Apologies to my Ambient Fans
 
https://soundcloud.com/synkrotron/end-game
 
Thank you, and good night...

I like it. For sure a bit different from your usual offerings Andy and very well done too.

Looks like you're finding your way around Studio One.

You have a talent for melodies.  Not sure why you spend so much time on ambient.

This is excellent Andy, really like the way this track travels.
 
It looks like this could be the start of the exodus from Sonar, as I have also started to move on. DAW of choice for me is Cubase and I am starting to get my head round it. Found mixing in Cubase strangely easier than Sonar, go figure.

lovely stuff Andy
Merry Christmas mate

bjornpdx
I like it. For sure a bit different from your usual offerings Andy and very well done too.

Looks like you're finding your way around Studio One.

Hiya Bjorn
 
Thank you very much for listening... Yeah, I enjoyed doing this, though it is far from perfect, but I got fed up of applying the Turd Polish and thought, "balls! Let's upload this thing and see what happens."
 
I am indeed enjoying using Studio One. Technically, I shouldn't be posting this here. But, I wouldn't mind betting that I am not the first person to upload a creation made in some DAW other than SONAR.
 
But I shall not do it again, I promise
 
Thanks again for listening,
 
cheers
 
andy

I would not worry about how or what you used to make the music Andy, just keep sharing it here as well as there and there.

Nice to hear some guitar from you, only listening on my cans, will give it a proper listen later on my return from my exposure to some radiation.

eph221
You have a talent for melodies.  Not sure why you spend so much time on ambient.

Hiya David. Thanks for having a listen to my latest non-ambient piece. And that is a great compliment, saying I have a talent, I am now grinning from ear to ear
 
As for the ambient thing... There are a number of reasons:-
 
a) I'm lazy and I think I find creating my ambient stuff comes easy to me.
 
b) I have never been any good at writing "Songs." I cannot sing for starters, and I am hopeless at lyrics too.
 
c) I am also not great at creating the "Meat and Three Veg" stuff, you know, verse/chorus/verse/chorus/middle 8/bridge/ whatever.
 
d) I have developed a taste for more experimental stuff and that includes sound design so I like to spend a lot of time going down that particular alley.
 
 
Even End Game doesn't really have what I would call a traditional structure to it.
 
What I did here was come up with one of my usual drone things and then layered about half a dozen sequences, using automation for make the sequences and drone come and go.
 
Drums came next... I played some of the drums on my keyboard, which I then quantized, followed by humanized, and further tweaking on the piano roll. I use both Drumaxx (for the synthetic drums) and Battery (for the "real" drums).
 
I then spent a few hours practising playing along with my much underused guitar. Eventually I recorded a couple of layers of guitar tracks giving me nearly fifteen minutes of phrases. Much chopping and quantising was required because I'm not that great a guitar player either.
 
Although there isn't a traditional structure, as such, I put down markers every four bars, once the percussion-less intro finishes. I then moved the guitar phrases around within those markers. I knew at this point that I wanted to have a sort of "discussion" going on between the guitar stuff and some synth lead phrases.
 
More improvisation was then done, selecting one synth voice to start with. Eventually I ended up with enough stuff to go in between the guitar stuff.
 
Much mixing and faffing followed.
 
I then decided that I needed to readdress the percussion parts to try to impart a more random and improvised feel. I took quite a bit of time over this part so I am hoping that that comes across some how...
 
More mixing.
 
Then into Studio One's "Project" application for so called "Mastering." I hate mastering... I had a hearing test a few years ago and I can't hear anything above 14kHz. And my left ear is worse than my right, in some way or other. I also don't have any low/mid/high end "mastering speakers," so I commit the cardinal sin by using my (poor) Tannoy Active Reveal nearfield monitors for this purpose, as well as my KRK KNS8400 headphones. I rely on SPAN a lot to ensure that I am (hopefully) not overcooking the bass, in particular. And I use some pretty ruthless high and low pass EQ'ing to get rid of anything below 30Hz and above 20(ish)kHz.
 
I also streamed a test SoundCloud version on my phone, and "cast" it onto my new Android TV so that I could listen to it on my Pioneer sound system. I also listened on ear buds too. I think I have done the best I can in this regard...
 
 
I think I might have gone off on one there David... Sorry...
 
cheers, and thanks again,
 
andy

biodiode
This is excellent Andy, really like the way this track travels.
 
It looks like this could be the start of the exodus from Sonar, as I have also started to move on. DAW of choice for me is Cubase and I am starting to get my head round it. Found mixing in Cubase strangely easier than Sonar, go figure.

Thank you very much Adrian, and thanks for having a listen
 
Yeah, as sad as it sounds, I think you are right. After spending around three weeks solid on this project, in Studio One, I ventured back into SONAR for a mixing session and I was trying to do things the "Studio One Way" and had to keep reminding myself, "I'm in SONAR, you know!" Just daft things like moving around with the mouse... Scrolling along the time line for instance. Not a big deal, and not enough on its own to warrant dropping SONAR of course.
 
I decided not to bother demo'ing Cubase in the end, at least not yet. I now have SONAR, Reaper (which I bought, out of curiosity, in 2015), Studio One and I also took the plunge on Samplitude, although I have hardly used Samplitude at all yet (initial reaction was, the GUI was a bit meh, IMO).
 
Good luck with Cubase Adrian. Obviously, if you stop posting here I can still keep in touch via SoundCloud and the Ambient Online forum.
 
cheers, and thanks again,
 
andy

daryl1968
lovely stuff Andy
Merry Christmas mate

Thank you very much Daryl
 
And a Merry Christmas to you too. This will be your first Christmas in your new home, and in Wales too, which must be a bonus
 
cheers
 
andy