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How Advances in Guitar Effects Contributed to New Ambient Guitar Sounds
The world of ambient guitar music has evolved dramatically over the past few decades. While the hypnotic drones and textures of ambient guitar have always produced enveloping soundscapes, the arrival of new effects pedals and digital technologies has opened up bold new possibilities for guitarists to explore. In this article, we’ll look at the progression of guitar effects through history and how modern innovations have shaped the ambient guitar sounds of today.
What is Ambient Guitar?
Ambient guitar music aims to create atmospheric, lush, and meditative textures using the guitar. It rose to prominence in the 1970s with the dawn of new age and electronic music, pioneered by innovative artists like Brian Eno and Robert Fripp.
Ambient guitar moves away from traditional melodies, riffs, and chord progressions. Instead, it utilizes effects like reverb, delay, chorus, looping, and reverse playback to construct immersive layers of sound that evolve subtly over time. The focus is on crafting expansive sonic environments rather than catchy tunes or guitar virtuosity.
Effects pedals and digital audio workstations enable ambient guitarists to build intricate soundscapes unattainable with a naked electric guitar. When used creatively, effects become compositional tools to summon amorphous, otherworldly textures from the instrument. The extensive manipulation involved essentially transforms the guitar into a sound generator or synth pad.
The Early Days of Guitar Effects
The journey of effects has been intertwined with the evolution of the electric guitar itself. Many of the effects we recognize today emerged in the 1940s and 50s alongside pioneers like Les Paul and Chet Atkins. However, early guitar effects units were bulky and impractical, forcing guitarists to largely rely on the natural tone of their amps.
Primitive units like the DeArmond 601 Tremolo Control and the Fender EchoSonic amp allowed guitarists to access crude delay and reverb effects. Tape echo units like the Echoplex and the Watkins Copicat opened the doors to dub-style delay effects. However, the early effects came with limitations in sound quality and ease of use. The technology had much room for improvement in the decades to come.
Advancements in Guitar Effects Technology
The late 60s and 70s brought a renaissance in guitar effects technology. The advent of transistors and integrated circuits led to effects units becoming more compact, versatile, and affordable. This allowed guitarists to stack multiple effects pedals together to radically transform their tone.
Brands like Electro-Harmonix and MXR introduced landmark effects pedals like the Big Muff, Phase 90, and Dyna Comp compressor. Japanese brands like Boss and Ibanez quickly joined the fray, bringing improved reliability and even more diverse effects. soon, guitarists had easy access to sounds like phasing, flanging, chorus, pitch-shifting, and rhythmic filtering.
Another key innovation was rackmount units. Manufacturers like Eventide brought studio-quality effects like harmonizers and delays to stage rigs. Advanced digital rack units allowed for presets, meaning guitarists could recreate complex effects chains instantly during live playing.
Digital Music Technology Opens New Creative Doors
The 90s saw guitarists integrating their rigs with computers through MIDI, USB interfaces, and DAW software. Revolutionary sampling programs like Akai’s MPC series allowed guitarists to mangle and manipulate samples in exciting new ways.
Multieffects units like the Line 6 POD provided affordable digital modeling of amps, cabs, and effects. Suddenly guitarists could emulate lush studio tones in a portable unit, without cumbersome amp stacks. Dedicated looping pedals like the Boss RC-20XL also enabled guitarists to spontaneously compose with layered textures.
With the power of DAWs, guitarists could also explore “non-traditional” effects like spectral processing, convolution, or granular effects by running their guitars through plugins. This new freedom catalyzed creativity and unconventional sound design.
Key Effects for Ambient Guitar Textures
While countless effects have entered the guitarist’s toolkit over the decades, a few remain indispensable for crafting ambient soundscapes:
Delay
Echoes and delays are vital for giving depth and space to ambient guitar tones. Analog and digital delays allow guitarists to generate hypnotic trails, drones, and repetitions. Delays form the backdrop for ambient playing, adding a sense of infinity to the notes.
Creative delay usage with long feedback and trails essentially turns the guitar into a source of evolving, self-generating ambience. Delay pedals like the Strymon TimeLine and Boss DD-200 provide extensive options for crafting ambient delays.
Reverb
Reverb is just as integral as delay for 3D, enveloping ambience. Long, lush reverbs transform sterile guitar tones into rich, living spaces.
Types like hall and plate suit ambient playing, while shimmer reverb introduces an ethereal tonality. Pedals like the Meris Mercury7 or Empress Reverb offer deep editing for crafting original ambiences. DAW plugins like ValhallaVintageVerb greatly expand the range of available reverbs.
Modulation Effects
Chorus, flanging, phasing, and tremolo infuse ambient guitar with liquidity, animation, and motion. Used subtly, modulation provides a sense of energy and instability, ensuring tones don’t become static.
The Boss CE-2W nails warm analog chorus, while pedals like the Red Panda Tensor allow for wild pitches shifts and glitch-like effects. Guitarists also use modulation creatively, like using a phaser before dirt for smeared, synth-like distortion.
Looper Pedals
Loopers allow ambient guitarists to spontaneously compose with layered textures. Guitarists can build evolving beds of drones, motifs, and ambiences.
By recording loops in multiple passes, lush collages emerge organically from the guitar. The popular Boss RC-300 loop station provides 3 hours of stereo recording time for extended live performances.
Playing Techniques for Ambient Guitarists
While effects pedals provide the colors on the palette, guitarists still need the right techniques to create poignant ambient art. Here are some tips:
Strumming patterns: Avoid strumming chords conventionally. Use slow, repetitive patterns to let notes ring out and bloom. Strumming loosely near the neck brings a warm, mellow tonality.
Use a slide: Adding a slide creates a vocal, sustained quality and smooth transitions between notes. Experiment with different slide materials like glass, steel, or ceramic.
Open tunings: Alternative tunings like open E or open G facilitate building rich drones and consonant ambiences with fewer notes.
Volume swells: Slowly fading notes in and out with the volume knob adds expressiveness and atmosphere. Combine with a delay for intriguing textures.
Play harmonics: Pinch harmonics, natural harmonics, and eBow playing introduce glassy, crystalline textures.
Downtuned guitars: Tuning 1-2 steps below standard tuning brings warmth and emphasis on overtones. Lower tunings enhance resonance and open up the tonal palette.
The Symbiosis of Ambient Guitar and Effects
Over decades of technological progress, guitarists now possess a vast array of effects to transform their instrument’s voice. The evolution of delay and reverb pedals enabled guitarists to move from vintage surf rock ambiences to rich, experimental sound designs.
Ambient guitar music both drove effects innovation while benefiting immensely from it. The atmospheric, layered textures that define ambient guitar creativity would never have emerged without effects advancing in tandem. Even with a basic delay and reverb, guitarists now have the tools to sculpt expansive sonic vistas.
Yet technology alone isn’t enough – it simply expands the artist’s potential. The onus still lies on guitarists to develop their technique and learn to use effects as sensitive instruments themselves. Those willing to experiment and milk their gear for inspiration will discover new auditory worlds.
So plug into that glittering pedalboard, and see where your ambient guitar vision takes you today! The only limitations are your imagination and skill.
