Hi everyone, I want to know if anyone here can tell me what stuff like samples synths and processing Skrillex used on his early music like 10+ years ago? I just like that sound and style more than new stuff in that style and want to try making similar sounding songs even if only for my own amusements or for learning. I am not a total newbie but this style is new to me. I also use Ableton Live. I don't trust the Ai chat results (I tried it first) because a lot of it reads like guessing and rumors or wrong. It would be nice if someone here actually knows the truth. Thank you for helping me guys!

 

Native Instruments FM8
Native Instruments Kontakt - Drumlab
Ohm Boys - Ohmicide

I'll stop at 3 so other people can speculate too.

 

^
https://equipboard.com/pros/skrillex

 

Xlnt sound has a lot of that stuff, the pack below in particular, but a lot them really. Besides that, as others have noted FM8, Massive, etc. But that sound can be created with most wavetable synths. Even ableton's native one, "Wavetable". Vengeance sample packs as well. I saw an interview with him where when asked what the most important plugin he used was, he said FF Pro Q, and Pro L. I agree. Shaping the tonal quality of sounds in the mix, so they don't clash allows you to make things loud, which is a huge part of the sound.

There are countless YT tutorials too. Search Yaaoww bass, Growl Bass, Dubstep Growl, etc etc etc. Add skrillex in the search terms you will get ton's of results.

https://www.xlntsound.com/products/brostep-vol-1

 

Skrillex was learning from Noisia so I also suggest them and their stuff and tutorials.
He mentioned that he was using shitty speakers and boosted eq harmonics on kick and snare to get more punch on shitty speakers.
He highly compressed drum samples and layered some 909.
Also look for "Brostep" - It is Skrillex kind of Dubstep from 2010s era.

Here are nice channels with deconstructions of Skrillex tracks:
https://www.youtube.com/@cure_audio/videos
https://www.youtube.com/@OfficialAHEE/videos

Here are some tips from him:

Also look for tutorials like these:

Yeah. I miss the old Skrillex.
He is a legend. His 2010s productions was on another level!
Nothing can beat the punchiness and loudnes on his tracks. You can crank the max volume, crank gain in the player and they always sounds great, loud & clean!

One of my favourite songs from him:

 

+
dblue_stretch on a right setting

 

Wow thanks all you guys very cool! I have a lot to study now!

Interesting. I never heard of this. What does this one do special?

 

It does skrillex Massive stutters really well but it let's you make quick creative variations on different samples opposing the strictly using Massive, handy tool. Put a glitch/2 before or after and you're off to a race ;)

 

Check out XLNTSOUND on Youtube and their sample packs on the sister site. They get pretty close to the OG Skrillex sound using Serum.