Top Recommendations for EDM?

Hi all!

Just making the move into UAD plugins after purchasing a Satellite and would greatly appreciate some advice on the best choices to check out for use with commercial EDM (electro, trance, progressive).

To those who work with dance music on a professional level, are there plugins you simply can't live without or that are on a totally different level than the competition (such as Waves, FabFilter, SoundToys etc.)?

Would love to hear from you guys. Thanks in advance

It's all the same man, edm, rock, hip-hop, country. At the core, it really is. Getting a big distorted guitar to sit in the mix is the same challenge as a massive synth. /soapbox

anyway, 1176's are gold, I just watched the video for the ssl channel strip / bus compressor (Thinking about getting the bus compressor for the sale) and the dude in the video says that edm dudes love the ssl channel strip and the bus compressor.

I second that it's all the same, and it also has to do with your work-flow and desired results. I mix Deep House and here's a few that go on most mixes (they go on my rock mixes too...):

• DBX 160 is massive on electronic kicks (I usually mult the kick and smash a few in different ways and blend to taste)
• 1176s & LA2As (no intro needed here, use where needed)
• Fairchild 670 (Usually pick only one special element/instrument [piano, synth...] and go lat/vert on it)
• MOOG Filter (beautiful distortion, lives on my parallel "trash buss", sometimes used on a kick with the envelope to tighten, or fatten)
• Studer to tame overly bright HHs et al... and/or on busses (depends what vibe I'm going for, clean/modern or old-school)
• Ampex on the master depending on the track/desired results/vibe (noise and tranny off)
• Pultec EQs (pultec kick trick! nuff said )
• SPL Transient Designer (tighten up those flabby kick samples to keep it knocking for fast BPM tracks)
• API Vision (Massive on subgroups and bass)
• Vertigo Comp for clean compression
• Harrison EQ for musical eq needs
• Lex 224 (for lush verb on one or a couple select elements in the mix)
• ... the list goes on and on

I produce/mix and master a lot of EDM (as well as all genres.)
When I started out with UAD I had a completely different set of favorites than I do now. After a year I've narrowed it down to these as having no native alternative for all of my EDM stuff.

Massive Passive:
Dangerous Baxx:
Shadow Hills:
SSL G Bus compressor:
LA2A:
MXR Flanger:
K Stereo:
140 Plate:
DBX 160:
Roland RE 201:
Dimension D:
Cooper Time Cube:
Cambridge EQ: (There are definitely alternatives to this but I love it!)

been producing EDM for 15 years...on many major (and minor) labels around the world (Sony, Ministry, Hed Kandi etc) ..even before it was called EDM hehe

i disagree completely that its "all the same....EDM, or Rock or Country". are you kidding me. its a completely different set of tools that work better on completely different sounds.

i wouldnt have a clue what works great on rock guitar, because ive never had one in a track. And nor will i ever. maybe thats why i dont own the Fairchild comp. Rock guys swear by it for guitars. so i stayed away from it hehe

actually theres no better way to completely screw a hott dance production than to give it to a rock engineer or mastering guy. Ive had it happen many times back in the day (early 90s) when there was only rock engineers and mastering guys in the industry...and the results were a complete abortion of the track. i remember major labels insisting on the "big guys" doing the mastering, and crying afterwards when hearing the results. Then i had to fight to get it redone, and i was then being "hard to work with". The rock doods completely screwed the dance kick, lost all punch, added this "guitar" 2k peaks to the whole mix, engineers made snares to loud, claps and open hats too "nice" and quiet, etc its part of the reason why i started engineering and mastering my own tracks. and they became 100% better releases. And back then i knew very little about what i was doing, all i knew was how it was meant to sound next to other tracks in the club, and i worked it and worked it until there was the most pure transition when using the crossfader from a Sasha remix to one of my tracks.

