Soundscapes

[Spire]

I've been really trying to make really intricate 'soundscapes' lately. Reaktor being my main tool, I'm just trying to create landscapes with sound and trying to communicate an environment of some sort to the listener. I've been getting some pretty interesting results. I'm mostly interested in just creating really cool intros to tracks. Stanny Frannssen is one of my main inspirations in doing this, with some of his ambient tracks on his Genetic label.

You guys ever make really cool sounding ambient soundscapes? How do you do it? What synths do you use and how?

[RDR]

Did one the other day for my live set, sampling aljezeera, chinese tv. adverts and other foreign language programs. used fx and twisting them. no synth work. just samples.

[force]

Use a very slow attack time and lengthen the release to taste. Now trigger ya sounds and fiddle.

Absynth is very good for soundscapes as well

[stjohn]

Spire did u pick up the additional pack for reaktor 5? Skrewell and SpaceDRone are deadly for soundscapes. theres loads of cool ones from the User Library too.. CHimera Random is cool.

[Mindful]

Heres a few things I do
say you have a sustained pad sound, set up a bus with one or two reverbs on set to 100% wet, turn your pad all the way down and use it as a send effect.Then use the send volume on the pad as the volume which should give huge space to your sound, then you can use the volume to bring the pad a little more foward in the mix.
Layer lots and lots.
Pitch shit down lots.
Duplicate a pad sound(helps if its audio for this), pan one of them hard left and the other hard right, reverse one of them or pitch one of them down a good few semitones(this gives a huge wide sound thats also pretty easy to fit in the mix)
Use low pass filters to push things further back.
Of course it doesnt have to be a pad sound, you can get an ambient pad effect of anything with enough pitching down and verb, I use hats,claps speech, synths, drums, whatever.
Absynth is great for atmospheres as is FM7.

Get stoned and make em at 3 in the morning: )

[force]

Get stoned and make em at 3 in the morning: )

he he.....you knows it!

[Spire]

dodgyedgy: I haven't tried using samples yet but damn I should. TV samples are a perfect way to create a scene and sorta tell a story. For instance, have the Aljazeera samples play and bombs exploding in the background, sort of telling a story about terrorism. The hard thing is keeping it musical so it can be easily mixed into your track. I'm just really interested in experimenting beyond the whole DJ tools/tracks/club music idea and pushing techno into an actual musical song that you can listen to at home. Know what I mean?

stjohn: Yeah I have them both. SpaceDrone is nice, I like the way it can make wind and rain sounds, very useful stuff. Skrewell is good for really abstract shit. Have you gotten Electronic Instruments Vol. 2? Metaphysical Function is a really nice synth too. I'm not too big on the really abstract stuff because you can't really attribute them to anything in the real world, you know? Like I was saying, I want to create environments with sound that you can actually picture what's making the sound in your mind, not just trippy pads and swooshes that sound cool. I want to get deeper than just the sound and get some depth to what the sound actually is, which is pretty hard because being a sound designer is by no means easy.

mindful: Hmm, I'll have to try this. I don't want to depend too much on pads though. I think the days of trippy, abstract, no substance sound effects and noises are kinda dying. Well, atleast with me I guess. I love techno with all my heart, but lately it seems like the fact that most tracks have no story or point to them, bores me. I've been trying to write tracks that tell a story or make a point. Think of it like this, a hip-hop song has it's track name, say for instance "For My Dogs", while the actual lyrics tell a whole story and by the end of the track, you've heard a story. Now, I know a lot of techno tracks already do this, but not to the extent that I would like to. So, for instance, I would like to make a track called... "Vertigo". Well, the track would begin with a doctor talking and diagnosing an ear infection, and as he is saying it... the sound starts to warp and twist and the actual beat begins. Within the actual track, I would like the doctors voice fading in and out at points sounding really warped.... Ahhhhh so yeah, so that's my plan with the whole soundscapes and shit lol. Story-telling Techno! Yeaaa bboooyyyy.... lol Oh yeah, I also want to make Gangsta-techno. A mix between hip-hop and techno... gangsta-techno. I know I'm ****in' weird......

[bmovie]

Checkout this new dope (& free) tool for instant drones:

http://hypermammut.sourceforge.net/paulstretch/

[danielmarshall]

Get into granular synthesis