do you ever run it through an amp and mic it?

I was reading this article, Michael Tretow describing his recording techniques with Abba. it's here: http://web.archive.org/web/200…studio.htm

I was intrigued that for the instrumental Arrival, he miked a Moog's amp for ambient sound.

"On one song (Arrival) the Moog was picked up by two ambience mics only. To get a 'natural' sound, as if it were a bunch of real instruments playing out in the studio, I moved the amp in the room for every overdub we made, and recorded each harmony in stereo on two tracks. If you listen to the record it's very hard to tell what instrument it is; it sounds like all-metal bagpipes - or something."

I love the idea of ambiguous-sounding instruments - that the listener might not realize what exact instrument is being played, or is not sure whether it's acoustic or electronic, so now I want to try this.

I like to put some tracks low in the mix, so that the listener won't consciously percieve them, but they still add to the overall effect. Also I will use patches other than bass for bass sounds, etc.

Any thoughts?

Not acoustic, but you can run synths through guitar pedals, the ones that do cab and amp emulations

I remember doing this ages ago when I was working on The Climb in 1983. I had the advantage then of working at a recording studio so sent the humble TR606 through the PA system and miked up the room and also sent my lead line through a guitar cab situated at the top of a concrete stairwell. It certainly helped to beef up the sound.

Yes, moving air with a speaker sounds great. You can get a lot of different colors.