. There are no artificial separations between the 'song', the 'performance', and the 'production'. All are intrinsic and inseparable parts of the resulting piece. To me that makes it a very holistic approach to music.

Yes, there is bad ambient as well as good ambient (also true of every single other genre). Yes, it is possible to load up a few auto-ambient generators in Reaktor, cross fade some samples, and call it an ambient 'tune'. That would fall into the 'bad ambient' category.

Good ambient has the sound design and production, but it also has the performance emotion and compositional elements of traditional music. The best ambient blends all three of these seamlessly. This is the sweet spot I always try to hit when I'm doing an ambient piece.

Just as an example of what I love about ambient: what other genre can you listen to where the flange LFO speed or the reverb depth or the oscillator FM level is actually an instrument that the artist plays, an instrument every bit as important as the keys or the vocals? This is the beauty of ambient to me. Everything is an instrument. No rules.

To me it seems only natural that people would flock to it.

Anyway, all my $0.000001 worth ...

P.S. Not sure how trance is related to this discussion, though. Trance is one of the most cookie-cutter forms of music I know of. Seems totally at the other end of the spectrum to me.

ahja · Post by **ahja** » Mon Dec 27, 2004 5:28 pm

carrieres wrote:hi,
I do ambient stuff too, have for about 7 or 8 years now
it's good to see that "composing" music is not for an "elite" now.

sorry to come here with my financial problem but i bought a Future Music in 1994 just to learn that i would not be able to compose music the way i want

What does that have to do with elitism? Simply stating I have been around the bend for a while and have watched the genre for a good time now.

You bought your first issue in 1994, and, oh.. I didn't buy computer first issue till 2000!

Damn, stop being such an elitist.

Amberience · Post by **Amberience** » Mon Dec 27, 2004 5:30 pm

I apologise for starting to make music when I was 15, and now being 20, 5 years later, my music happens to have evolved a certain way.

ahja · Post by **ahja** » Mon Dec 27, 2004 5:32 pm

Sicklecell666 wrote:
ahja wrote:Just curious... and I don't mean to offend anyone by saying this, but what makes everyone flock the ambient genre? Is it because you can just load up a reaktor ensemble, press random, crossfade a few samples and call a tune? Or you just sit there fiddling with a sound, drown it in FX and think you're the greatest? Instant gratification maybe? Again, I stress I'm not trying to offend anyone...
I guess it's time I tossed in my two cents:

1st, You're entire post is pretty f**ked up man..You're basically saying 'I don't mean to be an insulting asshole, but I'm gonna be one anyways'.

That out of the way, the reason I've stepped on your sacred toes are these:

I have always been a huge fan of dark ambience, & I don't mean the Vangelis spaced out crap either, I mean specifically the sounds playing in the background of the scene where the woman sees her own corpse in 'Mulholland Drive'. My influences are Morricone & Badalamenti, not Vangelis..I particularly enjoy hearing stuff that has alot of tension & claustraphobia applied to it, and have sought to emulate it for some time, with only very recently decent results. That being said, Reaktor, as you have accused me(and yes, I feel you have singled me out here, so I'll address this whole thing as personal), is my weapon of choice, and the reason you are bent out of shape that these ensembles are used is because through collective experience they are becoming fine-tuned for especially generating these kinds of atmospheres to the point where they are actually usefull..What you are saying is essentially, 'It's not fair..I used to have to walk 10 miles every morning in threee feet of snow uphill to get that sound you are randomising with one button..'

The point that you are missing out on here is that very specific instrument parameters are getting randomized, & these parameters are are selected because of their conduciveness to generating a very specific element. I'm not randomizing a pro-53 & calling it ambient, I'm randomising ensembles of my own creation that were tailormade to perform within pre-determined specs relative to this dark ambient genre. Happiness is simply not generated using my ensembles, & that's what they are all about: dark atmospheric generation. I have ALWAYS wanted to craft these 'enviornments' for as long as I can remember; I am just now getting to a point where I don't feel a strangling paranoia about my tracks getting completely rejected..yet here you are rejecting them on general principles, & false ones at that becuase I wasn't doing this 20 years ago..I'm no f**king kid, man..and I have NEVER called myself a f**king Producer..

And about tracks getting uploaded that are crossfades of randomized recordings, well..I never said that those tracks were to be considered 'songs' at all. I have designated the uploads I considered complete tracks, and the others were designated as 'examples' & 'experiments'. Almost all of my recent uploads have been nothing more than demonstrations of what some of my ensembles are capable of doing in YOUR hands; they aren't tracks in & of themselves. The time I have spent making these in the intrest of persuing my own music creation has been sharply replaced by sharing with my peers here to the point where I simply haven't had any time to do any of my own music, but I don't complain about that, because I've seen much gratitude from others, and I'm highly flattered seeing others use them in their arsenal.

Yet you come along & say what you have..but you don't wanna offend anyone, right?

Go back to treading miles up-hill in the snow, jerk-off.

I apologize for defiling the Sacred Temple with my muddy footprints.

I should have torn the f**ker down stone by stone instead.

ciao,

Hi. Sicklecell... If you noticed I gave props to people building the reaktor ensembles and being creative with that. I never said this was a wrong way of creating music. And, trust me... I haven't even heard any of YOUR uploads. So, why would I put pointing fingers at you?

Don't think the jerk off comment was neccessary... But if it makes you feel better. THen whatever.

Take care.

Meffy · Post by **Meffy** » Mon Dec 27, 2004 5:33 pm

ahja wrote:Simply stating I have been around the bend for a while and have watched the genre for a good time now.

Erm. I oughtn't to snicker, but...

http://www.wordwebonline.com/en/AROUNDTHEBEND

dburgan · Post by **dburgan** » Mon Dec 27, 2004 5:33 pm

Sicklecell666 wrote:It's a drag that being open-ended in sharing what little techniques I consider my own earn other people's contempt..

Your ensembles definitely earn my contempt dude.

Seriously mon, let's keep it coming. This is all good for the ambient community, and if some people don't 'get' ambient it's their loss. At first, I was put off by ambient myself, until I had the near-spiritual revelation that ambient has no rules. All of a sudden ambient made a whole lot of sense to me. Some people just can't break through the barriers that traditional music has set up. Again, it's their loss, not ours mon.

So... Is ambient the new fashion or,,,