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Ditto X2 ... X4 is good if you want multiple loops.
Remember, it's easier to criticise than create!
I mean, don't get me wrong, playing around with delay pedals is fun but it's all become a bit circle jerky for me.
I'm not set up specifically for ambient...I tend to lean towards a more shoegazey/lo-fi/drone thing, but if I chucked in a volume pedal, I could get there. The business end of my board goes stereo chorus/flange (an Arion SCH-1 or a TC Vortex, but I'm looking for other options here) into separate delays (an Adineko and a Belle Epoch Deluxe) into a Neunaber WET, and then out to a pair of amps. I've got a compressor up front, and a boost/reverb (T.Rex Fat Shuga) before my dirt/drive boxes, so I can do the pre-dirt reverb "thing" too. Like I said this works for the kind of thing I like to mess with, but it can also handle ambient-style stuff pretty well. I'm actually trying to dial things back a bit nowadays (much lower mix on delay/reverb), as I've found that going stereo gives you plenty of space without having to overdose on modulation for swirl or "dimension".
Some of us just like creating different textures and escaping into a wall of spacey sound. To each his own. I play what can be described as ambient because of how it makes me feel. It's what I enjoy playing and how I naturally play when I pick up the guitar and pedalboard. I'm also a big fan of drone music and creating soundscapes using pedals and the occasional synth. It's just what I gravitate towards.
Come to think of it, I've probably been playing this sort of thing for around 20 years now, from the very early days of being inspired by The Appleseed Cast and Brian Eno and only having an Ibanez AD9 and a Digitech Digidelay, to the current pedalboard and the even spacier, more experimental stuff I've been playing the past few years. I got quite bored with conventional songwriting a while ago. I've enjoyed exploring and experimenting and discovering new sounds and new pedals.
It's just what I naturally feel like playing.
I'm just putting a pedal board together for the first time in many years and I'm loving playing ambient stuff.
I got my first Memory Man in 1987 (i think). It was a loaner from a Youth Club guy who had some recording equipment - I've been addicted to delays since. I currently have a Boss DD500 and I've barely scratched the surface with it.
Seems to be some disparaging words about modulation/dimension effects in this thread. I dunno, the day I get bored of a Dimension D (which I prefer to the Dimension C) will be sad day but I guess that's the Robin Guthrie in me.
I'd quite like to try a Z-Cat Polyoctave as well.
I have Hall Of Fame 2 which is fine for now but I want something much more immersive and as I have a DD500 and an MD500 it might be wise to get an RV500 as well.
A stereo set up sounds incredible, and actually you become less reliant on pedals.
But, nonetheless, the following are ambient dreams, imho;
- Strymon Big Sky (King of ambient)
- HX Stomp
- Neunaber Immerse
- FTT delays
I'm using a Katana 100 as a clean platform. I do have an interface with monitors though but not sure how I could utilize the pedal board through them.
If anything I believe this is the reason why everything sounds so same-y in this genre in particular.
Tonal contrast is also vastly overlooked. I notice a very wet and textured sound better in a set if uneffected sounds are offered in contrast.
A drony part sounds great if it is only a part in some songs but it gets tiresome to me when it's all the band offers and sounds more like limitation or laziness.
The structures are also so similar in most songs ( soundscapes, slow build up to climax and abrupt ending ) and the songs are all in minor, always which gets stale quickly.
All these gimmicks put together really limit the creative side and excitement of composition. It does take care very well of the textural aspect of electric music but puts all its efforts into that. Keeping everything how it is but adding more harmonic variation from one tune to the other and working on melody craft would probably make for the best ambient music I can think of.
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Also to get back to the original post, the dr scientist reverberator and Atmosphere don't get enough attention.
Particularly the atmosphere which has EVERY ambient sound available and great new flavours of them as well as being midi capable and having a great LFO.
You get all the classic reverbs you'd expect plus a panned reverb algorythm, a rainbow machine one, a bit quest etc...
all preset-able. I find it baffling not to see it mentioned more often.
I was talking about recording, so monitors. My amp modeller has a stereo fx loop - I think having a stereo signal elevates what you can do with an ambient guitar track. You could also use two amps like Lowercase Noises.
Remember, it's easier to criticise than create!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZyaUWga-d0
I'm quite taken by the OBNE Minim with it's reverse reverb:
I see that @stickyfiddle bought one last year, I wonder if you still have it and what you make of it?
The Minim is obviously a really powerful tool but possibly not quite the right tool for me. I'm strongly considering trying an Afterneath as well but I really like this sort of thing with screens and presets, which pushes me to the Stomp.
Song structure - millions of songs follow the same verse, chorus, verse, chorus, middle 8 structure - what's so different about conforming to a post-rock structure? As long as its done well of course.