Best DAW for beatless ambient music

  On 5/12/2020 at 1:00 PM, dingformung said:

Reaktor (Blocks)

  On 5/12/2020 at 5:17 PM, thawkins said:

I'm surprised nobody has suggested modular synths yet

VCV Rack

you could also look into iannix, though you'll need to pair it with some other sound generator

https://www.iannix.org/

Goldwave

  On 5/8/2020 at 8:11 AM, Brisbot said:

yeah I'm trying to kinda emulate Burial's method where he used (I think) audacity so his tracks didn't come out too quantized. Though I would rather find a fully  fledged DAW, or at least one that can load in plugins.

Audacity is perhaps the best tool I’ve ever used for ambient. It’s so nice just to print effects and move on.

though I think burial used reaktor?

  On 5/18/2020 at 2:12 AM, Mesh Gear Fox said:

burial used soundforge but i think he uses live now.

sellout

  On 5/17/2020 at 9:46 PM, sheatheman said:

Audacity is perhaps the best tool I’ve ever used for ambient. It’s so nice just to print effects and move on.

The synthesis in Audacity sucks, though, so you are basically pushed towards sample based music and you can only use 32bit VSTs even on a 64bit system . Never used that script thing though, maybe that opens up more possibilities. I don't think that Audacity can do more than Cubase's audio editor which is pretty dope. Over 20 different time stretch algorithms, Time Warp, transient detection etc. It's just very convenient. So use VCV Rack or Reaktor as a VST and record a patch into Cubase and mangle the audio in the editor, use offline effects etc.

have no idea, just love to blend the end results

I haven't updated it since v2.5 and don't really use it much because it performs really badly with the old, low end video card I have to keep installed in my desktop for backward compatibility with my video capture setup, but Usine is a good non-joke answer to the OP.

Not a big fan of their licensing though.  Licenses that expire based on a period of time rather than a specific update are kind of crap.I jumped on Usine at Hollyhock 1 and by the time I stopped updating at 2.5 I'd had to get two paid updates over as many years and was still waiting for some core features (mainly standalone VST export, something all the previous versions had and the main reason I bought it) that had been promised for the next update after 1.0.

But that aside, it really IS a good piece of software that's not quite unique but pretty close, and beatless ambient stuff is one of the things it was strongest at when I was using it.

  On 5/18/2020 at 2:45 AM, dingformung said:

The synthesis in Audacity sucks, though, so you are basically pushed towards sample based music and you can only use 32bit VSTs even on a 64bit system . Never used that script thing though, maybe that opens up more possibilities. I don't think that Audacity can do more than Cubase's audio editor which is pretty dope. Over 20 different time stretch algorithms, Time Warp, transient detection etc. It's just very convenient. So use VCV Rack or Reaktor as a VST and record a patch into Cubase and mangle the audio in the editor, use offline effects etc.

Ooooo, vcv and audacity. That sounds excellent. Yeah I always bounce stuff into audacity, but you can get so far with like, 3 audio files. 

You can abuse RX7 and make it do things it doesn't want to do, with good results  It's more of a restoration tool but the spectral processing options are really nice, would be an interesting approach

Cool Edit 2000 has that binaural processing built in.

I wish I could have experienced cool edit

I second 'Reaper and turn the grid off'. It's a wonderful bit of software, with the bonus that you can effectively use it for free because the trial mode isn't restrictive. Not that I'm advocating never paying, but it gives you time to really settle in and get comfortable with the software before deciding to pay and have it permanently, which is definitely a bonus if you're looking at making a big change. It's pretty straight forward and you can just throw huge slabs of MIDI and audio in there and move them around without snapping to any grid if you alter the settings. 

I'd also second the Session View in Live. It removes the arrangement grid entirely and allows you to focus just on the sounds you're using right now.