[We are currently having a few problems with page formatting and embedding SoundCloud links, please bear with us until we fix it!] ‘Ambience’ is a word with a broad definition. It is perceived differently and can mean different things to different people. We are constantly surrounded by a wide range of sounds - some natural, some man-made. Ambient sounds don’t necessarily have … [Read more...]
Room Tone = Emotional Tone: The Importance of Hearing Ambience
am·bi·ence noun /ˈambēəns/ ambiances, plural; ambiences, plural The character and atmosphere of a place - the relaxed ambience of the cocktail lounge is popular with guests Background noise added to a musical recording to give the impression that it was recorded live Wherever you may be reading this article, stop whatever you are doing, and … [Read more...]
My Impressions of Dolby Atmos
One of the hot topics at AES this year...and by “hot,” I mean a subject that had multiple conference sessions devoted to it...was the concept of adding height to the spatial information presented by multi-channel surround formats. I’m sure a fair bit of the enthusiasm for this subject is caused by the announcement and release of Dolby Atmos earlier this year. My experience … [Read more...]
This Week In SFX Libraries
This week was a triple-dose of released sound libraries for your aural pleasure. First up is from TONSTURM: With TONSTURM 08 I Morocco you get 61 Soundfiles in 5 Channel Surround Format. All the ambiences were recorded in Tangier, Essaouira and Marrakech, three very different Moroccan Cities. For this surround ambience library we captured the beauty of the urban Arabic … [Read more...]
HISS and a ROAR Release Their First Ambience Library: Blow Holes (Q&A Included)
[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/22187040[/vimeo] Tim Prebble has released Blow Holes on HISS and a ROAR, opening a new catalog of ambience libraries. Ambiences play a crucial role in every film: literally, emotionally and physically they define the world that the film exists in. Accordingly we endeavor to provide characterful multichannel recordings of dramatically interesting … [Read more...]