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What is electronica music?

While electronica is technically a genre, it has a broad spectrum of subgenres within it. That makes its hard-to-define sound more of a creative philosophy than a genre. Electronica emerged around the 1990s. Its move from the dancefloor gave producers space to break away from traditional structures of electronic music and experiment with sound design, textures, and rhythm.

Its influences are wide-ranging, pulling from ambient, downtempo, glitch, and even classical music. This experimental nature makes electronica an evolving genre that continues to transform through producers’ innovations.

To get a better sense of electronica’s breadth, let’s explore three standout tracks:

“Cirrus” by Bonobo is a classic that displays the ability of a producer to combine organic and electronic elements. Bonobo’s use of layered percussion and melodic hooks shows electronica in full form:

For the past decade, NKS (Native Kontrol Standard) has revolutionized modern music production by integrating hardware and software, enabling intuitive workflows, and creating a unified browsing experience.

Now, we’re making it easier than ever for you to explore new sounds on your favorite controllers with the NKS Hardware Partner Program. Whether you’re using hardware from Akai Professional, Novation, Nektar, Korg, or M-Audio, you can easily use the NKS ecosystem in your favorite keyboard controller – with over 2,000 NKS-compatible instruments from more than 250 brands at your fingertips.

NKS compatibility on your favorite keyboard controller

NKS compatibility will be offered on these keyboard controllers:

Akai Professional: NKS integration will support the MPK Mini Series (MPK Mini, MPK Mini Play, and MPK Mini Plus).

As I’ve mentioned before, it’s crucial to carefully consider whether the reverb is truly necessary and, if so, what the appropriate parameter settings should be. Instead of applying reverb after grouping, I apply it to each part individually and fine-tune them accordingly.

When I use Raum, I often only adjust the Mix, Decay, and Low Cut parameters. Since I use reverb frequently, Raum has become indispensable due to its user-friendly interface and the ability to achieve the desired sound with its simple parameters.

Additionally, applying EQ before and after the reverb is important. Before applying reverb to sounds like pads or synths, I cut the low end below 400 Hz using EQ. After applying reverb, I make adjustments using Raum’s Low Cut and High Cut, as well as an additional EQ. It allows for a clearer sound with minimal reverb.

What can we in a, still male-dominated, music industry do to work towards redressing the balance? 

CAMZ:  It’s going to take time to balance the scales, but some promoters are starting to adopt inclusivity clauses for their events. It’s crazy to think that even today, many festival lineups feature 90% male DJs. If promoters commit to promoting inclusivity, the audience will eventually embrace this new approach – and once that happens, there’s no turning back.

Joyce Muniz: Any kind of change should be made with intention. Labels and institutions need to approach their releases with an open-minded selection of artists, including women, non-binary individuals, queer people, and people of color. There’s a wealth of talent out there, and today, it’s absolutely possible to have a diverse roster of artists.

What music events or releases are you looking forward to most in 2025?  

CAMZ: I’m looking forward to taking Lady Of The House to big conferences like Miami Music Week and IMS Ibiza.

Joyce Muniz: I’m really excited to be back with a new EP on Exploited Recordings, set to drop in April 2025. My remix for one of my favorite artists, Dina Summer, should be out soon as well. There are also a few exciting collaborations coming this year. But for now, I’m thrilled to be spending some time in Brazil.

Breaking barriers with music in Brazil

The Lady of the House demo competition marks an exciting milestone in championing diversity within Brazil’s vibrant electronic music scene. Spearheaded by Brazilian ambassador CAMZ, this initiative is more than just a competition – it’s a powerful platform for amplifying the voices of women and non-binary talent in music production.

The competition is open now and closes 29 January 2025. Winners will be selected shortly after. Enter your demo here.

Enter competition

6. Grance, Soulmac – “Happy Incident”

In organic house, much of the track’s energy comes from the high percussion, but unlike commercial EDM, which can rely on bright, almost sizzling highs, organic house leans toward a warmer, softer approach. Achieving this typically involves additive analog EQ. While digital EQs can offer precise, surgical boosts for a bright, cutting, high-end, analog EQs tend to shape frequencies with a softer, warmer character.

One go-to technique to achieve this warm sheen is by applying an analog emulation EQ to the high end of your drum bus or instrument groups. Whether it’s lead synths, supporting arpeggiators, or the whole drum mix, gently boosting the high shelf with an analog EQ adds a smooth brightness that enhances the mix without becoming harsh.

Digital EQ boosts in the five to eight-decibel range can make a track sound overly sharp and brittle, whereas an analog EQ, like Enhanced EQ, based on tube-series analog hardware, delivers a soft, natural brightness. This is especially effective for organic house, where a subtle lift in the high-end keeps the mix warm and inviting without crossing into sterility.

Let’s listen to an example. Here we have a great shaker loop but the high frequencies still need more life.

It’s honestly a bit of both. I’d lean toward calling it a specialty plugin since I tend to use it for specific tasks, like injecting life and analog warmth into certain elements – usually synth-based leads or chord progressions. It’s great for turning something overly clean or sterile into something with character and depth that fits better in the mix.

That said, I also use it on a group level from time to time, adding subtle saturation or compression to help a stack of sounds blend together. For example, it works really well on layered pads or vocal stacks, giving them a bit of glue and warmth without losing the individuality of each layer.

For me, it’s about flexibility.

