What's an Ambient Sample?

bassmac · 3rd August 2004

I've read a million times that AW adds them to drums, but what exactly are they?

Is it just a 100% wet sample?

shipshape · 3rd August 2004

It's the sound of the room rather than the direct snare sound which when added to a small sounding snare and blended just right can add a lot of size and space to the drum. It is not reverb, but is a "sample" of a snare hit or hits just using the room mic's only. You can also tune the ambience to suit the real drum tuning if ya want to . It works great with bass drums also...... it can add a lot of width.

Mike Tholen · 3rd August 2004

nice tip!
would this be done with a recording of the actual snare being used?
or do you use your own library of sounds?

I've done this before but I've taken the room track-gated it while being keyed from the close snare mic, the adjusted the attack/release to get the same effect, but sometimes during fills and such it lets too much through and I have to get in there and automate the crap outta it.

tranter · 8th August 2004

can anyone suggest some sample cds with good drum ambience samples?

Jose Mrochek · 8th August 2004

I'm not totally sure, I don't have it but I heard Drum Kit from Hell has cool ambient samples. What we did once just for curiosity reasons was set up the genelecs in the live room with two overheads placed a few feet away and "resampled" some sounds from the Bob Clearmountain CD I have, and it worked pretty good. Not fantastic, but yeah after doing that you could consider them ambient samples.

adam_w · 9th August 2004

What ?! deja vu..I just did this yesterday

ran 4 sets of mic leads out the front door of the studio..into the beautiful huge wooden room at the arts centre next door to the studio I happen to have a key for..and sampled the kick and snare (between traffic passing !) with 2 GT condensers about 15 feet away into 2 telefunken V78's into apogee A/D. Even with all the padding in the world
they still descended nicely into sounding a lot like cannon fire as the room kicked off and the pre's
saturated like beasts..

After a hasty retreat before anyone noticed or complained at 10 am on a sunday morning, I then soundreplacered kick & snare samples to other tracks and tucked them under the real kick & snare, barely audible, but way cool. voila !

The only thing that someone might be able to help me with was soundeplacer wouldn't deal with a stereo sample triggered from a mono source, so I used the mono ones. Ah well, mono works for rock & roll :-)

RoundBadge · 9th August 2004

Did you try copy paste the original mono track twice to a stereo track?

tee boy · 9th August 2004

I bet you could create your own samples pretty easily using some nice room IR's. Doubt this would have the same quality as actual ambient hits. But, you could use the original dry hit to create the ambient hit, which would surely give a well suited effect.

Just a thought if nothing else works.

Ahellam · 9th August 2004

create your own samples. FREE!stike

3rd August 2004	#1
bassmac Lives for gear Joined: Jun 2002 Location: Los Angeles Posts: 683 Thread Starter	What's an Ambient Sample? I've read a million times that AW adds them to drums, but what exactly are they? Is it just a 100% wet sample?

8th August 2004	#5
Jose Mrochek Lives for gear Joined: Apr 2004 Location: Miami, FL Posts: 3,830	I'm not totally sure, I don't have it but I heard Drum Kit from Hell has cool ambient samples. What we did once just for curiosity reasons was set up the genelecs in the live room with two overheads placed a few feet away and "resampled" some sounds from the Bob Clearmountain CD I have, and it worked pretty good. Not fantastic, but yeah after doing that you could consider them ambient samples. __________________ www.thejoti.com www.myspace.com/thejoti http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sR116su2Uuo ¨But, then again, I'm British and think you Yanks with your fancy pre for each track are a bunch of weirdos¨ Mark

Thread Tools	Search this Thread
Show Printable Version Email this Page	Search this Thread: Advanced Search

Similar Threads
Thread	Thread starter	Forum	Replies	Last Post
Ambient Music Generator - SWEET< REALLY	thenoiseflower	So much gear, so little time!	1	5th August 2006 09:39 PM
Feedback on a chillout/ambient track appreciated	Dot	Work In Progress / Advice Requested / Show & Tell / Artist Showcase / Mix-Offs	6	5th March 2006 07:48 PM
ambient tracks on drums	ak47	So much gear, so little time!	5	22nd June 2004 03:18 PM
Spectral Relativity ambient impulse library...	palancar	Music computers	0	7th March 2004 08:37 PM
Spectral Relativity ambient impulse library now available...	palancar	Music computers	0	3rd March 2004 04:21 AM

3rd August 2004	#2
shipshape Captain Joined: Dec 2003 Posts: 396	It's the sound of the room rather than the direct snare sound which when added to a small sounding snare and blended just right can add a lot of size and space to the drum. It is not reverb, but is a "sample" of a snare hit or hits just using the room mic's only. You can also tune the ambience to suit the real drum tuning if ya want to . It works great with bass drums also...... it can add a lot of width.

3rd August 2004	#3
Mike Tholen Lives for gear Joined: Jun 2002 Location: Chicago Posts: 901	nice tip! would this be done with a recording of the actual snare being used? or do you use your own library of sounds? I've done this before but I've taken the room track-gated it while being keyed from the close snare mic, the adjusted the attack/release to get the same effect, but sometimes during fills and such it lets too much through and I have to get in there and automate the crap outta it.

8th August 2004	#4
tranter Gear interested Joined: Mar 2004 Location: Edmonton Posts: 27	can anyone suggest some sample cds with good drum ambience samples?

9th August 2004	#6
adam_w Gear maniac Joined: Sep 2002 Location: England Posts: 262	What ?! deja vu..I just did this yesterday ran 4 sets of mic leads out the front door of the studio..into the beautiful huge wooden room at the arts centre next door to the studio I happen to have a key for..and sampled the kick and snare (between traffic passing !) with 2 GT condensers about 15 feet away into 2 telefunken V78's into apogee A/D. Even with all the padding in the world they still descended nicely into sounding a lot like cannon fire as the room kicked off and the pre's saturated like beasts.. After a hasty retreat before anyone noticed or complained at 10 am on a sunday morning, I then soundreplacered kick & snare samples to other tracks and tucked them under the real kick & snare, barely audible, but way cool. voila ! The only thing that someone might be able to help me with was soundeplacer wouldn't deal with a stereo sample triggered from a mono source, so I used the mono ones. Ah well, mono works for rock & roll :-)

9th August 2004	#7
RoundBadge Lives for gear Joined: May 2004 Location: Los Angeles ,Ca. Posts: 8,854	Did you try copy paste the original mono track twice to a stereo track?

9th August 2004	#8
tee boy Gear nut Joined: Nov 2003 Location: Staffs, UK Posts: 135	I bet you could create your own samples pretty easily using some nice room IR's. Doubt this would have the same quality as actual ambient hits. But, you could use the original dry hit to create the ambient hit, which would surely give a well suited effect. Just a thought if nothing else works.

9th August 2004	#9
Ahellam Gear addict Joined: Aug 2004 Posts: 422	create your own samples. FREE!stike