Computer programs for making ambient music?

Please don’t take offense or anything (I love talking about this stuff), but are you in some music recording school? The Mbox is a very limited system, almost as bad as Reason, and you can’t ReWire it. The driver it uses is rubbish, and if I’m not mistaken, the plug-in’s are proprietary.


There are tons of people who have succeeded in doing what the OP wants to without top of the line equipment. Almost every last person who does that type of music has a pretty cheap and simple set up. Even with most mainstream bands, it’s the minute they trade in their busted junk for a high tech studio that they loose any semblance of creativity and character to “sound better”. IMO, they don’t sound better. They sound more processed.


I’ve got two preamps, the Tube MP and an Earthworks 1024… the Tube MP sounds better. It’s not as clean, it is a little noisy (not that anyone could tell after mastering anyways), but it’s warm... it has personality. Just because it didn't cost me $3000 like the Earthworks did doesn’t mean it’s crap. I also used to have a Neumann U87, but just like Johnny Cash, I traded it for a Baby Blue Bottle, which saved me $2500.

Boards of Canada use a handheld tape recorder with a built in microphone to record most their audio. By the time they get done mangling it up, it usually sounds nothing like the original sample. They haven’t indicated what sequencer they use, but I guarantee it’s not a normal set up (nothing they do is “normal”). There’s a lot of speculation that they use either an Atari (like Fat Boy Slim), a Commodore/Amiga, or a simple tracker like Buzz.


Sufjan Stevens, while in the studio to record Illinois, didn’t use the equipment they had, and simply plugged straight into his own beat up 8-track… no preamp or anything.

 

I'm downloading .wma files onto my website

http://www.honorseed.com/music.html

only 3 there so far, plan on having a wide selection of different types of music by the end of the day...and tomorrow late.......anyone that wants to email me wma files (windows media) of there favorite type of music I'll consider putting it on the website.I'm trying to keep the songs between 2 and 4 minutes. I was getting really fed up with going to websites to sample songs and getting like a 30 second clip, I don't think these guys really know how to sell an album. I got some doozies to put on by the end of the day, some y'all never heard of before.

peace
HS

 

it sounds like when your talking about "lesser" gear....your talking about using it for some sort of effect. it adds "warmth", which is kind of a way of saying "dirt". none of this stuff is bad, when used in a controlled manner. but when trying to get sonically perfect recordings, so that the audio may be altered by your ideas later and not the faults of the gear....for example....the D112 mic, is a good kick mic, but it has a raised freq response in the low mid range. i wouldn't mind that for a live situation, but in the studio, i want to be able to control where the eq peaks are and are not....


but i do agree, gear doesn't have to be expensive to be good. and you don't need good gear to record good music. but who wants static or phase? phase is terrible. when not under the control of the engineer, phase, will cancel frequencies and produce a thin sound. not good.


the m-box isn't the greatest. but it is good. you can do many things with it. if you can't afford the HD system and you want access to protools , the mbox, especially the new mbox2, will be fine. you can get awesome plug ins, the mbox won't stop you. protools, is just a fine program for audio and audio for film. i've done many short films and albums on protools and have loved its capabilities...unbeatable, if you are looking for a PROFESSIONAL program, to do professional work, for clients, this is the program.


i do go to a recording school here in vancouver....but i am already in the industry producing albums and doing sound/foley for film.....

 

but i do agree, gear doesn't have to be expensive to be good. and you don't need good gear to record good music. but who wants static or phase? phase is terrible. when not under the control of the engineer, phase, will cancel frequencies and produce a thin sound. not good. - from solla

I plan on using Magix 10 self cleaning lab to clean up the hiss and other noise on some older vinyls so I can get music like Zepp, Tull and others on my website. I have not used this $25 dollar software yet, but it looks like it can clean up any ambient music I want to produce. I'm not sure what the waveforms and all the stuff do, sure be helpful to have someone here tutoring me on this program......

 

i've never heard of Magix 10, so i can't really help you......well to get rid of hiss, it will probably just use an EQ to rid the audio, of extremely high end, where "tape hiss" lies....but this can also destroy the high end in the cymbals....but this is kind of a lame way of doing it.
one thing i've had to do, not for hiss, but for clicks and pops, is litterally re-draw the waveform...in protools, you can zoom so close into the wave that you can alter the smallest chunk of audio....when you see a clip (a flat lines waveform) you can smooth it out, to where it won't exist...very good, for when you get unwanted pops thru out a tune...

 

helpful hint for recording with instruments:

instead of crappy mics (but you could get a decent one), use a 1/4" to 1/8" converter and plug in to the back of your PC. For volume output, use your computer speakers..

 

and Cool Edit Pro 2.0 is extremely badass.

 

Sound Forge is a good software to record instruments.
For production i would advice Nuendo &/or Cubase, and any of these two rewired with Reason.