What are some good plugins for creating ambient music?

[yehboy1]

Curious if anyone here has some recommendations.

[pdxindy]

what sort of plugins I would use depends on what sort of ambient

[egbert101]

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[wagtunes]

Right out of the box with absolutely no tweaking.

Omnisphere
ABSynth 5
Wavemapper 2

But almost any synth with few exceptions can be used for ambient music. Get Valhalla reverbs and delays and use generously.

[chk071]

Waves One Knob Deepspace.

[Fernando Carvalho]

I would say any plugin works really.

I tend to use samplers more than synths. Any synth or sound really, experiment with pitch shifting and timestretch, resample again and again and then play with the sampler.

I like tal sampler as "old school" sampler and New sonic arts granite for granular.

For effects I like soundtoys, valhalla and Unfiltered Audio.

So creative sampling and effects are more important for me than any synth. I could manage with a free synth like Helm.

[wagtunes]

The Mangle is also great for more complex and odd ambient. Padshop Pro too. And they're relatively cheap.

[egbert101]

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[wagtunes]

The Mangle is also great for more complex and odd ambient. Padshop Pro too. And they're relatively cheap.

BTW: Highly recommend you check out MeldaProduction MMultiBandGranular if you're interested in granular synthesis. It's currently 50% off at 25 Euros.

Know what? I actually did when I first downloaded the whole bundle and even listened to all the demos. Something about the sound I just don't like.

I do have MPowersynth and MUnison, which works great on vocals. But their granular just doesn't do it for me. It has a munchkin pitch thing going that The Mangle doesn't have even when doing drastic pitch stuff.

[egbert101]

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[Phorous]

The most important plugin for ambient music is reverb, not a synth. Ambient music is basically defined in setting up a "soundscape" that make extensive use of sounds in different spaces... With a reverb you do not even need a synth to make ambient music, just record yourself smashing random objects and drench it in reverb

But seriously, if you are just starting off Valhalla Room is going to be the best bang for your buck in a reverb that can do ambient music well.

[chaosWyrM]

reaktor

reaktor

and id say....maybe reaktor.

[chaosWyrM]

The most important plugin for ambient music is reverb, not a synth. Ambient music is basically defined in setting up a "soundscape" that make extensive use of sounds in different spaces... With a reverb you do not even need a synth to make ambient music, just record yourself smashing random objects and drench it in reverb

But seriously, if you are just starting off Valhalla Room is going to be the best bang for your buck in a reverb that can do ambient music well.

people say this all the time, but i personally cant disagree more. yes...a lot of ambient is doused in reverb...but then what happens is it sounds like a lot of ambient. the best way to create a soundscape is by creating a soundscape, one that isnt reliant on being covered in a huge wet blanket of reverb. while you can create a soundscape by taking any old sound running it through paulstretch and dropping shimmer on it....it isnt very creative or interesting really.

start with making interesting sounds that convey some kind of feeling...THEN apply some effects to enhance those sounds...dont rely on the effects to create the sounds for you.

just my own $.02 nothing more.

[Fernando Carvalho]

i forgot to mention Madrona Labs and Kaivo in particular. Granular + physical modeling. I love it.

[BlackWinny]

It is my main mood. For me, Ambient music and Chillout music are much more a kind of mood than a genre of music, because the purpose is much more to reflect a soul impression, a feeling, a way of life than precisely a "genre". That kind of music is present in many genres, as cosmic rock, krautrock (of Berlin school), world music (from Eastern Asia, from some places in Africa, from South America, from Armenia, etc.), romantic music (neo-classic piano), chamber music, the so-called (very badly named) "New Age", the traditional mixed of modern music played with instruments of Brittany and celtic regions (think to Iona for example, or Loreena McKennitt), etc.

Here is what I mainly use for that mood:

