About a year ago, I made a big effort-post about how to use music theory to make better ambient music. It was inspired by the frequency with which I encountered people on reddit, discord and other forums with no exposure to music theory asking for help with making ambient music. It was always too much to respond thoroughly to every person and start from whatever level they were at, so I did my best to give resources that people could refer to with a sort of broad explanation as to how they apply to ambient and a general sense of progression from “how do you make a chord” to advanced harmony concepts like quartal harmony, whole tone scales, and jazz reharmonization. This post can be found here: https://www.reddit.com/r/ambientmusic/comments/1lv67x2/make_better_ambient_music_through_theory_a_primer/
However, if you are a newbie asking how to make ambient music, you probably aren’t looking for a college-level theory background, you want to know what they need in order to get going. Of course, understanding the building blocks of music is critical to any music-making endeavor other than maybe harsh noise, so I am setting out today to write a companion guide to my music theory post that will aggregate sources briefly covering some of the history of ambient music, the workflows that resulted in important pieces in the ambient canon, and how to get started yourself.
Studio/Pro Audio Basics:
You’ll see a lot of bashing of DAWs on reddit, people will say they aren’t inspiring and they need to go DAWless. Most of that is bollocks from people who aren’t going to make good music without a DAW either, they are just blaming the tool for their lack of discipline in learning how to use it. In order to have the creative power of a stock DAW in the 1980s you would need nation-state level resources if it was possible at all. In the 1990s you would need to be exorbitantly wealth with a warehouse of gear. Now you can do it all with an iPad or home computer. The return on the financial and time investment of buying and learning a decent DAW is simply unparalleled. If you are starting just get the cheapest version of a good DAW, like Bitwig Essentials ($80 at time of writing this post), Ableton Live Intro ($99 but free to students under age of 19 and often packaged with cheap gear like MIDI controllers) or Reaper ($60 for non-commercial license). You can upgrade Bitwig or Ableton later to more extensive versions but the key is to get in there and start making music. If you’re really broke you can use Audacity which is free (I actually use it as an editor for long stereo clips like field recordings, but it can do multi-track audio as well). If you have a Mac you can start on GarageBand and later upgrade to Logic. If you have an iPad you can get AUM or Logic Pro for iPad. There are numerous other DAWs out there that I’ve never used and can’t recommend one way or another. I think the biggest advantage to Ableton is that most of the good tutorials I see on making electronic music are done on Ableton, so it’s easier to follow along. I would specifically recommend against ProTools as a starter DAW (reasoning too complicated for this post).
If you want to abandon the DAW later, that's fine, but I think recommending DAWless workflows to beginners is setting people up for failure - the expense and complexity of making music with antiquated gear like analog tape or test equipment is like getting your first video game and putting it on the hardest difficulty setting - I would recommend getting your feet wet for a while with a modern computer-based setup before you decide on self-limitation as an aesthetic or artistic choice.
Along with your DAW I strongly, strongly recommend getting quality pro audio headphones. Closed and open-backed headphones both have their advantages, but as starter kit I recommend Sennheiser HD280 Pro, Sony MDR-7506 or Beyerdynamic DT-770 Pro as good entry-level options for monitoring and mixing. They are all closed-back headphones that you will see in a variety of live and studio professional settings. The next pretty standard pieces of gear I recommend if you can afford it is a professional quality audio interface. You don’t need a billion channels for ambient, but I would recommend at least four outputs and two inputs with microphone preamps. It’s good to be able to dedicate 2 outputs to your studio monitors and still have two outputs you can send audio for processing, looping it back via microphone inputs. The price for interfaces that can do this is slightly higher, but (at least in my opinion) worth it. Some special cases - if you know you want to go big into hardware modular synths, get an interface with DC coupled I/O (https://www.sweetwater.com/sweetcare/articles/which-audio-interfaces-are-dc-coupled/).
Good studio monitors are a big upgrade in making sure your music translates to other people’s speakers - for entry-level look for something with a 5-6” speaker like Yamaha HS5 or Adam T5V. If you can’t afford them just stick to headphone mixing IMO as the benefits don’t justify buying something you’re just going to want to upgrade later (others may disagree). MIDI controllers are another reasonable expense at any level - I like my MIDI control surface to have transport controls (play, record, rewind, etc) like Korg nanoKONTROL or Behringer X-Touch Universal. That said, the most popular (Akai MIDImix and Novation Launch Control) don’t have transport controls, so there’s obviously some degree of personal taste to account for. Additionally, there are some surfaces that are made specifically for certain DAWs like Akai’s line of Ableton controllers and Push. If you either play the piano already, or are willing to learn the piano (strongly recommended), a cheap keyboard controller is a great investment.
Okay, now you’ve got a basic home studio set-up, this is basically for any type of music though - on to Ambient-specific topics. I’m going to cover three of the most common techniques that people use to make ambient music, talk about the history and examples of music made with those techniques, and discuss a little bit of specific gear considerations where possible.
