Greets from Aus

[TheGuard]

Hi guys

Just wanted to introduce myself on the forums here. I'm not new to ambient music, but I am rather new to creating it and wouldn't mind getting some pointers on a good free program to start with, might look to upgrade later down the track. I come from a black metal background and have used guitar pro in the past for writing ambient, but it didn't always come out too well.

Started out with Burzum, Nox Arcana and a few other underground artists, and just kept on going from there; Mortiis, etc.

Wouldn't mind collaborating with a couple people once I find my feet in the genre

[phoenstorm]

Hi & welcome to the forums! I think you'll find a lot of friendly people here, not to mention good conversation There is a lot of free plugins of high quality out there, the problem is to find them and to learn how to use them...as far as a DAW is concerned - i think something along the lines of audacity or reaper might be a good starting point - reaper is not free, but probably the most inexpensive serious DAW. There is a thread here, where people discuss what they use in producing ambient & what they like about their platform - that should make a good starting point.

[S1gnsOfL1fe]

Black metal background huh? You are not alone!

So many people to learn from here...as you'll soon find out! Ambient Online is a place to be explored, dived deep into, and most of all...enjoyed.

If you can do that, you'll fit right in. Looking forward to hearing your music in the future and welcome to the forum.

Cheers,
-S1gns

[Guest]

Hi from another Australian - there are so many free programs you really don't need to pay for anything to develop even quite sophisticated music.

Reaper is not free but incredibly cheap and powerful - however i'm pretty sure the early version 0.999 version is still free http://www.reaper.fm/download-old.php?ver=0x

Otherwise something like this http://pro.magix.com/en/samplitude/m...glish.730.html is probably even better. There are others as well


There are stacks of free guitar amp VSTs http://www.kvraudio.com/q.php?search...itar+amplifier some of which are quite amazing

For reverb I favour convolution - this one is free http://www.liquidsonics.com/software_reverberate_le.htm

There is so much more, but it depends on what you want to do - if you give a specific example of a piece that will make it easier for people to give advice - for example do you just want to use guitar?

[PS I would advise starting off with very little equipment - it's really easy to disappear down a rabbit hole of too many possibilities]

[blackivan]

welcome and enjoy :-)

[Tuonela]

Hi from the Blue Mountains!

[windspace]

First, welcome to AO.

I just realized that 'ReaVerb', included with Reaper, is a convolution reverb. And I agree with Woggle, too many tools is counterproductive. I'm trying to limit myself to fewer tools so I can learn them better.

One of the first ambient tools I tried is Audiobulb Ambient. It's described as an 'ambient soundscape generator' and has a granular synth, delay, multimode filter, and reverb built in. You simply load a sample in and start having fun. Oh, and how could I forget my favorite control...the Random button!

[aoVI]

hello!

[Synthetic Aurality]

Howdy from Texas, USA! Welcome to AO!

Reaper is a good one, you can try it for free for a while before purchase. It comes with a load of effects and is a good way to get started, the community is pretty friendly and the program is well-supported.

For synths, HG Fortune has a bunch of his old synths for free.. http://www.ambientonline.org/forum/s...Forgotten-Gems

Between those two you have a great deal of power and versatility. If you want to add to that pile, Tone2 has released Firebird for free http://www.tone2.com/html/firebird_v...hesizer_1.html a very versatile synth.

Enjoy your stay!