some things like vocals, however never change. the LA2A across vocals still sounds amazing. but lately ive been using the Summit audio comp instead and its even better.
DBX160 is my bread and butter compressor for kicks and stabs. nothing beats it. most used UAD plugin.
never use 1176 on kicks...might be great for rock kicks but it turns an EDM kick to a hollow, bass-less "booiing". TBH i never use this plugin. always sounds like its doing "nuthin" to me.
Cambridge EQ...invaluable. the top and bottom filters i use all the time for loops ...and automate it.
1073...invaluable EQ when you want to shape vox and synths without making them sound brittle
AMPEX Tape and then the SSL Buss comp on the master buss then Oxford Inflator...essential. after 3 these 3 puppies you have a loud, smashing master that will give any Laidback Luke release a run for its money. looking forward to testing the Manley comp here somewhere as well tho..been too busy to demo it yet. stay away from the Precision Limiter....doesnt cut it for our purposes. Distorts way too early.
Lexicon Reverb....use it religiously for vox and to make lead Avicii synths sizzle and lift to the stars
Roland Dimension D - Chorus on claps, vocals, stabs, bass, again invaluable. just use an eq to roll off the bottom end of it afterwards.
Fatso - essential to transformer distort anything. put it after something that is getting filtered like a loop and it breaks up subtly but in a really special way

thats pretty much the essentials from UAD...Buy them first, and then start a second list. Most of the other plugins i use are native. I use a lot of Slate Digital, for instance. but my second UAD list would be another EQ (probably Pultec...i use that a lot), Sonnox Oxford EQ (use that a lot in place of Cambridge, especially when EQ'ing bottom end), Transient Designer (can bring flat-sounding vinyl-sampled single-shots to life).

Cheers,
Blackout

Nice post Blackout, nice workflow tips Forgot about the Inflator, I put it on all my mixes when I send it out for clients approval. And for the record, I was saying that the gear is the same... the genre and desired results vary wildly of course. I do use the same UAD plugins on what ever mix I am working on, of course you drive them differently and use them differently, but I mostly use my same set of plugins on rock, folk or House mixes!

I certainly support what you are saying that a rock engineer might not be able to mix an EDM track "properly", nor should you send an EDM track to a rock mastering engineer!!!

Anyone who's ever mixed a track with a vocal needs to at least try the fairchild. I know it's all style dependant, but that thing'll stick 30lbs on any singer you use use it on. My poor LA2As are a bit neglected these days.

Can't really top Blackouts answer. I think the type of music you make might make a difference. Something like the 33609 can be amazing but totally not necessary for very clean music...

All the reverbs and delays are excellent.

Fatso in parralel is great, especially for drums.

I strap massive passive across my mix with a 'nice curve', as I find I can then need fewer high end boosts and can carve out high end eq instead which I find smoother.

Db160 is a thwack machine. Sometimes will duplicate a track or add a send channel to thwack in parallel. I find the duplicate track for say a snare easier to manage, buses have sends but there are usually fewer buses with a parallel. Like and envelope shaper but more organic.

I like the 1176 but think you need to really squash something then set attack release to groove properly and finally back off the compression to taste. However I'd agree that it doesn't work with every BD...

The Harrison is massive overkill for a hpf but works great.

Moog very lush and great distortion. You can run whole tracks through this thing!

Precision Maximiser is a low DSP nice gain tool. Nice on hh and percussion. Add two or three in series and bounce.

If you do have vocals then the la2a is great, really great.

Vog can be a nice tool to help bass and BD gel.

I didn't find the studer really necessary for dance music, but haven't trialled the Ampex thoroughly though might have to try it again. Happy with my master bus without it so probably shouldn't tempt fate.

**I would not recommend the Helios for electronic music!! Or anything to be honest..

Edit: I also find using a channel strip across a mix makes things sound more coherent and 'record' like. I like the 88rs, but think the Api probably sounds a bit better. 88rs mk2 Pls

Blackout said:

i disagree completely that its "all the same....EDM, or Rock or Country". are you kidding me. its a completely different set of tools that work better on completely different sounds.

i wouldnt have a clue what works great on rock guitar, because ive never had one in a track. And nor will i ever. maybe thats why i dont own the Fairchild comp. Rock guys swear by it for guitars. so i stayed away from it hehe

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Well, to me, I have to believe that the tools and core philosophy is the same but that's just my opinion.

And you should totally try out the fairchild, it's a vibey compressor not a guitar compressor It sounds good pushed.

Thanks guys. looks like i must try the Fairchild finally hehe ok youve convinced me. i guess i need to start trying it on vox and go from there.

