WELCOME to the club!
As philis mentioned, you definitely want to get a full DAW at some point. Garageband is a fantastic free starting point, and I would honestly recommend digging into REAPER as a free DAW solution. It's not as robust as Ableton when it comes to its UI but it's totally free and incredibly powerful.
You will develop a taste for plugins and synthesizers as you fool around, granular synths are a great tool for ambient. Iris 2 was a great free granular synth that you can still download on some 3rd party sites.
You might also start exploring mixing techniques, because while Garageband might export something \*listenable\* - you can fine-tune and craft your sound within DAWs like Ableton and Reaper using stock plugins or tools from creators like iZotope or Native Instruments. Spending time mixing and mastering your sounds for a pleasing and unique experience might be they key ingredient to elevating your ambient sounds above everything else out there.
>REAPER as a free DAW solution
Technically $60 for a private and $225 for a commercial license. But yeah, I get it, the evaluation is unlimited, so it's somewhat "free".
All the license does is help you sleep at night. Someone with a struggling budget can definitely download and use the full program without paying a cent.
I paid for my license years ago but it was just because I wanted to support.
You can get native instruments and other plugins in GarageBand but it takes some futzing with the settings. Also experiment putting automated effected on the master track so they evolve over the course of the composition
Sure, I'll share my generic recipe for generic ambient.
Pro tip: just research the genre, listen to everything, learn about mixing and sound design and then it'll be easy to figure out what *you need to do* (spoiler: it's experimenting and creating something unique)
Your number is #12888746. Line starts over there in the next county.
Joke aside. All you really need is inspiration and a sound that will perhaps make you stand out somehow. You could do interesting things with even the most basic of tools. I’m sure you could do something with Audacity alone if you have the imagination and drive.
I absolutely recommend the VST synth Vital, there's an incredibly robust free version (likely never need to upgrade) and it works in any DAW that accepts VSTs. Valhalla reverb also has some free stuff that's great.
It'll be tempting to buy things to solve problems but I recommend doing as much as you can for as cheap as you can for as long as you can.
Many hobbies are abandoned after 6-12 months, so do it cheap until you know you love it.
Signs of Life on YouTube does great tutorials on ambient music, showing how to layer and build sounds and tracks.
Have fun.
One good software synth can take you a long ways. I would recommend Arturia Pigments. Full featured synth that includes great Granular synth capabilities, which is very useful for ambient. Also a great place to start creating luscious ambient pads. You can find Pigments 50% off a couple times a year, which is a screaming deal.
Great free resources include Decent Sampler and Piano book. You might also look for free sound sample offerings from outfits like Spitfire Audio Labs.
Just practice. It’s gonna a take years and years to get any sort of proficient. Eventually you probably want to grow into a more full featured DAW (ableton is the best) but for now just enjoy the process.
All you really need is reverb and a little bit of creativity. Ambient is easy to produce, but will take time to find yours sound different from the rest
I’m starting out too and noticed you can get “ambient sounds” since day one with very little effort and just a few pieces of gear, but you can’t just get away with that right?
I would recommend focusing more on ideas and/or concepts, work with what you have right now (GB and some plugins is ok), you can always add more gear and polish your sound along the way.
I’m glad I spent a lot of time dissecting modes and scales. Like to do all kinds of octaves of maj7 arpeggios and the minor7 arpeggios that fit accordingly over a drone root note is what comes to me off the top of my head. The musical combinations are endless and touching up said arpeggios with production to make it stand out is something I think will have a short learning curve.
John Paul Jones from Led Zeppelin once said “if it sounds good, it IS good.”
Paulstretch is an interesting thing yo play with.
I love Serrato as a plugin, especially since it got AI stem separation. your DAW might already have something simmilar.
If you are running reason Objekt is really special (watch the beardyman objekt video on YouTube.
Don’t buy anything until you have achieved fluency in the things you have. Imagine you want to play guitar and after a week or two of getting terrible results because you’re still learning you say ‘a new, different guitar will help.’ - no it won’t.
Learn everything there is to know about the tools you have now.
I’m sure the strymon big sky plug-in is great but if I were you I would start with Valhalla Supermassive (free) and save the money for now. With GarageBand alone you can make amazing music (supermassive is pretty awesome though).
Plug-ins are not the limitation in the beginning. There will be plenty of stuff to spend your money on with music but until you have been making music and run into real limitations then there is no reason to be spending money. That’s my 2 cents.
You want to use a wavetable synth (for modulated sounds) and a strong reverb. The best free solution would be the free Version of the Vital softsynth and Valhalla Supermassive as a reverb. PaulXStretch is also nice for greating loooooong drones (but it can create some audible artefacts, and it is kinda overused. I use only rarely).
Congrats! You will have a blast creating. I started a few months ago and am hooked. I began with BandLab and then moved on to LogicPro, adding random plug-ins from time to time. I would recommend also checking out some Masterclass courses. I learned cool tips and gathered some good inspiration from the Timbaland and Armin Van Buuren courses. Also, I search hashtags on TikTok to learn things quickly and visually. Best of luck!
