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When it comes to EDM, there’s a handful of genre-defining techniques and effects you just need to learn — LFO modulation and risers, filter automation for tension and drops, sidechain compression, and gluing a mix together with OTT. Watch this video, where EDM producer Nitro X walks you through each one, and how you can add them to your own tracks.

Transcript

Intro

Hey guys, I’m Nitro X, and today I’m back here on the Reason YouTube channel for a video to provide tips and tricks for beginners using Reason, to take their EDM beats to the next level. Let’s get into it.

What is an LFO?

So the first thing I want to talk about in production that you can use to take your beats to the next level is LFO. LFO stands for Low Frequency Oscillator. Now, what an LFO is, is basically a soundwave oscillating at such a low frequency that you wouldn’t be able to hear it, but what the LFO generates is changes in amplitude, which we can then use to control a parameter.

Using the Pulsar LFO to modulate a parameter

Let me just pull one up here — here’s one right here, the Reason Pulsar LFO, the one I use in all of my stuff, because when you go to the back, you can route everything you need from the LFO to whatever parameter you want, on any Rack Extension, or sometimes in a VST.

So you can hit this little Tempo Sync button if you want it to be connected to the time of the track; otherwise you can turn that off, and it will just be a free-flowing frequency range — so you can see here, 43 Hertz, you go all the way up really, and then down to really slow and low.

So a good example of what I like to do with LFOs in my tracks is I will take, like, a little ambient shot that has a bunch of reverb on it, or a nice tail, and I will throw an LFO on it — so this is what the sound sounds like beforehand.

Automating the LFO rate for a riser effect

Then what I did was, I just threw a Kilohearts Gain on here — you can do this with any volume plugin. Then what you want to do is create an automation lane for the LFO, as you can see I’ve made down here, and then you’re going to want to automate something like this — it can be janky, can be whatever.

I created this simple line before, which you can do as well. You’re going to want to find a point where it’s not too fast at the start and not too slow at the end — a nice little ramp. Or you can do it the other way, you can have it kind of rise.

LFO transitions: reverse builds and hits

So let me show you what I have here with the LFO, what it sounds like — can you hear how it kind of starts really fast and it’s going to slow down? Another option is this one’s often better for transitions — for example, let’s say I reverse this sample, and then I’m going to speed the LFO up, so you can use that as like a little reverse.

So let’s hear the difference — we have a reverse in here in this transition right before the drop, or we can have it more as a hit, like I had it before. Here’s the difference — it just creates a different transition element that you can experiment with, rather than having a classic drum fill, and it adds a nice little bit of ear candy to the track.

Filters as an effect for tension and energy

All right, so second, I want to talk about filters. Now, filters are an extremely integral part of EDM music, and especially house music — I use filters in every single song. Not only high-pass filtering instruments for mixing purposes, but what I’m really talking about here is using a filter as an effect, to create energy, to create tension — for example, here in the buildup, we can use filters to create energy, to create a swell, because high-end adds energy. So if we don’t have as much high-end, then we can kind of roll that high-end up.

High-pass filtering a vocal chop

So for example, on this vocal chop here — and you’ll hear that in like every dance track coming up — and then we have all the way up to the drop.

Filtering a 909 snare build in Kong

For example, I have I made this 909 snare build-up in Kong — I just loaded up a 909 snare, I think it’s just from the Reason Drum Supply. But what I did is, because there’s so much like white noise in that snare, I took it and put a filter on it, and I had a pretty high Q on the filter, and you can hear it — it’s creating that sweep. And then, by doing this, we’re just adding to all the other risers that we’ve added into the track already, so that’s creating even more tension and just making the buildup have more excitement.

A high-pass filter on the master bus for the drop

Yeah, and then the other kind of filter that I use a lot when making EDM, especially dance tracks, which I actually haven’t put on this one yet, so we’ll do it together: I’m going to grab the Kilohearts Filter here, and then I’m going to drag it into my master bus, and I’m going to switch it from being a low-pass filter, which is what we were using on the previous examples of creating that sweep, and we’re going to do a high-pass filter on this one.

Now, this one is going to help us swell up a little bit, almost so it’s not noticeable in the low end — so when that drop hits, the contrast from there being no low end to all the bass right away is going to give it so much more energy. So all you got to do is hit Edit Automation, just like you would do for any of the other filter automation I was showing you — I’m going to create a little automation clip here.

So I don’t want to do too much, because I want the buildup to still have the bass, so I don’t want to do it for too long, but I’m going to do something like this, then up here, and then as we reach the drop, I’m going to fade it back down. Just remember to keep it not going up too high, so it’s not creating too much of a drastic effect — unless that’s what you’re going for. Trust your ear, and trust what sounds good to you.

Sidechain compression on the kick

Another great thing to do when you’re creating any EDM track, especially house, is to use sidechaining. Sidechain to your kick — my kicks are on quarter notes. This one’s totally free: my friend Matthew Parker got me into this one, it’s called Pump — you can set quarter notes, and then it will just pump to your kick if you’re making a house track.

Depending on the sound I’m going for, I will sidechain it really hard, or I won’t as much. So I’ll show you what it sounds like — for example, if you don’t sidechain, you especially notice it on the bass, it starts to sound muddy and not like it’s glued together. But when you enable that, it adds that extra bit of glue to the beat.

I don’t like going too hard on the sidechain, because I find it can ruin the transients of stuff that might be hitting with the kick, or hitting close to it, so I don’t like to sidechain too hard, depending on the project — but it’s up to your personal preference.

Keeping an EDM mix from sounding overwhelming

All right, so last thing I want to cover in this video, that I’ve heard from multiple people who are kind of just starting out, is that it’s very hard to not make an EDM mix sound overwhelming. So, for example, let me just break down what we have going on in the buildup, because that’s where I got most of the elements — we got some bass, we have some piano, we have a down-shifter, claps, some effects, and then we have some other melodic elements.

And normally, keeping in mind there would be vocals over this — I just don’t have vocals on it yet from any singer — so we already want to keep this open-sounding and not layer too much, but we still want to have a big sound. So how do we achieve that?

Compression and layering multiple piano presets

Well, one is compression and layering. So these key pianos, I have three different piano presets going here — I have an Addictive Keys preset on house keys, and then I have a Radical Piano on here that sounds like this. So it’s kind of a soft layer — see what I mean, this layer is way down, it’s not all building up together, it’s quieter, and this one is adding a lot of attack as well.

So it’s kind of understanding the purpose of each layer when you’re mixing, and the purpose of each element, and then that will determine how you’re going to mix it and how loud it’s going to be. So for example, once I’ve done all this, I will just throw an EQ on the whole bus.

Gluing the mix with OTT

And then usually, if you’re creating EDM and you’re creating a bunch of layers together, a great way to make it sound all together and glued, without it sounding overwhelming and making it sound like one new sound, is using OTT — whether you want to use a lot of it or a little bit of it, get into OTT, start using it, it’s great.

Wrap-up

But yeah, that’s about all I wanted to cover in this video. Hopefully it gives you a few new ideas to experiment with in your own music — remember, keep it fun and keep it simple, and enjoy the creating process. I will see you guys in a future video. Peace.