Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with ambient

Need good binaural recordings to chill out with!

archagon — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 11:48:33 -0800

Need good binaural recordings to chill out with! I'm looking for high quality ambient binaural recordings to relax to, in particular of thunderstorms. I really want to feel like I'm there, as I do when listening to this "Matchbox" demo. Any suggestions?

the difference it makes

four panels — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 12:29:22 -0800

Sort of looking for an Internet Radio Stream that plays kompakt pop/ambient kind of stuff. Thank you!

"I got all five senses and I slept last night..."

Inspector.Gadget — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 09:06:35 -0800

Soundtrackfilter: Please recommend to me mostly-instrumental, sometimes dark, contemplative soundtrack albums (or even compilations or regular albums) in the vein of Michael Andrews' work for Donnie Darko or Robin Guthrie and Harold Budd's soundtrack for Mysterious Skin. As you might imagine from me citing Donnie Darko, I'm also open to soundtracks with a considerable 80s synth cheese element - even better if the songs are tweaked a bit a la M83 to not be so cheesy. Anything on the brooding <> inspired spectrum is especially welcome. As a point of reference, I very much enjoyed the recent movie Brick and would like to find soundtrack or ambient songs that capture that sort of "pieces fall into place, and it's awesome/terrible" feeling.

Thanks in advance, hivemind! My guess is that anyone with broad exposure to ambient, modern classical, guitar-based instrumental, electronic shoegaze, post-rock, etc. albums is sitting on at least a few recommendations.

Looking for new (to me) ambient and soul music...

You Should See the Other Guy — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 08:16:03 -0800

Music recommendations at two ends of the spectrum: Soul/R&B and Ambient/Drone/F'd up 20th C. classical... And, bonus question: what are your favorite sources for buying these kinds of music and finding out more about them? Examples of what I like inside... I like Candi Staton, Bettye Swann, Irma Thomas, Spencer Wiggins, James Carr...

I like Jacaszek, Greg Haines, Stars of the Lid, William Fowler Collins, James Blackshaw, Circle...

What else would I like?

Have controller, need synth

Thistledown — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 16:21:16 -0800

I've got a PC, and an EMU-49 key midi controller. I've also got an Audiophile 192 sound card with midi-in-out connections. What I want to do is play some synths on the PC.... I've been out of the game for a long time with respect to synths and midi, but I just put my PC together and got the controller for cheap. So I ask you...what synth software would you recommend? I'm looking for sounds - pianos/ambient synths to make music. I'll probably use an old copy of Audition to do recording. But I'm curious about what's good and inexpensive. Bang for the buck here. Suggestions?

"You've got trouble coming!"

Inspector.Gadget — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 19:55:56 -0800

On Geir Jenssen's (AKA Biosphere) 2006 Album Cho Oyu 8201m - Field Recordings From Tibet, the song "Summit" features a speaking sample near the end where someone named Boutros calls in on a two-way radio and warns the other party of an oncoming typhoon. The next-to-last line of the conversation is "The good king in his infinite wisdom declared the two-way radio illegal in the mountains." Where is this sample from?

unsettling ambient music?

MaddyRex — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 15:01:10 -0800

Looking for something along the lines of the theme to the movie Halloween, the Dark Knight Soundtrack or the background music to this amazing commercial Nothing with words, no thrasher metal, nothing atonal or screechy. Just soft, creepy ambient music. A clear, heavy beat might be nice but isn't necessary. Thanks!

Is There An Osaka Sound?

Xurando — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 07:31:13 -0800

I'd like an introduction to Japanese jazz/piano ambient. Where should I start? Who's great? Who should I avoid?

More Flash ambient sound toys, please!

grobstein — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 15:05:59 -0800

More Flash ambient sound toys, please! After reading this wonderful MeFi post, I immediately loaded up the Buddha Machine Wall on PS3 browser and set it to play in the background in my livingroom.

What are some other similar toys that I can run on my PS3 and that will play ambient sounds in the background with little intervention? (Bonus points if you can come over and play with them occasionally, like changing up the loops on the Buddha Machine Wall.) The PS3 browser supports Flash, so any Flash apps that do this are good answers.

