What is the best ambient sample cd?

[Sicklecell666]

Now that is good advise. I dont have this library, but everything i hear about it says its a creative tool that must be owned! I think developers should be making more of this stuff - sample products designed to help YOU create the weird and the wonderful.

*cough*

I was waiting for HIS arrival here

[dburgan]

As a compromise between Tee Boys's & my suggestions, you could check out this up & coming company. He only has one disc so far, but it's a great begining:

http://www.kvr-vst.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=49480

Yeah it's a great collection, specially if you like things dark. The perc loops are cool, but what I really like is the pads and textures. Great stuff, and the price is a steal.

Not only does he provide what I consider really good samples, but he ALSO tossed in some very good impulse responses that were enough to win him praise from the Spectral Relativity designer, which is something I would be extremely proud of myself..

Ummmmm .... thanks!

[Sicklecell666]

ok, enough ass-kissing..get back to work on the next IR set dburgan...

[intel]

to win him praise from the Spectral Relativity designer, which is something I would be extremely proud of myself..

heehee. I am indeed proud of that endorsement.

and for this unsolicited advertisment as well! if I could get this kind of support from my wife, I'd be the luckiest man in the world.



the amount of support I've received from this board has me giddy to the point of incomprehension, and in that state of mind, I'm going to waive shipping fees for the next 7 days. order within that time period and I'll ship for free, regardless of your location.

[intel]

(had to do the math in my head)

that's 7.5% off the normal full price. or something relatively close...

[Sicklecell666]

well don't stop there..no-one said you were off-duty either..

get back to woike!!

[intel]

you're a kvr forum fiend! fret not, for I am working on new material. and you'll hear about it first.

[Sicklecell666]

It's called bieng able to sleeping only 30 minutes a day..

Be glad you're one of the ppl I like..

[intel]

I am.

I wake up in the morning and count my blessings.

[Amberience]

[tee boy]

Acvtually after giving it some thought this thread is causng me conceptual difficulties.

Let me help you understand where I am coming from.

My name is Tim and I am a composer. Above all else I value beauty in originality and uniqueness in music. I like to create something different.

I use synthesisers in my music. A synth is a kind of musical instrument like a violin. A subtractive synth for example generates sounds using oscillators, which pass thru a signal chain and eventually vibrate the air. It is not considered unoriginal to write music for a violin, and therefore it is not different to do so for a subtractive synth.

Some subtractive synths have presets which give them a unique sound. Synth programming, the first opportunity to be original- or to use a preset which someone else has made. Some synths can be sampled, and repackages, and layered to create even mroe original sounds. Some synths have oscillator wavefroms which are so complex, they would be an entire subtrative 3 osc preset in the past. Uniqueness again takes a step back and a step forwards at the same time- for you can uses these oscillator presets to create even more unique sounds. like building blocks.

after this we slide down the slippery slope towards the dim apocalyptic future where everyone uses bt's sample cds to create entire songs. Do real composers use loops?

I argue yes they do. And here is why. As I composer i see that by brain is really the biggest synthesiser. I start with raw materials and I turn it into music- both unique sounds, and unique chords/melodies and musical passages, both working synergistically.

If you supply a melody to a vocalist, or even chords to a vocalist, they will sing a melody, invent one, embishlish it with their own stylistic fluctuation in studio takes and use their musical expertise to add to the music, YOUR music, in an original way. You did not create their larynx, or their improvisational skills, but you use them in your music because they are beautiful.

loops: I use loops in my songs sometimes. They might for example be a single note but with an interesting rhythm. they might be a 4 bar live drum performance which I would not be abloe to record. and I play the drums. I order to make these more original I might for example re order the REX slics intul I like the pattern, then pitch it up 2 octaves, add predelay and reverb, reverse the sample, and automate pitch shifting with an lfo. Now I have something completely differnt. this can be loaded into a layer with x phraze for example to become part of a greater whole. Or I might use it as the modulation signal for a vocoded pad.