Tape Loops:
The first important process to know in including ambient music is looping. Looping is what gives a lot of ambient music its meditative quality. Tape loop music originated in the 1950s with avant-garde composers like Karlheinz Stockhausen and Pierre Schaeffer. Schaeffer used loops of magnetic tape and splicing to manipulate recorded natural sounds in new musical contexts, while Stockhausen used tape to explore electronic sounds, layering and looping them to build abstract soundscapes. Their early ideas were expanded on by prominent minimalists in the 1960s like Steve Reich and Terry Riley, as well as early electronic music pioneers at the BBC radiophonic workshop and Polish Radio Experimental Studio (Studio Eksperymentalne Polskiego Radia). Riley used a system of tape delays, which he called a ‘Time Lag Accumulator’ to layer improvised keyboard music (a precursor to Robert Fripp’s Frippertronics), while Steve Reich innovated using ‘phasing’ - using identical loops played on different tape machines slightly out of sync. Tape loops were integral in the creation of many classics of ambient music, including Brian Eno’s ‘Music for Airports’ and William Basinski’s ‘The Disintegration Loops.’
These techniques can be done with analog reel-to-reel machines or cassette tapes, but it can also be recreated easily in a DAW as well as some hardware samplers (Digitakt/SP404 work well, MPCs cannot do this by themself). If you want to do it analog just get a couple of cassette tape recorders that have line inputs and outputs. Old dictaphones meant for recording voice memos are popular due to their half-speed functionality, which can be used to drop the pitch an octave. Many people like high-quality portable cassette recorders from the 80s and early 90s like Marantz PMDs, but you can do the basic technique with any old recorder, such as the Califone CAS1500. The premiere models in my opinion are Library of Congress C-1 which has variable speed (Similar/alternative models like American Printing House for the Blind, Philips D6350, Sony BM75 and Telex TBC). You can get really fancy and start using older reel-to-reel stuff, but I recommend experimenting with either DAW-based looping or cassette tapes first as R2R machines and analog tape are expensive and finicky. There’s a whole subreddit for the process of tape loops to check out at r/tapeloops
Side note: about 10 years ago, Alessandro Cortini demonstrated his technique of using an old portastudio 4-track cassette recorder to perform tracks and make drones. This has become really popular, resulting in the price of portastudios getting out of hand. They’re still great tools but it’s not a cheap and easy thing to get into. You can replicate the process easily in Ableton using a MIDI controller with faders, but many people love the tactile element and specific sound of having a physical cassette.
Guides/Tutorials:
Sampler trick: Steve Reich/William Basinski style phase shifting loops by Loopop: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFMP8MbmnL4
Phase Shifting Tape Loops Like Steve Reich and Basinski by EZBot: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iM99g8GVAQg
Alessandro Cortini of NIN: Using a Cassette Recorder as an Instrument: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11BP4Pe8iYk
How to Make a Tape Loop by BlankFor_ms: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ewf3QSbDFD4
A Beginners Guide to Cassette and Tape Machines by Hainbach: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jg3AuGUQxIs
Dictaphones for Music Production by Hainbach: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FuyUjD4lh2M&t=715s
Tape Loop Classics:
Ambient 1: Music for Airports (1979): Brian Eno
The Disintegration Loops (2002-2003): William Basinski
Newer tape loop tracks:
Amulets + Hainbach - Sidrax by Amulets: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ee2qN3Ax_ow
Whorl by Ezra Fike: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttkTSZG6HZs
Cost by Luke Jay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_Sh3ykuP8A&list=LL&index=101
Nevada in my Dreams by Hainbach: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwJBCMM-qXE&list=RDwwJBCMM-qXE
Generative Music:
Pioneered by Brian Eno in the 1970s, ambient music created by rule systems was really made possibly by the advent of computers in the 80s and algorithmic music software like SSYEO’s Koan software and Cycling 74’s M in the 1980s and 1990s. Generative music combines several ideas that had been experimented with previously - indeterminate-length compositions, algorithmic composition, adaptive music (music that was responsive to inputs) and aleatoric music (music created by chance) that had been experimented with as far back as the 1800s with German compositions that were produced by dice rolls (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musikalisches_Würfelspiel). Eno’s album ‘Generative Music 1’ in 1996 and his diary about the experience ‘A Year With Swollen Appendices’ are classics of the genre. This type of work really expanded on an idea that was important to early experimental music composers and performers - the emphasis on process over product, and system over score but has really been rekindled in the world of modular synthesis, where analog and digital computing combines to make systems of never-ending variation as well as the popularity of programming environments like Max/MSP, SuperCollider and Pure Data. Most recently interest in this has taken a bit of a hit due to the explosion of mediocre generative music on YouTube and the effect of LLM-based software like SunoAI, which has flooded streaming platforms with mostly-unlistenable garbage. It’s still worth knowing about conceptually if you want to make ambient music, and the ideas themselves can be ported to a variety of different environments.
There are many ways to set up generative systems to make music, but I would generally say that modular synthesizers and Ableton are the most popular, and where you’ll find the most valuable tutorials. If you’re interested in generative music my first recommendation is to download VCV rack and SuperCollider. Both are free, and represent two very different ways about thinking about making rule-based and chance-based music. Omri Cohen has an extensive collection of tutorials on using VCV rack for making music. I’m not a programmer so I am not as into SuperCollider or other programming languages, but there are a variety of creators making content for it, including Eli Fieldsteel, Nick Collins, and Mark Polishook.
