Tutorial · Intermediate · 15 min
Building a soundscape
Soundscapes are about slow change: drones that drift, textures that never repeat, and long, wide spaces. This tutorial builds one from the soundscape modules.
A drone
In Modular mode, start a new project and add a Drone into the Output. Choose a chord (a fifth is open and calm; minor 7 is darker) and a root. Motion lets the tuning and brightness wander by themselves.
Slow, never-repeating modulation
Add a Filter after the drone and a Drift module. Patch Drift output 1 into the filter's Cutoff, set the filter's Mod amt to about 1.5 octaves and Drift's rate to 0.02 Hz. A full swing now takes about a minute, and it never comes round the same way twice.
Space
Add a Long reverb (in the Soundscape group) or a Shimmer after the filter. Shimmer feeds its tail back an octave up, so the sound blooms upwards like a choir of harmonics. Keep the shimmer amount under 0.7.
Weather
Add Rain and Wind modules straight into the Output (several cables can go into one input). Turn Tin roof up on the rain, or lower its density to a drizzle; give the wind more Whistle for a howling gale.
A melody that writes itself
Add a Generative module and a soft sound for it to play: Oscillator (sine) → VCA, with an Envelope (Attack 5 ms, Decay 2 s, Sustain 0). Patch Generative Notes into the oscillator's Note and the envelope's Gate. With Change at 0.15 the loop keeps most of its notes but rewrites a few every time round; Density leaves gaps.
Grains
For a texture, add a Grain cloud with a built-in sound (try Shimmer texture or Singing bowl) or one you record. Small grains with a lot of Spray smear the sound into a cloud.
Open "Nebula" ↗Arrange it
In Studio mode, tracks that make sound by themselves play while the song plays. The examples "Ambient drone", "Rain on a tin roof" and "Deep space station" are built this way, with automation lanes that change the rain or move the grains over time.
Open "Deep space station" ↗