Interested in electronic music production but don’t know your plugins from your DAWs? Learn more about electronic music and how it’s made in this beginner’s guide.
At dBs Institute, our 25-year-long story has been fuelled by helping creatives, like budding electronic music producers, follow their dreams and start careers in the creative industries. For producers, we do that through our music production courses; like BA (Hons) Electronic Music Production and BA (Hons) Music Production & Sound Engineering.
From Anaïs Jan, a dBs alumni who is now part of the Hospital Records roster and has toured the world as a drum and bass DJ, to Tom Westy, a house producer who is signed to Sony Music’s Blue Future Music Publishing, we give the tools and knowledge to our students that allow them to thrive in the industry.
These student stories have been replicated across our Bristol, Manchester and Plymouth campuses for decades. You can watch some of them here:
If you want to learn how to produce electronic dance music and become a music industry professional, studying one of our diploma, undergraduate or postgraduate courses can get you there. To get you started, explore the basics of music production software and hardware and how different styles of electronic music are produced here.
Contents
- A brief history of electronic music
- How electronic dance music is made
- The electronic musical instruments, hardware & software you'll need
- Electronic music processes and workflows
- Want to take your skills further? Study an electronic music production degree course
1. A brief history of electronic music
Electronic music has a long and rich history; one that’s intertwined with technological development and the dawning of the modern ‘Machine Age’. Some suggest electronic music started in the 18th century with a Czech monk’s mad-cap invention. However, the commonly agreed start of early electronic music is usually twinned with the introductions of the Telharmonium, Ondes Martenot, Trautonium and Theremin instruments during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
During the 1950s and 60s, with the development of synthesisers like the RCA Mark II Sound Synthesiser and movements like Musique concrète, electronic music became something musicians and inventors began to pursue with greater enthusiasm.
In 1963, Delia Derbyshire completed an electronic arrangement of the Doctor Who theme, which became the first electronic music signature tune for television. Daphne Oram, a predecessor and colleague of Delia Derbyshire, was another pioneering electronic music composer who invented Oramics; a sound synthesis process which works by drawing waveforms on glass and film strips. In 1967, The Doors became the first band to use the Moog synthesiser on their album and song Strange Days.
Over these and following decades, movements like Krautrock, artists like Brian Eno and new electronic music production techniques pioneered by dub artists like King Tubby and hip hop artists like DJ Kool Herc, paved the way for a plethora of genres all under the umbrella of ‘Electronic Music’. This meta genre has been a huge force in the music industry since the 1970s and 80s; so much so that music created using digital production processes and electronic music instruments dominate the industry.
2. How electronic dance music is made
Modern electronic dance music is made through a combination of hardware and software and analogue and digital processes that combine in different ways depending on; genre, personal taste and skill.
Almost all music, especially electronic music, will involve digital processing at some stage during the production workflow; typically using a Digital Audio Workstation (DAW), softsynth or other music production software.
Depending on the style of music, different processes and workflows will apply. For example, hip-hop producers typically use samples, resampling and looping workflows to produce their art. Techno producers, on the other hand, lean more on sound design and synthesis to shape and manipulate waveforms to create their sounds.
The techniques typically used in electronic music production evolve; however, some tools and processes remain consistent across genres and eras, which we will explore below.
3. The electronic musical instruments, hardware & software you'll need
Electronic musical instruments
Electronic musical instruments are a cornerstone of electronic music and its development. The development of electronic musical instruments like the synthesiser allowed electronic music to blossom.
Whether producers use hardware electronic musical instruments, like the modern synth icon Moog Subsequent 37 (which dBs’ Dom Kane created factory presets for), or software synthesisers like Serum, most traditional electronic music will use an electronic instrument at some stage.
Other examples of electronic musical instruments producers regularly use include:
- Drum machines
- Samplers
- MIDI controllers
- Modular synth setups
Learn more about the world-class modular synth expertise we have at our Plymouth campus here:
Electronic music production software and hardware
As home computers became more prominent during the late 90s and early 00s, professional studios shifted towards digital production workflows with DAWs. With that technological development, it became possible to produce music at home, democratising the music-making process and leading to a surge in electronic music production. This process paved the way for the music industry as we know it today. Here, we look at the music production software that makes modern electronic music possible.
Digital Audio Workstations (DAWs)
As discussed in our previous guide to music production, Digital Audio Workstations are “software that allows you to record, edit, sample, produce and manipulate sound and music.”
These programmes revolutionised music production and became the gold standard for producers everywhere. In the 21st century, every professional and home studio in the world has a DAW of some description installed on their computer.
The main DAWs electronic music producers use include:
Check out this great guest lecture from our friend and Ableton Certified Trainer ELPHNT, where he gives a great guide to Ableton Live 12 and how to make the most of it:
Softsynths
Software synthesisers, or softsynths as they’re colloquially called, are programmes that replicate the function of hardware synthesisers digitally or ‘in the box’.
Serum, Vital and Phase Plant are some of the most popular softsynths on the market and allow electronic music producers to synthesise sounds without paying for costly analogue gear. Although some producers prefer to use hardware equipment, softsynths allow beginners to explore typical synthesis processes and how those processes interface with other stages of electronic music production.
In his series on electronic music sound design using Phase Plant, dBs tutor and producer DC Breaks explores how to design a Reese Bass using only sine waves. Check it out here:
MIDI Keyboards
Although DAWs, softsynths and other music production software allow you to create music using one machine, producing with a computer’s native controls can be challenging and fiddly.
