drone /ambientquestion?

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Sebastian
Posts: 1092
Joined: Fri Jan 07, 2005 4:39 am

drone /ambientquestion?

Post by Sebastian » Sun May 20, 2018 3:54 pm

Hi all,

Curious about your methods for how you lay on the main background chord/drone for an ambient/drone piece and have it gradually change/pulsate.....even though the pulsing may not have much motion?

How do the pros do this?
Is it done post recording?
I assume some tweak knobs during?

I want to keep it simple.

I use synths from Native on my Native keyboard.

Thanks

McAnix
Posts: 415
Joined: Mon Jan 14, 2013 7:42 pm

Re: drone /ambientquestion?

Post by McAnix » Sun May 20, 2018 4:04 pm

I've recently started resampling sounds already in the track, reverb sends, delay sends, anything really then putting that into sampler, messing with the pitch, start/end points, loops, then putting that through more effects. I find sounds created like this really mix well with the track as they are originally from the track, even if they don't sound like it.

Sebastian
Posts: 1092
Joined: Fri Jan 07, 2005 4:39 am

Re: drone /ambientquestion?

Post by Sebastian » Sun May 20, 2018 4:25 pm

McAnix wrote:I've recently started resampling sounds already in the track, reverb sends, delay sends, anything really then putting that into sampler, messing with the pitch, start/end points, loops, then putting that through more effects. I find sounds created like this really mix well with the track as they are originally from the track, even if they don't sound like it.

Cool! How do you resample? Using what? (I have never done that)

McAnix
Posts: 415
Joined: Mon Jan 14, 2013 7:42 pm

Re: drone /ambientquestion?

Post by McAnix » Sun May 20, 2018 5:01 pm

Create an audio track, set it's input to Resampling, record enable the track. Then find the sounds/ tracks that you want to sample from your project, solo those and hit record. Whatever is being played will get sampled to the resampling track. You can get crazy creative with it, you resample the whole track and can also use that for making creative breaks etc. I really like soloing the reverb send and sampling that, perfect for drones.

jestermgee
Posts: 4500
Joined: Mon Apr 26, 2010 6:38 am

Re: drone /ambientquestion?

Post by jestermgee » Sun May 20, 2018 11:21 pm

Omnisphere!

daizok
Posts: 57
Joined: Fri Oct 27, 2017 9:05 am

Re: drone /ambientquestion?

Post by daizok » Fri May 25, 2018 12:13 pm

Modulation and automation, which you can apply to almost anything, programmed or manual. There are no real rules here, it's pretty much what you can come up with, and what works in a specific situation. In general, you can use subtle modulations of different parameters, with different timings and intervals to generate non-repetitive and slowly evolving changes.

One thing that works particularly well for drones and soundscapes is granular processing, and adding modulation to this processing. Combine that with a smart pick of material to process, and you'll be able to generate really nice (not just interesting ;) ) material pretty quickly.

daizok
Posts: 57
Joined: Fri Oct 27, 2017 9:05 am

Re: drone /ambientquestion?

Post by daizok » Fri May 25, 2018 12:16 pm

jestermgee wrote:Omnisphere!
Yup, tons of great soundsources, and as of version 2.5, 4 layers :P

I just hope they'll skip on including 4 layer granular presets, that will fry my system :mrgreen:

JAMM
Posts: 728
Joined: Sat Jul 10, 2004 8:03 pm

Re: drone /ambientquestion?

Post by JAMM » Sun May 27, 2018 5:30 pm

NI reaktor

bra10
Posts: 17
Joined: Mon May 14, 2007 10:17 am

Re: drone /ambientquestion?

Post by bra10 » Tue May 29, 2018 10:01 am

NI Molekular. You can throw any synth in this multi-FX. With Metaverb set to biggest size and all those spectral effects you automatically generate drones/ambient-style music.

darkenedsoul
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Joined: Wed Jul 28, 2004 10:21 pm
Location: Massachusetts, USA
Contact:

Re: drone /ambientquestion?

Post by darkenedsoul » Wed Jun 13, 2018 5:08 pm

http://www.darkenedsoul.net - main website
Ableton Live 8.x/9.x : NI Komplete 8 : Home built 4690K 16GB 500GB SSD, 1TB 7200, 2x2TB.

ObtuseMoose
Posts: 146
Joined: Sat Dec 17, 2011 2:51 am

Re: drone /ambientquestion?

Post by ObtuseMoose » Thu Jun 14, 2018 3:07 am

I feel compelled to mention Angstrom's technique of using insert effects with Ableton's looper to generate beautiful drones with slowly varying pulsations. It takes a little work to get it set up, but the results are golden. He gives step by step instructions and a demo video on his website.

https://angstromnoises.com/ableton-tuto ... eedback-2/

--
Moose
"all the musical ability of a blocked nostril"

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