Anyone who can help me out on producing EDM?

As someone who is casually playing with producing for a few years now, I'll give you one hint, HAVE FUN. The way I learned the quickest was just opening a blank file, opened a random vst and just twist those knobs and see what it did to the sound. You are going too fast, not to be harsh, but at first, you're tracks aren't going to be anywhere near the professional stuff, it will most likely be shit. You learn from creating shit, so your next one will be a little less shitty, and trust me it's a long process.

If you really want to pursue this the thing that helped me is to set a schedule to finish atleast 1 track every 2 weeks. Tutorials are great but use them to learn the basics, watching every tutorial isn't going to stick and you'll probably be in over your head. Use it for those moments when you can't realize the sound you want in your head and put it in the computer, it's excactly those moments where focus is optimal and you'll likely gain some new skills. Learning is doing. You can read tonnes and study the shit out of it, but in the end, if you haven't made any hours in your DAW your not going anywhere.
 
As someone who is casually playing with producing for a few years now, I'll give you one hint, HAVE FUN. The way I learned the quickest was just opening a blank file, opened a random vst and just twist those knobs and see what it did to the sound. You are going too fast, not to be harsh, but at first, you're tracks aren't going to be anywhere near the professional stuff, it will most likely be shit. You learn from creating shit, so your next one will be a little less shitty, and trust me it's a long process.

If you really want to pursue this the thing that helped me is to set a schedule to finish atleast 1 track every 2 weeks. Tutorials are great but use them to learn the basics, watching every tutorial isn't going to stick and you'll probably be in over your head. Use it for those moments when you can't realize the sound you want in your head and put it in the computer, it's excactly those moments where focus is optimal and you'll likely gain some new skills. Learning is doing. You can read tonnes and study the shit out of it, but in the end, if you haven't made any hours in your DAW your not going anywhere.

Excellent advice.

I've been trying to decide what kind of sound I wanna go for, but then I realized why limit myself to a particular genre? I'd love to create Hardstyle, House, Electro and maybe some Psytrance. I love DnB and Dubstep and would love to make some of that too, but those first three genres are my favorites.

So far all I've been messing with are samples and sound packs I've downloaded. I've yet to create my own sound from Abletons built in effects and what not. I imagine it's a long process. For now I'm just gonna stick to editing samples and getting the basics of beat making down first. I already got the layout figured out nicely and have it organized for my work flow, now it's just time to really dive in and experiment. I get distracted easily though, it's hard for me to stay focused for too long, though I never stay away from it for long. It's a new love I've gained, sort of like when I first started playing bass and guitar, I just stuck to it and glued myself to it and taught myself so much.
 
I'd be glad to help you out if you have any specific questions. I've been producing for like 4 or 5 years, produce all different genres.

my advice is decide what genre you want to make, look up the right tempo, punch that into your DAW (logic, fl studio, ableton live, garageband, reason), get yourself some drum hit samples (stay away from loops unless you are chopping them up). Arrange a drum beat, it's good to add random little unique samples into the beat to fill it out, you don't want to do too much since like the dude above me said less is more.

look up some chords, decide what key you want to use. the key is usually the root note or the first note of the second bar or the 5th-9th quarter note. come up with a simple 4 note 4 bar melodie such as C-C-C-C-G-G-G-G-D-D-D-D-A-A-A-A throughout 8 bars. experiment with putting the notes on the offbeat of the kick drum, you want the bassline to fill out the beat. the key for that bassline in that example would be gM. your going to need to learn at least a little bit about music theory to do this, you can play it by ear but the simple fact is theory exists for a reason and things that are theoretically correct tend to sound better. if you play 3 notes and the 4th note sounds bad, it's out of key, make a note not to play that note again in that song. once you have a 4 note bassline it's easy to make synths and piano lines and all that based on that bass line.

