WHAT IS AMBIENT?
Ambient music is a genre that emphasizes atmosphere, texture, and mood over traditional musical structure or rhythm. It’s often instrumental, using sustained tones, drones, or repetitive patterns to create immersive, calming, or introspective soundscapes. Think of it as music that blends into the background, enhancing an environment without demanding active attention. Brian Eno, a pioneer of the genre, described it as music that can be "as ignorable as it is interesting."
It originated in the 1970s, with Eno’s albums like Ambient 1: Music for Airports (1978) setting the template. It draws from influences like avant-garde, minimalism, and electronic music, often incorporating synthesizers, field recordings, or natural sounds. Styles vary widely—some ambient is ethereal and melodic, like Sigur Rós, while darker, more experimental forms, like Lustmord’s work, lean into eerie or industrial vibes. It’s used for relaxation, meditation, study, or even film soundtracks. You’ll find it in subgenres like chillout, dark ambient, or space music.
MAKING “THE STORM”
The Storm started life as a set of chords. I used a sampled “Wurlitzer” electric piano to voice the chords and layout the basic progression of the song which unfolds in three major parts.
Recently I did a review of the GForce Software version of the Oberheim 8-voice synthesizer which caused me to think about another GForce piece, the Oddity, their software version of the classic ARP Odyssey synthesizer from the 70s. I like the Oddity a lot, as it has a fast attack and a big bold sound that stands out in a song (like the original hardware did). I routed it through a Universal 1176 FET compressor, this tamed the dynamics and made the part work inside the piano chords.
After creating the basic structure of THE STORM using the Wurly piano I started decorating it with bass stabs using the Oddity. These stabs seemed harsh and abrupt - tweaking the attack on the synthesizer helped but adding a bit more reduction on the 1176 pulled the track into the mix the way I like it.
The Synthwave EKX sound expansion from Toontrack has many great pad sounds so I often stop off there for inspiration. I quickly located a couple of pad sounds that worked with Part 1 and Part 3 of THE STORM.
MORE HARDWARE PLEASE
The song finally had its overall form but it was sounding a bit disjointed — like a bunch of disconnected pieces, I turned on the master AudioScape V-Comp+ and EQP-A hardware processors. The V-comps continue to blow my mind, they maul the mix dynamics and integrate the pieces so beautifully, suddenly the song was really getting full and jelled into sounding like an orchestra.
My two-track mix goes through a Coleman Transfer Console which lets me bypass “Mastering Processors” to accurately hear their effects — all of this occurs on the way to the Tascam 2-track master recorder. Other processors that were auditioned along the way include the Prism Sound “Overkillers” and Neve 33609 Diode compressor. As usual the Audioscape V-Comp+ compressors brought the magic but they can also carry “background noise” as baggage so gain staging needed careful attention.
SOFTWARE USED
- Apple Logic Pro DAW
- Toontrack “Wurlitzer” piano (two-instances)
- Toontrack Wavesynth
- Toontrack Mellotoon (Mellotron samples)
- Toontrack Superior Drummer - Orchestral samples (gongs and timpani)
- GForce OB-E (Oberheim synth, three-instances)
- GForce Oddity
- Logic Pro Sampler - Harp
HARDWARE USED
- Arturia Keystep-61 MIDI keyboard
- Soundcraft GB8-40 Console
- DBX 166A - Wurlitzer piano
- DBX 166A - OB-E and Wavesynth
- Drawmer 1978 Drum Bus - Harp, Timpani and Gongs
- Universal Audio 1176 (on Oddity)
- AMS RMX16 digital reverb
- Lexicon PCM-92 digital reverb
- Neve 8816
- Coleman TC-4
- Audioscape V-Comp+ (x2)
- Audioscape EQP (x2)
- Audioscape Bus Comp — on synthesizer mix bus
- Waves L2 hardware limiter
- Tascam Stereo Recorder
- JBL Control 3 eight inch monitors
- Little Labs Monotor headphone amp
- Sennheiser headphones
NEVE 8816
I use the 8816 like a processor, it is inline with the output from the Soundcraft and the input to the Coleman. The system works fine without the 8816 in this position but the mixes always sound better with it there — almost as if the 8816 acts as a sonic buffer between the GB8 console outputs and the mastering system inputs — doing the heavy lifting on the way to the Waves L-2 Peak-Limiter and the 2-track Master Recorder with the polished mix.
DBX 166 COMPRESSORS
The Wurlitzer electric piano samples gain a lot of weight passing through the 166A on the way to the GB8 console, this compressor only shows a tiny bit of compression on the loudest notes but the track sounds much thinner when it’s not there.
The Oberheim and Wavesynth tracks both also benefit from passing through a DBX 166A on the way to the GB8 mixing console. These old hardware compressors help close up the dynamic range a little while adding a distinctive analog edge to these synthesizer voices.
AUDIOSCAPE EQP EQUALIZERS (2-Track Master)
These are inline and feed into the V-Comp+ inputs via the Coleman TC-4. I experimented heavily with the low and high frequency ranges, I decided on having them “in” the signal path but all the boost and cut knobs set to 0. This brought all the tube stages into the signal path which sounded better than when the whole processor was switched out of the signal path, the EQP add a small amount of gain when used in this manner.
MIXING
I mixed the track at around 80-85 dB according to my SPL Meter. When I began this composition I had no idea where it was headed other than having an Ambient character without big driving melodies or continuous drum rhythms. The Oddity bass track was one of the first BIG sounds to interrupt what was a relatively peaceful beginning. Then the gong and Timpani drums reared their heads and gave the song even more drama and impact.
AUDIOSCAPE V-COMP+
This stereo pair of vacuum tube compressors continues to deliver magic unlike any other processors in my studio (sorry Bricasti, but I still love you). There is no magic bullet with these compressors, they always require tweaking to arrive at the final destination. Whenever I read about adding “glue” to a mix these two large boxes of tubes and transformers are what I think about, they run hot (due to the pair of 6V6 power tubes in each) but they bring tone and mix-power like nothing else I’ve used. The way I set them the meter shows a maximum of about 10dB of gain reduction.
THE SONG - "The Storm" by Mark King
EPILOGUE
We’ve had a lot of rain storms which began around June 1 and usually continue through November, it’s the rainy season here in Florida and it's been this way for many, many years. These storms are often punctuated with inspirational lightning and thunder — thunder which is often so robust it literally shakes the house. After living here for 11 years and lots of hurricanes the weather is often aggravating but never boring — on the day I began composing THE STORM we received over four inches of rain (as measured by the rain gauge on our farm). It is not uncommon for us to receive heavy rain like this during the rainy season, I think the weather outside influenced my creative force in the studio, unconsciously I was transcribing the weather into my personal vehicle of expression, music. It’s my hope that the discussion and the song help inspire your own creative journey.
Thanks for reading High on Technology, Good Music To You!
©August 2025 by Mark King, It is NOT ok to copy or quote without written permission from the author.
Now, consider firing up your music rig and creating something beautiful yourself. . . . .