Electronic music is made mostly with a computer, using synthesizers (instruments that make sound from electronics), drum sounds and samples, instead of recording a band. To start, you need a computer, a DAW (music program), headphones and a few built-in instruments. Then you build a drum loop, add a bass and a lead sound, and arrange it into sections. If you want to hear how a track you love is put together, the Synth Extractor can pull the synth parts out of a song so you can listen to them alone.
This guide covers what to buy, how the sounds work, and how to build your first track.
The term is wide. House, techno, trance, drum and bass, ambient and electronic pop all count. What they share is that most sounds come from synths, drum machines and samples, and the track is arranged on a computer.
Each style has its own habits. House usually runs around 120 to 130 BPM (beats per minute) with a steady kick on every beat. Ambient music has no strong beat at all. Pick a style you listen to, because you will copy its moves when you start.
You can start with less than you think.
- A computer. A laptop from the last several years is usually fine for a first track.
- A DAW. This is your studio in software. If the word is new, read what a DAW is. Free ones exist and can make a full track.
- Headphones. Closed-back headphones that sound fairly flat work for early tracks. Very bassy headphones can trick you into mixing too little bass.
- Studio monitors (later). These are speakers made for mixing. They are not needed on day one.
- A MIDI keyboard (optional). It lets you play notes instead of clicking them in. Our guide to what a MIDI keyboard is explains how it connects.
- An audio interface (optional). Only needed if you want to plug in a microphone or hardware.
Do not buy a lot before your first track. Learn on the free tools in your DAW.
You will meet three building blocks again and again.
Drums. A drum machine plays short sounds on a grid, usually sixteen steps per bar. Kick, snare or clap, and hi-hat are the basics. Our beat-making guide goes through the grid.
Synths. A synthesizer makes a tone and lets you shape it. Three controls matter most:
- Oscillator. The raw sound. Common shapes are sine (smooth), saw (bright and buzzy) and square (hollow).
- Filter. Cuts away high or low parts. Opening a filter slowly makes a sound brighten up, a very common move in dance music.
- Envelope. Controls how a note starts and ends, often with four settings: attack, decay, sustain and release. A short attack feels punchy, and a long attack feels like a swell.
More detail is in what a synthesizer is.
Samples. A sample is a recorded sound you drop into your track, such as a snare, a vocal hit or a sound effect. Sample packs from free libraries are safe to use. Sampling a commercial song is different, and it needs permission if you release it.
Here is one order that works.
- Set the tempo. For house, try 124 BPM.
- Make a drum loop. Place a kick on every beat. Add a clap on beats two and four. Add hi-hats on the off-beats.
- Add a bass. Play one low note on the off-beats between the kicks. A common trick is sidechain compression, which makes the bass dip every time the kick hits so they do not fight.
- Add chords or a pad. A pad is a soft, held sound. Two or three chords that repeat are enough.
- Add a lead. A short melody on a bright synth sound. Repeat it, and change it a little every few bars.
- Add small extras. A riser (a sound that builds up) before a drop, a crash cymbal on a new section, or a gap of silence for tension.
Keep the first loop to four or eight bars. If it sounds good looped, you are ready to arrange.
Electronic tracks are built by adding and removing parts over time. A simple map for a dance track:
| Section | What happens |
|---|
| Intro | Drums only, so a DJ can mix it in. |
| Build | Add bass and chords, open the filter. |
| Drop | Everything plays at once. |
| Break | Pull out the drums and keep a pad or melody. |
| Second drop | Return with a small change. |
| Outro | Strip parts back out. |
Change something every four or eight bars. Even a tiny change keeps the listener interested.
One of the best ways to improve is to take a favorite track apart. Upload a song to Unmix Studio's Synth Extractor and you can listen to its synth parts on their own, away from the drums and vocals. Then try the Drum Kit Splitter to hear the kick, snare and hi-hat as separate tracks.
For a quick look at the whole song, the stem splitter gives six tracks: vocals, drums, bass, guitar, piano and other. In our test, a 4 minute 44 second song split into six tracks in 56 seconds, and each track was about 10.9 MB as an MP3. New accounts get 5 free credits when they sign in with Google, which covers a song like that. The splitting runs in the cloud, so there is nothing to install. Mixed synth layers can still leak into each other, so treat the result as a guide to your ears.
Once you have a synth line you like, drop it into Audio to MIDI. It is free and runs in your browser. Pick the kind that matches the sound, upload the file, and you get a MIDI file of the notes. Load that into your DAW and play the same notes with your own synth. This is a good way to learn a melody by ear, and it is for practice. Releasing a track that contains someone else's recording or melody needs permission from the rights holders.
- Too many layers. If two sounds fill the same space, remove one.
- Too much bass. Check the track on a phone speaker and in earbuds.
- No variation. A loop that never changes feels flat after a minute.
- Finishing nothing. Finish short tracks. A done 2-minute track teaches more than an endless loop.
A computer, a DAW and headphones. The synths and drum sounds inside the DAW are enough for your first tracks.
No. You can click notes into the piano roll with a mouse. A keyboard makes it faster and more natural to play melodies.
It depends on the style. House is often around 120 to 130 BPM. Slower styles can sit well below that, and drum and bass runs much faster.
Yes, for practice. Split it into parts, listen to each one, and rebuild the sounds in your own project. Publishing something that includes the original recording needs permission.
Most people finish a rough first track in a few days. It takes longer to get the mix and sound design where you want them, and that comes from finishing many tracks.