The best gear for ambient music
So you want to make ambient music? Well you’ll need some decent source sounds, some great effects, a synth or two and reverb and, of course, plenty of reverb. Here are some dream studio set-ups for dreamy music making… Synths You’ll need some serious synth work if you want to make more out-there ambient music […]
So you want to make ambient music? Well you’ll need some decent source sounds, some great effects, a synth or two and reverb and, of course, plenty of reverb. Here are some dream studio set-ups for dreamy music making…
Synths
You’ll need some serious synth work if you want to make more out-there ambient music (as opposed to ‘real’ ambient music which is more about environmental noise as we’ll see later) but we’ve got you covered with these four picks…
Spectrasonics Omnisphere 2
Price £339
Contact www.spectrasonics.net
It’s the king of soft synths so will take you on any ambient journey you wish.
We say: “Coupled with the excellent Granular Synthesis module, the Audio Import works at its best creating ambient soundscapes, where an original musical phrase is stretched, looped and mangled far beyond its original form. Thanks to some genuinely innovative features, not to mention a wealth of extra sonic material to play with, it’s hard to imagine any software instrument delivering the same breadth and sheer sonic excellence as Omnisphere 2.”
Arturia V Collection
Price €499
Contact www.arturia.com | www.sourcedistribution.co.uk
Analogue synths have produced some of the best and dreamiest tones ever and here are some of the best analogue synths ever, recreated in software.
We say: “The V Collection offers you a hell of a lot of classic sounds – and also a lot more contemporary sounds, it must be said – for the money. Outstanding.”
IK Multimedia Syntronik
Price €300
Contact www.ikmultimedia.com
Like V Collection, this is a vast collection of classic synths under one hood but arguably a little more manageable as it’s one hood rather than several.
We say: “We like Syntronik a lot. It ticks pretty much every synth box you could ask for. Electric dreams indeed.”
The Dronar collection
Price from £59.95 each
Contact www.timespace.com
These are synths with a very different appeal, taking real sounds and really messing with them to produce incredible atmospheres and ambiences. You buy them as modules and we’ve loved every one we’ve tested.
We say: “Dronar modules all sound menacing and atmospheric and they really do represent excellent value too, especially for the sonic manipulation options that you get.”
Effects
There are some cracking plug-in effects out there for ambient music so many that we can’t possibly list all of our favourites, but by all means add yours in the comments below. In the meantime here are four to get your ambient moods going and we have a round up of freeware reverbs here…
Eventide Blackhole
Price $199
Contact Eventide
A smashing extraterrestrial reverb plug-in where the sounds of places that don’t (or can’t) exist are created.
We say: “It really does have a sound all of its own: from multi-layered shimmers across conventional instruments and vocals to huge atmospheric drones – depending on the source material. Blackhole sounds great as ever.”
Sugar Bytes Turnado
Price £€119
Contact Sugar Bytes
A massive multi-effect that will have your sound moving in ways you can’t imagine.
We say: “A very quick way to take your sound in very different directions and best of all it’s quick and easy to master.”
Unfiltered Audio SpecOps
Price $129
Contact Plugin Alliance
Another multi-effect but with a huge sound which can be brash or subtle but, again, is out of this world.
We say: “It might as well use black magic, we don’t care. If you want to take your sounds to places that few plug-ins dare, then SpecOps is your new sonic spy. Quite brilliant.”
112dB Mikron Cascade
Price $39
Contact 112dB
Another multi-effect that uses combinations of delays, tuning effects and a lot more for, well, cascading results.
We say: “Adds anything from gentle shimmers to dramatic shudders and will add real atmosphere to whatever you put through it.”
For more ‘real’ ambient music
Ambient music doesn’t always mean electronic. It can mean creating music with moody piano or strings, or even capturing location recordings and blending those ideas in, so here are four (and very different) picks for adding ambient realism…
Output Analogue Strings
Price $199
Contact www.output.com
Where real strings meet imaginary ones, Analogue Strings is a hugely powerful instrument.
We say: “If you like your pads and strings, this will take you on some incredible journeys.”
Modartt Pianoteq 6
Price €99 to €699
Contact https://www.pianoteq.com
Pianoteq has been a MusicTech favourite for many a moon and can be a straight up authentic upright or a more ambient instrument.
We say: “If you want some great options to consider, the Electric Pianos are stunning and, combined with the Random option, offer some completely out-there results, throbbing and droning to the max if you want them to..”
Spitfire Audio Albion Tundra
Price £399
Contact
www.spitfireaudio.com
This out-there instrument will have you exploring northern wastelands (we mean Nordic, not Grimsby) for a proper ambient journey.
We say: “A brilliant exercise in sound design in itself but will also inspire you to travel chilly sonic paths yourself.”
Olympus LS Pocket LS-P2
Price £179.99
Contact
www.olympus.co.uk
You might want to get yourself a field recorder to capture some proper ambience and this one is a cracking little find. We say “Great recording quality, highly portable and fantastic features. The recorder you can take everywhere.”
DAW
You’ll need a DAW to put all of your ambience together so we’ve chosen four based on their sound design capabilities and how much content and instruments you get with each…
Propellerhead Reason 10.1
Price £349
Contact https://www.propellerheads.se
Yes it does do dance music well, but Reason also had loads of atmospheric cards up its sleeve too.
We say: “Reason 10 gives the DAW a nicely rounded set of fresh beats, electronic extremes, acoustic sounds and experimental dreams. You want more? You got it.”
Apple Logic
Price £199
Contact www.apple.com
We say: “With such a volume of content, for such a great price, Logic still retains the title of being one of the best DAWs around.”
Ableton Live
Price £359
Contact www.ableton.com
We say: “For the sheer amount of goodness you get with it, you can now take Live on all sorts of sonic journeys.”
PreSonus Studio One
Price £344
Contact www.presonus.com
We say: “Loads of content for a variety of genres and the all new version 4 has some great new ways to compose and arrange including a new Chord Track feature.”