decide if you want a happy sound or sad sound. happy is major, and what makes it major is whats called a major third. triad chords play a role here, try making a simple triad chord by playing a C, an E, and a G. this is a C major chord, same goes for other root notes. you can mix it up and play E, G, and then a C in the next octave. Anyways so with the example of a cmajor chord the C is the root note, the G is what's called a 5th, and it's 7 half steps higher than the root note. Now this is where the major and minor come in, the note in the middle is called a third, a major third or a minor third. this you kind of have to play by ear, because different notes the third is a different number of half steps. if you want to make that chord a minor chord, you simply drop the third down a half step. for example instead of C, E, G it would be C, Dsharp, G. the same goes for when you are playing the black notes.

now that will get you on your way to making nice chords, when using pads I recommend always using chords, they sound more full and just all around better sounding. once you have some chords figured out you are well on your way to making melodies. a melody can be made simply by alternating between notes in a chord, but not playing them at the same time. since most melodies have more than 3 notes in them you can play those 3 notes and then see what doesn't sound bad when you play it after them. you can also look up the scale for the particular key you are using, and alternate between those notes. in general you want the first note to be the same after 8 bars, that creates a satisfying sound because peoples brain wants the melody to return back to where it started. think of a melody as a journey through the different tones and then returning home.

drums are pretty self explanatory since you can basically duplicate the programming of your favorite songs and then switch it up to sound how you want it. in general with the exception of breakcore, dance music is 4/4. a variation you often find in dubstep and hardstyle is called the shuffle or triplets, a variation of the tuplet. this is still 4/4 but the difference is you divide your quarter notes (usually, you can stretch em out as long as you want) into 3 notes instead of 4. so it's One two three One two three instead of One two three four etc. a shuffle is when you take out the middle note so it's kick____kicksnare. listen to some dubstep you'll see what I'm talking about. this rhythm is nice to use because it's unique and fun to dance to, but keep in mind with certain genres such as drum and bass and hardcore (uk) it's more of a novelty than anything else. in most music triplets are used scarcely to create variation.

anyways, this should help unless you already play instruments and know all this, in which case I'l feel like an idiot. if you want to check out my music for examples feel free to let me know if you have any specific questions on how I made any sounds. I reccomend getting the DMS electro house sample pack, the drum samples are versatile and via layering and time stretching you can turn them into any genre you want. here's my soundcloud in case you want to see what kind of music I make and hit me up with any questions http://soundcloud.com/zale

most important thing, get creative.
 
i would cream my panties if i could play some old analog synths; i spent 2 hours at the music store playing moogs, korg, rolands and others and wow technology has progressed. Still want that old analog sound though, but sooo much money.
right now, there a a lot of new desktop-sized analog synths on the market which all have a great sound. of course they will not replace a Moog or a Jupiter but they have a great sound on their own. i ordered a Doepfer Dark Energy II and wait for it to come (will only be in december though, cannot wait :D). other good products are from MFB or Vermona.

for the small budget you can get lots of bang! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lfqho7eSVyA
 
anyways, this should help unless you already play instruments and know all this, in which case I'l feel like an idiot. if you want to check out my music for examples feel free to let me know if you have any specific questions on how I made any sounds. I reccomend getting the DMS electro house sample pack, the drum samples are versatile and via layering and time stretching you can turn them into any genre you want. here's my soundcloud in case you want to see what kind of music I make and hit me up with any questions http://soundcloud.com/zale

lol! Yeah, sorry dude...I already play guitar and bass for a few years now for fun, I taught myself music theory and know everything you explained. For what it's worth I enjoyed your interpretation of it :D

I'll definitely check out your soundcloud too.
 
right now, there a a lot of new desktop-sized analog synths on the market which all have a great sound. of course they will not replace a Moog or a Jupiter but they have a great sound on their own. i ordered a Doepfer Dark Energy II and wait for it to come (will only be in december though, cannot wait :D). other good products are from MFB or Vermona.

for the small budget you can get lots of bang! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lfqho7eSVyA

yeah i've seen those, they aren't bad but the sound of an old analogue synth cannot be beat. it's so warm and beautiful. I will be getting a jupiter one day.
 
lol! Yeah, sorry dude...I already play guitar and bass for a few years now for fun, I taught myself music theory and know everything you explained. For what it's worth I enjoyed your interpretation of it :D

I'll definitely check out your soundcloud too.

