# Ambient guitar effects



## Devon8822 (Jun 26, 2010)

I'm starting to get interested in ambient music, but I don't know much about the effects used with ambient guitar. What effects are generally used, and for what? Also I have a video here of some effects, I was hoping somebody could identify for me. 

Right at the very beginning guitarist is doing some ambient stuff:


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## Andii (Jun 26, 2010)

The best ambient effects are:
Delay
Hall Reverb
Volume

Check out the volume swells paired with delay and hall reverb in this vid starting at 1:19:


This is 100% wet hall reverb starting by itself at :32



I think the best things are the most basic of building blocks.


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## Explorer (Jun 26, 2010)

Usually when someone is looking for "ambient" effects, what they mean is non-guitar-sounding, sustaining effects. 

The first thing which has to be toned down or eliminated for that is the normal guitar attack. To cut out the attack while using a pick or fingers, one can use the guitar volume knob or a volume pedal, or can use a pedal/effect which brings up the volume automatically after the first moment. Effects of this sort can be called auto-swells, swell gates, and slow gears, among other things. (You can also use certain units with reverse echo, but the abrupt cut-offs don't really seem ambient to me.)

Once that first moment of attack is removed, one can sustain the tone using compression and/or limiting of some kind. These work by pushing the maximum sound down, and the minimum sound up, so that you're working with a fairly constant sound level.

Chorus helps make the sound richer and thicker by adding fluctuations in pitch to copies of the original sound and adding them back in. Various pitch-adding pedals like pitch shifters and octave adders can also thicken up the sound by adding entirely new pitches.

A really long and wet delay helps blend when one ends a particular pitch/chord and starts another. If you stop playing one chord or note, the reverberation tail can still be sounding when you start the new chord or note.

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Devon, the guy in the first video you posted, Mike Sullivan, has been known to use an Akai Headrush, an Electro-Harmonix Holy Grail Reverb, Deluxe Memory Man, and POG, and a Boss DD-2 Digital Delay. Just with the EHX gear listed alone, you can get some great ambient sounds, but there are other ways of getting there. 

I suggest you go to the Electro-Harmonix website and type "effectology" into the search box; this will pull up all kinds of amazing ways to get to unusual sounds and textures using EHX gear, but one doesn't have to use EHX gear to get there. Often you can use another similar piece of gear from another manufacturer with the same functions (but a lower price and better performance!) and just use the principles and building blocks outlined to get to your goal. There are discussions in the EHX forums which have the actual effects and settings used in the Effectology videos. You can use those ideas as a jumping-off point. 

The only pieces of gear from EHX which don't yet have an equivalent from other makers are the POG/POG2/MicroPOG and HOG octave generators. I own a HOG, which has an attack slider which allows me to bring in the attack slowly. 

(Incidentally I do like EHX gear, and don't mean to disparage it, but I also don't want to add noise to my signal chain. My Chorus Factory does a fairly close emulation job of both the EHX Clone pedals and the Voodoo Labs chorus, and is quiet and cheaper besides. The HOG and POG are quiet and unique, so they make the cut.)

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Another piece of gear worth looking into, or at least listening to, is the Digitech EX-7 Expression Factory. It has a reproduction of the XP300 Space Station's Synth Swell effect, and if you're looking for just one general effect, it can do it for around $150 used. Here's the sound demos.

Lastly, even though everything else I've specifically listed is capable of playing polyphonically, there is one last piece of gear which can only affect one string at a time. Even so, the range of sounds and textures you can get out of an instrument is mindblowing. I'm sure you know about the eBow, the amazing electronic bow for guitar, but for those who don't, here's the website. Be sure to listen to all the sound demos, even the multi-tracked ones, in order to hear what you can get with it.

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If my investing the time to write all this up was helpful, I won't object to you thanking me.... *laugh* Good luck!


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## Chumple Spuzz (Jun 26, 2010)

i was just about to say the guy from russian circles uses the akai headrush, but i was beat to it
seriously though, a good looper can really propel you into doing some crazy ambient effects! i have a boss loop station(single switch), which i assume is cheaper, and its pretty easy to use, and makes some wicked awesome post-rock stuff like this.


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## Explorer (Jun 26, 2010)

Although a looper can be used to enhance the usage of ambient sounds, I didn't include the suggestion because a looper by itself won't get one to those interesting ambient sounds. 

I originally thought that loopers and delays were necessary for ambient when I first started listening to sound samples from the Loopers Delight list and other sources, but soon discovered my mistake. Although I still have my Lexicon Vortex from that period, if I don't feed an ambient sound into it, I can't get easily get it to generate ambient stuff by itself....


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## signalgrey (Jun 26, 2010)

as a post-rocker
check out EHX.com analog delays, long trail reverbs, and fuzz

also dont use a looper. use a controllable delay with sound on sound or the cathedral reverb with the infinite sustain switch.


