How to recreate this ambient piano soundscape

[daverepeat]

Hi Friends,
Beginner here. Trying to make some music similar to this: https://soundcloud.com/user-78652592/pi ... al_sharing.

I'm guessing a sampled piano, some reverb, maybe some pads? what specific plug-ins/instruments/fx would you recommend? and how should i layer them?

I have a few glandular synths (Output Portal and The Love Plugin)
Was also thinking of getting Noir Piano.

I''m trying to make background ambient music like this so I'd would love to hear any tips on how to make similar spacey, gentle, minimal, soft chorded, ambient music in general. Thanks so much for the help!

With Gratitude, Dave

[Benedict]

Glandular synths! What do these secrete? LOL

(Real) Ambient is all about feel. Ambient is one human expressing themselves with sound as paint. There is no formula. Sure there is a lot of dross out there, increasingly made with presets and worse, A frikkin' I (which is just presets playing random) BUT that is not Ambient in the proper sense. That can sell a bit at Pond5 or pass muster on those horrid $2 Nettlefix movies that suck after a few minutes but it is still not music, let alone what makes real Ambient.

So Dave, use what you have, if you want lots of reverb then use lots of reverb. You have to follow your feelings (and where the Scene & Story of your Song go).


BTW, this is what I have done for approx 30 years and I have none of the usual name pluginz (except Reason). I make all my own sounds.

[cryophonik]

Listening on my iPad speaker, so not the best sound, but here’s what I think I’m hearing:
- the dark piano can be obtained by using a low velocity setting to avoid getting too much brightness in the attack. It also sounds like a low-pass filter with a gentle 12dB slope and little/no resonance is applied to shave off the higher frequencies. Noir is probably a good choice.
- the pad sounds like a dark sawtooth-based string pad, again with a low-pass filter.
- I hear what sounds like a distant and simple ad lib (maybe a guitar) playing some bent and sparse notes here and there and drenched in reverb. Or it could be part of a granular synth pad?
- it sounds like all parts are being sent to a shimmer-style reverb, maybe with a freeze function engaged?

[daverepeat]

Listening on my iPad speaker, so not the best sound, but here’s what I think I’m hearing:
- the dark piano can be obtained by using a low velocity setting to avoid getting too much brightness in the attack. It also sounds like a low-pass filter with a gentle 12dB slope and little/no resonance is applied to shave off the higher frequencies. Noir is probably a good choice.
- the pad sounds like a dark sawtooth-based string pad, again with a low-pass filter.
- I hear what sounds like a distant and simple ad lib (maybe a guitar) playing some bent and sparse notes here and there and drenched in reverb. Or it could be part of a granular synth pad?
- it sounds like all parts are being sent to a shimmer-style reverb, maybe with a freeze function engaged?

Thanks Cryophonik! lots of good tips here. I will play around with low pass filters and look into a shimmer-style reverb and freezes. Can you recommend a good reverb for this? Something like valhalla shimmer?

[daverepeat]

Glandular synths! What do these secrete? LOL

HAHA whoops. thanks for the thoughts benedict! would love to be able to express myself more using digital instruments / plugins and make the sounds in my head come to life, but it seems daunting with the infinite options. i will just start playing around.

[Benedict]

It was amusing

The thing is to stop going down that path. ANY instrument can do what you want. Choose one.

The only way to learn to express YOURself is to take time to engage with an instrument. I started with one synth (a CZ-1000) on the floor. There was no computer, no endless list of fx and synths. I spend hours, days, months, years and still do, simply playing with sound. In doing this you give the spreadsheet in your lower brain lots of cells full of info. It will call on those. Of course, if you do that with stress/fear dominating the time, every cell in that spreadsheet is sound+fear. Not good for you as music and fear become related.

In playing with sounds and notes, you will hit an inspiration - the Song Gods offer you something - follow that exactly as it feels. Let the Song lead you - never the other way around. Focus only on the feeling you want to convey - the picture that the Song Gods are asking you to paint with sound. You will hit things you don't know how to solve, step over that and do something, anything. Just DO NOT allow yourself to be led by trying to sound like Insert Name X as that will kill you hard and fast. As time goes by you should learn more about Harmony and other techniques.

Ask good people, with genuine experience (rare in these places) for feedback and advice. If they only talk gear, say thanks and move on. Good people will talk a bit sideways, like Yoda. I offer to do that with some people.

[daverepeat]

Let the Song lead you - never the other way around.

I like this. I will spend more time just playing with the sounds and getting familiar with the ways to change it with all the knobs and buttons haha. Then let that guide me. Thanks!

[planetearth]

Here's a good, free reverb that might just do everything you need: https://www.adamszabo.com/vstplugins/solaris/

And if that doesn't cover everything, throw this at it: https://valhalladsp.com/shop/reverb/val ... ermassive/

Steve