I'm New, New, New., Bill Nelson, space music, and ambient Options

[Turner]

First: sorry for the long post. I type fast but speak faster..

Ok about me being new... I've been an amateur musician for about 15 years (hack.. cough) and have always wanted to "get my thing together" in sound but am only now really considering doing it via computer. More about this shortly.

Bill Nelson: The best musician nobody's ever heard of. Wide-ranging styles but what I'm interested in are his instrumental/multilayered guitar bits. (By the way, if you are familiar with his stuff, I'm trying to find out what effects he uses..)

Space Music: John Serrie, Vangelis, and so forth.. you know, planetarium music.

Ambient - Old School! Think Music for Airports.

Ok, back around to the start then. I have guitars and drums, a midi keyboard (Casio CTK-601.. pretty nice actually), a Blue & White G3 400 with lots of ram, and a PIII 1.2 with a bit less ram. I have ACID and Guitar Tracks 2 (gonna sell that one) on PC, nothing to speak of on Mac. Midi cables.

Here's what I've been searching for: a way to be able to compose 5-10 minute ambient bits which I can "automate" - for lack of a better term. What I envision is some type of sequencing in which I can "tell something to happen" for a given duration - like a 30-second loop which I can "tell" to split into octaves and dissipate after every 12 bars or something... (sorry, I can't really explain it better immediately).

Additionally, I'd like to be able to play my guitar (or provide other audio input) and have it recorded directly into the computer, but I'm trying to figure out whether I need to use a physical pedal for real-time effects (rather not) or if there is a suitable computer-based system. I know of the USB-to-pc stuff, but am not extremely familiar with it.

Ideally, as far as a computer-based system would go, I will say that a system that lets me >order< the effects is key. In other words, I can either put the delay before the reverb or after the reverb. (Is that asking too much?)

That's enough for now I think, and more than I've been able to answer on my own by searching.

Your help is enormously appreciated.

Cheers,
Andrew

[lepetitmartien]

My guess is that you are bound to Max/MSP from Cycling'74

In fact you have to build (it's a graphic programing environement) your piece. You can manipulate sound in real time, create your own sequencer, automate things, change treatments thru logical situations etc.

Maybe Supercollider too, but I know it way way less…

Link to Cycling is in the soft section..

[robertirvine]

Billnelson.com has been online since February, in case you didn't know. You might be able to find out about his use of effects from the man himself.

[Turner]

Thanks guys -

I'll check out Max/MSP but that may be a little >too< over-the top for me! I'll look around for reviews and so forth. Maybe a demo...

And yup, I've been to billnelson.com - looked around for answers. The closest thing I found is some other band that owns one of his older custom-built pedals, but maybe I'll try asking there.

Cheers!

Andrew

Not much detail here, but what you want to do with the triggered loops and stuff sounds like regular midi automation to me. That can be done with a lot of the newer guitar modelers that use midi programing.. As for software based systems, you are on your own.. But what ever you end up with will most likely be midi controled. If you need a professionals opinion, Call 1-800-222-4700 extention 1378 and ask to speak with Delvin Wolf. Delvin is my sales contact at Sweetwater. If anyone knows what you need, it will be Delvin. Good luck !