I had a feeling that would be the case after writing that. I seriously wouldn't buy a hardware synth right now. I mean if you really want one and have the money go for it, but at this stage you don't know how to synthesize sounds on a software synth let alone a hardware one. Have you decided what DAW to use? that is a major first step, I really like logic studio, I'm kind of biased because it's what I use but it makes amazing sound and if you have a mac it's the "logical" choice. Then there is Ableton live which I've never used but have heard good things about. doesn't really matter what you use, the difference is subtle, but I can definitely tell by ear (depending on the genre) whether the artist used logic or ableton. I wouldn't go with any other DAW unless you have a chance to try them and it really speaks to you if you know what I'm saying. A big part of learning synthesis these days is watching tutorials online so you can learn the ins and outs of your VST of choice. You want software that other people are using if you plan on learning via tutorials.

as far as VST's go I use Massive and Sylenth for the majority of my sounds. They are both incredible synths, and very intuitive. I picked both of them up as a torrent but I would definitely pay money for them if I had to. Have you decided what genre you want to write? or at least what tempo? When I started producing I started doing hardstyle because that was what I listened to and was the most amazed by the different sounds used. when you produce music a track becomes more than just a track, it becomes a puzzle. I can't listen to a song without dissecting the production, and I love it. I guess when choosing a genre to start with as a beginner you want one that is relatively straightforward, something that uses sounds and techniques that can be crossed over to other genres (dnb/dubstep, hardstyle/hardcore, house/electro, moombahton/dubstep, house/trance etc) that way as you learn you can cleverly take little bits you use in one genre and throw them into another. This is becoming really common these days as the genres are starting to blend together. Don't get locked into one genre, that will end up being a curse in my opinion. you listen to producers who make house music and although they are good you listen to their tracks and wonder if they can even competently make something different. For example Wolfgang Gartner, awesome electrohouse producer, world famous, but he's developed such a distinct style that he would likely be a fish out of water if he tried to make some dirty dnb. Variety is the name of the game, it comes down to curiosity. A good producer will want to try something that he has no idea how to do, because he will enjoy the process just as much as a dancer will enjoy the end result in the club. Produce music that you truly enjoy, don't produce what people want to hear. I know it sounds cliche, and it's easy to start writing music that will get the most plays simply because you want your name out there, but are you producing for you or for other people? if you want to make a career out of it then you might want to write what sells, but even that takes a lot of the fun out of it.

so what genre do you want to write? a lot of this is attempting to duplicate the sound of others, which some people will tell you isn't true. the point is making that sound your own. music and art is a progression that is built on the work of others, that's simply how it is. I like to put a filthy hoover sound in some of my productions, regardless of genre, because it gives an oldschool warehouse sound to it. I'm not going to completely avoid using hoovers simply because it's a sound that already exists, I'm going to learn how to make one via being taught by others, and then tweak it until it sounds the way I want it to sound. Don't try to be too unique unless you are trying to make idm or something like that. I guess the point is you want your music to be identifiable as being a part of a specific genre or movement, but unique enough to set it apart from others. This is all my opinion, but I've been doing this for years, through the ups and the downs of addiction and all that, and its something I've stuck with since i started and feel extremely passionate about. You want to be constantly improving, when I look at a song I wrote 3 months ago all I think about is how I could improve it, this is key.

so if you figure that stuff out and end up picking up massive I have a lot of presets I wouldn't mind sharing with a new producer. When you get a preset from someone else you should try looking at every single automation and altering it to see how it changes the sound. every knob that can be turned you should try turning and odds are you will be able to make that preset sound better than it did when you got it, and learn enough from tweaking it that you will be able to make your own.

