Free Ableton Live Pack #108: Ambient Noise Collaboration
The Sounds of the World Around Us
I love when the environment a recording is made in comes through on the recording itself. To me, nothing makes a music come to life like hearing the subtle sounds of the room in which the recording was made. Our lives do not exist in a vacuum. Whenever you listen to or play music, that music joins the myriad sounds around you, whether it be traffic, birds, air conditioners or the slow running water of a stream.
Today, a lot of music is made completely inside the digital realm and there is no way for those ambient noises to sneak their way in to the background. Often, recordings sounds stale and sterile, to clean for their own good.
As musicians and producers, one of our goals is to transport our listener, take them to a new world and alter their feelings. Because of this, I often like to welcome background noises into my recordings to help create these worlds. Many times when I am in an environment with cool background sounds, I'll record that noise for later use. The only problem is that I can only be in some many different places.
The Community Comes Together
Eager to collect new ambient sounds, I sent out a post on Facebook asking people to record a few seconds of background noise wherever they happened to be that day. The results were great and I've collected these sounds into the AfroDJMac Ambient Noise Collaboration Free Ableton Live Pack.
AfroDJMac Ambient Noise Collaboration Drum Rack
I received sounds from all over the globe of all different things. Rain, air conditioners, breaking ice, crickets... all kinds of things. I also added a few sounds I've collected over the years. I placed each one of these sounds into a Drum Rack inside of Ableton Live. For each sound you can adjust EQ filtering, pitch transposition, sample start and loop times, volume and panning. They can be used to just sit in the background or to create interesting rhythms. Check out this chilled track I made using these samples in a rhythmic way:
Wait There's More!
Not only am I presenting this collection inside an Ableton Drum Rack, I've also set aside the 16 different sampled instruments so that you can play them on the musical keyboard. This opens up another dimension of sound design and I think with a little experimentation, you'll find them great for creating textures and layers in your music.
Big Thanks to the Contributors!
This pack wouldn't be possible without the people who sent in their ambient recordings. One of the magical things about the world we live in today is how interconnected we all are. It allows us to work together to make our art even better. Big thanks to everyone who participated! Not everyone left me with details on how to find them, but here are the ones that did:
Cx
David C
Roper
Ardjang Cohandel