Hey Guys.
I normally only deal with metal music.
Not professionally. Just for my own songs and amusement.
But a friend of mine has asked me to do a song involving metal and EDM style beats and sounds/fx.
I have not much of an idea on the EDM genre in terms of what programs/drum machines/sequencers are used.
Was hoping some of you Electronic gurus/wizards could point me in the right direction of some programs that will help me on the electronic side of things. I use Superior Drummer 3 for all the metal/rock drums, but what is good for EDM drums???
Also what is a good synth program for all that style of music??
I use Reaper 99.9% of the time. I have heard most use Ableton for that kind of thing.
Would rather not have to try and learn another DAW. I'm getting too old for learning more shit lol.
Any help/advice would be truly appreciated.
Cheers Lads :D

 

Listen to EDM artists and just learn the style. The Choice of DAw has little to do with the end product as Reaper and Ableton are fine.

 

I use mostly the same things for any genre of electronic music track though. How you apply them may change of course, but you could make a pop song on a Virus



for an AIO all-in-one workstation is easy for you (on PC) now? Falcon2, easily.

Sampler - NI kontakt, Tal Sampler, Falcon

drums - Sonic Academy Kick2
Falcon2 Drum Designer
Rob Papen Punch and Punch BD
Addictive Drums, or Superior Drummer
Battery 4
Serum

synths? same thing. Phaseplant, Serum, Vital, Omnisphere, Surge, Reaktor, Falcon, Knifonium, Arturia collection/ Analog lab, Korg M1 emulation, Kawai K1 emulation. probably leaving a few out here...but I tried not to include anything Mac-only.

 

Hi, also newcomer to electronic music and Reaper user here. I personally like to work with samples for the drums, if you like drum machines I'd go with Izotope's Breaktweaker, it's old but its full of quality samples and a big variety of EDM presets, might be just what you need, I also heard that the drum machines D16 Group make are fine, and there's also Kick2 if you want to create your own kicks, for synths theres a bunch of options, I'd look out for Vital since its free and has a bunch of cool presets (it can do almost anything you'd want in a synth). That's all I can say since I don't really have references of what you're trying to make.

Also, about DAWs, don't need to change to Live or whatever, unless you're looking for its specific DSPs and modular capacities.

 

EDM is a huge generalisation, there's house, trap, psytrance, hardstyle, trance, future bass, future rave, future bounce and thousands of variations of each of these. You should have a little idea of what style you are aiming for. Styles depend on the tempo, and idk about metal, EDM is pretty much constant tempo and 4/4 the entire song.

Check Sounds of KSHMR Vol. 2 & 3, literally every EDM producer uses it, and it does a good job of covering all the sounds you might need. If you know what subgenre you're making there might be better options. Serum, Spire, Nexus, Sylenth1, DUNE got you covered pretty much. Vital is a good free choice now, but Serum is the king now. Maybe learn some sound design if you get interested but there's no harm sticking to presets, there are tons of presets available for any subgenre you decide.

Drum machines? I never used them tbh, sample packs got pretty high quality ones, that are probably better than what I can make with my current knowledge anyways. Splice is good for samples and presets.

There are many YouTubers which teach EDM, most of them are useless. Better to watch a masterclass or tutorial by an actual producer himself.

As for effect plugins, OTT is the king now. Reverbs - I use Artsacoustic, ValhallaRoom and VintageVerb all the time. Artsacoustic is perfect for big supersaw breaks. And also, cut the low frequencies of all sounds except the sub bass and kick. The low end should be pretty much kick and a sine wave. Kickstart is a fast way to sidechain things. Use white noise to boost the high end. I use Fresh Air as well to get some nice high end.

 

Last edited: Dec 1, 2021

Thanks for all the replies guys.
Style wise is more like metal edm I guess. Huge thunderous kicks and snares (no claps)