How to make backround track noise?

[moonpie]

I want to fill up my track with warm background noise, but my success rate isnt all that great.

Basically, its the type of background noise that can fill up a sparse recording, but stays IN THE BACKGROUND. Atmospheric, but non tonal, and not distracting.

My ideas always end up too "front of mix" or annoyingly "pitched". My ideas stop at filtered white noise, which gets really boring very quickly.

I guess, its hard for me to create that "vague" sort of rhythmic/non rhythmic type of sound. Itll either seem way too much, or wont add anything to a track.


I sort of thought Absynth was made for this type of situation, but it still has that frustrating "pitched" pad characteristic, that can make it hard to sustain over a chord change. And then also it can just add too much movement to a track.


Any tips on creating these type of sounds and mixing them?

[thespirit3]

Atmospheric but non tonal? Apart from filtered white noise I'm not sure what you're after.

Perhaps sample the lead-out track from a well-used vinyl record and use that?


Steve
http://www.coherer.net

[evangelink]

Try field recordings. Go and record in a quiet field or somewhere, you'll htill have a distant rumble or hiss or something.

EQ it. Sidechain it. Add FX (like Auto Filter) for some movement. Can really fill in a track.

[ttilberg]

I know you mentioned non-tonal, but something I've found success with is taking a small stab of the existing track (maybe buss the main lead and bass together), drop a massive 30-60 second reverb, mostly (or all) wet, reverse them, and drop another reverb, and maybe some delays to boot.

From here, you just have a huge mess of ambient tonal noise, but it's tied to your track's existing notes, so it helps glue everything together. With this chunk of noise, you can experiment with filters and creating ADSR envelopes out of it. Maybe throw this piece itself into a sampler, or some drum racks, with even more reverb or delays. Automating the filters and volume with this mess of sound might provide what you are looking for.

[oddstep]

+1 for field recordings. Bring the world into your music.

[marcoskohler]

1) Go to freesound.org, download recordings of room noise, rain, or the desert...place it under your track with some subtle filter and autopan modulation

2) get a tape emulator plugin and enable the tape noise (or download white/tape noise)

3) use this: http://bedroomproducersblog.com/2012/04 ... by-mad-ep/

4) use this: http://www.thecontrolcentre.com/diamondsanddust.htm

[antarktika]

as well as the vinyl samples posted above, you might check out the free Vinyl plug from Izotope:

http://izotope.com/products/audio/vinyl/

The noise parameters can be lightly dialed to taste to create a subtle background noise.

Runs constantly though, so best probably to sample a long stretch of it and loop it.

[moonpie]

Thanks everybody for the suggestions

I know you mentioned non-tonal, but something I've found success with is taking a small stab of the existing track (maybe buss the main lead and bass together), drop a massive 30-60 second reverb, mostly (or all) wet, reverse them, and drop another reverb, and maybe some delays to boot.

From here, you just have a huge mess of ambient tonal noise, but it's tied to your track's existing notes, so it helps glue everything together. With this chunk of noise, you can experiment with filters and creating ADSR envelopes out of it. Maybe throw this piece itself into a sampler, or some drum racks, with even more reverb or delays. Automating the filters and volume with this mess of sound might provide what you are looking for.

Thanks, I tried this out - it suffered the same problem Ive been having - the reverb tends to create a distinct pitch (the most prominent) turning it into more of a high background drone, which is what Im trying to avoid.

The freesound/field recording ideas could be my best option alright. Ill give them a whirl!

Ive used the vinyl vst alright, it is really cool. Another thing I love using to create white noise is the fabulous free Time Machine bitcrusher vst. Its easily the most musical effect Ive ever used.

[simmerdown]

The freesound/field recording ideas could be my best option alright. Ill give them a whirl!

do that, or record your own, then put them in paulstretch, that thing is an ambient noise factory

did anyone mention Paulstretch already?

Paulstretch

...

many great field recordings on soundcloud too, i prefer to freesound

mark rushton has some great stuff

http://soundcloud.com/markrushtoncom

[Vios]

Here are some ideas for atmospheric effects:

Atmospheric Effects Quick Ideas

Also one idea is to take some background noise, cut out the bass, and then do very sharp boosts at the fundamental frequencies of a note that's in key with your track. For example If my track was in the key of C, I'd try boosting at 65.41, 130.81, 261.63, etc, probably with a Q of 12-18 and at least 6dbs. This way you're "tuning" the noise to the key of your track. You can balance how much you want the noise to be organic and real sounding versus how much you want the track to fit and avoid mud in your mix.

[psyndrome]

Hi,

is there anywhere a tutorial for this one? Maybe with screenshots or videos? Thank you.

edit: I'm looping live recordings with my cello and want to make it more dirty with recorded field recordings.

[supamonsta]

I want to fill up my track with warm background noise

interesting idea, I never thought about that

[jestermgee]

What kind of "background noise" are you after?

- Crashing waves
- Windy suburb
- Industrial ambience
- Distant ocean
- Distant pub ambience
- Thunder Storm
- etc etc...

I have a lot of these types of recordings (royalty free) which I have done over the years using an NTG stereo mic, blimp and Zoom/Mixpre mobile rig. Many of these I "lease" to film students for their low cost films but I have a lot that I could spare a few chunks for you to play with (and anyone interested).

I just finished recording a thunderstorm as it rolled in but had to do it in my back yard so I have some suburb sounds mixed in (dogs, trees, cars etc) and I haven't yet edited and catalogued these but if it's what you may like then I can cut a chunk for you to play with / loop.

[crumhorn]

check this out (if you're running windows) -> http://tweakbench.com/field