Crash course in setting up an ambient track?

[culturejam]

I cut my teeth on a Tascam 424 (the original, not reissue) back in 1993 when I was in high school. Now I use Garage Band as a way to get ideas down or do simple songs. I know it's capable of a lot more than I'm doing with it.

Everything I've recorded has been the typical 4 to 6-track rock song with really basic arrangement. What I want to know how to do is get started on some spacey ambient stuff. The problem is that I really don't know where to start. I have enough gear (I think) to get the job done, but I've never really used it for ambient, airy, multilayered sounds. I've listened to some of you guy's stuff here, and it sounds like the kind of thing I want to take a shot at.

So, where do I start? What do I really need in terms of gear?

Here's what I have now:

• Several guitars, a few amps, an eBow, and a decent selection of modulation effects.
• Garage Band and Audacity (and I think I can "dig up" a copy of Reason and Recycle if need be, but I'd rather use what I already know)
• Line6 UX1 interface
• Tascam DP-004

I do NOT have a USB keyboard. That sucks, but I can do simple stuff with MIDIkeys.


Any input you guys have would be much appreciated.

[theactionindex]

I just use a crap ton of reverb and delay as a base and then build off of that as far as effects go.

[Gearmond]

seriously.

ambient is probably the easiest genre to make, and the most difficult to distinguish between well done and half assed. which is sort of the inherent flaw.

aside from the fact that it tries to genre-fy something that should be inherent to any music ever made ever, by which i mean ambience.

[culturejam]

Maybe I'm over-thinking it, then. Okay, never mind.

[sonidero]

Lay the guitar down and put the e bow on a string and add effects... Record a track, go back and pan it the other way and record the same thing on another track... Move the e bow around and try again... It's all about space and feeling... Anything can be "ambient", record the refrigerator or wind or TV static and add that with delay and reverb then play over it... I love to talk shop so hit me up... A midi keyboard would really help but you've got enough to start...

[culturejam]

Cool, thanks for the ideas.

I'll dick around a bit and see what I can come up with. I've got a couple delays and Cathedral verb, so I should be able to crank out some interesting stuff.

I'll have to see about scoring a small MIDI keyboard.

[sonidero]

Any old Casio usually have midi outs... It doesn't matter the sounds but they could be a plus !!! Look in CL and see what you can get for $20 or less... Ask around, lots of people have old keyboards with midi outs laying around they'd probably give you if you aww shucks it enough...