A lot of these distorted reality/atmosphere samples were done simply using synths that many of us already use- reason's malstrom for example, or other simple subtractive pads. which were altered/vocoded/resynthesised using methods similar (and very different!!) to the example I gave.

Long story short, I don't see how any sampled loop or texture is considered any different to an oscillator waveform- which can be manipulated in much the same way. (in fact many of these wav loops/samples can be directly loaded into a synth anyway.)

I trust this makes sense- I feel distroted reality does inspire me- because I can hear what is possible. I have started creating my own textures in response to those. and I use both.

I think the distiction comes when a sound ceese's to be an instrumental timbre and becomes music. A synth preset which is just a tone, is no different to any other instrument. However, when a sound begins to exhibit emotional characteristics it becomes music in itself. I mean, surely you can see the difference between a Violin playing one note, and a Violin playing a harmonic texture? And this is the essence of what im saying. To use a sounds as an instrument is one thing, but to take premade music and use it as your own is quite another. The sounds in Twisted Textures for example, are not instruments. You couldnt employ those samples to play melodies in your music because that is not their purpose. They are individual musical motifs, premade so you dont have to bother. This is my issue. If you choose to use these as source material for your own sound design creations then great! But this isnt the purpose of the samples either. They are designed to be intergrated into your tracks pretty much unaltered. And to be fair i do have a problem with this. IMO if you dont have the ability to conjure up a certain emotion in your music, then you should learn how to. Not pay some guy you've never met to do it for you. If this is how we're to make music, I might as well just commission some guy to write all my stuff! I'll have one guy who does scary, and another who does sad... Get my point?

[Inquisitor5775]

Yes I do see what you mean.

I find your comments about the emotional content of sound very interesting. This year I am understaking a research project in psychiatry and I have an interest in future technologucal development of sound in mental illness.

I believe that a simple piano with reverb can have much more emotion than a thousand carfully edited synths.

Ironically I actually have distorted reality 2 on order. It seems I bought it with different intentions to many peopel though- I really see it as an intensely useful packge of sound material to be integrated and reprocessed. Thing like this contain many evolving elements (eg the beautiful shifting pad sounds) which I envisage integrating seamlessly into my music in an original way

- Not to build my music around someone else's sample, but instead to 'shape' the elements into my music seamlessly, so the sound element becomes mine.

[tee boy]

Yeh, I believe timbre is the future of composition. When you listen to many modern film scores, you'll notice all sorts of weird orchestrations where sections are used more as sound effects than instruments. One of my favorite composers Elliot Goldenthal is a master of this. Some of the techniques he uses with the brass section are amazing! But what makes this stuff so effective is not the notes that are being played, but the emotional impact of the timbre (if you're interested in this type of thing then have a listen to his Alien 3 score, scary aint the word ). Since electronic manipulation has made it possible to create endless timbral possiblities, it is often employed to make these type of effects. I mean, take a simple chime sample, run it through a ring mod then pitch it down 3 octaves and you're left with a tremedously powerful sound! This is what i mean about sound design and composition becoming a single entity. Composers need to be able to manipulate sounds in this manner to create the full pallet of emotions. By disregarding this part of the creative process, they are infact relinquishing one of the most important factors of their music to someone else! Someone else who may have very different ideas on how the music should sound.

By the way, DS 2 is brilliant! There is a section of real mellow textures which are worth the CD alone. I dont use them in my music, but i do listen to them alot for inspiration in my own sound design creations. Im sure many of the sounds would also make great source material for further punishment! I dont think you'll be dissappointed.

PS. Good luck with your research, sounds interesting!

[Improv]

Get the Spektral Relativity impulse responses & you can make an infinate amount of ambient samples on your own...

Then the next level is to take SR and use the wavs in SpectrumWorx. Damn!

Take a cheap mike & stick it your dog's food bowl at feeding time & get sent to Planet 9 every time..

I tried that, but the dog told me to speak to his agent first!

[Kriminal]

whats the best ambient cd

This one: http://www.kvr-vst.com/forum/viewtopic. ... highlight=