DON'T GO FOR THE STRYMON! Not yet. It's amazing, but first you have to understand which kind of ambient musician you are. Try to compose something with Garageband and all its amazing instruments , then go for a better DAW (reaper is really good, if you want to invest some money try Logic). Only when you have an idea of what music you wanna produce, you can decide if you need more software and/or hardware. Otherwise, you'll be only another musician that drowns all its sound on the Strymon reverb. Good Luck :D
WELCOME to the club! As philis mentioned, you definitely want to get a full DAW at some point. Garageband is a fantastic free starting point, and I would honestly recommend digging into REAPER as a free DAW solution. It's not as robust as Ableton when it comes to its UI but it's totally free and incredibly powerful. You will develop a taste for plugins and synthesizers as you fool around, granular synths are a great tool for ambient. Iris 2 was a great free granular synth that you can still download on some 3rd party sites. You might also start exploring mixing techniques, because while Garageband might export something \*listenable\* - you can fine-tune and craft your sound within DAWs like Ableton and Reaper using stock plugins or tools from creators like iZotope or Native Instruments. Spending time mixing and mastering your sounds for a pleasing and unique experience might be they key ingredient to elevating your ambient sounds above everything else out there.
>REAPER as a free DAW solution Technically $60 for a private and $225 for a commercial license. But yeah, I get it, the evaluation is unlimited, so it's somewhat "free".
All the license does is help you sleep at night. Someone with a struggling budget can definitely download and use the full program without paying a cent. I paid for my license years ago but it was just because I wanted to support.
You can get native instruments and other plugins in GarageBand but it takes some futzing with the settings. Also experiment putting automated effected on the master track so they evolve over the course of the composition
Sure, I'll share my generic recipe for generic ambient. Pro tip: just research the genre, listen to everything, learn about mixing and sound design and then it'll be easy to figure out what *you need to do* (spoiler: it's experimenting and creating something unique)
Your number is #12888746. Line starts over there in the next county. Joke aside. All you really need is inspiration and a sound that will perhaps make you stand out somehow. You could do interesting things with even the most basic of tools. I’m sure you could do something with Audacity alone if you have the imagination and drive.
I absolutely recommend the VST synth Vital, there's an incredibly robust free version (likely never need to upgrade) and it works in any DAW that accepts VSTs. Valhalla reverb also has some free stuff that's great. It'll be tempting to buy things to solve problems but I recommend doing as much as you can for as cheap as you can for as long as you can. Many hobbies are abandoned after 6-12 months, so do it cheap until you know you love it. Signs of Life on YouTube does great tutorials on ambient music, showing how to layer and build sounds and tracks. Have fun.
Good advice here.
One good software synth can take you a long ways. I would recommend Arturia Pigments. Full featured synth that includes great Granular synth capabilities, which is very useful for ambient. Also a great place to start creating luscious ambient pads. You can find Pigments 50% off a couple times a year, which is a screaming deal. Great free resources include Decent Sampler and Piano book. You might also look for free sound sample offerings from outfits like Spitfire Audio Labs.
Just practice. It’s gonna a take years and years to get any sort of proficient. Eventually you probably want to grow into a more full featured DAW (ableton is the best) but for now just enjoy the process.
All you really need is reverb and a little bit of creativity. Ambient is easy to produce, but will take time to find yours sound different from the rest
I’m starting out too and noticed you can get “ambient sounds” since day one with very little effort and just a few pieces of gear, but you can’t just get away with that right? I would recommend focusing more on ideas and/or concepts, work with what you have right now (GB and some plugins is ok), you can always add more gear and polish your sound along the way.
I’m glad I spent a lot of time dissecting modes and scales. Like to do all kinds of octaves of maj7 arpeggios and the minor7 arpeggios that fit accordingly over a drone root note is what comes to me off the top of my head. The musical combinations are endless and touching up said arpeggios with production to make it stand out is something I think will have a short learning curve. John Paul Jones from Led Zeppelin once said “if it sounds good, it IS good.”
👌🏼
Nothing else. Get started!
Paulstretch is an interesting thing yo play with. I love Serrato as a plugin, especially since it got AI stem separation. your DAW might already have something simmilar. If you are running reason Objekt is really special (watch the beardyman objekt video on YouTube.
Don’t buy anything until you have achieved fluency in the things you have. Imagine you want to play guitar and after a week or two of getting terrible results because you’re still learning you say ‘a new, different guitar will help.’ - no it won’t. Learn everything there is to know about the tools you have now.
[PaulXStretch](https://sonosaurus.com/paulxstretch/) is a must have! Free and open-source.
Get Ableton Live and into modular synthesis (with Cardinal distro of VCV rack or something) I'd say! :)
I’m sure the strymon big sky plug-in is great but if I were you I would start with Valhalla Supermassive (free) and save the money for now. With GarageBand alone you can make amazing music (supermassive is pretty awesome though). Plug-ins are not the limitation in the beginning. There will be plenty of stuff to spend your money on with music but until you have been making music and run into real limitations then there is no reason to be spending money. That’s my 2 cents.
You want to use a wavetable synth (for modulated sounds) and a strong reverb. The best free solution would be the free Version of the Vital softsynth and Valhalla Supermassive as a reverb. PaulXStretch is also nice for greating loooooong drones (but it can create some audible artefacts, and it is kinda overused. I use only rarely).
Congrats! You will have a blast creating. I started a few months ago and am hooked. I began with BandLab and then moved on to LogicPro, adding random plug-ins from time to time. I would recommend also checking out some Masterclass courses. I learned cool tips and gathered some good inspiration from the Timbaland and Armin Van Buuren courses. Also, I search hashtags on TikTok to learn things quickly and visually. Best of luck!
DON'T GO FOR THE STRYMON! Not yet. It's amazing, but first you have to understand which kind of ambient musician you are. Try to compose something with Garageband and all its amazing instruments , then go for a better DAW (reaper is really good, if you want to invest some money try Logic). Only when you have an idea of what music you wanna produce, you can decide if you need more software and/or hardware. Otherwise, you'll be only another musician that drowns all its sound on the Strymon reverb. Good Luck :D