Electronic Music, Unit 9

Genre: Ambient music!

 

Description, from unit 4:

"Ambient music is a genre of music that puts an emphasis on tone and atmosphere over traditional musical structure or rhythm. Ambient music is said to evoke an "atmospheric", "visual"  or "unobtrusive" quality. According to one of its pioneers Brian Eno, "Ambient music must be able to accommodate many levels of listening attention without enforcing one in particular; it must be as ignorable as it is interesting." 

 

As a genre it originated in the United Kingdom at a time when new sound-making devices such as the synthesizer, were being introduced to a wider market. Ambient developed in the 1970s from the experimental and synthesizer-oriented styles of the period. Mike Oldfield, Jean Michel Jarre and Vangelis were all influences on the emergence of ambient. Robert Fripp and Brian Eno popularized ambient music in 1972 while experimenting with tape loop techniques. The Orb and Aphex Twin gained commercial success with ambient tracks in the early 1990s. Ambient compositions are often quite lengthy, much longer than more popular, commercial forms of music. Some pieces can reach a half an hour or more in length. 

 

Ambient had a revival towards the late 1980s with the prominence of house and techno music. Eventually, ambient grew a cult following in the 1990s. By the early 1990s artists such as Aphex Twin were being called ambient house, ambient techno, IDM or "ambient" by the media.  

 

These are the liner notes to Eno's first album in his ambient series (Music for Airports).

"The concept of music designed specifically as a background feature in the environment was pioneered by Muzak Inc. in the fifties, and has since come to be known generically by the term Muzak. The connotations that this term carries are those particularly associated with the kind of material that Muzak Inc. produces - familiar tunes arranged and orchestrated in a lightweight and derivative manner. Understandably, this has led most discerning listeners (and most composers) to dismiss entirely the concept of environmental music as an idea worthy of attention.

Over the past three years, I have become interested in the use of music as ambience, and have come to believe that it is possible to produce material that can be used thus without being in any way compromised. To create a distinction between my own experiments in this area and the products of the various purveyors of canned music, I have begun using the term Ambient Music.

An ambience is defined as an atmosphere, or a surrounding influence: a tint. My intention is to produce original pieces ostensibly (but not exclusively) for particular times and situations with a view to building up a small but versatile catalogue of environmental music suited to a wide variety of moods and atmospheres.

Whereas the extant canned music companies proceed from the basis of regularizing environments by blanketing their acoustic and atmospheric idiosyncracies, Ambient Music is intended to enhance these. Whereas conventional background music is produced by stripping away all sense of doubt and uncertainty (and thus all genuine interest) from the music, Ambient Music retains these qualities. And whereas their intention is to `brighten' the environment by adding stimulus to it (thus supposedly alleviating the tedium of routine tasks and levelling out the natural ups and downs of the body rhythms) Ambient Music is intended to induce calm and a space to think.

Ambient Music must be able to accomodate many levels of listening attention without enforcing one in particular; it must be as ignorable as it is interesting."

-Brian Eno"

 

Who are the Major artists?

Brian Eno is generally acclaimed as the "founding father" of ambient music. Some other important artists throughout ambient' music's history are Aphex Twin, The Orb, Boards of Canada, Tangerine Dream.

 

What are the stylistic considerations?

Ambient music is special because there are no drums! The music builds up very slowly and peacefully, there are no beats or drops. Also, to repeat the same quote for the third time!: "Ambient Music must be able to accomodate many levels of listening attention without enforcing one in particular; it must be as ignorable as it is interesting."  - Brian Eno

 

Tempo?

Ambient music is generally very slow, or at least it cannot be so fast that is no longer peaceful to listen to. I made my song in 120 bpm, but the majority of notes were at least half a bar long.

 

Types of synths?

There are many times of synths that can be used for ambient music, but generally ones that create a rich, harmonious, and transcendent sound are used. Synths that do not stop the note when the key is released are also preferred - i,e, something with a long 'release' time in ADSR.

 

Audio Examples of the genre?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5KGMo9yOaSU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LOZbdsuWSg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPTYlomyo3s

 

Creating a wavetable synth:

I used four different MIDI instruments, each playing a C3, bounced the audio file of them playing, and then loaded that into the wavetable synth on retro synth to create a combined version.
The three notes at the beginning and at the end come from an ambient drone. They were not part of the wavetable synth, but I added them in because I thought they sounded cool.

Final project result:
This was harder than I thought it would be to make. Yet I still had some fun experimenting with different synths and effects and more. 

Arrange window: 

http://i.imgur.com/Q8k5zha.png

"Inst 14" is a wavetable synth. I created it by combining every instrument available in the "Ambient Drones" section of "Cinematic" instruments, although I don't think that it sounds as good as any of them alone.

I created the MIDI notes for the Chillout Pad by randomizing the notes that I drew, and then stretching out the section. This technique combined with that specific synth created a cool background effect that really worked out well! It took a while to perfect.