My Journey with Ambient (Patreon)

If only these walls could talk I'd have a million stories to tell...

I can't tell you how many times I've failed because I've lost track. "There is no failure. Only feedback" is a Robert Allen quote that I've held on to recently for this very reason. As my failures continue to unfold, I'm realizing that they are just continual steps on my own personal journey and not consistent setbacks. My own personal journey with ambient has been a long and windy road, filled with the types of experiences that have helped me learn and grow as an artist and if I can help you by sharing those insights, hopefully these will propel you further down your own personal path to growth and turning those failures into success.

Initial beginnings...

My first ambient experiments were somewhat embarrassing, to say the least. I shouldn't judge, but I am honest enough to say I wasn't proud of them. I stuck with it however and quickly those initial beginnings were overshadowed by more mature works that I wanted to share with the world. The more I practiced, the less I fell into the trappings of creating music that didn't carry the sonic signature that I eventually wanted to hear on the receiving end which brings me to my first piece of advice. Don't be afraid to copy the exact style of music you are trying to create. Not only is it almost impossible to truly copy a piece of music note for note, but it's through this process that you're going to branch off and find your own sound. You learn through listening so listen close to those building blocks of sound and try and recreate them in your DAW. If not recreate, use presets that come close to those sounds and try and arrange them in a way that gets you closer to the sound that you're after. This Patreon certainly has more than enough presets to get you started, and there's always more coming each and every week. 

Next steps...

After I felt like I had something worth listening to, I turned to Soundcloud and released my first ambient track and shared it on KVR. To my surprise, the feedback I received was actually quite helpful! Not everyone loved it (The KVR crowd is notoriously crass) but those that did offer positive reaffirmation also gave me bits of valuable advice that I used to improve the track, which actually made it to my first album. That track was "Metamorphosis" which can be found on the first S1gns Of L1fe album Language of the Ancients. The point here being that in order for me to receive the feedback I needed, I had to get over my own self doubt and release my music to the world for anyone to hear it. Not only that, I had to ask for feedback which was scary at the time, but also a necessary part of the process. For those of you who might not know, we do this twice a month in the S1gns Circle, and occasionally I open up a Patreon Exclusive feedback livestream for the rest of you, as an opportunity to receive that necessary feedback to help you along on your own personal journey to becoming better ambient music producers. You never know until you try and sometimes just releasing what you have can be the best way to help you get better and level up your production game.

Taste level vs. talent level

After you start to develop your own personal musical language, you're going to run into a few walls. This is where most of you currently find yourself, in between having a grasp on what you're doing and what it is you're trying to achieve. Believe me, I get it! This is why I do what I do and I am fully aware that those who are here (including myself) are all trying to do the same thing. At Synphaera and exosphere, we often receive submissions from producers who's talent level exceeds their taste level and I want you to know what that means. Just because you can create a good drone, a decent sequence, or a gorgeous pad doesn't mean that you can put these elements together to create good music. However, you can study from existing works and learn from their design aesthetic to improve your taste level. By doing this, you will be greatly improving your chances of creating good quality music and level up your production skills through the process of leveling up your aesthetic taste. Once you do this, you will no longer accept anything less that what you know is the highest quality and your new taste level, will become your standard for all other productions to follow. It might not happen overnight, but trust me on this one. You got this!

Self acceptance 

Even if you're not creating music for public recognition and you're just on your own path of self discovery, one of the most important lessons I've learned along the way to accept who you are and where you are on your journey. There are many producers here who are of all different ages and come from vastly different walks of life. Let that simple fact alone remind you that we are all humans with different life paths to walk on our own and in order for us to better accept where we are, we have to accept who we are and let that gratitude move us forward to creating better music. Don't let self doubt become your default response when you run into a challenge, allow yourself to work through it with grace and the knowingness that solutions can always be found and your next big breakthrough could be right around the corner. 

-S1gns