I’ve always hoped I can make songs like the one’s in Trap Nation. Literally, my brain would be generating all those edm song ideas but because it’s edm its kinda impossible to imitate those sounds. So I decided to play around with the instruments on Logic Pro.
I’ll first go over my final product. I first came up with a catchy lead. That became my chorus. For the first verse, I picked the notes from the chorus lead and alter the rhythm and order of the notes, or add in notes that harmonizes with the chorus lead. I picked a lighter instrument (bell) for the verse lead because I want the song to slowly build up. That’s why the first verse has no percussion instruments, and the second verse is just a repeat of the first but with percussion. Again, I use high hat instead of heavy kicks to create the build up. For the pre-chorus, I toned down the build up from the verse, getting ready for the chorus. Whereas the intro verses are have more high notes, the pre-chorus consist mostly of bass. For the final build up, I created a snare roll. For the chorus, I just stacked the chorus lead with different instruments, such as trumpets and different types of bass. I used instruments from the orchestral libraries because they are all pretty loud. I upped my kicks and snares and 808 bass. For the bridge, I changed up the percussion rhythm and use the same technique as the pre-chorus, where most of the things consist bass. The lead here is also the most different from the rest of the song. And then it’s just the repeat of the chorus.
Here are screenshots of the tracks.
intro+verse
pre-chorus
chorus
bridge
This song is called Karma, because the repeating melody just feels like karma. Anyways, this song is far from perfect. It just sounds… like an amateur. The drums doesn’t sound clear and precise, the bass doesn’t sound bass enough. And this is because I’m only using the instruments given in Logic’s library. I found out that professional producers uses plug-ins and manually manipulate the sound waves to their liking. Here are several things I need to learn:
- find a good bass samples (free)
- the 808 bass given in Logic doesn’t hit hard enough. The frequency is still too high.
- find good EDM instrument samples (free)
- learn how to make side chains
- I feel like this is the heart of every EDM song.