Guitar Rig isn’t necessarily something I throw on every track, but when I do use it, it’s because it can solve a problem or add something unique that other tools can’t quite replicate. It’s more about finding the right moments for it rather than relying on it as an all-purpose solution

Hyperbits pro tip: When using Guitar Rig on group tracks, experiment with your favorite dynamic EQ plugin after the chain to tame resonances that might build up from the saturation or compression applied to multiple layers.

Start using Hyperbits tips in Guitar Rig

We wanted to give a massive shoutout to producer, educator, mentor, and wizard on the deck, Serik Slobodskoy AKA Hyperbits, for taking the time out of his busy schedule to chat with us about how he uses Guitar Rig every single day in the studio to achieve massive results.

Time and time again, we are reminded that it’s rarely ever about one massive, drastic move in a track that defines it. Instead, it’s a buildup of hundreds, maybe even thousands, of small and minor changes and adjustments that make music come alive and give it that nuanced and detailed quality we most often associate with warmth.

The best part?

Guitar Rig gives you all of these touch points and modulation stages directly in one single plugin environment so that you can stay focused and get the warm results in your mixes fast and efficiently; making more music that gets top-quality results like a nod from Kasakde just like Hyperbits did (and it’s, in large part, because of tools like Guitar Rig).

Learn more about Guitar Rig 7

With a Phrase tool, you can chop up a melodic loop or sample and assign each MIDI note to trigger a different chop by duplicating the loop across the keys and selecting different start points.

From there, you can program jumps and skips across the sample in precise, customizable patterns, almost like a granular sampler. This method gives you control over the randomness and allows you to fine-tune the glitch effects.

Pro tip: Always re-sample and record the output as you experiment. Even a small parameter tweak can uncover a sound you don’t want to lose.

4. Dynamic ear candy in seconds

This is the flip side of what we talked about earlier – harmonic textures and slower, moving elements like pads. Here, it’s about ear candy: those small details, like melodic riffs at the end of a phrase, guitar runs, or plucks, that fill the mix’s pockets.

These elements are key to achieving a polished, professional sound, but can be tricky to create on your own if for any other reason that, by the time you know you need them, it can be hard to find the creative juice to pick the perfect sound after you just wrote the chords, leads, bass, and maybe even vocal lines.

Modern, tempo-driven genres like hip-hop, melodic house, and trance require even more attention to how these patches interact with your track’s tempo, swing, and groove. Adjusting ADSR parameters like attack, sustain, and release is crucial to ensure the strings move with – not against – your track’s rhythm. Default settings on most patches are often about ninety percent there, but that last ten percent is where the magic happens.

It’s the difference between a groove that feels locked in or one that drags or rushes. Taking the time to align these details with your track’s unique tempo and energy is key and is often a step newer producers overlook. Dialing in these changes is essential to make strings feel alive and fully integrated into your arrangement.

Pro tip: Not all string libraries have dedicated amp envelopes, but almost all still offer ways to control the amplitude over time (which is what we’re after). Words like fade-in and even Glide settings can help soften one layer, leaving space for a brighter-attack layer to work its magic.

3. Keeping the grid on with MIDI placements

One of the biggest criticisms of computer-based music is its reliance on the grid. Whether you’re clicking in notes on the piano roll, heavily quantizing, or dragging in Kontakt’s pre-generated chord progressions, the result can feel rigid and mechanical. This grid-based nature can amplify the lifeless quality often associated with VST and sampler-based strings. However, with just a minute of extra effort, you can transform those strings into something much more human and expressive.

The trick is simple: turn off the grid. Go into your MIDI clips and make small, random adjustments to the timing of individual notes – just nudging them slightly left or right. This doesn’t need to be drastic; tiny variations are enough to mimic the natural imperfections of a live performance. For instance, if you’re working with a four-bar loop, duplicate it across sixteen bars and make subtle timing tweaks to individual notes in each iteration. These minor changes create a sense of organic variation, fooling the listener into hearing the human nuances of a live string section.

This technique requires minimal time and effort but has a massive impact on the realism of your strings. It breaks the monotony of the grid and breathes life into the performance, making it feel authentic and dynamic.

2. Spatial expansion using Split Mix

If you really want your reverb, texture, and space in your track to feel alive, they need to feel larger than life itself. This quality is hard to put your finger on exactly, but it is something that reverb presets can rarely live up to. And it’s something that a lot of producers tend to overlook. But, a little stereo widening can make all the difference, making your track feel open and all-encompassing versus stale, lifeless, and a bit two-dimensional.

You don’t need to go crazy. A little bit of stereo widening can go a long way. Think about using mid-side processing or panning automation to have some of these effects move to the left and the proper channels to create more room in your mix. A bit of width helps glue ambient layers together while still giving them enough space to breathe.

In Guitar Rig, the “Split Mix” module lets you do just that. Adjusting the width parameter to about 60-70% opens up the space without overdoing it. For an alternative approach, use the ‘Crossover Split’ setting in Split Mix. This allows you to split the signal by frequency, applying different effects to separate bands. This brings out a nuanced texture that changes across the frequency spectrum, giving your ambient atmospheres a new layer of depth and dimension.

Pro tip: A mix is all about contrast. Use Split Mix to create different ambiences on the left and right channels, which will result in an ultra-wide and highly detailed stereo field that is greater than the sum of its parts.