Hey guys. I lost interest in edm during my earlier times making music, been at it now for 2 years. I dont wanna beat about the bush so Ill get right into it. This is probably something that's been more commonly realized as of late but it's nice to hear it from a new perspective.
What I learned from orchestra
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Mixing: When I was composing orchestra I was surprised how little "mixing" I had to do. I didn't want to cut stuff from the instruments because they sounded so damn good untouched. This led me to realize that I didn't need to "mix" it with EQ because these instruments were invented and designed over time to fill in their place on the frequency spectrum ALREADY by DESIGN. If you have mud in orchestral its only because you have too much reverb, or have too many instruments playing in the same register or having overlapping notes. Mixing in orchestra is done primarily through arrangement/composition first, then volume level, then pan. That's because the sounds used are already excellent in sound design if you use high quality samples
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Reverb Reverb is used to place an instrument in its own space. Orchestral is classically played in halls/chambers, so obviously a great reverb like Valhalla Room, or a convolution verb like Spaces by Eastwest is useful. However what I found was needed was reverb busses that contain dry sends from all similar instruments or sometimes even ALL the instruments. That way, I could cut the low end from the verb (gently) to help prevent mud, or automate the volume of the reverb to make different 'scenes'. At this point, I usually will buss all strings to one, all brass to another, all winds to another and all drums to another. Piano has its own verb because I like it to be constant.
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Arrangement In orchestral, arrangement and composition is EVERYTHING. Dynamics range, choice of instruments, their pan, their motifs, the progression, it all plays a massive role in how the story is told. Generally you have one or two "focuses" in the track and then the rest of the instruments embellish it, support it, direct it, give context. This is how a story is told.
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Sound design All orchestral instruments are clean, simple sounds with a solid defined fundamental and harmonics that roll off in the high end. Theyre not like supersaws or artifical saw waves that have harmonics way up into the 22khz range. This left the high end area clear and percussions like snares, cymbals, and reverbs and natural air filled this region (as well as high end stuff like violins obviously)
How does this apply to EDM?
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Mixing When I first started, I often found myself liking a sound and then trying to shoehorn it in with heavy EQ. Nowadays when I do EDM I choose sounds that have the frequency range I need to fulfill its purpose. The key of the song can change what patches work for you, even a couple semitones can either make or break whether a lead or bass is impactful or not. Now I place more importance of panning of support instruments like arps and hats, volume control for layered bits, simply raising the instrument up an octave instead of EQing out the fundamental, and more use of sidechain. In addition, in orchestral the high end is often left more clear and minimal and there's very few instruments operating in the sub-bass range, letting percussion fill that spot (obviuously this translates to high-passing everything)
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Reverb Synthesized sounds sound weird without it, because everything we do IRL has reverb. Even typing echos in a room. its important to add even a little bit to your instruments to make them "fit" in the mix because you give it IRL context. Reverb sounds musical, natural. Of course, controlling decay and tails are important. Plenty of guides on how to use this online so i wont get into it, but remember the primary purpose of verb and itll help you think of other creative ways to use it.
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Arrangement Having too many things trying to steal your attention can make a track sound chaotic, unguided, unprofessional. I find in my newer work to think of what I want to be the focus in my song when I approach mixing and writing. For example, do you want the melody or lead synths to shine like in melodic dubstep? Or is your track less of a pleasure-listening song and more of a dance song and want the low end to be the driving focus? Thinking of these things can help you be more focused and directional when mixing and writing. This doesnt mean making your songs super simple, it just means painting your subject matter first, then building the ideas for the background around it to support it.
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Sound Design Im starting to see more and more the similarities between orchestral and EDM honestly. Ive begun to include things in my patches like portamento, vibrato control, and multiple versions of the same patch in several instances of a synth to get more "articulations" for that synth to give it more life. Controlling how far into the high-end the synth goes, too, using a lowpass gently on the sound lets me layer similar instruments playing harmonies or octaves overtop of it the same as I would in orchestral. Obviously we're modern electronic musicians, not orchestral composers, so im not telling people to lowpass your whole tracks (Gotta have that high end) but be aware that sometimes you can add more interesting timbres and layerings using gentle eq curves on sounds you like and then layering another sound ontop.
Anyways, hope that helps someone. Just a bunch of random things I found useful for myself, hope you guys have a good day
Edit: I have some clyps of some recent WIP works of mine to demonstrate the things I learned so that users can feel comfortable with the information I'm providing.
Orchestral: https://clyp.it/xf04qedf (Particularly the piano bit from 1:57 onwards, the simplicity of the build and the dynamic range as well as the chords used evoke such emotion I cant really express, and then the 'drop' after just completes it)
EDM: https://clyp.it/cch1r1sk?token=7ec6da8cc3859d80daf721eb44261f57
Submitted May 07, 2017 at 05:46PM by Aurelleah https://www.reddit.com/r/edmproduction/comments/69to4z/what_i_learned_from_leaving_edm_to_write_for/?utm_source=ifttt