Hi, I'd love some recommendations from an audio pro or fanatic who has
delved into ambient sound or music. I'm preparing to purchase a new
audio editing program, plug-ins and a soft synth. I'm not asking for
research, but for anyone who can speak from experience.

I use an old version of Cakewalk so I know the basics of audio and
MIDI (and pain), and also know music theory.

I am creating ambient sounds that are very fluid sounding and layered.
It is not music, exactly, because I cannot use melodies in these
projects. The sounds create relaxing "environments" for spoken word
and brainwave entrainment. The environments resemble soothing,
massaging energy. Buzzy, percussive, melodic qualities would interfere
with this. The sound layers evolve over time. An example sound would
be one that changes much like the surface of water in a pool. I do
anchor the sounds with sustained chords and notes that change slowly.
Because the sound is not an up-front stand-alone work of art, I am
free to use longish loops so long as they are not too obvious or
synched with each other.

Much has changed since my last project of this kind, and I want to get
the most for my money. In the past I've used an engineer, but things
have improved so much, I'd rather work on these myself.

AUDIO SOFTWARE AND CONTROL OF RAPID PULSES
For audio editing software, I do not have extensive needs such as
using external synth banks and such. However, I sometimes need to
really micro-manage the sound in creating very brief effects that I
repeat seamlessly, and this may occur as fast as twenty times a second
or so. So I need to put together pulses of sound that repeat without a
glitch for brainwave entrainment. I would love to be able to automate
this as much as possible.

All else being equal, the product with the best collection of plug ins
and effects would be best.

I'd rather save money than have tons of features that I probably won't
need, though. Cakewalk's Home Studio, Magix, and Wavelab's Essential
sound good. Would I be limiting myself too much in this price range?
Is there a stand out?

FILTER AND SOFT SYNTH NEEDS: EVOLVING, SPATIALIZED, ETC.
I need a few plug-ins that go beyond the usual needs, and that will
work well with the editing software selected, AND where the emphasis
is on creating a soothing, spatialized environment.

I have been looking into 3D filters (psychoacoustics that spatialize)
for creating spatialized reverb or chorus, spatialized panning, or
that broad stereo sound. Spin Audio is a good example, though I really
didn't think the "positioning" abilities in their demos were
effective. I did like the panning/reverb aspect.

Spectron is a cool plug in that exemplifies what I need. It takes
portions of the EQ range and applies effects. Cool! But couldn't I do
that by committing a piece of the spectrum to a separate track and
messing with it? If I'm going to spend money, it should be on
something I can't do readily myself.

What plug-ins should I consider? Can't live without? Should I look at
a collections that would save money and give good mileage?

I could also use a softsynth that can produce rich, evolving sounds in
the "ambient music" category. I listened to Space Synthesizer and it
seemed buzzy and old school so far as their demos went.

Since I don't know about integrating these things, I need to make sure
there are no compatability problems. Any comments would be
appreciated.

While you're at it, could you share your favorite sources for reviews
of audio and video software?

If I need to expand my thinking in any way, have at it.

I would recommend Fruity Loops and Cool Edit Pro. I'm not sure if
these would be ideal for your type of music, but you could always try
the demo versions to see if they fit. I believe that both programs
have a trial version to allow you to test them out:

http://www.fruityloops.com/

http://www.syntrillium.com/download/

Hey, thanks, I used Cool Edit long ago and saw that it has really
grown. I hate to admit it, but I may have to take the time to try out
some demos as you said. Since I'm trying to save time, I guess I'll go
with the strongest recommendation first and see if I can't just avoid
that step! :>)

Cakewalk make very good software, and I would definitely recommend
looking at their current range of sequencer products (SONAR, Home
Studio, etc.) There is a table to compare HS2004 with the
'competition' <a href="http://www.cakewalk.com/Products/HomeStudio/Comparison.asp">here</a>,
and with its big brother <a
href="http://www.cakewalk.com/Products/HomeStudio/ComparisonSR.asp">here</a>.

Cakewalk also make an interesting spatializing effect, FX3
http://store.yahoo.com/cakewalkdirect2/cakaudfx3.html, although it's
rather expensive.

For plugins, instruments, soft synths, look at
http://www.kvr-vst.com/.

(Although I'm not involved in the style of music you descibe, I have
been recording at home for over ten years now, last seven using a
Windows PC.)

There is a discussion forum for this type of question (as well as
software)at www.hitsquad.com

hello,

I make electro/ambient music, and I can tell you, Fruity Loops and
Cool Edit Pro are NOT the tools you are looking for.

To micro-manage and edit sound: I use Sonic foundry Sound Forge, it
has loads of plugins on board, inlcuding 3d spatializers and aural
brainwave converters.

As a soft synth, I would use Native instruments Reaktor or Reaktor
session. It allows to create your own synthesisers or other sounds,
and it has pre-defined synthesisers. you should check out a demo,
because it's hard to describe what reaktor does.

for reviews:
www.sonicstate.com