What's your favorite synth for ambient music?

[El°HYM]

Ambient music? Is that music for the cats while you're away, or is it like regular music, but without a point?

[vurt]

Ambient music? Is that music for the cats while you're away,

no, you want depussy.

[El°HYM]

Whereas conventional background music is produced by stripping away all sense of doubt and uncertainty (and thus all genuine interest) from the music, Ambient Music retains these qualities. And whereas their intention is to 'brighten' the environment by adding stimulus to it (thus supposedly alleviating the tedium of routine tasks and leveling out the natural ups and downs of the body rhythms) Ambient Music is intended to induce calm and a space to think. Ambient Music must be able to accommodate many levels of listening attention without enforcing one in particular; it must be as ignorable as it is interesting.

[liquidsound]

Ambient music? Is that music for the cats while you're away, or is it like regular music, but without a point?

Ambient IIRK. No cats.

[liquidsound]

Check this guy

[BBFG#]

Ambient music? Is that music for the cats while you're away, or is it like regular music, but without a point?

It's more like EDM without the drug fueled masturbation.

[jamcat]

Drug fueled masturbation?
Sounds like a waste of a viagra.

[swilow11]

Pigments is pretty damn great for soundscapey drones. The granular engine coupled with a morphing wavetable can make for some really great patches.

[liquidsound]

There 2 banks for Dune that were offered around Christmas time.
They are outstanding for Ambient.

[seangm]

I like to listen to Ambien music, puts me to sleep though

[susquash]

Korg Wavestate is the ultimate in ambient music.

[zerocrossing]

It’s not really the synth, it’s how you use it. Any synth can be great for ambient music.

[BBFG#]

It’s not really the synth, it’s how you use it. Any synth can be great for ambient music.

Sure. But not really what the OP asked for though...

But it also begs the question of what ambiance one is capturing.
Because when you get down to it, what isn't ambient?

[ramseysounds]

It’s not really the synth, it’s how you use it. Any synth can be great for ambient music.

Sure. But not really what the OP asked for though...

It’s totally what the OP asked for. Q - what synth? A - any synth

[zerocrossing]

Because when you get down to it, what isn't ambient?

Well, a lot. Most music is designed to be paid attention to. Ambient music is not. It’s supposed to blend into the background, and create an aural environment. No one goes to see actual ambient music shows in arenas.

When I first heard ambient music (Eno’s Music for Airports) I remember thinking, “cool… when does the song start?” It sounded like an introduction for a Pink Floyd song that just kept going. It took me a while to realize that I was listening to it incorrectly. It’s like wallpaper, as opposed to a figurative painting.

In this way, any instrument can (and often is) be used to make ambient music. A bigger issue is that a lot of music that calls itself ambient is not really ambient music at all.