1 part story, 3 parts atmosphere

jammy — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 17:30:51 -0800

MusicFilter: I'm looking for ambient music that features short &/or fragmentary bits of monologue or narrative. Tell me your favorite ambient musical pieces that have used bits & pieces of spoken word to create a dream-like narrative space. Here's some examples of what I'm looking for:

Day 42 - Mind Soup

Little Fluffy Clouds - The Orb

Scilly Automatic - Ott

Jack And Jill (Selffish Remix) - Benfay

Long Road - Funki Porcini

Space Walk - Lemon Jelly

couple other considerations:

- for the purposes of this question ambient = electronica, dub, downtempo, chillout, folk &/or jazz instrumentals

- not really looking for complete spoken word or performance pieces

Thanks, hivemind! I know I'll appreciate whatever you can distill...

bonus subquestion! there's a piece I remember from awhile ago, but I don't know the title or the artist - it features a vocal sample that goes: "Who needs physics when we've got chemistry... chemistry, chemistry" - ring a bell, anyone?

What do I show on a bunch of projectors during this event?

niles — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 12:34:34 -0800

This week an organization I work with is running a big, high energy (iPhone and Wii giveaways, the whole 9 yards) event geared towards high-school students. I'm tasked with organizing some of the creative/design aspects of it, but I've hit a few dead ends, specifically in the area of what I would call ambient video. I have two parts I'm looking for help with.

1) During the opening of the event, we have a band playing a song. For similar events we've done openers similar to Blue Man Group's Be a Rockstar with prerecorded music, so I could just put something together in Motion. No way I'm doing that for live stuff, and all of the programs along the lines of MilkDrop I've tried lag a good 1.5 seconds behind.
In short, what do the cool kids throw up on the screen during shows these days?

2) We'll also have a few screens set up throughout the auditorium playing other ambient video before anything starts. We'll most likely be playing music videos on the main screen, so I'm fine driving the secondary projectors with something like MilkDrop, but I'm wondering if there is anything else out there. I've looked through some of the other questions along these lines, but I don't want the "random nature shots" that they all seem to be.
The theme of this event is "Big", so maybe random commercials/short videos incorporating that idea? I'm not sure.

Thanks for the help!

good vibes

jammy — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 12:13:26 -0800

Tell me about ambient & instrumental music that features vibraphones, marimbas, xylophones &/or similar instruments. I'm looking for music that uses instrumentation that produces rich, resonant, vibrato dreaminess. Here's some examples of pieces I like:

Cloister - Loscil
Nagoya Marimbas - Steve Reich
Cadenza - MNO
Lubricate Your Living Room - The Bionaut
Gassenhauer - Carl Orff
Flite - The Cinematic Orchestra

and here's something I don't like:

Tubular Bells - Mike Oldfield

some other considerations:

- Not looking for anything with vocals/lyrics

- I'm already pretty familiar with vibey jazz (Bobby Hutcherson, Milt Jackson, Gary Burton, etc.)

- What's wrong with Tubular Bells? I don't know - too proggy maybe?

Lastly, recommendations for any mp3 blogs out there that might feature this kind of music would also be welcome.

Thanks!

Rockin' in the Eastern Hemisphere, or would be if I wasn't in the US

curagea — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 23:35:47 -0800

Calling all Germanic (and Slavic) rockers, ravers and, uh, *insert classical term that starts with "r"*! Help me expand my music collection with European melodies! A similar question was asked before, but I'd like to narrow the scope down a bit.

I'm a big-time metal/hard rock/electronica/classical/ambient fan. I like non-American music more than American, and have heard that Europe has a big music scene for those genres. Sure, I could spend countless hours listening to samples from each of them, but I'm VERY picky about the music I listen to. Main reason? Getting inspirations for making my own music.

So, fellow MeFites, help me discover more European music that adhere to one or more of the following criteria. I'll be listing American and non-American examples that I feel exemplifies the qualities I want so you can have a few starters. Oh, and I use the term "electronica" broadly, just to point out:

- Good/great sense of melody - This one is top priority. The more complex, the better, whether by vocal and/or instrument. And if screaming/growling is involved, it better be done not just for show (see below). Examples: Disturbed, Poisonblack, Paradise Lost, A Perfect Circle (Mer de Noms), Orgy, Schiller, Lunar, Hybrid, BT, Chopin, Rachmaninov, Prokofiev, Liszt, Squaremeter

- Heavyweight/Workout/Emotional - Oh yeah. I love to bang my head and blow my eardrums out (not literally, of course). Or really rave and dance like a maniac. Or... shake my head in internal pain over the piano. Examples: Disturbed, Judas Priest (pre-Nostradamus), Testament, Oomph!, Rammstein (pre-Reise Reise), The Prodigy (pre-Fat of the Land), The Crystal Method's "Stir Fry - Breakin On The Street", Infected Mushroom, Rachmaninov, Lizst

- Quirkiness - I also don't mind something that "sounds" fun and manages to be unpredictable. Examples: Mars Volta, Spacehog, Van Halen, Infected Mushroom, Dead Can Dance, 70's Scorpions, System of a Down, Prokofiev

