{"id":5648,"date":"2020-01-06T12:00:36","date_gmt":"2020-01-06T17:00:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/?p=5648"},"modified":"2026-02-13T13:29:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T18:29:07","slug":"3-ways-create-soundscapes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/3-ways-create-soundscapes\/","title":{"rendered":"3 ways to create interesting soundscapes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Does your track ever feel too static or lack depth?<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Don\u2019t worry \u2014 most music producers have bumped into this problem at some point. In this blog post, we’ll explore three ways to address this issue through the use of soundscapes and textures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What are soundscapes?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

For the purposes of this tutorial, a soundscape is a sound (which can be composed of multiple layers of foley recordings, noises, and various forms of synthesis) that slowly evolves with the use of effects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is the goal of adding soundscapes?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Depending on the kind of music you make, soundscapes and textures have different levels of importance. For example, if you make ambient music, soundscapes are going to be predominately sitting at the front of the mix, where the listeners can focus their attention on the slow evolution of their sonic layers (a lot of ambient tracks are considerably longer than traditional pop arrangements).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you make other kinds of music where the focus is on other elements such as vocals in a pop record or intricate bass patches in dubstep,<\/a> soundscapes often play a much different role. Let\u2019s say you\u2019re working on the bridge of your track, where a lot of the main elements in the arrangement are removed and something new is introduced. Maybe you want to have the lead vocals at the front of the mix, with a repeating percussive loop to keep the tempo going. Adding a subtle, constantly evolving soundscape in the background is a nice way to add that extra depth to the section, while not taking the focus away from the singer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How to create soundscapes<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The bottom line is that no matter the genre, interesting soundscapes will add depth and variation to the track you\u2019re producing. Now that we\u2019ve outlined what soundscapes are and their common use cases, let\u2019s explore some techniques you can use to create them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. Add depth using time stretching<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Synth progressions are ideal elements to manipulate to achieve long soundscapes. Let\u2019s say you have a great fuzzy synth sound in your track that follows the main chord progression of the arrangement. The more fuzzy, analog-sounding, and gritty the synth is, the better it will work when you time stretch it. Here\u2019s an example of a great source to process:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

By pitching it down 12 semitones, we also make sure that the soundscape doesn\u2019t interfere with the frequencies of the original chord progression, since we want to create something that acts as a background-filling element.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s keep in mind that the goal is to create a deep, washed-out soundscape \u2014 next, we’ll have to apply a chain of effects to make it sound wide and evolving. To do this, we’ll add a simple mix of Grain Delay<\/strong>, Simple Delay<\/strong>, Reverb<\/strong>, and EQ<\/strong>. These are all stock Ableton plugins that achieve common effects that can also be found in other DAWs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"creating-soundscapes-effects-chain-01\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Grain Delay creates some granular sparkles, which add some additional movement. Inserting an additional delay after this allows us to produce even more of these sparkles that bounce around and continuously evolve our soundscape. To send the sound further back in the mix and even out the sharp accents that the Grain Delay introduced, let’s apply a wet and long reverb, dialed in until the sound is smooth and lush. To top it off, we’ll apply an EQ to remove any unwanted frequencies that might clash with the other elements present in the rest of the track. Here\u2019s how the soundscape sounds after the processing:<\/p>\n\n\n\n