i've been listening to ambient tunes a lot lately because it's the only kind of music i can enjoy without being distracted from my work. in fact i find that it helps me concentrate.
so i thought that i'd try making some ambient music as well. it may be a good way to get out of the creative hiatus i've been in for a very long time now. i'm mostly interested in making thick, warm, repeating yet evolving chunks of sound, harmonic but tonally blurry.
any tips? places on the web to check out? cool vsts? techniques?
 Athens, Greece
About me
my name is stefanos, i am a calm person in general, i study theoretical physics, i like it when people share their own music and i get pleasure by doing that with my music, i am a somewhat active member of the netlabel scene, i run a weblabel called memoryformat, although i like a lot the modern idm-ish and breakbeat music i always end up listening to my beloved oldschool hiphop albums (late 70s to mid 90s), you can contact me here: eskei.one[at]gmail[dot]com.
My Gear
hardware: e-mu e5000 ultra, ensoniq asr10, korg poly-61, novation super bass station, a bent aiwa walkman, yamaha rm1x, rme fireface, terratec phase x24, samson resolv80a, lenovo thinkpad t500, korg microkontrol, faderfox dj-2, ultrasone proline 750, akg k81 dj, technics sl1210 mkII, tascam xs-3, lots of records
software: ubuntustudio 9.10, cockos reaper, free vsts (luxonix lfx, rgc audio triangle synth etc.) +Most Recent Blogs
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Electronic Music other: making ambient music
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Written January 27 2009 , Tags: ambient, drone
Comments
i make it. find it easier to have some sort of concept before i start, which i totally don't do in my non ambient stuff. i don't have any particular tips though. lots of reverb ;) just feeeeel it.
take you time and listen in slow motion
space across eq, stero and noise v silence
subtlety of dynamic and harmonic change and yes a slow motion arrangement there are a million ways of going about this.
I personally just think about sounds that are far away, travelling through a volume of air, various wind directions and pressures altering the signal that hits your ear. like the wobbling of a plane flying at a decent height. I used to go around and record the diffusion effect of large electromechanical devices like Air Conditioners, water treatment plants. (I would literally record the airmass pointing away from the sound source, also the source recorded at certain distances) it gave me an idea about how to craft what I wanted to try and fabricate. I havent done it very well yet, but eventually I think I can create the space I desire. I make alot of primers that go nowhere. but they teach me something about what I want. here is an example of one im happy with. though these recent ones have no change in them at all, merely pure ambient elements. link it is okay if nothing happens.
as brian eno once said: ambient music should be as interesting as it is ignorable. like sounds. i, like frnortnr, usually start with an idea or a concept. occasionally the idea will be about sound, but usually it is more abstract. cant wait to hear what you do, all i really write anymore is ambient and minimal music.
the most important thing here, which I don't hear in a lot of so-called ambient music, is space! let thick oceans of sound crash in at varying degrees of intensity, then fade into nothing, or let them slowly break apart revealing the underlying currents which power the whole thing.
Recent blogs: blog
^ that's really nice utofbu
this sort of music is as much about listening as it is about doing - so doing a lot of listening before you gets started with something is a great approach I think. not to say there isn't any 'technique' to it, it's just that in my experience, more than half of the battle and technique comes from developing your ear, rather than learning new techniques or tricks on your instrument(s) - you're probably more than equipped when it comes to gear/software/musicianship/whatever - i'd pay the most attention to developing your ear... post what you make so we can check it out! making ambient is a type of music where you can do 1:1 listening to recording.
i make machines to compose for me, so that i can listen and not think, follow feelings and turn knobs by fractions to hone in on interesting bits. any thinking i do tends to be contrary to what would make good furniture. this, for me, is the nature of ambient music, not just the normal sounds of the genre-washes and space. roshi said painting...
Take a picturesque landscape in your mind and use that as an image for the aural landscape. Often we "see" the music right? it creates some perceptual image (which for ambient usually becomes serene or pastoral)... so it should work backwards, and it does. Paint an aural picture. I don't mean to sound like a doucher but I make music and I paint, so... for me it's true. astroid said: "making ambient is a type of music where you can do 1:1 listening to recording. i make machines to compose for me, so that i can listen and not think, follow feelings and turn knobs by fractions to hone in on interesting bits. any thinking i do tends to be contrary to what would make good furniture. this, for me, is the nature of ambient music, not just the normal sounds of the genre-washes and space." carpambientry? i don't do a lot of it, but having a chord structure seems to help the process a lot, have your chords manually activated and bring them in slowly as you feel it (astroid taught me this, similar to what he said above).
astroid said: "any thinking i do tends to be contrary to what would make good furniture." that is friggin brilliant link satie Signup to comment
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