Waves is a notoriously large plugin company, and their plugin catalog can be described as no less than... enormous. Truthfully, they have so many plugins that it’s intimidating even getting into their line of products. With so many plugins to choose from, what’s worth investing in?

Finding the right 808 for your song can be tough. Sometimes, no matter how many Splice samples you go through, you can’t seem to find an 808 that fits your track. Luckily, 808s are relatively easy to make using software synths. I’m going to be going over how you can make the perfect 808 for your song using Massive by Native Instruments.

Let's face it, repetition is boring. Regardless of what genre you make, you don’t want to bore your listeners. Music is all about movement; the better you are at humanizing the elements of your song, the better chance you'll have of moving your audience. Below I'll go over some of the most effective ways to add variety to your productions, making them sound less robotic and more organic. Feel free to try different combinations of these techniques to see how they shape your sound. These methods mostly apply to working inside the box, but further options are available if sounds are reproduced in real physical spaces; using techniques like re-amping, and live mic recording.

If you've never touched Ableton before, but want to get started with it, you're in the right place. First, I'll walk you through Ableton's interface and get you familiar with where different key features are located. Second, I'll show you a great method to build your first song in minutes. I'll be giving a brief overview of Ableton, so if there's something you find interesting you at least know it exists and can further research it from there. There's no other way of saying this, but you're about to belly flop right into Ableton.

With live performances becoming more and more prominent within today's EDM scene, I thought it would be worth taking a look at how artists go about achieving this. Most EDM has incredibly complex instrumentation, so it's not always possible to play entire songs live, especially if you're a solo act. I'm going to show you how you can use a loop station, or Ableton, to create your own live loop performances.

Whether you're traveling to your friend's place in the city, or attending a studio session on the other side of the world, realizing you forgot something at home sucks. It makes you look like an amateur at best, and could potentially sabotage an entire studio session at worst. This guide's goal is to save you any future hardships by clearly laying out what you should have in your bag of tricks at all times.