intro's, ambience, and effects

[joeymusicguy]

im just curious what equipment some of you guys, if any, use to make intro's, ambience and effects

i've been doing it the old school way for a long time (heavily effected guitars and effected recordings of natural mother nature things)

i really think its time to get a roland fantom or something to step it up a notch

but its kind of pricey, so im curious if there's any of you out there that own something similair, all in one to end all, sort of synth/key/pad/whatever package

 

[discordless]

do it Lustmord style
Field recording

 

[schismatic]

get yourself a simple 49 key midi keyboard and then some good free synth samples. there are plenty around.

 

[discordless]

nah, samples are pretty restrictive.
midi keyboard + free vst synths should do the trick
a midi sequencer with an arpegiattor or smth might be nice too for making rhytmic and pusling sweeps or anything that goes through your mind. but then again nothing that cant be done with a multitracker that supports midi , cubase bla bla.

personal fav plugins/standalones : metaphysical, krypt, ohmforce frohmage/hematohm, camel space , camel phat 3, massive, photone

also from the new ones, one very nice emulation of a waldorf classic:
terratec komplexer. from fat bass to arps, pads , leads , noises anything.
http://www.thomann.de/gb/terratec_komplexer_vst_synth.htm

 

[joeymusicguy]

oo nice tips

but im looking for something hardware / analog

the software thing just gets old, repetitive, and cpu intensive.
i'd much rather just fiddle with keys until i've got it, hit record, and have it there, empty channel and cpu free

besides, with all the software out there, i probably would never "find" and true nice set of synths, keys, pianos, strings, synthesized instruments, and other sounds in a cohesive package like roland's stuff

i guess i might have to fork out the cash and buy it

 

[musickey]

I use NI Absynth, Reaktor, Kontakt, Sample tank. and i just make samples of the sound textures i create and then dump them to a Korg Triton for live use.
And yeah if you have the $ the Roland Fantom is a bad piece

 

[Exocaster]

I just use hardware synths. Alesis QS6, Alesis Micron, Korg MS2000BR, cheap but useful stuff. I'll blast 'em through my rack processors or even guitar gear if I need to.

One of my favorite intros I've done was a white noise patch I programmed on my QS6 through a Boss DS-1. I hit a chord, held down the sustain pedal, and manipulated the knobs on the DS-1 for a bit, and blended it with a sample from The Grudge.

 

[nwright]

I used a Roland Fantom X8 for our CD and it was killer! Tons of nice sounds in it. The X8 I believe is pretty much the same as the Fantom 88 without the color LCD screen (mine is b&w). I got it on closeout as the Fantom 88's were rolling out for a little over 2G's.

I'm interested in softsynths, but with the Fantom everything is right there and sounds so nice.

 

[joeymusicguy]

I used a Roland Fantom X8 for our CD and it was killer! Tons of nice sounds in it. The X8 I believe is pretty much the same as the Fantom 88 without the color LCD screen (mine is b&w). I got it on closeout as the Fantom 88's were rolling out for a little over 2G's.

I'm interested in softsynths, but with the Fantom everything is right there and sounds so nice.

i think thats what im gonna go for, im going to get the xr because i'd rather have a rack peice and use whatever midi controller im feeling comfy with for that day, wether it be weighted or non weighted, each with their respective advantages for the task

 

[discordless]

why not alesis andromeda ? its analog and has a dark feel to it also
@exocaster, that alesis micron is a badass VA
highly recommended for its price and sound, way better than microkorg.

 

[metalkingdom]

Reason and some good refills. Done.

 

[stringy_]

nah, samples are pretty restrictive.

You would not think that if you've spent a bit of time learning Absynth.

Absynth has standard sampling modes plus granular sampling. It is insane, you can effectively freeze a sample in time so that it never ends. Or you can stretch a 3 second sample to 60 seconds, etc. etc.

One would assume that if you're stretching a sample that the pitch will drop too, but that's the beauty of granular sampling. Pitch is always the same, no matter how short or long you stretch the sample.

Add all the oscillators, filters, and Absynth's very metallic effects and you have the ultimate ambient synth. Nothing can touch it in my experience.

I have an upcoming acoustic song with 6 instances of Absynth, I'll post it here when it's done.

 

[discordless]

i love absynth,
the nice thing bout granular synthesis is that it aint available as hardware.
the guy was talking bout free synth samples, dont really like those, i prefer making myself weird loops or sequences whatever and then fucking em up with absynth or metapshysical. sort of constructing then deconstructing then reassembling etc until you get that "wtf" factor.
another interesting sampler is atmosphere from spectrasonics and its very good for the lazy metalhead that wants some cool ambients pronto without cpu consumption.

@reason, also if i want some metal, ill get a squire bullet and a behringer v-amp and problem solved

 

[theblackmoon]

Agree with discordless. Absynth + Atmosphere.