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## yetti (Jun 27, 2010)

Explorer said:


> I suggest you go to the Electro-Harmonix website and type "effectology" into the search box; this will pull up all kinds of amazing ways to get to unusual sounds and textures using EHX gear, but one doesn't have to use EHX gear to get there. Often you can use another similar piece of gear from another manufacturer with the same functions (but a lower price and better performance!) and just use the principles and building blocks outlined to get to your goal. There are discussions in the EHX forums which have the actual effects and settings used in the Effectology videos. You can use those ideas as a jumping-off point.


 
My wallet hates you now.


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## Triple7 (Jun 27, 2010)

Throw in some chorus as well


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## evil toki (Jun 27, 2010)

Lmao I don't think the head banging in that video was really appropriate.


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## newamerikangospel (Jun 27, 2010)

In that video, it sounds like a mono delay, with a "wide" reverb (chamber-esque).

If you can sidechain and play with the effects chaining itself (the order of the effects), I have found some cool stuff with running a hall reverb almost 100% wet tone (just enough to leave a little bit of initial transient) with a modulation behind it (chorus usually) on one track, and another track with a small delay.


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## Explorer (Jun 27, 2010)

yetti said:


> My wallet hates you now.



Your wallet can probably hate me a little less in just a moment...

I went out today and checked out various pedals. I looked at quite a few, from all kinds of manufacturers, both large and boutique.

I tried a bunch of the Behringer pedals and was *astounded*. 

I had been looking into buying both a ToneCore Echo Park and Roto Machine, with one stereo base between them, for a total cost of about $100 used... and that would only allow me to use one of them at a time.

The Behringer equivalents (EM600 Echo Machine and RM600 Rotary Machine) sound EXACTLY the same, and cost $70 total for both NEW. In addition, they are full pedals, so I'd be able to use them at the same time. 

Their website has a bunch of demos on it for most of the pedals, with both clean and effected versions so you can tell what the pedal is doing. I just spent some time on it, and have been rethinking my future pedal purchases. 

Given that Behringer even has echo/delay pedals which are much like the EHX gear, but for much cheaper, it would be both really cool and really cold to make demos of the Behringer gear which followed the same signal chains as the Electro-Harmonix demos, and see how much (or how little) one would have to spend to get a particular sound. 

Fortunately for me, most of my pedals are either extremely unique, or extremely versatile for their price, and Behringer has nothing equivalent to make me regret my purchases. For those who are starting out fresh, though, they should definitely be considered. 

I'm fairly certain I could pull off the OP's quest for a total ambient pedalboard for less than $250.

Here's the Behringer website.

I couldn't find any forums or website where someone specifically locked down which Behringer pedal was equivalent to specific non-Behringer pedals. I only knew by what the people at the various stores told me, and then by trying them out myself, side by side. Maybe I'll start a topic about it....


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## All_¥our_Bass (Jun 29, 2010)

Wahs for filter sweep type stuff.


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## Despised_0515 (Jun 29, 2010)

Grab yourself a Line 6 M13 and be set for life 

but as others have said, good starting grounds are delay, reverb, volume pedal, and some other sort of modulation effect.


Start lurking Effects Bay dot com and subscribe to ProGuitarShop on youtube.

You'll dig deeper and deeper into effects, what they do, which sounds good/bad, and you'll be able to be off and running after a while. That is, for as long as your wallet permits you, hah.


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## signalgrey (Jun 29, 2010)

VicerExciser said:


> Grab yourself a Line 6 M13 and be set for life
> 
> but as others have said, good starting grounds are delay, reverb, volume pedal, and some other sort of modulation effect.
> 
> ...



i have an M13 and an Analog board, combining the two is the way to go. The Shoegaziest stuff is the Delays with the modulation functions, Memory Boy or Memory Toy do a great job.


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## All_¥our_Bass (Jun 29, 2010)

I can do some pretty etheral stuff with my BP80.


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## signalgrey (Jun 29, 2010)

its all about turning up that "mix" knob and sinking the guitar into the effects. at least thats what i love to do. or get one of those "third hand" pedals and use it to manipulate the mix knob. that can create some incredible sounds. playing guitar and having it slowly get overwhelmed with reverb or delay is a pretty unreal effect to produce


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## CynicEidolon (Jun 30, 2010)

evil toki said:


> Lmao I don't think the head banging in that video was really appropriate.


EDIT: Nevermind...

Good "ambiance" comes from dynamics and pulse... I know people don't think that ambient music or sound should have rhythm or whatever... But, there is a difference between a beat and a pulse.


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## budda (Jun 30, 2010)

a pulse is a beat 

also, your tone knob - use it.


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## CynicEidolon (Jun 30, 2010)

I disagree. A pulse is not always on beat.


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