Computer programs for making ambient music?

I'd like to start making some ambient music, and I was wondering if anyone knows any good computer programs for doing this.

 

kinetic by cakewalk
sonar 5 is good if you're goign to be recording live instruments.

 

wondering what kind of microphone is best for recording voice or instruments, I'm sure the ones I have are not going to be enough.....

 

SM57s are pretty good all-purpose mics. Unless you're real serious about it, if you even have an actual mirophone you're ahead of the game. Most people just record with their computer's built-in mic, or a crappy external computer mic. Whatever you have should be alright. Just remember: it's all about the talent of the musician, not the equipment they have.

 

Nalen.......ah, I think the equipment either makes or breaks you......I sang over a amp system at my friends' Ernie Watts home and my voice sounded bitchen......Ernie is a pro sax player tha just got finished with a tour in South Africa......
I downloaded this sound program that will keep recording 24/7.......when I listened back to my voice, it had lowered it a partial note and it sounded like I was depressed as all get out, like I was talking from a frickin dungeon. If the software can't reproduce my voice accurately, it sure as heck isn't gonna do it singing. So maybe the real question to focus on other than a mike is what software has a reverb, echo etc and can reproduce my voice the way it sounds?

 

Could it be the room acoustics?

 

I'm guessing you're meaning you want to do midi.

My suggestion would be Reason (if you have that sort of budget) or Cubase (if you don't).

Reason, without contest, kicks Cubase's ass in every way possible, but Cubase is cheaper.

Good luck.

 

to lazy to do anything more than copy and paste this file for your perusal..........found echo and reverb on my MAGIX cd I just purchased........just haven't messed with it till I get the Stanton mixer just won on ebay.......looks like I'm in the market for a mike too, be checking out the software you suggested if MAGIX won't handle the job.

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some good voice mics are

Neuman Km-184
Rode NTK
TL 301
Octava MK-319

 

thanks a million solla, that is a google start for me

 

Try FruityLoops, I totally love that program.

 

I've used Reason, Fruity, Cubase, Traktion, and Logic. Fruity is the cheaptest (depending on which version of Cubase you get, and I would get nothing below SX2, which is not only $$$$ but has a high learning curve), Reason is the easiest (but the most limiting as it's an all in one program that doesn't utilize VSTs, which are independent effect/sampler programs)... and I would want to be able to use Native Instrument's Reaktor if I were making trance, because it's amazing:
http://www.native-instruments.com/index.php?id=reaktor5_us

As far as microphone, just get a cheap condenser mic and a cheap preamp... I spent maybe $200 on a bundle and between that and the software on the computer.... I can eliminate all outside hiss/noise and ruffle my shirt fifty feet from the microphone and pick it up plain as day. The only downside is that when the neighbors let their kids play in the yard they become ambient noise.

 

thanx 4 the info fulmah
researched Fruityloops this morn, not jumping on any one software deal yet.

 

fruity loops? this is a totally amature program. with extremely limited capabilities! what do you mean by "ambient music"?? cut a paste loops? midi tracking? audio recording? the best program for "cut and paste loops", is ACID. the best for tracking midi, is LOGIC. the best program for recording audio, is PROTOOLS.

 

I use these alot when recoring clients vocals. they are really good mics. exspensive as hell though. but in the audio world, you get what you pay for. cheap is gear is not going to last. For example, anything made by Behringer, is known in the industry as "disposable" gear. you can get a 24 track mixer for $250, but in 6 months all your pots, faders, and switches are gonna be dirty. sending disgusting noise thru the machine and out your speakers and even to your recording medium. don't get anything by Behringer unless you are in a pinch and have to get it because your mackie mixer or alesis compressor is out and you have a live gig and you need the gear....

 

As far as microphone, just get a cheap condenser mic and a cheap preamp... I spent maybe $200 on a bundle and between that and the software on the computer.... I can eliminate all outside hiss/noise and ruffle my shirt fifty feet from the microphone and pick it up plain as day. The only downside is that when the neighbors let their kids play in the yard they become ambient noise.[/QUOTE]


Don't get a cheap pre amp. terrible decision. a less expensive mic, if well taken care of is not so bad. but a cheap pre amp, will without a doubt add noise and RFI to the signal. mics and preamps should be quality and connected with shielded cables. phase is not cool. unless controlled or being used as an effect. NO CHEAP PRE AMPS!

 

what I am intereested in with the idea of ambience is the 4 elements of music. cross checking the emotional reactions against specific changes in music. Pianissimo to forte changes with loudness, tone/pitch changes to determine where comfort feelings become uneasy, modulation/rate changes to determine the thresholds for happy/anger-fear and other subtle differences especially in voice of which I have a wide array of singing styles imitatiove from Tina Turner to Joe Cocker and Bob Dylan to Jim Morrison and anybody wlse who has a different style.......I guess I'm what you would call a 'parrot'. I'm not sure how I'm going to do this. It is kinda like learning to talk as a babe before you even utter a word. I do know that jamming with people who can't read music is a waste of my time. Also I have very little memory since I didn't learn by ear to repeat the same songs over again the same way when I practiced with people. Being the whole band, at least to start with, is a way for me to increase my musical intelligence.
Ambient music to me is any feeling that you think the listeners will have when they listen to that song, can be trance, can be rap, can be elevator music or polka.......also
it is a music which lends itself better to doing things while listening to it. my opinion.

 

Fruity Loops is only an amateur program if you’re an amateur trying to use it. I’m assuming the OP can’t afford a Pro-Tools HD system (at $8,000), doesn’t use a mac (which rules out Logic), and ACID is useless for anything other than time stretching (or beat matching, call it what you will). Even in those situations, I would prefer Ableton Live over Acid.

I disagree. For a home musician who doesn’t even know exactly what type of music they’re getting into, get a cheap pre amp, but do research what you’re buying, and I would recommend the ART MP Tube. Unless you have an extra $1000 dollars to blow, cos no preamp has a better bang for your buck than that. Even then the only good a more expensive one will do you is it will add a little dimensionality and natural spacing, but you’d need a microphone that could take advantage of that, then.

 

first off, he doesn't need to get PROTOOLS HD, he can get the m-box instead and he would still be better off, when it comes to audio.

midi stuff, Logic. without a doubt the best program out there. alot of stuff, but for somebody who wants to take it on and learn it can.

home recording, doesn't have to mean shitty recording. if its for home movies and pure pleasure, go ahead buy cheap gear, just to get some audio down. i was speaking of a situation where somebody wanted to record something and get it out there. but was trying to form some kind of home studio. like myself.

the pre amp thing. ehh. whatever. but your spreading a bad information. don't get a cheap pre amp or mic. it's the beggining of the chain. start off strong.

 

Wow, I didn't expect all these replies.

The type of "ambient" stuff I'm interested in doing is along the lines of The Boards of Canada, Sigur Ros and Sufjan Stevens, just a lot of overdubbing of various instruments and some midi if I can, and drum tracks, I think. I dunno, I want to do a lot of experimenting.