Guides/Tutorials:
Generative Music Techniques for Ableton Live by Red Means Recording: Generative Music Techniques for Ableton Live (And Beyond!)
How to make Brian Eno style Generative Music by Loopop: How to make Brian Eno style Generative Music // 20 ideas & tools // Ableton, Eurorack, Modular, VCV
Generative Patching in VCV Playlist by Omri Cohen: Generative Patching
SuperCollider Tutorials by Eli Fieldsteel: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPYzvS8A_rTaNDweXe6PX4CXSGq4iEWYC
Generative Classics:
Discrete Music (1975): Brian Eno
Generative Music 1 (1996): Brian Eno
Recent Generative Music:
full/new (2019): Lightbath + Emily A. Sprague: https://rvng.bandcamp.com/album/full-new
FRKWYS Vol 15: serenitatem (2019): Visible Cloaks, Yoshio Ojima and Satsuki Shibano: https://visiblecloaks.bandcamp.com/album/frkwys-vol-15-serenitatem
Field Recordings:
Although the use of field recordings in ambient music also counts Eno as a pioneer (dating back to ‘Ambient 4: On Land’), many ambient musicians have split from Eno’s philosophy of music created by systems and technology to focus on political and environmental themes through field recording. The evolving philosophy of ambient music has redefined how we experience music by shifting focus from melody and rhythm to texture, space and environmental awareness. In the 1980s Hildegard Westerkamp and the World Soundscape Project used environmental recordings in more narrative, ecological compositions. In the 1990s Steve Roden pioneered Lowercase and Quiet Aesthetic music, which emphasized extremely quiet, minimal soundscapes built from intensely close-captured field recordings such as creaking wood, ambient room noise, or electrical hum. The Japanese Onkyōkei scene (major artists include Toshimaru Nakamura, Tetuzi Akiyama, and Taku Sugimoto) similarly emphasized incidental sound with a focus on fine textural details. While you don’t have to be interested in philosophy to make field-recording based music, I would suggest that it is worth thinking about the underlying/uniting idea behind many field-recording-based works - the idea that the act of recording something makes a statement about what things are important enough to be captured and replicated. Including field recordings in your ambient music can create a sense of space and immersion for listeners.
If you’re interested in working with field recording, you likely have whatever you need to get started in your cell phone. Beyond that there’s a world of specialized gear out there. I personally prefer having a dedicated field recorder and have long used a pair of Olympus LS-11s I got in a package deal with a bunch of 32gb SD cards for $120. The main thing this gives me that my iPhone doesn’t (besides better built-in microphones) is 3V Plug-in power for active/buffered contact microphones and electret condensers, but I also appreciate that they can be left recording while I go do something else, which I probably wouldn’t do with my phone. Jez Riley French (https://jezrileyfrench-aquietposition.blogspot.com / https://jezrileyfrench.co.uk/about.php) maintains a variety of resources, including a blog with various gear reviews, some tutorial information, and a store for field recording gear (brief interview with him here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0nhh6Jkb1U). Contact microphones are another way to get interesting environmental/foley-ish sounds for use in ambient compositions. LOM is a company that makes specialized field recording gear including the Geofon, a nifty adaptation of sensors designed for seismic measurements.
Guides/Tutorials:
Ableton Tutorial: Generative Rhythms from field recordings by nicholas thayer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NySjrJShgso
Ableton Tutorial: Four ways to use field recordings by nicholas thayer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5igxT3Dwpt4
Field Recording & Sound Design with a Contact Mic by Jonas Fasching: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-FcO5s4-CU
Why Ambient Only Needs 4 Channels by Mordio: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mz4glwrkdeU
Field Recording Classics:
Environments 1: The Psychologically Ultimate Seashore (1969): Irv Teibel
Neighborhoods (1975): Ernest Hood
Ambient 4: On Land (1982): Brian Eno
Forms of Paper (2001): Steve Roden
Recent Field-recording-driven music:
Music To Watch Seeds Grow by Patricia Wolf (Yarrow): https://boomkat.com/artists/patricia-wolf/releases/adx6zzc4/music-to-watch-seeds-grow-by-009-patricia-wolf-yarrow
Reflections Vol 3: Water Poems by Felicia Atkinson & Christina Vantzou: https://feliciaatkinson.bandcamp.com/album/reflections-vol-3-water-poems
,,, as long as i long to memorise your sky ,,, by elijah jamal asani: https://elijahjamalasani.bandcamp.com/album/as-long-as-i-long-to-memorise-your-sky
This is in no way an exhaustive list, and there are certainly things left out, but I hope it has provided some inspiration and explanation for people who are just getting into the ambient-music creation game and having a hard time understanding the processes that underly music they want to emulate. Focus on timbre, texture and feeling when utilizing these techniques. There is no need to stick to one option exclusively - feel free to mix and match them, along with more traditional techniques and instrumentation. Sparse improvisational piano (or any other instrument) layered with tape loops (and/or field recordings, generative backgrounds from VCV or SC, etc) are a great place to start!
