I have been using a little known piece of music software called Ambient Grains for the best part of a year now so thought that I should share the secret with the rest of the web. With the release of Ambient Grains version 3, Avi (the creator of the software), asked me for some feedback so I have penned a quick review.
The release of Ambient Grains 3 has opened up a new world of possibilities. It has been transformed from a quirky (but nonetheless very gratifying) ambient music background generator for Cyberteams' other software title 'the Sharm', into a valid musical tool in its' own right.
This has come about due to the refusal of Cyberteam (especially Avi Meler the creator) to rest on the product's laurels and instead, develop the idea at quite a blistering pace (I originally purchased version 1 in Sept 06 and in the 10 months since then, there has been 2 major upgrades and also a number of minor ones!).
The first of these upgrades added a loop function thereby allowing the output to be quickly added to a sampler - instant ambient instrument anyone?
So far so good but the major drawback (for musicians) still remained in that there was little control over how the outputted sound evolved. Not a problem if all you needed was an interesting background drone, but essential when combining the sound with other instruments and mixes.
This left the user with a sometimes infuriating trial and error approach that could take quite sometime to get the right piece.
The latest version of Ambient Grains (Version 3), happily goes some way to solving this problem with what is a major overhaul of the program. There are a number of changes but the ones of most interest to us are the introduction of layers and layer properties. Not only does this provide infinitely more sound creation possibilities, but perhaps more importantly, it allows you to control how and when the sound will change thereby making it much more expressive and useful in an overall mix. It still does take trial and error, but this is more experimentation now rather than the annoying task it once was. In fact, the main drawback now is that you will easily get sidetracked by adding just one more layer or trying the take with a different harmony interval! There are so many possibilities, and indeed, different ways of working with the program, that Ambient Grains is also useful as a sketch pad to quickly give you some fresh musical ideas.
Its' true strength lies in the variety of possible uses you can put Ambient Grains to. Whether You need to create huge evolving soundscapes for film or TV work, create a virtual instrument and map sounds over a sampler for use in commercial D.A.W's, have a scratch pad for mixes or new ideas, or, even a need for a simple background music generator for your hypnosis sessions!, Ambient Grains can deliver and all without a steep learning curve (or a degree in physics). Not bad eh?
Roll on version 4!!!
For more information on Ambient Grains you can visit the website here
or click on the picture.
Barry Young
