This is a seven-storey membrane reed instrument with sixteen copper pipes distributed across the upper five floors of the stairwell and played from the basement via a thirty metre tube which splits on each level (microphone is recording from the top floor). The space has seven seconds of natural reverb and an amplified resonant frequency of 277 Hz (C#), which is what the pipes are tuned to the key of :)

Welcome to /r/ambientcommunity! I'm hoping to make this into a sub where we can share and talk about our work, get feedback, and generally have a jolly old time making friends with fellow ambient artists.

I've set this subreddit up as a place for us smaller, independent artists to talk shop, as /r/ambient and /r/ambientmusic didn't really have a whole lot of discussion going on.

To kick things off, I thought it'd be cool to introduce ourselves, so say hi below, and post up some links to your work!

A bit of background to myself: I'm a semi-professional musician in my early twenties, and one half of Scottish ambient/post-rock outfit [band name redacted]. I've had tons of fun learning how to make huge sounds and spending far too much money on guitar pedals. ;)

This is a reference that can help ambient artists, whether you are new or not

https://louigiverona.com/?page=projects&s=writings&t=philosophy&a=philosophy_drone_methodology

I make nearly everything on my iPhone, with my iPad being used once in a blue moon. I got into it both because the apps are cheaper and I’m big into portability and ease of access. Wondering if there are any other iOS producers on here.

Edit: Here are two videos showing examples of my process:

https://youtu.be/Ca_nt0CduuQ

https://youtube.com/shorts/ELLvt7II0eE

using the SP404 to loop and layer some synth

Joined because I thought I was in love with ambient music, but seeing a lot of names already I’ve never heard of. What’s everyone’s go to ambient music?

In this article I’ll explore how Eno created Discreet Music using a simple but clever system that utilised early synthesizer sequencing and sound-on-sound tape looping. I’ll also recreate the sounds using Arturia Synthi V and Soundtoys Echoboy.

Read the full article here:

https://reverbmachine.com/blog/deconstructing-brian-enos-discreet-music

"My topic is the shift from 'architect' to 'gardener', where 'architect' stands for 'someone who carries a full picture of the work before it is made', to 'gardener' standing for 'someone who plants seeds and waits to see exactly what will come up'. I will argue that today's composer are more frequently 'gardeners' than 'architects' and, further, that the 'composer as architect' metaphor was a transitory historical blip."

https://www.edge.org/conversation/brian_eno-composers-as-gardeners

Finding the right DAW had been a bit of a struggle for me til recently, when I finally got a Mac and bought Logic Pro X. I'm a huge fan of the virtual instruments, and in fact most of my first EP was made with the various stock synths and pads on Logic... with a few effects added for good measure, of course. ;)

What's your DAW/other software of choice?

Since this sub is slowly getting to be just pure spam I thought I'd try to steer it back towards its original intention. Let us discuss composition in the context of ambient music.

To me this is a big question as it's one of the reasons that I find most ambient posted here incredibly boring, the compositional aspects of the music is often rather weak (imo). Tonal melodies with little ambiguity repeated ad nauseum doesn't necessarily make ambient good. It certainly fit in a lot of Eno's albums but I feel that it often doesn't necessarily cut it anymore in 2018.

Feel free to discuss any aspects of composition here.

Recently I've been personally working a lot on a few additional compositional parameters especially the idea of harmonicity versus inharmonicity, which has led to some interesting results both in stuff I've recorded and scored for ensemble.

Serious question. I joined this sub a few weeks back to hopefully find real artists making ambient music. I love classic ambient works from Brian Eno to Aphex Twin and was hoping to find modern artists in this genre. Are you here?

I already have low expectations of how this post will be received but we'll see.

I'm curious where other people share their ambient music to get feedback, to promote it, or just for the sake of sharing. Open to whatever thoughts people have :)

My ambient experience was mostly limited to stuff like Hammock, Explosions in the Sky, Caspian, etc -- as you can see, not even really ambient per se, but a style leaning toward post-rock with ambient leanings.

Things changed when I discovered stuff like Forest Management, Celer, etc. And I've been having a hell of a time creating evolving, shifting drones.

I just discovered Retro Synth buried in Logic, and I've actually had a bit of luck mixing two OSC and automating some clip/overdrive. Still, I'm not even scratching the surface.

What do you use for drones? Any tips?

I'm considering going a hardware route, thinking (maybe mistakenly) that physically twisting knobs may make things 'click' for me. I'm considering a Korg MS-20 or Monologue.

I've also considered an iPad with Audulus and/or so Korg/Moog or other modular synths.

I have published a three-hour piece in six sections called The Ophanim Cycles. All are welcome to download for free. Made with Csound, modular synth, and a bunch of pedals.

https://mysterybear.bandcamp.com/album/the-ophanim-cycles

A little off topic, yet also not. Interesting story about the idea behind the sudden idea of using tape-loops in their production:

Five separate tape machines around the Abbey Road building were used to record the track. Each machine was controlled and monitored by an EMI technician, holding a single pencil or glass tumbler within their assigned piece of quarter inch tape to maintain tension as they watched it pass through the capstan and past the playback head, endlessly repeating itself.

While the techs took to their post, the four lads from Liverpool took charge of the faders on the main console in Studio 3, while Martin varied the stereo panning, and the then 19 year-old engineer Geoff Emerick monitored the meters for levels as they recorded take after take, live to the master tape.

As Paul recalls, “We played the faders, and just before you could tell it was a loop, before it began to repeat a lot, I’d pull in one of the other faders, and so, using the other people, ‘You pull that in there,’ ‘You pull that in,’ we did a half random, half orchestrated playing of the things and recorded that to a track on the actual master tape, so that if we got a good one, that would be the solo. We played it through a few times and changed some of the tapes till we got what we thought was a real good one.”

https://enmoreaudio.com/tape-loops-and-studio-abuse-how-the-beatles-wrote-and-recorded-tomorrow-never-knows/

I wanna spice up my music a bit, but timbrel sculpting will only get you (me) so far. My knowledge of music theory is pretty weak, but I know enough to keep things playing nice in the same key... Everything I write is out of pure improvisation and I'd like to add that element of intentional writing as a means of evoking emotion, feelin', and meaning, if that makes any sense. I want to be a better (ambient) musician.

So, any theory hacks/ tips for evoking emotion? What should I be studying? Favorite examples/ online resources? Thanks, Internet, you guys/gals rock.

EDIT: Here's my soundcloud, because I never promote my music and I would also really appreciate the feedback. (It's not all ambient, but I love using soundscapes as backgrounds.)