[microsound-announce] Vital review AMBIENT v4

[David Newman]

http://www.audiobulb.com/Ambient.htm <http://www.audiobulb.com/Ambient.htm> 

This is not the first time that I review software; it is the second time and it's an updated version of the one I wrote before, Ambient V.03 (see Vital Weekly 845). I have very little knowledge about  technology, to be honest, and, as I pointed out before, I am quite lazy. I don't mind if somebody else  does the legwork for me. That is one of the reasons why I like Ambient so much. I have used that first version a lot since I got it. Here's how it works: you load any sound into it, be it very short or very long, and you can change all sorts of parameters, Grain randomness, Granular randomness, pitch shift, delay, reverb, amplitude envelope, filter and you can tweak it around until you find something you like. Then you hit record and let it run by itself until you are done. 

The recordings can then be opened in any other program you use for mixing and editing. You can feed the result 
back in Ambient and use it as source material. You can save your favourite presets and you can connect via Midi learn a controller to it. My most beloved feature is the 'random' button though. It takes your sound in the most unexpected territories and I can hit it for as long as I think is necessary to find the right sound. Don't let the name 'Ambient' misguide you, as it is not necessarily an ambient outcome. I guess it depends on your choice of input, but also some combinations rip speakers and headphones apart. So is this something for lazy people (like me)? I don't think it is, 
as it all very much has to do with what you put into this, and what you do with the results.

With technology, I always feel one should work with something one is comfortable with. Just last week I discussed with someone why I was still using software A for multi-tracking and not 'B', which was so much easier to use, time-saving etc. 'You will regret not using this earlier'. I don't subscribe to the whole notion of regret, as it has to do with the choices one is making. I know 'B' is better, faster, cheaper and yet I stick with 'A' because I am comfortable using it and not easily prepared to go through another learning curve. If you want to release a cassette and use apps that play random 
sounds (like those sleep sound generators), then you should that. If creating modular synthesizers is your alley, then go ahead. It is never about what you use, it is how you want to it. Rather than writing myself something in Max/MSP which is at the basis of 'Ambient', I'd rather take 'Ambient', because it is so easy to use. 

The last time I wrote I had no idea if I would be using 'Ambient' a lot, but in the years that followed I can safely say I used it a lot, in all sorts of combinations, as a live instrument, as stand-alone software, feeding it to analogue machines and was at the source of much music.

http://www.audiobulb.com/Ambient.htm <http://www.audiobulb.com/Ambient.htm> 

Best wishes

David Newman
___________________

www.truthtable.co.uk <http://www.truthtable.co.uk/> | analogue electronic music

www.audiobulb.com <http://www.audiobulb.com/> | exploratory music

www.audiomoves.com <http://www.audiomoves.com/> | ambient music sync specialist




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