The art of making music has evolved far beyond hitting a bunch of instruments in rhythm while narrating the experience with lyrics.

Don’t get us wrong, we’re not downplaying how great a stimulant these sorts of artistes and their music can be; almost everyone loves to sing, move and dance along to them.

However, enjoying music in this way isn’t the only option.

Instead of taking a three- to four-minute ride on a tour bus with a fixed destination, some music lovers are happy to hang around and essentially marinate themselves in sounds. This is where soundscapes come into play.

ADDING DEPTH

You can add depth to most songs when using soundscaping. Not only are we talking about ambient tracks with a slow pace and no lyrics, but heavy, fast and/or loud music with vocals can benefit from soundscaping too.

Imagine songs that add a live stadium crowd’s cheering to the mix. A good example is Björk’s “There’s More To Life Than This”, where she is dipping in and out of rooms at a party, closing doors and semi-isolating her own singing at times.

With regards to slow-moving ambient tracks, there’s more room for additional layers, within reason.

If there are no lyrics, the concern of drowning out the vocals isn’t an issue, but you can still overdo it and cause other elements to clash.

SELECTIVE ENVIRONMENT TYPES

Even if a concept scenario isn’t completely perfect on paper, that’s okay. With soundscaping, the imagination is the limit and artistes can be as selective as they want with their finished product.

There’s a good chance that editing the arrangement and volume of the different layers will bring out the clarity of each texture, or at least prevent aggressive/abrupt sounds from overwhelming everything else.

For example, if you’re trying to replicate a music festival environment, you may want to take control of some of the random elements that come with it.

This could be the decision around when and how loud an audience member’s air horn is blown, or if the noise is included in the soundscape at all.

THERE’S NO RUSH

As we’ve already touched upon, one of the most enticing things about soundscapes and other types of ambient music is the lack of an expected song length.

More often than not, music on commercial radio and television sticks to a three-and-a-half-minute average regarding song duration, not to mention how much squirming some stations do when a song has an instrumental section.

Soundscapes frequently take their time to introduce an array of different elements and they repeat ideas more often before moving on.

Also, they don’t have to worry about being “catchy” or containing a “hook” or “earworm”.

Some of the most popular soundscapes are used to help people work or study. Many of these cater to individuals who are just looking for some background noise so that they’re not working in total silence.

Listening to the bustle of coffee shops and airports are common examples of how some like to avoid soundless environments.

SOURCE

The source of the sounds you’re using when creating soundscapes depends on the desired result. If you’re recording from scratch, what type of microphone you use also plays a part in the raw product that you’re left to work with.

If your processing step (see below) is limited, then your captured source sound needs to be as close to the intended finished product as possible.

This means you need to plan ahead a bit more than if you have the ability to modify the audio later.

If you’re in an experimenting mood, you could also wrap/cover/surround the microphone with different materials to see how the end result sounds.

The outcomes will vary as the vibrating sound waves travel through dampening devices with different densities. You will also hear a range of results depending on the size and shape of the recording location/room.

If you can’t establish a starting point straight away, make use of a drone sound and build your soundscape around it.

PROCESSING

This next stage focuses on how you’re going to modify your source sound(s) and turn it/them into music. With the assistance of a Digital Audio Workshop, you can apply a long list of effects and processes to your chosen sounds.

Most DAW software comes with a lot of the common tools as standard, but there are even more advanced and niche third-party plugins available for those who want even more options.

Using a MIDI keyboard will be of great help too, just don’t be put off if you feel you’re not the greatest pianist in the world.

Digital keyboards can be used to program music (so you don’t have to play it live) and they’re fantastic for browsing and creating audio banks and libraries.

What you do to your sound is up to you and the type of soundscape you’re building.

LOOPING

Now that you’ve got all your source noises sounding exactly how you want them to, the final part of the process is figuring out how the music is structured and how your sounds will loop.

Instruct your DAW on how each sound loops as well as how long each element loops before it’s taken out of the mix and/or something else comes in. After each additional layer, you will see your masterpiece come together on the DAW’s visual canvas.

The overall duration of the track is at your discretion too. You could loop the same ten minutes of audio six times to cover an hour, or you could ensure the intro and outro of the ten-minute piece can be looped endlessly by the user.

You don’t need a setup like TONTO, the room-sized rig loved by Stevie Wonder, to start making music. A laptop (or similar), MIDI keyboard, audio interface, and a set of speakers/headphones should be more than enough to get anyone on their feet.

If you plan to use prerecorded samples for all your source sounds, you can save a little bit of money and leave a microphone off of your shopping list.

There are a whole host of DAWs to choose from depending on your musical skill level, your computer skill level and also how you wish to put your music together.

The purpose of these pieces of software is to emulate the roles of synthesisers, tape machines, samplers, effects processing modules and more.

You don’t have to stick with the first DAW you try. Have a play around with different workshops and see which suits you the best. Even though they essentially do the same thing, some excel over others in specific areas and their visual on-screen layouts vary.

By altering these variables, a vast number of soundscapes (both life-like and fictional) can be produced.

Some of the emulated environments will simply offer those living in a city the chance to imagine life beside the sea, whereas others may utilise black noise and the emptiness of space as a relaxation aid.

Cover: A Paper Creative

For more articles on soundscapes, read:

• Explore the Forest With Your Ears: Soundscapes From Around the World
• 20 Years In The Making: Sound Artist Iván Llopis’ Original Soundscapes
• Exploratory Journey With Forward Thinking Soundscapes Of Poté

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Writer | DB Damage

DB Damage is a freelance content writer passionate about creative subjects like music, film, and video games. He studied IT and music technology at college and has a background in managing and promoting local bands.