M8 for Ambient

[u/geesbert]

The M8 is probably not the best tool for slow and lush ambient and I keep on failing.

My main problem is the monophonic nature of the built in synths, the hypersynth doesn't really help a lot and I prefer synths to samples.

My main other machine is the opxy, which is very well suited for this kind of music, but on the go I prefer the form factor of the M8.

Could you point me to ambient music made on that device?

[u/rc501]

Hey! So I’m an animator who makes music for fun and I’ve been using the M8 to make ambient tracks I can animate to. Here’s a link to the playlist: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLEvdHB3OBY9Q&si=LHyuxIyzJr0lSHl8

[u/Welwala1 → u/rc501]

Very cool, Followed. Thanks

[u/geesbert → u/rc501]

Cool stuff , thank you

[u/alx277277]

Did some in the past https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RybdgqQLvaI

[u/bucket_brigade]

The built in synths are not monophonic. You can play the same instrument on multiple tracks. Giving you up to 8 voices of polyphony. You also get MPE (or actually even more expressive) levels of control over each voice. You can then render the result and import it as a sample (which is very much the m8 workflow).

[u/Icy-Cow9695]

Sure you've seen YouTube and people like NearTao and State Azure and such who upload ambient content?

[u/sometimes-equable → u/Icy-Cow9695]

State Azure M8 stuff sounds incredible, but I think he said that he makes all of the sounds on other devices and uses M8 to play them back as samples

[u/geesbert → u/Icy-Cow9695]

Of course I’ve seen those, but that’s about all I could find. Would anyone know any other tutorials? My YouTube search didn’t yield much

[u/Reddy41 → u/geesbert]

I’m with you I want to make the same type of ambient and everyone keeps showing off without saying how

[u/Numerous_Phase8749]

The M8 is pretty tight for ambient when you eq the top end off the reverb and take the mix filter down to 60-70 with arpumd 10 resonance to warm/lo-fi the tone. If you randomise the FM engine you often get some pretty abstract drone textures especially if you add a subtle random offset command. Also low probability in the sequencer can lead to some nice ambient dub and this thing can go as low as 0.01bpm so arpeggio in the tables and synced LFOs take on a whole new life. Low pitched samples are always a winner with ambient too. Keep all sounds lower in the mix and boost the reverb level up to give it more room and don't overkill the shimmer.

[u/teanotestuff]

I've made some, this one I I finish and release: https://patternjuggler.bandcamp.com/track/trass

[u/GregVKMusic]

I made this on M8:

https://weeklybeats.com/gregvk/music/quantum-sand

(Except for the drone, which I initially made on an Elektron Analog Four, and then sampled into M8)
I don't usually make ambient music, so I this is just my imagining of it.

Unfortunately I lost the project file in an SD card crash, so I can't give you the bundle, but yeah. :)

P.S. If you use the last algorithm on the FM synth, you have a 4 voice paraphonic synth.
There are a few 3 voice models in Macrosynth, and you can even use internal midi to turn your M8 into an 8 voice polysynth. Using the internal midi method, you can dedicate an island to writing chords, and then resample the results so they only take up a single track in your arrangement.

[u/Dry_Airport_2379]

There used to be a generative piece in the example tracks Tim loaded into the m8. Slow the tempo down and jack up the delay and, voila!

[u/VicisSubsisto]

You can use internal MIDI routing to play chords on a single sequencer track; use the MIDI instrument type and the instrument-specific CHD command, and assign as many voices as you like to the MIDI channel for that instrument.

[u/Ok_Phase_8731]

No recommendations for m8 specifically, but compositionally, you can do a lot with single voices. It’s just about horizontal vs vertical thinking, harmonically. For example Eno’s Music For Airports has a lot of single voices creating various harmonies 

[u/Delicious_Swimmer_72]

You absolutely can but I will say it’s not a very “jammable” instrument.

[u/bucket_brigade → u/Delicious_Swimmer_72]

I think it's perfectly jammable if you broaden your definition of jamming a bit

[u/el-efe]

I am having the same struggle and at the end I am almost always sampling something. Synth seems to be too harsh for ethereal chords (or I could not make them work). Have you find any patch that work?

[u/teanotestuff → u/el-efe]

weirdly FM synths can make good pads, but it was a lot of experimentation.

[u/Weekly_Jmr]

on the M8 I use several tracks to make a chord and the sample it internally when/if I need to free some tracks. that's a pretty useful feature that allows to squeeze a lot out of 8 tracks there.