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keyboard which is a must. Any such combination will be of great value in your studio.

Expanding Your Sound

The key thing when writing electronic music, or any music for that matter, is to develop your own sound. Everyone has their own preferred styles of music but it is imperative that you don't fall into the trap of recreating your favorite artists. Within electronic music there are hundreds of sub-genres which have arisen from this natural instinct. Musicians should be able to apply their style to any genre which they produce, as opposed to having a certain genre dictating their style. The best way to find your style is to produce as many different genres as you enjoy listening to and to try blending them together in new ways. This will also give you a good understanding of production from different points of view, and will help you find the sounds and rhythms which suit your style.

Once you have found your sound, innovation becomes the key to writing good music. This is a process which is extremely individual, every artist works in a completely different way. Experimentation in music can take many different forms, from exploring the full range of sounds a synthesizer can produce to finding new rhythms, and it's all vitally important to developing as a musician.

Improving Production

Sound engineering is something which all electronic producers should be proficient in. Being able to make music sound good can be very difficult and is entirely dependent on the individual piece of music. There are some basics to this which can be picked up relatively quickly.

Once you get to the stage where sound quality is important, you will need a good pair of monitor speakers. Having speakers which give you a good reference will improve the way you produce music and will improve the quality of sound which you can achieve. Once they have been acquired, you will hear the difference instantly and probably want to re-master your work. Mastering a sound is a process which has a near infinite number of variables, but can have a massive effect on your music. Using EQ effects properly is highly important to placing each sound within a piece of music in it's own place on the overall sound scape. You can keep instruments from clashing by careful use of each instrument's EQ. Compression is also extremely useful for giving music a more complete sound. A soft compression (high thresh hold, low compression ratio) over the master track can have an instant effect on quality. Limiters are also useful for this, but need to be used carefully to stop high level sounds wrecking the mix.

Of course, producing music isn't something which can truly be taught. These techniques and ideas will certainly help anyone wanting to start producing music electronically. But the most important thing is to never stop enjoying what you are doing. If you enjoy what you are doing, you will naturally explore music and develop.

Learn more about this author, Angus Macdonald.
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