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Mixing orchestral with EDM - what to consider?

xanderscores

xanderscores

Active Member
After having composed quite a few symphonic works with orchestral samples I've recently grown fond of the idea of doing something EDM, probably Serum-based.

My question now is: Has anyone any experience in mixing/blending orchestral and EDM elements? What's there to consider, any traps, any must-have effect plug-ins? Or is this an impossible combination of styles that will never go well together?

I'm excited to hear your thoughts!
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I recently had to compose something like this for some production music.



I've next to no experience doing EDM so it was mostly trial and error and listening research.

As far as mixing goes, my main advice is don't hesitate to be more aggressive with EQ's and multi-bands on your orchestra than you might have been on traditional music. My strings were high passed up to 100Hz with aggressive multi-band compression as were my brass etc.

Also balancing EDM percussion with cinematic drums was a challenge. you want the attack of the EDM perc to cut through but the scale of the cine perc. Worth considering.

Let me know if that piece is anything like what you were thinking of and I can pick my brain a bit further.
 
I would highly recommend listening to some Knife Party stuff like „Parliament Funk“... More EDM than orchestral for sure, but Rob really knows how to make both of them work together very well
 
Use sidechaining! Also on orchestral instuments. As said before, you can generally go more aggressive with EQ's. Give those strings some treble. Also watch out which low intruments you really need so the kick can do it's work (otherwise: sidechaining!). Maybe listen to some EDM tracks and imagine what sounds / synths could be replaced by orchestral instruments in your own composition.
 
Okay, thank you so much - that's some good hints for starters!
Any recommendations as to which plugins to build a decent library with? Is SERUM a good starting point?
 
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