Budget ambient synth?

The Lounge
#75

A Volca that you like and a Zoom MS-70CDR cost about 300 currency units new and maybe half that used.

Or get the Zoom and a Korg contact mic. Play around with the FX algorithms and routings before you buy more synths.

Maybe a Monitron delay and a mic is all you need for sounds, and you really want a Space or CXM1978. Maybe the Zoom is good and you prefer a MS-20 to generate sounds.

Or maybe a used MC-101 is the right tool.

Lots of options out there. Your budget can be reduced if you shop carefully for second hand gear not necessarily intended for audio production. A cheap tape recorder may be better than a H4n.

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#76

A general purpose computer can do nearly anything you might want or need it to do musically, desiring hardware is really just about the interface, both the physical tactile element and the virtual layout and flow. Also I think a big reason for people’s drive to go ‘DAWless’ is that a computer can do many many things, but you only actually want it to a handful of actions when making music, and having such a large space of possible events can be a hindrance. This is especially the case in frenetic live performance where clicking the wrong menu item or some operating system interruption can completely derail you, for those doing non-realtime composition it’s much less of a concern.

I generally recommend doing the most with what you currently have (presumably some sort of computer) and experimenting with software to see what you find inspiring and effective, and then consider if a particular bit of hardware might make that process that much more fun/easier/interesting/better sounding.

For me I know that if I was able to spend the time to learn and make something very bespoke in like Pure Data which is free, and combine that with some good MIDI hardware (which I already have a fair bit of) then I would be much closer to having the production system I dream of. I’ve definitely realised that in order to do what I would like to do live I need some kind of system that has well defined limits and is very reliable plus very tactile and responsive hardware. I’m pretty happy with the few bits I have at the moment like the Octatrack + MIDI controllers so I’m going to focus on learning their capabilities/limitations as best I can and then go from there.

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#77

a piezo attached to anything can be easily weaponized.

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#78

Samplr is the best because you can just take it anywhere and record the “ambiance” around you: streets, creeks, birds, your voice, anything. And then you get to use the gold standard in ui for tactile music apps. The built in effects are great. Truly theirs nothing like composing an ambient piece using the sounds around you. Used iPads are quite affordable

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#79

I forgot about the MGS samples. I have every sound file from that game, including all the sound effects. Hit me up if you want them.

This is poetry. So true.

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#80

Follow the link for audio

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#81

After reading your answers I realized I have failed to list the gear I already have. Maybe that would be a great help to narrow down the gear I would need?

My gear:
-korg volca fm 2 (I like the sound, hate the interface)
-korg nts-1 (probably the best money I spend on music related stuff)
-arturia minilab3
-elektron model: cycles (bought it last month, still learning, but it seems very deep)
-custom 77 london’s burning electric Guitar

  • koala app on smartphone
  • Ableton

It seems like you are all agreeing on saying the big thing about these textures is the FX so I guess I should focus more on that than the actual source of the sound.

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#82

Like others said, Burialesque music is best done in a DAW, chopping up samples, pitching them up/down, making basses/leads/glitches out of sample snippets from game music or classical orchestras, and of course some mangled r&b vocals or movie quotes. Believe me, I tried with hardware but came nowhere close.

With Ableton and samples I got this (my best result, I think, although my mixing/mastering skills weren’t that great at the time - still aren’t)

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#83

Except Burial doesn’t use a DAW. But since the OP already has a DAW they can use the built-in audio tools for sample manipulation and FX processing.

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#84

Here’s the very long interview with Burial.

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#85

After relistening to burial early ambient tracks they seem very loop-ey.

Seems like burial is reversing and timestretching several loops without a grided structure to the tracks. I guess a sampler/looper with heavy FX/timestretch could work as a piece of hardware?

#88

Turning off the grid in a DAW-piano roll really helps with getting that loose feeling/vibe

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#89

if you can trade model:cycles for model:samples, you would be pretty much set for making the type of music that you want.

Volca fm2, albeit without interface, is still 6 voices of nice sounds.
which can go into :arrow_down:
korg nts-1 is the king of affordable and diverse FX, great little thing.
and after its properly wet with FX :arrow_down:
model:samples can mangle those sounds into delicious ambient.

Minilab 3 can control both, volca and samples :content:

Fraction of your budget can go into getting a small field recorder, to feed model:samples some non synth textures. (perhaps Tascam DR-05)

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#90

Reaper is excellent for audio editing and manipulation, you can set up your keyboard commands to quickly reverse/normalise/stretch sounds and apply whatever FX you want. I would strongly recommend it over any standalone audio editor at this point, with the exception of software that has hi resolution spectrograph views. Reaper has a spectrograph view and edit mode but the FFT resolution is lacking meaning low midrange and below content is pretty indistinct sadly, it’s still nice to have though and has been useful for quickly finding particular transients.

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#92

Excellent, sound advice. Though for more always-with-you immediacy, the OP could use Koala app that’s already on their smartphone rather than a field recorder.

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#93

Thats a great suggestion! Depends on the phone but some of them sound just as good as a small field recorder.

#94

I struggle with the VOLCA FM2 as I find its sound very “cold”. What I like about burial sounds is that they seem warm, almost organic…

I wonder if this is FX related, or just a mater of sample quality, or layering different textures…

The model:samples seems to be designed as a sample based drum machine, would you say it is good at doing ambient?

I guess I could pick that, or a second hand digitakt (but seems to be a drum machine as well?) Or a sp-404 mkII…

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#95

I’ve always loved my ‘crappy’ mic (and speaker!) on my various mobile phones. I used to have a fairly high-end field recorder with XLR jacks, etc. but found that when I wanted to capture sound in the moment I often didn’t have it with me. For field recordings (in the city at night or in the forest or at the beach) what I’m really trying to record is ‘air’, to get a sense of the vibe of the place and fidelity is not the highest priority.

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#96

one of the great things about all 3lektron boxes is how flexible they are. digitakt for example is labeled as a drum computer but it’s a sampler with flexible envelopes. has nothing really to do with drums specifically apart from the labeling on the trig’s, and the samples it come pre-loaded with. tho it is great as a drum machine.

all ov em can do ambient really well, including model samples.

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#97

Burial’s music sounds the way it does because he’s using a lot of samples from music/games/etc that already has a lot of ambience to it, when you slow that stuff down and put multiple layers of it together you get rich fuzzy harmonics and a nice warm tone, and I think it’s case of smart filtering and frequency bracketing to keep it from getting too muddy. Probably the mastering Hyperdub put it through helps a lot too.

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