Ever wanted to learn how to make electronic music? Styles of music such as dance, techno, rap, rnb, and many many more? I will give you some priceless and rather surprising info on how you can get started, in the comfort of your own home, on learning how to make electronic music. Don't be fooled by the hype and just assume that you need mountains of equipment and years of experience just to get started. Discover secrets of the pros!

OK. I'll start with a bit about me. I live on a little island down the bottom of Australia called Tasmania. I am a DJ/producer and I generally produce electro house music, though i have dabbled in various genres such as minimal, tech house, trance, hardstyle and drum n bass. I have been producing for around 4 years now and DJing for around 3 I use a digital audio sequencing program called Reason (but that's another story). This program is pretty darn high tech and very intimidating at first blush, so i'll show you the program that i started with which helped me become the producer I have become. I play live DJ sets at various night clubs around my city but these days I like to focus more on producing. Heres a link to my band page which I haven't updated in years so its a bit old but will give you an idea of the stuff the program helped me to start making. Anyways, enough about me. Hope you enjoy the hub!

Lets get straight into it shall we?

The 4 basic elements of electronic music a pretty much the same as any other type of music.  You have your;

1. Drums or The Beat
2. The Bass line
3. The Melody
4. The Vocals

Now just to get one thing straight, A LOT of DJs/producers don't sing in their songs, (probably because they can't sing, like I can't hehehe). Some get guest singers to sing but most just don't do any vocals at all so don't give up straight away because you can't sing! In this hub I won't discuss the vocal aspect of electronic music. If anyone would like me to though please feel free to put in a request :-)

OK so lets discuss the other 3 elements of how to make electronic music in more detail!

Almost every electronic song has a beat in it of some sort. Wether it be house music with a straight beat, or a breakbeat with different combination's of different drums and cymbals sequenced together to create a beat. A great beat can turn a mediocre song into a great song, but a mediocre beat could turn a great song into something not so great. I personally spend just about most of my producing time making sure that i'm happy with the beat.

Depending on what style of electronic music your making, generally the 2 main drums to consider are the bass drum, also known as the kick, and the snare drum. These 2 drums are the driving force behind a beat and they are then filled and polished around the edges with things such as percussion sounds and cymbals.

The drum machine in the picture here is what I use when I make my beats. At first I was really intimidated by it so I went HERE first to learn the basics of making beats. As my skills gradually improved, so did my confidence so then I went back and gave it a bash and now I can't get enough of it!

To learn how to make great beats, check out my other site and follow the links!

This is a picture of an analogue synthesizer. As you can see it is a physical piece of equipment that you have to play yourself, and record to some sort of recording equipment to be able to play back and create a song with. A lot of people still do it this way, but these things aren't cheap and they also aren't easy to play.

This is a screen shot of the synthesizer I now use to create my bass lines. That's right. I don't use a bass guitar. I simply create the riff and run it through this baby and turn some knobs with the mouse and make it sound good. Now, this synthesizer I use is on my cruddy little laptop way back up the top of this page. That is proof that you don't need physical equipment and loads of money to learn how to make electronic music.

Now, the bass line is the next most important part to any electronic song. The bass provides the low end feel and vibration of a song. Ever heard a song that when played really loud made the floor vibrate and you and your friends were standing or sitting around going "phwoarhawhaw!!"? Yeh? Well thats due to the producer of the song making a nice bass line.

Generally bass lines in electronic music are made using synthesizers, not bass guitars. Different genres of electronic music have different sounding bass lines. My songs tend to have dirty distorted kind of sounds because that is what is appropriate to my style. Where as something like hip hop may have a nice clean bass that makes the room rumble and allows you to not only here the music but feel it as well.

If you want to learn step by step how you can make awesome rumbling bass lines, check out my other site or my blog

If you love your bass then vote in the poll below!! Bass or Melody!

Melodies in electronic songs can be made from many different things, including guitars, keyboards, brass and woodwind instruments, or pretty much anything that is more in the high end of the sound spectrum. So basically you know how the bass makes really low rumbling sounds that are more felt than heard? Well the melody is generally the opposite of that. A more high end sound that is easier to hear than the bass.

In general, the drums and bass are the driving force behind electronic music and the melody is strategically layered on top to make the song more full and finished sounding. Depending on which genre you are making, sometimes the melody can be the main riff in the song, and therefore the main part of which people are drawn to, to determine whether or not they are going to like that song. Then again, with songs like most of the ones I make, the melody can just be a combination of high sounding electronic beeps and blips that are place in certain parts of the song just to give it more character and texture.

The digital synthesizer in the picture here is the one I use on my cruddy little laptop to make my melodies for my electronic music productions. Another way to show you that you don't need any physical equipment to learn how to make electronic music!

If your a lover of ear catching melodies then vote in the poll below!! Melody or Bass!

If you wanted to learn how to make electronic music before you read this info, I think its a pretty safe bet that your even more excited to get started now that you know it doesn't need to be hard! When I first started I didn't have any idea what I was doing and tried to use programs like Reason and Cubase and so on. Do you think I had any hope in the world of making anything good? No way! So i'll let you in on a little secret. I discovered THIS SITE which I can honestly thank for the knowledge of how to make electronic music which I now possess.

Believe me, if it wasn't for this site I would never know what I know and therefore would never have written this Hub for all you guys to enjoy!

So check out THIS SITE and let it show you what it showed me.

Happy music making!!