- What distinguishes ambient from new age?
- Both are slow and quiet, but they aim differently: new age leans melodic and healing, with warm tonality and clear lines; ambient leans abstract and spatial, comfortable with no melody at all and even with dissonant layers. Choose new age to soothe, ambient to immerse.
- What should I watch for when generating ambient?
- Suppress the system's instinct to write a song. Prompt "no drums, no lead melody, slowly evolving pads, deep reverb" and anchor the mood with scene words — "meditation," "deep space," "underwater." Choose the longest duration available; ambient needs room to unfold.
- How loud should ambient sit as background?
- About 6–10 dB below normal background music. Ambient's dynamics are already narrow, so extra volume turns airiness into pressure. In video, aim for the threshold where attention finds it and inattention loses it — that edge is where it works best.