once you have instruments the effects panel is very important. use of delay and reverb can make or break a track. I like to put at least a little bit of reverb on every instrument (besides the kick drum and most basses (usually sub bass). every effect in the effect strip has numerous knobs and dials, mess with them. a cool trick to make a nice steel spring raggae sounding snare is to add a fat reverb effect on it, and take the diffusion down really far, this will give it the 32nd note echo sound you hear in raggae sounds. if you make dubstep the basses are all about timbre and automation. using a variety of waveforms and automating the WT position along with the cutoff will give it a good wobble sound. a simple yet effective technique is to put a bitcrusher over a relatively midrange dominant bass with automation to give it the yuy sound you hear a lot today. hope this helped
 
Down508, it was great reading your response. As I mentioned before, I already purchased myself a midi controller, an Akai MPK Mini to be exactly. It's absolutely perfect, compact and has some great little features on it I really enjoy. I don't know how it compares to other synths of more quality, but this one does the job just perfectly. All I wanted was something small and portable I could take with me most anywhere and use with my PC laptop.

As for the DAW, I use to mess around with FL Studio but switched to Ableton Live 8 when I saw my friend using it. I've been messing around with it for about 2 weeks and am really enjoying it. So far I've got ReFx Nexus 2.2 and NI Massive. I gotta get some more plug-in's but for now I really wanna get more familiar with Ableton's built in effects and how to make my own sounds from scratch rather than relying on samples and sound packs.
 
yeah i hear you definitely don't rely on samples and sound packs, but with things like drums samples play a big role and are used by the vast majority of big producers, like I said the key is using them more as a means than an end. I would get some basic drum samples (not effected, resampled, eq'd and pre compressed samples, very simple ones) and layer and eq the shit out of them. if you plan on learning to synth all your drums then by all means do that, but at some point your going to want to learn sample manipulation. that way you can learn how to use abletons effects. the general consensus seems to be samples are ok as long as you make them your own. there's certain samples that have shaped dance music throughout the years such as the amen break or funky drummer, and if you don't want to use the entire sample you will be amazed what cutting out just the snare and layering it over your own will do. the funny thing is some people feel bad about borrowing a kick from another persons track, but chances are that kick was in part borrowed from another track and combined with multiple other kicks, and so on. it's almost like each song has little unrecognizable pieces of dance music history in them. but definitely don't use a sample if at the end of the day it sounds like it did when you loaded it.

for plug-ins I may be a bit biased but I learned a lot by disecting presets. there were parts of the vst i had no idea how to use until I saw how other people use them. I wouldn't use someone elses preset in my own track but I would take note of how they manipulated the sounds and then use that to make my own sounds that fit my particular song. it sounds like you want to learn everything you can and not take any short cuts, which I respect. I hope you stick with this and make some banging tunes. any idea what kind of music you want to write.
 
i would definitely get the gold baby samples (drums) and learn to modify tweak them, stack them for different sounds. These things are untouched so you have to add everything to them to get that punch sound. There are the vengeance samples that are already modified, so great for a new lazy user but not for a real musician, but they are okay to start out with as they make it easy.

for vsts, just get the arturia synths, fuck native instruments, they are decent but way overpriced and not near the quality of the arturia synths. Plus with a midi keyboard you won't believe the possible sounds you can make from a single patch.

music theory isn't that important at the beginning, just use all the white keys, play with the black keys for darker tones and work things out by ear. Most of all just have fun or you'll lose motivation.
 
I agree with the above poster suggesting a newbie to buy a load of hardware is too soon.

I havent heard much mentioned here about drums.

Plugin I would rate above anything else for your kick is Bassism.

For compression I like the sound on the Oxford Compressor.

Ive also heard little mentioned about soundcard and monitors this makes a massive difference in how your plugins will actually sound.