• AAS - Lounge Lizard Session
• AAS - Strum Acoustic Session
• AAS - String Studio
• AAS - Ultra Analog
• Aly James Lab - OB-Xtreme
• AM Music Technology - Pro SoloVst
• AM Music Technology - RMI-EP
• AM Music Technology - VL-122
• Audiority - Abstract Textures
• Benoit Serrano - Horus MK II
• Benoit Serrano - Orpheus 2
• Benoit Serrano - Selena
• Cakewalk - Rapture Pro for the pads but also for many samples of acoustic traditional instruments
• Digital Suburban - DEXED
• DiscoDSP - Corona (wonderful synth for that kind of music)
• DiscoDSP - Discovery Pro (especially with the bank Pad Love and the bank Leading and the bank Essential)
• DiscoDSP - OBXD (in alternance with OB-Xtreme above)
• E-Phonic - Drumatic 4 (for the rare or discrete drums)
• Full Bucket Music - The Deputy Mark II
• Full Bucket Music - Mono/Fury (even if I prefer the original, the Korg Mono/Poly)
• Full Bucket Music - Nabla
• Full Bucket Music - the scrooo
• G-Storm - String Concerto II
• G-Storm - VSP-330r2
• GSi - VB3
• Gunnar Ekornas - ME80
• Gunnar Ekornas - Memorymoon
• Gunnar Ekornas - Messiah
• The Interruptor - Night Flight
• Korg - (all the Korg Legacy Collection but mainly the Mono/Poly, the Polysix, the M1 and the Wavestation)
• Leslie Sanford - Cobalt
• Linplug - MorphoX
• Linplug - Octopus
• Linplug - SaxLab (splendid saxos in some mood music, especially for warm evenings and cool cabaret ambiences)
• ML-VST - PG-8X
• Modartt - Pianoteq (simply the Stage edition, it's enough for that kind of music, it is excellent)
• Native Instruments - FM8
• NuSofting - EMM Knagalis
• NuSofting - HarpTime Pro
• NuSofting - Modelonia
• NuSofting - Strings Dream Synthesizer
• Oli Larkin (Plugin Boutique) - VirtualCZ
• SampleSphere - all the TAO Complete (DiZi, SuoNa, ErHu, GuZheng, SanXian, and Chinese Percussions)
• SampleSphere - ROO Didgeridoo
• Togu Audio Line - TAL-U-NO-LX
• Versilian Studios - Etherealwinds Harp
• Versilian Studios - Fretless Zither
• Waldorf - Wave 2.V (from the cheap but excellent "Waldorf Edition")
• Xhun Audio - IronAxe (for very cool electric guitars a bit in the style of the Canadian Tino Izzo (aka One) who makes splendid cool music with his guitars (Listen to "Four September Sun" or "Blue Desires" on Youtube if you don't know him))
• Xhun Audio - LittleOne
• XILS-lab - miniSynX
• XILS-lab - Oxium
• XILS-lab - PolyKB (full version III but I also keep on using the simple PolyKB Player, especially with the banks Analog Bag 1 and Analog Bag 2 from Le Lotus Bleu and the wonderful banks from Julian Ray for PolyKB which all are compatible with the player)

Some samplesets I use (almost always in SF2 format, otherwise in SFZ format)

• Black Octopus Sound - Cory Friesenhan Vocal Sessions
• Black Octopus Sound - Cory Friesenhan Vocal Atmospheres
• Black Octopus Sound - Siren by Veela
• Detunized - Farfiso (a sampled Farfisa Syntorchestra)
• Digi Exclusive - Woodwind Essential
• Digital Sound Factory - Guitars and Basses
• Digital Sound Factory - Elka Rhapsody
• Digital Sound Factory - Mellotron
• Digital Sound Factory - E-MU Planet Earth
• Digital Sound Factory - E-MU Virtuoso
• Digital Sound Factory - Old World Instruments
• Digital Sound Factory - Studio Orchestra
• Digital Sound Factory - Vocal Expressions
• Equinoxe Sounds (all their Ambient & Chillout MIDI Packs)
• Function Loops - Voice of Solace
• JK Sounds - Free Chillout Beats
• Loopmasters - Iona Leigh Celtic Vocals
• Loopmasters - Puncture Kit Drums
• Mattias Westlund - Sonatina Symphonic Orchestra
• Nori Ubukata - NU Sounds of the World (originally for Synthmaster but useable anywhere else because provided in SFZ format)
• Precision Sounds - Angelic Vocal Pads 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 (wonderful voices in Enya's style)
• Precision Sounds - Celtic Whistles
• Precision Sounds - Eminent Solina P275 Series 9
• Precision Sounds - Farfisa Melanie deLuxe
• Precision Sounds - Peruvian Ocarina
• Precision Sounds - Roland Ace Tone ACE 3000
• Precision Sounds - Technics SX-U90S
• Precision Sounds - Tibetan Meditation Bells
• Precision Sounds - Yamaha Electone D-85
• Precision Sounds - some others in the collections of traditional instruments and Renaissance instruments
• Producer Loops - Gregor Theelen - New Age World & Folk Vol 1
• Quasar Sounds - Crumar Orchestrator
• Quasar Sounds - Fairlight
• Quasar Sounds - Mellotron
• Quasar Sounds - Organs
• Quasar Sounds - World Instruments (huge collection of Asian instruments, Arabic instruments, Latin instruments, and African prcussions)
• Quasar Sounds - Yamaha Electone D-85 (another sampleset for this instrument, different than above in Precision Sounds)
• Samplephonics - Zefora Ethereal Voices
• Soni Musicae - Le Blanchet 1720 (a beautiful harpsichord)
• Soni Musicae - The Small Italien 17th from Century (another beautiful harpsichord)
• StudioRecordingTools - Mellotron
• StudioRecordingTools - Ethnic Sounds (African Asian Indian)
• Taijiguy (Leisureland) - His Mellotron samples
• Zero-G - Ambient
• Zero-G - Animato
• Zero-G - Celtic
• Zero-G - Lounge and Chill
• Zero-G - Morphology

That's all (for this kind of mood music, because I have also many other instruments for my other loved genre: the progressive rock).


And I compose absolutely everything with RapidComposer and with Sundog Studio.