Already considered one of the most talented producers in the world of electronic dance music receiving high praise from Porter Robinson early on in addition to being growing fan-favorite of the Gud Vibrations community, Shadient continues to impress with the release of his thrid EP, Infinite Structure.
Delivering a truly striking spiritual journey through sound with his latest body of work, the Essex native has taken the time to share his essential tips when it comes to production for all the producers out there looking for a bit of inspiration or simply looking to that productions to the next level.
Stream Shadient’s Infinite Structure EP in its entirety below follow by his tips below!
1) Sidechain – you don’t need to sidechain anything. one crucial aspect of a lot of dance music is how the synths duck behind the drums and I get that, but you should try to see how it sounds without it from time to time. or half as much.
2) Stop being afraid to break rules – this is sort of hypocritical because you’re reading a list right now but you should be as willing to experiment with your mixing as you are with the writing process of your music. I think many people are held back by their reluctancy to break rules
3) The more human your drums sound the better – this is more a personal preference but organic drums are a make or break for me in dance music, even drum machines can sound organic with the right subtle room reverb or bus compression. I think it’s important to make your music sound “real”
4) Use free vsts once in a while – The characteristics of old software is considered “low quality” by the “professional engineers” and I get a kick out of pissing some nerd off somewhere in a big studio, so I’d say feel free to break the rules in that respect too. be a total rebel, sometimes setting your plugins to cheap/draft mode can add some dirty character to your sound too (i know for fact serum sounds sick with the 1x mode)
5) saturation is only good if you’re smart with it – I recently bought a tape machine and it makes all my drums/bass sounds fucked up good. if you care about your music having character I strongly advise beating the shit out of it. it’ll help make your music sound as dark as your mind can go Error! Filename not specified.
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