Producing EDM

The bulk of my work recently has been producing EDM (electronic dance music). As a music producer London I’m asked to produce all kinds of different music generally speaking, but EDM seems to be extremely popular right now. Dance music is all about the kick and bass. They are the foundations of the track. Get them wrong, and you may as well not bother with the rest of the production.

Not to get into too much detail, but the kick and bass are notoriously difficult to mix correctly because they occupy the same low frequencies. If they overlap, they create all kinds of problems, and your track will not sound good. This applies to every genre of music really, but especially when producing EDM. Finding space for each of these elements is tricky. There are techniques like side-chain compression to help, but it’s far from easy to get it right, unless you’re going for the full on pumping effect (Eric Prydz - Call On Me, David Guetta - Titanium). It’s still something I’m working on perfecting, but I’m in the fortunate position of being able to practice my craft every day. Being able to hear the low frequencies is paramount when producing EDM. After all, if you can’t hear that something is wrong, how can you fix it? Some of these tricky frequencies can only be felt and not heard. Let’s say for argument’s sake those below 50 hertz. In a club, they’re the frequencies you can feel in your chest.

Whilst reading an article on this very subject recently, my attention was brought to a product called Subpac M2, or the latest version, M2X. It’s like a backpack that you wear, and it produces vibrations for those super low frequencies. I hear that it’s almost like standing next to the speaker in a club. It sounded to me like a very handy piece of equipment, especially when producing EDM. I have one arriving in the next couple of days and I’m excited to put it to the test. The reviews have been excellent, so I’m hoping this will be a worthy addition to my arsenal, and help my mixes to compete with the very best.