Which synthesizer is most suitable for ambient music?

[VELLTONE MUSIC]

Can you tell me your opinion? thank you! One of the theories I know comes from brian eno. However, many years have passed, and I don't know whether there is any difference between ambient today.

Who cares what 'theory' dictates? It's a creative medium, so do what you want to do.

For me, ambient music is about describing mood or imagery with music. Personally I like mixing traditional textures (which CAN me sound+reverb) with organic 'real' sounds and instruments. In my thousands of posts here I don't think I've ever linked my music outside the music cafe section, but I'll drop a couple here as example. They're not all the same, just different 'feelings' I put down to music. The point being, do what you want, how you want -

https://on.soundcloud.com/xzsK4

https://on.soundcloud.com/6W1UM

https://on.soundcloud.com/4HtjN

Your sound is very inspirational,i bought Sylenth1 years ago after listen one of your old soundsets for it,thinking 'i wanna to do such a beautiful sounds some day' - wanna add something about ambient as a different perspective - the pads as type of instruments are basically long attack and release,you can simulate something with reverb,but for real progressive evolving sound,which have emotional impact on listener i thing these stuff are not enough if you wanna touch somebody,who have listen tons of reverbs and long attacks last 20 years...
My concept is that dynamic multi instrumental structure is the future of ambient and music at all...
Working on something ambient with Icarus 2 now,but will have a demo probably before Christmas,to show what i'm talking about.
Icarus 2 have 60 sec attack time so if that's somebody need it's definitely ambient suitable.
I use mostly 1-3 sec in my pads,but lately experiment with longer attack time as well.
Multi layer synths definitely could benefit with such long attack,connecting layears in dynamic structure,when layer switch different attack time.
My point is that expressing feelings is cool,but pads are able to express so many things - story,scene,moments,situation so on especially in cinematic context.
Limit is the sky...

[Fernando Carvalho]

In my case for ambient I use samplers and audio editing much more as the main tools. But In the first stage of sound design I record some synth sounds: drones, textures, simple tones, not so simple sounds, that kind of stuff. I do some field recordings and record some acoustic sounds. I have a custom box of acoustic tricks, it´s a big wooden box with two piezos and I can capture bowed metal, strings, percusive metal and wood or put a small speaker inside the box to get a kind of natural short reverb/resonance from anything I feed to it. I can get some interesting feedbacks too. I play with feedback a lot.

When I have a bunch of samples I start layering them in Live´s sampler or directly in the timeline. Now for effects I am using a lot Softube modular and just started with Amp Room a little bit too. I can try many routing options in Modular, I experiment with feedbacks a lot there too. I have almost all the modules, so I can design very nice effects that don´t sound so much as a standard reverb.

For the synths I can use anything really. I use Modular for some synth tones too and lately I like to use Dune 3, its audio rate modulations and layering system are very nice. You could think that it is a "trance" synth, but it is really flexible and I can create tones that gel well with Modular and add their own thing. I use the ableton synths and effects a lot too for sound design, I am very used to them.

So my recommendation would be Modular and Dune 3. With omnisphere they look like a powerful trio. I don´t have Omnisphere, If I had it I suppose that I would use the granular sampler a lot. For granular I´ve been using New Sonic Arts Granite and some ableton devices. Granite is not the most powerful granular plugin out there but I love it. Now I am starting to use Pigments for the granular stuff too, it can do some nice things.

I hope this can be useful to you someway.

[mumpcake]

You could run an acapella from an Alanis Morrissette song through Mokekular and get a soothing ambient track as your output.

[Fernando Carvalho]

You could run an acapella from an Alanis Morrissette song through Mokekular and get a soothing ambient track as your output.

Absolutely

[Schnickschnack]

https://on.soundcloud.com/xzsK4

so lovely!!!

[Funky40]

Who cares what 'theory' dictates? It's a creative medium, so do what you want to do.

https://on.soundcloud.com/xzsK4

https://on.soundcloud.com/6W1UM

https://on.soundcloud.com/4HtjN

I like your (this) work !
and seems, i totally share your feel for "what ambient all can be",
and can´t follow the common Ambient clichees.


for me its all about Delays + Reverbs, plus playstyle.
soundsource plays nearly no role. Whatever inspires one to play* with.(*keyboardplaying)
Or then deal with a (creative-)sampler in creative ways.