Dan i get what you were saying...of course you werent saying the music sounds all the same. But the gear is not all the same. Because its a different set of gear for a different job. maybe a lot of rock workflow and tools are going to work on country. or maybe a lot of synth pop will work with EDM. but going from country to EDM is just so far away at opposite ends of the scale its just rediculous.

once you start going from live recorded drums at one end of the scale, to drum machine kicks and claps at the other end of genres, all bets are off. Every piece of processing and the way in which you go about a mixdown is just... different. So many tricks and techniques you would just never get if you had mixed country all your days. Yes you could have a crack at it, but if you dont live in clubs and listen to releases on a club PA day in, day out you just wont get it even close. youll be flying blind.

imagine a country engineer working on a track in a studio, but being required to be forward thinking in his mix as to how it would sound when the recording was played live in a venue through the PA speakers, and then trying to compensate the mix so it sounds the same as the next live band on stage playing in the actual venue, so the transition sounded just as vibrant and consistent. Even that is a big challenge, and uses different concepts in mixing and engineering, and that thought process is what we are trying to do in the studio with a completely different genre on top of it all...EDM. EDM engineers mix for a live PA. Country and Rock engineers mix for a great sounding record, on a car stereo, radio etc. Right there, its a different concept and process already.

gotta say im certainly not master of all trades when it comes to engineering and mastering. you could call me a one-trick-EDM pony, which is fine by me. a fairly restrictive title if i was trying to get a job engineering in the industry but thankfully i could care less about engineering work, i have enough work just getting my own releases out. Not that anyone in the very exclusive "Rock" world would ask me to record a band hehe i would certainly mess it up. From experience, the players in both genres pretty much loathe each other professionally anyways hehe

Genres? not all the same. Sound? Yes, all the same.

It's simply a matter of know what tool will get you where you need to go.

So, in a manner of speaking, once you know what a tool is capable of, you then learn the genre and apply them. Two very distinct and separate things.

Why do EDM guys like UA, a company that expertly models classic pieces of gear created long before electronic music? Because they affect a change in the sound that is universally useful.

Technique too BTW. Where do you think side chaining came from? It was probably a country engineer in Nashville or a rock/pop guy in NYC that came up with it.

Drew what we are talking about is Technique. what is Technique really, anyways? "oh...Chris Lord Alge..he has his own TECHNIQUE"....what this really means is that he has his own way of working, his own specific types of gear that he uses in a way possibly differently to anyone else in certain situations, for certain sounds, to get his own end-result.

it still comes down to different gear (=plugins) for different genres/sounds. Because the two genres are VERY different, they each have their own mixing "techniques".

"its simply a matter of know what tool will get you where you need to go"...you strengthened my argument right there. i think this is my whole point...that a country music engineer simply wont know what tool he needs for an EDM sound, and wont know where he needs to go, because he doesnt know where the target on the board is. Unless he , you know, hangs in clubs and festivals every weekend listening to kick drums?

Cheers,
Blackout.

Blackout said:

"its simply a matter of know what tool will get you where you need to go"...you strengthened my argument right there. i think this is my whole point...that a country music engineer simply wont know what tool he needs for an EDM sound, and wont know where he needs to go, because he doesnt know where the target on the board is.

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You're continuing to conflate genres, sounds, and tools.

Tools change sounds. Changing sounds "properly" requires knowledge of the genre. Knowing genre, combined with knowledge of tools, equals successful end result.

We are basically saying the same thing, but you seem to think that a tool points to a certain genre which is false. In the example above, the guy doesn't know the genre, it doesn't have anything to do with technique or tools.

You missed the point he made and I think you're incorrect in the way you are saying sound is all the same. There's a huge spectrum of sound in music and it really varies from genre to genre, even within edm this is true.

To mix a deep house track is very different than mixing an acoustic singer songwriter track.

Any type of mixing takes practice to improve and making great metal tracks doesn't help as much with mixing orchestral.

Some plug ins do lend themselves better to some types of sounds than other, and by extension to some genres over others.
This thread is people listing tools they have used successfully for electronic dance music, this doesn't mean they can't be used for other things, but equally it doesn't mean that you can take them same approach with the same tools regardless of the material you are mixing. There are certainly different techniques required to achieve different sounds.

