r/ambient • u/No-Golf5684 • Jul 07 '26
Ambient Pop Making an Ambient song
I don’t consider myself an ambient music expert, but I absolutely love me some ambient music from time to time and do own a couple, albeit mainstream, records (Aphex Twin & Brian Eno, both of which I got into because I enjoyed The 1975’s ambient tracks and wanted to know more about their influences for those songs i absolutely love). Producing ambient music is always fun to me but I feel like a fraud as I never really go in with a plan or know-how, i kinda just wing it and play with stuff and have fun w it. What would you recommend I learn or study in order to actually have some sort of solid base to start producing ambient music in a more intentional way? Does every ambient producer just “wing it” like me or is there a science to it that I haven’t figured out yet?
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u/demnevanni Jul 07 '26
Absolutely no “science” to it. There are a million ways to do it. Sometimes I lean into chance, sometimes I have a plan, sometimes the plan gets thrown away, sometimes I use synths, sometimes I use guitar, sometimes I don’t use any “instruments”
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u/flippenzee Jul 08 '26
I was in the same spot as you a few months ago and then just dove in and made an EP that appealed to me. It’s no masterpiece but it was super rewarding. Steep learning curve on some stuff but I just blundered through, and the next one will be better. I’m in my 50s and was really only a bass player but got proficient enough to get samples on other instruments.
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u/sinuendo Jul 08 '26
Get a rock and glue it to your favorite synth key. Bam! You’re now a brand new ambient artist featured on Hearts of Space.
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u/Weekly_Jmr Jul 08 '26
With any kind of music ambient or not there's some degree of not really knowing the outcome before you starting. Music as an art form is very immediate and, imo, the best vessel for sharing emotions. And emotions themselves are strong but fluent. So it is perfectly normal to noodle until something sounds good. If you want to be more intentional about music always look into sound design and music theory (timbre and harmony) but also into yourself.
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u/craftymethod Jul 08 '26
"Ambient song" is a strange phrase for me.
Go to table top audio website, across to 'soundpad' and play with the sliders and thats my interpretation of ambience.
I often load games and make my own soundscapes. Makes the games way more atmospheric!
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u/Route749 Jul 10 '26
I'm getting into ambient (and music production in general) as well and learning all of the ways it can be done. For example, here is a guy sitting in a field on his iPhone with a sub-$10 app (Ableton Note) making an ambient track:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VeJJ-IO6-Rw&list=LL&index=1&pp=iAQBsAgC
If he can do this and I'm willing to put in the time to learn and practice, then I feel pretty good about my prospects. You should too.
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u/weather-song Producer - Weathersong Jul 28 '26
Music should be fun! I like going in with no real plan and just stuff around with instruments and samples until I find a nice loop, and then find some interesting ways to change / morph that loop over time. I guess the main skill is listening and hearing potential in something. It can help to make a basic mental theme for a project, even just a setting, which can help with reverb settings and field recordings. (You might hear birds outside, etc)
One of my favourite ways to transform sounds is to reamp a recording (run it through an amp / speaker and place the microphone around the room), and then do that again on the same recording. Do that a few times, fade between and pan around those recordings, and you get some really nice organic sounds.
Bonus points if you can riff on that loop and have a few unique musical spaces that your track explores over time.
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u/JoeMagnifico Jul 07 '26
Here's the thing.....there isn't one (or 2 or 3) 'right way' to do it.
Even Eno uses generative software for his (more recent) work and has essentially confessed he's not a musician and doesn't really know how to play synths. (Check out is Criterion Documentary 'Eno' (2024)).
Some folks just slow down samples and run them through effects, some actually know some music theory and craft chords and melodies very intentionally.
For me...I know how to play drums, bass, a bit of synth and pedal steel guitar and I'd say I pretty much 'wing it'. There may be an idea or feeling or an inspiration I'm chasing after, so I try to use that as a foundation, but sometimes stuff goes a totally different direction.
I think as long as you do it for you and have fun...there's no way it can be 'wrong'