- Angst with authenticity - There's screaming and growling and wailing, then there's the good mature kind, done in the right places so they don't like they're just... there. Examples: Disturbed (yeah I know, I'm a fan), Oomph! (pre-Ego), 30 Seconds to Mars (debut album), Breaking Benjamin, Trapt, Paradise Lost, Alice in Chains, Sevendust, Zeromancer

- Good drumwork - I'm not a drummer, but since getting Rock Band, I've been paying more attention to drums because they're so underestimated. Speed is not an issue; complexity is. Examples: Disturbed post-Believe (alright, I'll stop), Mars Volta, Testament, Queens of the Stone Age, Kagerou (NO Dragonforce. After listening to the stupid lyrics and the mind-numbing drums and guitars, that kind of music now just exhausts my brain).

- Mysterious/Twisted - Crawl-under-your-skin or whoa... gnarly... Examples: Panacea/Squaremeter, SunnO))), Infected Mushroom, late 80's/early 90's Delerium, the soundtrack from Quake, some Prokofiev

- Germanic lyrics, Slavic lyrics, or none - This includes German, Swedish, Norwegian, Finnish, English, Czech, Russian. Please no French; I heard French rock once and it made me cringe. Chinese rock made me laugh out loud, not in a good way. I don't really care whether the lyrics make sense or not.

Whew! I know that's a lot to cover, but these criteria were listed in order of descending importance to me, so don't worry if your searches don't match all of them. Metal, electronica, classical, ambient - heck, even New Age (think Enya) - , whether from the mainstream or indie, gimme gimme gimme! I really love to see what new great music is out there. Who do you recommend/what are your favorites?

Note: Middle Eastern-style music is acceptable too, comme Squaremeter's "Aswad".

What software should I use for this very simple animation?

The Dutchman — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 14:19:07 -0800

Flash? After effects? Maya? Toon Boom? Something else? I want to make some very simple abstract animation videos. The simplest would be just full screens of solid colors fading slowly into each other. Slightly more complex would be the same full screens of colors fading into each other, but not all at once. That is, maybe start the fade in the center or corner, and slowly leak in the new color. Or another slightly more complex: The screen divided into multiple blocks of different color that slowly fade into other colors. Real simple, slow, mellow stuff. So, what's the right software for that? Thanks!

Where is the music of the night?

TheWaves — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 15:11:54 -0800

I'm trying to find a music streaming website I found through StumpleUpon a few months ago, and the main theme was night and roadtrip music. The site had a dark colour scheme (possibly blues and blacks?) and allowed you to stream or download music. Most of the stuff was ambient but there were some cool indie rock-ish tracks as well. The only other things I remember are that you could search by tags such as 'roadtrip,' and while there were a lot of unsigned artists there were a few major label acts available to listen to as well. My search engine zen has failed me, and a search on MeFi turned up this possibility but the site is now down.

Heroes of AskMe, can you help?

Horummmm mmmmmuuuuuuuummmm oweeeeeeeeee horrrrrrrrrrrrr

Skyanth — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 13:41:31 -0800

I love listening to the groaning music of Mark Morgan (the Fallout soundtracks) and Lustmord (dark, dark ambient) while I read. I've been trying to find some similar music, but last.fm insists that Mark Morgan is like all other game soundtrack composers and Lustmord is akin to gothic wailing*. So I turn to you. What other artists make music with this grinding, eerie, screetchingly dark post-apocalyptic quality? * Nothing wrong with gothic wailing, just not when I'm reading.

What else sounds like the Quake soundtrack?

Black Spring — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 13:24:57 -0800

I'm looking for music similar to the Quake 1 soundtrack. I enjoyed Quake's threatening, ambient soundtrack of bestial breathing, eerie heartbeats, distant screams, blasts of wind, weird dronings...
What other music sounds similar?
So far I've found Lustmord and Sun O))), and I'd like some more suggestions. This stuff really helps me concentrate!

Looking for indie ambient tracks.

crickets — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 08:49:37 -0800

Looking for excellent indie ambient music. I'm looking for energy-giving tracks (without vocals) that I can play at a low level in my small office. By "energy-giving" I don't really mean energetic; I mean upbeat, uplifting, steady beats or melodies that will boost my personal work tempo without drawing attention to themselves.

(I'm talking truly ambient -- although most of what I listen to is in the Orbital/Moby/Enigma world, recommendations don't have to be electronic, just appropriate for the background.)

I've become too accustomed to all the mainstream stuff I currently use and am looking for unknown artists I can support and that I'd never find without y'all's help :)

Spacey guitar music recommendations

jchgf — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 20:55:33 -0800

Looking for spacey ambient guitar recommendations. I'm actually searching for something pretty specific. A long time a go I was listening to college radio late at night when there was no DJ naming the tracks on-air.