Hey guys can we agree to disagree and get back to sharing tips on how we use the plugins for EDM? Peace

Any other hot tips and workflows? I for one could not do without the Inflator and SPL Transient Designer in my Deep House mixes...

DanButsu said:

Hey guys can we agree to disagree and get back to sharing tips on how we use the plugins for EDM? Peace

Any other hot tips and workflows? I for one could not do without the Inflator and SPL Transient Designer in my Deep House mixes...

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hehe cool lets move on...i tend to use Oxford Limiter with the "Enhance" fader pushed right up to 105% at the very top....OR the inflator. but never both. sometimes one just sounds better on a particular track than the other, dont know why, its down to the selection of sounds for that track i guess. So i usually try the Oxford Limiter and then if it sounds too crunchy or distorted i use the Inflator instead, and if im using the inflator i finish with waves L2 or slate digital FG-X. Nothing gets louder than FG-X imho...sometimes it drives a track to new levels i never thought possible, but other times (on more minimal tracks without stabs) it just distorts and sounds bad. so if im going for the Inflator i try FG-X first, then swap to L2 instead if its a no-go. These days i know them both so well i can usually tell which one will work better already. I think the FG-X is more tuned for rock stuff. it seems to disguise its distortion in the guitars and gets away with it. On an EDM track with lots of hissing lead Tiesto lines and dirty synths it also sounds good. but on something more beautiful like a Kaskade track its got no-where to "hide" its distortion (if that makes any sense?) and it shows up much worse. so it depends really...hope this helps!

Interesting. I use the Inflator after the FG-X. I find that the FG-X falls apart quickly beyond -10 RMS on dense fat electro track, so I need the Inflator after it to get that extra couple of dB (effect at 100%, curve at 0, band split and -0.2 output). Can't seem to get the curve much above 0 as it goes crunchy and unpleasant.

Blackout, You saying I should try the Oxford Limiter instead to see if it works better on a particular track?

You guys should try the free limiter 6 from vladg.

I was using Oxford Inflator/Limiter couple for a long time since i found this plug which give me the same loudness with way less artifacts.

Inflator and/or Limiter "enhance" tends to add too much distortion to my ears now.


There is too much UAD plug i love to use on EDM tracks to write them all !
OWS/Moog/Dim D/Pultec/EMT 250 are the most used here.

DanButsu said:

Blackout, You saying I should try the Oxford Limiter instead to see if it works better on a particular track?

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hey Dan, the inflator doesnt have a "finalize" section in it. theres no dithering, for instance. you quite simply cannot use this as last. its not meant or designed for it. you will get overs. your CDs might get rejected from manufacture (if you make them)...and mp3 players can go really nasty with overs...they can give out these big noisy spikes that sound like the file has been given an electric shock, or for cheap mp3 players they can lock up and freeze play.

i find the FG-X hangs in there really well with a dense, fat electro track! the opposite ! the distortion in the synths and dirty drums handle it well, and the FG-X keeps the punch in the track at louder levels like nothing else.

the FG-X doesnt flatten the punch of a track like a pancake at rediculously high limiting. thats what makes it special. but you have to work around the distortion problems it adds.

what the FG-X doesnt like is a nice, clean 808 kick and hats and clean vocal. it shows up its distortion early and falls over if you ask me. But as i mentioned, every track behaves differently with them. theres no 100% solid template that works on everything, just plans of attack that need adjusting

Blackout said:

hey Dan, the inflator doesnt have a "finalize" section in it. theres no dithering, for instance. you quite simply cannot use this as last. its not meant or designed for it. you will get overs.

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Oh hey ya... I dither on export from Pro Tools so I'm covered I don't master my own mixes, always send them out, I just do some "fast food mastering" for reference when I send it off to be approved by the client. So far I have not had any issues, distortion, or clipping (I set the Inflator's output to -0.2 and it seems to give enough "headroom" for the mp3 conversion). Thanks for looking out for me though

On the EDM workflow side of things; I really love the Ampex on HHs when I get really nasty über bright 8kHz samples. Rounds it right off unlike simple EQ and fattens it up beautifully. I often use it on my master, depending how I feel and what vibe I'm after, but always with noise and transformer off!