EDM PRODUCTION

Add movement and texture to your drum loops with gated sounds and layering. White noise, vinyl crackle, animals, a voice, a bass sound… experiment with all different types of sounds. Some sounds will make the drum loop sound really old school!

Gating and Sidechaining
Put the drum loop in a group and another sound, like a bass sound, in a different group. The add a gate to the bass sound. Set the gate input to the drum loop. Now the drum loop will trigger various gated bass sounds.

Increase the attack on the sidechain gate to change the timing of the gated sound. The attack will cut the gated sound in like a second after the drums hit.

Layering and Sidechaining
Instead of gating a group, layer a cool sound under the drum loop. This is another way to add texture to the drums. For example try layering some bunches of white noise under the drum loop.

Add a frequency shifter to the white noise to make it sound a little more stereo. Turn on Wide and turn up the spread a little. Then sidechain a compressor to the white noise. The drums will really start to move and have texture. Increase the frequency on the compressor to make the kick and snare really pop.

Use a limiter if you want the white noise to be more at the front of the mix. Now try replacing the white noise with other sounds.

Reverb
Add an audio effects rack and reverb to the drum loop. Then add a gated layer from the previous process to the drum loop. Add an EQ Eight to the drum loop if you want the highs to punch more. Adjusting the decay on the gate will make the reverb sit more around the drums.

Watch the video above to hear all these texture strategies being utilized.

Layering is a very popular edm production technique that can be used in other parts of your mix. It is great for adding texture and movement to a mix. There are a ton of different ways to add texture and movement to a mix! Here are a few more edm tutorials to check out:

Automating White Noise and Vinyl Crackle
How To Make EDM With Movement
How To Fuse and Blend Audio Sounds with Convolution and Cross Synthesis
How To Make Music Sound 3D