The music was made with spacey, echoing, delayed guitars, had a lot of negative space in it (I was visualizing the stargate sequence from 2001 while listening to it) and had a forward propulsion to them, i.e. they were sort of melodic, loopy and trancy, not chaotic, static and flat. It was instrumental and there were no percussions. The production values were low-key and grungy, which added a pleasant texture to the sound. The mood was somewhat similar to Aphex's SAWII, but obviously with guitars instead of synths.

Can you recommend music in this vein? I'm now checking out Zoviet France which is interesting, but it sounds earthy, static and flat. I tried Sleep's Jerusalem and Dopesmoker, but I didn't get into it.

Tips/Tricks for dealing with the side-effects of a nearby skunking?

CKmtl — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 17:37:32 -0800

Barring nose plugs and closing windows, is there a way to eliminate the ambient skunk stench that's wafting into the house? I'm guessing either a neighbourhood pet has run afoul of a skunk or a skunk has run afoul of a car/truck nearby. Whichever the case may be, the eye-watering reek is finding its way in.

Removing the window fans for the sake of this temporary gas attack doesn't seem worthwhile, since it will dissipate in a couple hours or so. However, this happens a few times every summer and fall, so any workable tricks would be appreciated.

Help me find nature or ambient videos to occupy unused displays?

arimathea — Sun, 04 Feb 2007 17:37:15 -0800

In W Hotels and some sushi spots I frequent, on the video screens, I see some "ambient" scenery (I guess from DVD). These are things like videos from forest scenes or videos of water or other computer/color visualizations set to music or completely silent. Can the hive point me in the direction of either forest/nature videos or ambient "visualization" videos?

"Ambient" Classical Music

beaucoupkevin — Tue, 19 Sep 2006 05:53:37 -0800

Help me find more "classical" music that I will like. There is... I want to get further into the music I really seem to be into lately, which is generally string-driven, slow-tempo, slightly "ambient" string work. I checked this AskMeFi thread, and didn't find much new that bowled me over.

What I like:
Arvo Part.

Erik Satie, at least 6 Gnossiennes.

DeBussy, in small doses.

Philip Glass.

Brian Eno.

Paul Honey's soundtrack work.

Mahler. Oh, yes, Mahler.

Lots and lots of cello.

What I actively dislike:
John Adams.

Most Aaron Copland.

What I'm rather tired of already, But thank you:
Beethoven.

Mozart.

Brahms.

Schubert.

Natural phenomena streaming live to the web?

Jimbob — Fri, 02 Jun 2006 05:16:18 -0800

Easily scrape-able sources of varying data on the web, ideally reflecting natural phenomena? I need some help finding sources. I've just developed (With the help of NetMidi, Audiomulch, Python and MidiYoke) a system whereby a Python script takes constantly changing inputs from the internet, and manipulates ambient soundscapes accordingly. For instance, at the moment I have the system hooked up to METAR weather data, and increasing temperature increases the frequency of a flanger effect on a rhythm track. Inputs are also taken for air pressure, wind speed etc.

My problem is that this data isn't very interesting on a short time scale. I can sit here for three hours, watch the temperature drop 5 degrees, and this is manifest as only a very minimal change in the soundscape. In particular, METAR data is only updated every 15 minutes or so - if I was able to track individual gusts of wind it would be great, but I don't know where this sort of data may be available.

Does anyone have any ideas, with associated source URLs, of other data I could use as input? I need something that varies on the timescale of minutes, rather than hours, and which changes chaotically but not completely randomly, but I'm having trouble thinking what phenomena might be interesting to track, that fits these criteria. I'd prefer natural phenomena to something like the stockmarket. The data can be binary or categorical as well as continuous.

Ambient/chill artist search:

yoga — Thu, 09 Feb 2006 10:38:06 -0800

Ambient/chill artist search: a band with a green album cover, 4 letters, 2 middle letters are "oo"(I think). Heard them here, emailed the dj, no reply. Must. write. them down. Longshot, but that's all I have to go on. :/

Calculate ambient light level?

orthogonality — Tue, 22 Nov 2005 09:19:29 -0800

How can I calculate the ambient (natural) light level for a particular location and time? The U.S. Naval observatory can tell me when the sun will rise and set for any particular lat-long.

But how can I find the light level, including any contribution of reflected moonlight, assuming no clouds, and "normal" weather both on the Earth and Sun, for any arbitrary date and location? (By location, I mean lat-long and height above ground, assuming "average" or flat terrain.)