Producing long, airy ambient loops

I know very little about anything other than Audiomulch/FL, but what I do know is that I can't for the life of me make something that doesn't sound like Smojphace. I can lay down some nice acid-y basslines and shit but nothing that isn't abrasive. Is there something renowned for making nice pad loops or tricks I should use in AM/FL? Should I invest in hardware (cheap!)?

Erm... try filters, detuning, long attack times and reverb

Like Iain said, long attack and release, lots of reverb, filtering, play lots of extended chords over several octaves..

i find reason works great for easily creating big ambient soundscapes, with the combinator and shitloads of reverb, equalising and shit. the trick is to make lots of very subtle things and filter them down and pan /spread out on the stereo spectrum. airy ambient means far far out on the lefts and rights.

here's some examples of what it can sound like in reason:

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/songInfo.c...&songID=3773898

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/songInfo.c...&songID=3773893

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/songInfo.c...&songID=3773866

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/songInfo.c...&songID=3442499

these arent perfectly mastered and have some sound issues but it should give you an idea

some other tunes which arent exclusively ambient but contain cool pads

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/songInfo.c...&songID=3444989

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/songInfo.c...&songID=3270222

http://media.putfile.com/hostinging_in_the_skies <- love the pad in this one after about a minute

The rgcaudio z3ta soft synth is great too, can create very nice high quality sounds and pads and shit:

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/songInfo.c...&songID=3861340

and finally an ambient track im working on as we speak whose pad i have grown really fond of.

http://media.putfile.com/ambient

fruity loops is a toy for kids in my opinion.. havent heard of AM before so im not sure if theres any program specific advice i could give

  Derelic7 said:

fruity loops is a toy for kids in my opinion..

I don't use it any more, but this is a load of tosh. Audiophiles can debate here and elsewhere online until the cows come home about subtle differences between the sound engine in FL and Cubase but it's definitely no kid's toy. Excellent tracks can be, and regularly are, produced in FL - just listen to Wisp.

(awaits Wisp flamewar #3087481)

Well, also remember delay, that adds space, try some stereo play with enhancers, M/S decoders, reverbs allright too. Long release times, subtle modulations funky effects bleeding in and out.

I haven't used FL for music making in a while (minus using it for a couple synths on recent songs), but I do recall it distorting at very low volumes. Consider using it in conjunction with other programs like Portools/Acid/Cubase/whatever good quality mixing program you can get ahold of. I'd be very surprised if well produced artists like Wisp used Fruityloops by itself for mixing. But on the other hand, its probably a much more advanced program now than it was when I was using it. I'd never do any final mixing using just Reason or just FL.

  Derelic7 said:

fruity loops is a toy for kids in my opinion.. havent heard of AM before so im not sure if theres any program specific advice i could give

very funny to see a reason user saying that

and you haven't heard of audiomulch - n00b :tongue2:

reason is an aureal sketchbook.. and has imho alot more versatility than floops, despite its lack of vst support, but one can fix that with rewiring into cubase or acid.

anyway that's just the general impression i've gotten from fruityloops, no one seems to make anything good with it except amateur level trance and techno, and the whole pattern based sequencing seems rather limited

  Derelic7 said:

and finally an ambient track im working on as we speak whose pad i have grown really fond of.

http://media.putfile.com/ambient

holy shit, that is seriously exquiste, you must finish it, with another section(meaning;another heighten to its already lushness), then release it on pink vinyl, i'd buy 3 copies...its very good, do not put it out for free, and not on mp3 either

  Derelic7 said:

reason is an aureal sketchbook.. and has imho alot more versatility than floops, despite its lack of vst support, but one can fix that with rewiring into cubase or acid.

anyway that's just the general impression i've gotten from fruityloops, no one seems to make anything good with it except amateur level trance and techno, and the whole pattern based sequencing seems rather limited

I've always messed with cut-off while playing some nice chords through slow string type noises. At the same time putting it through loads of different types of delay (microkorg > kaoss pad). Looping them becomes difficult though unless you love digital clicks (I'd use a software sampler, or a really good hardware one so you can see the waveform for editing, like small fadeouts near end of loop, stuff like that).

it's not always about how you do it - the sound has to be right or it just sounds shit.

try absynth or some of the nice pads in v-station

chords or single notes - doesnt matter

loads of reverb (mix more of the verb than dry signal)

loads of delay

maybe a touch of chorus

again - what order you put the effects in is very important.

and stuff

check out my thread in EKT for some long ambient pad drones

mo

my best recommendation is certainly hardware.

the best ambient melodies come directly from hands-on manipulation of a keyboard and knobs, in my experience anyway.

what can take me hours of frustratedly clicking on a piano roll in a sequencer takes me a few minutes with a controller/synthesizer.

if you're absolutely stuck with software, though, always tweak a patch as far away as possible from the default settings. have fun with it. make it your own. if you succeed, it will sound good by pure virtue of artistic exploration.

  tauboo said:

  Derelic7 said:

fruity loops is a toy for kids in my opinion.. havent heard of AM before so im not sure if theres any program specific advice i could give

very funny to see a reason user saying that

 

and you haven't heard of audiomulch - n00b :tongue2:

everywhere where people meet that are making music with computers this topic is ever-returning. i dont think that it really depends on what software you're using. having freedom in a program can be good as well as bad. working under strict limitations is always interesting and a great challenge. and besides, how much of the freedom that Reason or any other program provides you with are you really using? especially for someone who is just getting into making music: what on earth should he need logic for? fruity loops was the first program i used, but it still is fun. especially with a hardware-midi-fl-setup, i made tracks where people asked me how the hell i got these weird noises and beats done. they hardly believeme when i tell them that fruity loops was involved to a great extent. basically, you can have fun with everything, and that's what it all should be about.

I still think making beats in FL's piano roll and the Fruity Slicer with a selection of good RX2s is just my favourite way to make drill/crapcore etc. beats

  Derelic7 said:

the whole pattern based sequencing seems rather limited

please explain

hmm, this is really shouldn't be stumping you i don't think. ambient music is probably the easiest type of music to create

  yekker said:

hmm, this is really shouldn't be stumping you i don't think. ambient music is probably the easiest type of music to create

Its probably the hardest to create well though. Im not really sure. I haven't really heard much ambiant I like. DEFINE: ambient music. But yeah. I always get really bored making shit like it and it ends up sounding like played-out typical garbage. Certain noise music I can deal with though.

  Bubba69 said:

  yekker said:

hmm, this is really shouldn't be stumping you i don't think. ambient music is probably the easiest type of music to create

 

Its probably the hardest to create well though. Im not really sure. I haven't really heard much ambiant I like. DEFINE: ambient music. But yeah. I always get really bored making shit like it and it ends up sounding like played-out typical garbage. Certain noise music I can deal with though.

noise kinda is like ambient though eh? ,maybe that's what you were saying, but yeah, noise can be a blast to make, a great stress reducer too i say.