ermina
95
i have been thinking along the same lines, that with ASMR being so popular (especially amongst kids), it might be a path of discovery towards acousmatic works.
At work when doing radio workshops with secondary/middle school pupils, we obviously talk about the means of recording / editing / reproducing sound and ASMR always comes up (some love it and others hate it but they all have been exposed).
Yet every time i go “listen” to ASMR videos, i always find that 1/ the visual component is not so optional² 2/ sounds are close-miked but very rough. There not so much subtle tactility in them; probably because of a combination of cheap microphones · no manual processing of sounds · hard limiting · aac compression. 3/ it’s very often mono dimensional and lacks any incentive to listen to it more than a few minutes.4/ also the assignation to functionality (“falling asleep”, “relaxation”) is very much (edit: i don’t know what it is but it bugs me).
Now, i won’t lie that most of times, my primary gestures in composing music¹ look like i’m trying to record an ASMR clip. But that’s only the first step of many to construct a work that makes heavy use of the tactile dimension of sound, yet has actually not much to do with ASMR videos (and does clearly not elicit the same reaction when presented to uninformed kids lol).
That probably loops back on the ambient music duality of “background” vs “attention-demanding” music.
¹. did i just surrender in the never-ending matter vs notes dialetic and admit to being called a musician ? humph.
².ok, i did actually write that before looking at the example video you shared.
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kbit
97
I’d be curious for an example of people pushing boundaries of binaural sound when it comes to asmr streamers because the majority of these videos I’ve seen are very much like the one you linked - and by that I mean steeped in strong sexual connotations with the audio being arguably secondary. This is a genuine request and not a dig, I haven’t looked deeply into this area of sound recording but I haven’t feel compelled to based on my experiences thus far.
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Funch
101
I enjoy running an effected signal in a parallel path to the dry signal.
reverb is a natural occurrence with my favorite places to play an acoustic instrument being a stairwell or an old WWII artillery bunker in the Puget Sound area.
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perhaps this thread has run its course but I’ve been thinking about this question of ambient music a lot this morning and the ‘music’ part of this equation offers me the biggest snag. others in this thread have already underscored this, so I’m merely piling on, but trimming things down to just [[ambient]] offers the most creative potential for the term. some ambient is musical, of course, but that implies certain approaches to tone, rhythm, mood, and even performative elements. I guess that’s a related but parallel conversation: what is performance? (re: John Cage)
thinking about ambient from the angle of creators doing audio/visual works, artists are always taught to capture ‘ambient room tone’ to supplement your video recordings. you learn that no space is devoid of sound. the nature of ambient, then, points to a concern for fundamental encounters with space and time (seeing that music relies on time-based media). to use the term coined by the kankyō ongaku movement, it’s ‘environmental’ in the sense that ambient allows for a re-mapping of our encounters with space/time. it could be something ‘out there’ but for me it’s more often a reconfiguration of elements of my own listening position ‘right here.’ ambient musicians, perhaps, are playing with the very tactility of sound, more so as an architect. it’s a minimal definition or even too simplistic, for sure, but it’s also fairly complex in an ephemeral way (which is why I’m fascinated by artists that try to define/operationalize ambient such as many people in this thread - thanks).
I’ve been listening to Maggi Payne as I typed my post:
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zebra
103
“All clocks, in some form or another, use the evolution of nature toward higher entropy states to quantify the passage of time”
… except musical clocks?
this post will self destruct
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abnr
105
Came across this today, seems to suit this thread:
Music Beyond Airports - appraising ambient music (Open Access ebook)
Monty Adkins, Simon Cummings, Axel Berndt, Lisa Colton, Ambrose Field, Ulf A. S. Holbrook, Justin Morey, Richard Talbot & David Toop
from the description
ambient was considered from the perspectives of aesthetic, influence, appropriation, process, strategy and activity. A detailed consideration of each of these topics could fill many volumes. With that in mind, this book does not seek to provide an in-depth analysis of each of these topics or a comprehensive history of the last 40 years of ambient music. Rather it provides a series of provocations, observations and reflections that each open up seams for further discussion.
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Steve Miller Band’s gratuitous synth intros.
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Blueboy
108
Isn’t any music played at low enough volume ambient music ? I’d go with whatever Eno has to say, also rewatching this parts of it remind me of B.o.C Tomorrow’s Harvest.
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I missed out on Marcus’ “ambient” stickers so I made one out of a bracelet I found…am I doing this right…???
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You didn’t miss out.
They’ve been restocked for a while now (but nearly sold out again)
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sorry to misrepresent, marcus, the joke doesn’t work if you have some of them left!
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Sorry to have not just let you have the joke.
It was a good one 
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I never mess around with my YT settings, but today I did and discovered something surprising: YouTube is on the ambient train now? (This may be common knowledge, I have no idea.)
P.S. Would not recommend this mode. It did not deliver any sonic pleasantries.
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Try setting the playback speed to something obnoxiously slow, that may help.
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xmacex
115
In the mode of ambient = a-generic-placeholder-and-marker-of-presence-of-music: imagine living in one of the infinitely many, parallel worlds in which it didn’t become Sade, but Roland Kayn, whose organized sounds served to mark the meaning of “you are in a cozy cafe right now”.
Live: Music For Libraries will happen February 17:
Did anyone here ever do something similar? Curious to hear how that was/felt/sounded.
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This DIY Church Radio session I participated in back in 2017 posed the OP title question:
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