For Reverb I have two favourites Virsyn Reflect is one.

For Sound Card I would recomend apogee or RME. You can get some quite cheap second hand RME cards off ebay.

All the M-Audio stuff etc I would steer well clear of.

For monitors I would recommend the Yamaha NS10 copies by studiospares SN10

http://www.studiospares.com/studio-monitors/studiospares-classic-sn10/invt/248000/
 
Last edited:
yeah i hear you definitely don't rely on samples and sound packs, but with things like drums samples play a big role and are used by the vast majority of big producers, like I said the key is using them more as a means than an end. I would get some basic drum samples (not effected, resampled, eq'd and pre compressed samples, very simple ones) and layer and eq the shit out of them. if you plan on learning to synth all your drums then by all means do that, but at some point your going to want to learn sample manipulation. that way you can learn how to use abletons effects. the general consensus seems to be samples are ok as long as you make them your own. there's certain samples that have shaped dance music throughout the years such as the amen break or funky drummer, and if you don't want to use the entire sample you will be amazed what cutting out just the snare and layering it over your own will do. the funny thing is some people feel bad about borrowing a kick from another persons track, but chances are that kick was in part borrowed from another track and combined with multiple other kicks, and so on. it's almost like each song has little unrecognizable pieces of dance music history in them. but definitely don't use a sample if at the end of the day it sounds like it did when you loaded it.

for plug-ins I may be a bit biased but I learned a lot by disecting presets. there were parts of the vst i had no idea how to use until I saw how other people use them. I wouldn't use someone elses preset in my own track but I would take note of how they manipulated the sounds and then use that to make my own sounds that fit my particular song. it sounds like you want to learn everything you can and not take any short cuts, which I respect. I hope you stick with this and make some banging tunes. any idea what kind of music you want to write.

Thanks! Yeah, I want to learn everything from the ground up, no short cuts. It's like I'm learning a new instrument, it's important for me to know during the learning process that I am learning all the foundational techniques and abilities before trying to tackle the more advanced techniques.

As for the kind of music I want to write, it's hard to really say. My love for EDM is endless, I have so many influences. I got into electronic music through genre's such as Trance and Hardstyle, however the more I dive into the electronic sound of music the more I come to appreciate genre's such as Glitch Hop, Dubstep and other Electronic type music which is more beat oriented as oppose to melody oriented. I love everything, from Hardstyle to Drum and Bass, Dubstep to Trance, House music to Ambient, Electro to Psytrance. I think at the end of the day, I've love to create a type of music which emulates a trance like state, while being groovy and more syncopated as oppose to regular trance, while still imposing that trance state we all love.

I really love the hard heavy sounds of Hardstyle, and the syncopated low-end wobbles of dubstep. That with a mixture of psychedelic sound scapes and various other influences all lends itself to create what I would imagine to be a very interesting blend of genre's.
 

lol i mean if you're starting out with no music theory or idea how to play a synth. You stay in C major and can slowly adapt to other scales by integrating the black keys in. It's not ideal but will help someone quickly to play melodies. I've taken a few advanced jazz theory courses in school so have my music theory down well enough but this is the approach i first made when learning synthesizers with no knowledge of reading music or even a core understanding of music theory.
 
Any old tit can mix (whether they can actually mix is a different matter.)

If you actually want to *make music*, get a full size midi keyboard (they really aren't that expensive - I have an old Casio LKx which cost me like £40) & learn Ableton/Cubase/Renoise.

And a bit of music theory, particularly chord structure (intervals), chord types (major/minor/diminished/augmented/suspended etc) and rhythm/time signatures (particularly "four to the floor").

It's bloody difficult to do right without some musical background, but as with any musical discipline practise makes perfect.

GL!
 
Study dat bass drum! Really study dat bass drum. Get involved in eq and compression and layering and experimenting til you vomit your solar plexus!
Then begin!
 
Top