MIDI keywords are small pieces of music production technology that replicate keyboards and create much easier production workflows. Producers can patch certain controls in a DAW to buttons, sliders and keys on a MIDI keyboard to simplify the production process and make it more tactile.
Plugins
A ‘plugin’ is software that integrates, or ‘plugs in’, to a DAW to provide new functionality.
Producers can purchase plugins which compress, equalise, reverberate or distort sound; or act as virtual instruments that are not natively available on the DAW they use.
Some of the most popular plugins for music producers include:
4. Electronic music production processes and workflows
Electronic music is an umbrella term that encompasses several genres and styles. Like ‘guitar music’ or ‘classical music’, ‘electronic music’ isn’t a catch-all term. Due to the size and scope of electronic music, there isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach to producing it; depending on the type of music a producer is making, the workflow and process will also change.
For example, some producers make their sounds separately and arrange them into a track afterwards, while others create their sounds during the arrangement process. The workflow employed is a question of taste, tradition and technology.
To expand on an earlier example and discuss how tradition and genre impact workflow, producing hip-hop music, traditionally using samples, will differ from how techno producers make their music.
Sample-based production
Sampling involves extracting audio from another source. For example, a bass line or drum break, like the Amen Break, can be sampled from another track and repurposed in a new context.
We tried to recreate the original Amen Break with legendary session drummer Clive Deamer. Check it out here:
Some producers sample entire verses or choruses for reuse in their tracks. Others might take a snare drum or a kick. Sampling has progressed from a method of pulling singular pieces of audio from tracks to be reused, as The Sugarhill Gang did with Chic’s ‘Good Times’ for ‘Rapper’s Delight’, to an art form that involves taking snippets from several sources and reworking them into completely new shapes and songs.
This second method of sampling was pioneered by producers in the latter half of the ‘Golden Age’ of hip hop in the mid-90s but popularised in the modern age by producers like Kanye West.
One of the best examples is in West’s ‘Power’, where he sampled vocals from Afromerica by Continent Number 6, a drum break from ‘It’s Your Thing’ by Cold Grits and another line of vocals from ‘21st Century Schizoid Man’ by King Crimson.
You can see how samples including these have been used throughout hip-hop’s history here:
This form of ‘sample-based’ production requires a completely different workflow from other forms of electronic music production that lean more towards sound design, which we will cover later.
Sample-based production workflows require meticulous cutting, manipulation and reworking of samples into new audio. To make sampled sounds feel new, they can be pitch-shifted, reversed, cut with new original sounds, layered with new samples or resampled.
Although sample-based producers do not need to write and perform most of the sounds that make up their tracks, they need vast reserves of musical knowledge to make the samples feel natural and understand how they work with other musical elements.
Synthesis and sound design
Synthesis and sound design involve generating and manipulating waveforms like sine or saw waves. Producers who lean heavily on synthesis and sound design in their tracks will use completely different processes and workflows than ‘sample-based’ producers.
This workflow is generally preferred by producers making electronic dance music like techno and trance. Using synthesisers and other electronic music instruments, trance and techno music producers create the component sounds, like the kick, bass, sub bass and lead, and shape them using sound design processes.
Sampling is much less prevalent in the production of these styles of music; therefore, the workflow is different. In these workflows, producers meticulously shape, stretch and manipulate original sounds, or sounds from stock instruments, and then arrange them into a tune, rather than pulling sounds from pre-existing sources.
Working ‘In the box’ vs hardware-based electronic music production
Whether a producer works ‘In the box’ - i.e. in a laptop or computer by using software - or with hardware is generally a question of taste and means.
Some producers prefer a tactile, performative way of producing music. These producers often choose to work with hardware equipment, record that work and pull it into a DAW for arranging and composing on a computer. However, other producers prefer to work all in one space; producing music solely ‘in the box’ using VSTs, plugins and DAWs rather than hardware synths, sequencers and drum machines.
Whether producers work ‘in the box’ or using hardware is also a question of means. Hardware is much more expensive than software, so it is only available to people who can afford it.
The accessibility of software and the inaccessibility of expensive hardware have influenced how genres have formed, too. Take grime; a sub-genre of rap that came to prominence in the early-mid-noughties in East London. When they were coming up, the main protagonists of that style of music were from disadvantaged areas of London like Bow. This led to some creative music production techniques on new types of free or cheaply available software that defined the sound and culture of grime. Much like punk in the 70s, grime was a form of music that used what was available and spun it into an engaging art form.
The tools available to musicians have fundamentally impacted how electronic music is created; and the outcomes of those workflows and processes. How genre, production process and production tools intersect can have dramatically different effects.
6. Why you should study an electronic music production degree course at dBs
At dBs Institute, our expert tutors help students understand the different tools, workflows and processes involved in electronic music production. Studying an electronic music production degree with us will allow you to dive into your passion, learn from industry experts and start your journey towards a career as a studio producer, DJ, label boss or the many other career routes in the industry.
“My experience on the BA (Hons) Electronic Music Production degree was amazing,” says dBs graduate Jodie, “I learnt so much and I was surrounded by creative people all of the time. It was really, really good.”
Find out what Jodie for her final major project at dBs Institute here!
If you’re interested in learning how to produce electronic music, learn more about dBs' music production courses which can help you get there:
- DJ & Electronic Music Production Diploma
- Music Production Diploma
- BA (Hons) Electronic Music Production degree
- BA (Hons) Music Production & Sound Engineering degree
Want to get started with your career as an electronic music producer? Learn more about us and our music production courses on our website or at an Open Day!