[a9k1tp]

Any synth with adsr envelope can do ambient sounds. If no good reverb in the synth, valhalla supermassive is free and perfect for the job. sound not complex enough? Duplicate the synth and make changes. Repeat.

I understand the trend but Ambient is the easiest thing ever.

[Neon Breath]

I understand the trend but Ambient is the easiest thing ever.

Share your ambient work to us so we can see and hear how « easy » to do ambient music is.

[Funky40]

I understand the trend but Ambient is the easiest thing ever.

lol. agree.

....until we speak real pieces of art

[LFO8]

For me, ambient music is about describing mood or imagery with music.

They're not all the same, just different 'feelings' I put down to music.

https://on.soundcloud.com/xzsK4

https://on.soundcloud.com/6W1UM

https://on.soundcloud.com/4HtjN

Bingo, for me that’s the whole point of this music. They are like auditory scenes.

I very much like your work, well done!

Do you play the keys live in one go?

[tehlord]

Your sound is very inspirational,i bought Sylenth1 years ago after listen one of your old soundsets for it,thinking 'i wanna to do such a beautiful sounds some day' - wanna add something about ambient as a different perspective - the pads as type of instruments are basically long attack and release,you can simulate something with reverb,but for real progressive evolving sound,which have emotional impact on listener i thing these stuff are not enough if you wanna touch somebody,who have listen tons of reverbs and long attacks last 20 years...
My concept is that dynamic multi instrumental structure is the future of ambient and music at all...
Working on something ambient with Icarus 2 now,but will have a demo probably before Christmas,to show what i'm talking about.
Icarus 2 have 60 sec attack time so if that's somebody need it's definitely ambient suitable.
I use mostly 1-3 sec in my pads,but lately experiment with longer attack time as well.
Multi layer synths definitely could benefit with such long attack,connecting layears in dynamic structure,when layer switch different attack time.
My point is that expressing feelings is cool,but pads are able to express so many things - story,scene,moments,situation so on especially in cinematic context.
Limit is the sky...

Thanks dude!

I think the word 'inspiration' is important here. Expressing a thought, a feeling or a mood with music can be very rewarding, and really makes you dig into creativity.

So lovely!!!

Thankyou!

I like your (this) work !
and seems, i totally share your feel for "what ambient all can be",
and can´t follow the common Ambient clichees.

for me its all about Delays + Reverbs, plus playstyle.
soundsource plays nearly no role. Whatever inspires one to play* with.(*keyboardplaying)
Or then deal with a (creative-)sampler in creative ways.

Thanks, and agreed. If something inspires creativity, go with it!

Bingo, for me that’s the whole point of this music. They are like auditory scenes.

I very much like your work, well done!

Do you play the keys live in one go?

Thanks again!

I would have a combination of live played recordings and also post edits. I tend to carry on playing if I make a bum note and then edit it afterwards. A lot of the ambient stuff I used to make was 'off' tempo in Cubase and just played whatever time I felt was right, but I will very often do velocity editing after recordings for 'feel'. There are a couple of tracks that were played in 100% live, just for my experimentation really. One was an Omnisphere patch I found quite inspiring, the other was a patch on an OB6 that I thought sounded incredible through Blackhole.

In both cases there's an ambient element to the way I 'felt' the music. And a lot of the time (really a lot) I will get a lot of inspiration simply flicking through other peoples presets.

https://soundcloud.com/bluffmunkey/shor ... omnisphere

https://soundcloud.com/bluffmunkey/ob6

[LFO8]

Top notch stuff thanks! Was playing keys something you were trained in or?

[tehlord]

Top notch stuff thanks! Was playing keys something you were trained in or?

Piano lessons as a kid up to about grade 6 (I think ), I was also lucky enough to be one of the last school pupils to receive a 'proper' music education at school, the final year delving deep into orchestration.

However, my keyboard playing skills are VERY basic, and I would urge anybody at any age to start proper piano lessons if they can as the physical and mental 'muscle memory' formed by actually playing music is invaluable in terms of improvisational creativity.

I used to make a lot of trance and work with some current trance artists now, and I see most current trance guys coming from a purely technical standpoint and I think it shows in the resulting music. There's a huge difference between learning from a book and practical learning. When you actually play an instrument, it changes your brain and the way you heard music.

[LFO8]

Love it. Cheers. One of my regrets to not start piano at an early age.

[nanostream]

http://soundcloud.com/fernandocarvalho

I like it a lot!