The Best Ambient VST Instruments: Aren't Instruments
Have you wondered what makes a great ambient track? Is it the instruments that you use? What if the secret to amazing ambient music isn't another instrument at all?
Ambient VST Instruments are plugins that are used to create sound, often in a synthesized way. They can be useful for sound design, but ambient music is not all about sound design; it's how they sound in a certain space.
Audiocube is a 3D DAW that you can use to create ambient music in an immersive space with ease.
In this article, we're going to take a look at what makes ambient sounds great and how you can use Audiocube as a tool to create your own ambient sounds.
In This Article...
You will find the best ambient vst instruments and some other powerful secret tools for ambient music creation.
I explain my thoughts on what makes a truly great ambient sound.
You'll learn about some of the best ways to create ambient music - using unique software like Audiocube - with an emphasis on sound and space.
Learn how you can make ambient music with Audiocube to create more immersive productions.
What Makes a Great Ambient Sound?
Before we can find the right tool, we have to understand what we're trying to build; ambient music is built on a foundation of several core components completely different from genres like EDM:
Texture: More than melody or rhythm, ambient music is about the grain and character of the sound itself. The delicate crackle of field recordings, the gentle hiss of tape, or the granular clouds of a stretched sample are all central to the aesthetic.
Space: This is arguably the most important element. The feeling of a vast hall, an intimate, enclosed chamber, or an otherworldly space is what gives ambient music its emotional weight and immersive power.
Evolution: Ambient music is rarely static. Sounds slowly morph, move, and evolve, creating a living soundscape that encourages deep listening.
Subtlety: The changes are often slow and subtle. The magic lies in the details that you might not notice on first listen, but that you feel subconsciously.
Here, we run into the inherent limitations of traditional VST instruments. Even plugins like Arturia's Pigments or Logic’s Alchemy, with tons of features, typically produce a static, stereo sound. It’s a fantastic starting point, but it's just that, a starting point. In many ways, the raw sound quality might be great, but the sound itself exists on a flat plane.
Audiocube: An Environment for Ambient Music
I created Audiocube as a way to give producers, listeners of music, and everyone in between a chance to create their own ambient music via experimental production techniques.
There are a lot of DAWs that can be used for ambient music, but Audiocube gives you a three-dimensional space to achieve this without the need for any additional VST support.
The Core Ambient Instrument Features of Audiocube
Audiocube is a 3D DAW, a powerhouse for immersive and spatial audio production, but it has many features that make it a uniquely powerful ambient instrument.
Some of Audiocube's cool features for ambient music include:
Generative sequencing - Use logic, chaos, and physics to generate organic, evolving ecosystems of sound that couldn't be achieved in a traditional DAW.
Physics-Based Sound Emission - Use Emitters to create randomized, physics-based audio nodes for fun and evolving compositions.
Acoustic Simulation - Audiocube has a full acoustic simulation engine, creating an incredibly realistic sense of space. You can place walls to create rooms for custom reverb and reflections.
3D Spatialization - Audiocube provides full freedom of sound and listener placement, meaning you can create immersive ambient soundscapes that you can move through. This enables a completely new way of thinking about ambience production - as you're literally building spaces and worlds, rather than laying down sound on a spreadsheet like a traditional DAW
How To Use Audiocube as An Ambient Instrument
Let's walk through a practical example. Forget the complex synth patches and let's build a deep, evolving drone from almost nothing.
Download Audiocube - Audiocube is free to download on both Mac and Windows, or you can purchase a lifetime license for access to the full features.
Create a Project - Once Audiocube is downloaded, it's time to open a new project.
Import Tracks - You can import your own samples, or you can use the free sample pack that comes with Audiocube, with over 2GB of samples.
Insert a Sampler - Place a sampler anywhere within your project and import your sound into it.
Place your Sound in a 3D Space - You can easily move your sampler around the space and place it to the left, to the right, above, or below to create a three-dimensional effect.
Mix and Add Some Additional Effects - Audicube comes with its own mixer, which offers a range of effects, including reverb and a compressor.
Experiment with your Acoustics - You can add multiple sound walls to your project to create a small room where you can hear natural reflections. You can engage the HRTF binauralizer for a 360° effect in your headphones.
Finalize your Mix - Audiocube has additional mastering effects that can glue your mix together. Once you've placed your sounds in the right spot, you can add on these effects.
Export your Mix - Once everything sounds good in your mix, export your mix to a WAV file.
In just a few minutes, you've taken a single, simple sample and built a complex, evolving, and deeply immersive soundscape.
You can try this for yourself today and shape your own sounds. Download Audiocube for free or purchase the license for access to the full features.
Start Making Ambient Music in a Virtual Space
Stop searching for the perfect ambient VST instrument. The truth is, the most powerful tools in your ambient music toolkit, from the original Korg M1 to modern legacy synths, can all be starting points.
The real character, depth, and emotion of your music will come from how you place those sounds in a space and how they evolve over time.
If you're interested in trying this out for yourself, you can download a free trial of Audiocube today or purchase the lifetime license.
