how to make EBM MUSIC from start to finish (mix walkthrough)

What's up guys! Today I'm showing you how to make EBM (Electronic body music) music like Nitzer EBB, DAF, Front 242, Laibach or early Front Line Assembly!
🔊 Sounds and Plugins I used🔊
Presets ► www.tonepusher.com/
Old school EBM pack ►www.tonepusher.com/product-pa...
Electronic Body Music Pack► www.tonepusher.com/product-pa...
Patreon ► www.patreon.com/tonepusher
Chapters:
0:00 - intro
0:17 - Bass sounds
2:21 - Drum sounds
5:12 - Fills, transitions & fxs
6:47 - Leads & Layers
8:27 - Final Result
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Old school EBM, EBM, Electronic body music

[@Tonepusher]

As you guys might notice, I'm not the kind of guy who's using 45 plugins on every tracks. My music production motto is ''Less is more''. I know my strengths as well as my weaknesses and I work according to them. I rather take my time and choose well my drum samples. THEN design my synths around them. Instead of designing cool sounds and taking 5 hours to find drums that fits or using 20 plugins to make them fit my sounds. If you design well your sounds you don't need to add many plugins or crazy EQs. Unless you're sound designing which is a different story.

[@LevantarisCarnavalhal]

And EBM has its "minimalist complexity." An oldschool concept full of analog textures and lofi samples. It may have a lot of layers, but the processing is basically minimal and the most important thing is the mixing.

[@Tonepusher]

Exactly, and tbh minimalist tracks/music is probably the hardest to produce. It requires a lot of maturity and knowledge of what you're doing.

[@Sulfurico]

Yeeeeees!! this tutorial should be called "Let your body learn" 👍🔥🔥

[@Tonepusher]

hahaha !! good one! Cubase I'm Here!

[@sethendral1849]

As I need to prepare a few EBM tracks, your videos saved me a looot of time today! Thanks dude, good job! I listened a lot of EBM, from Funker Vogt to Eisenfunk, but never tried to create anything in this style. Now it seems like very easy :).

[@Tonepusher]

haha np man I hope it'll help you 🤘🏻

[@VultureCulture]

A very clear and concise tutorial! Great job!

[@Tonepusher]

@VultureCulture Hey thanks a lot man, love your content :) Was watching the Kawai R50-E video last week. Such a classic hehe 🤘

[@EBMZEQUENZER]

I'm not even surprised to find you here : 😁😁 EBM NOT DEAD Cheers Brother 🍻🍻

[@Tonepusher]

Not dead at all, you can hear ebm everywhere. That new Gesaffelstein album has ebm basses all over it! hehe

[@sw5l]

when i was younger, i used to play a game where Frontline Assembly made the music called Airmechs, and i'm only discovering the name of this genre now and i feel the nostalgia, instantly subscribed and thanks for the tutorial

[@Tonepusher]

Hey thanks!! yeah that soundtrack is phenomenal. I love the track ''Arise''. That bass line is perfect hehe Still today I re-discover albums from them. Such a rich heritage. And the new albums are as good as the old ones.

[@sw5l]

@@Tonepusher 'Airmech' is definitely my favourite one, I still imagine it playing everytime I look at the game. I was also wondering if you have any kind of insight on that drum effect 1:10min into 'prep for combat', I've heard this kind of sound in 2 songs including this and I've been obsessing over how it's done and I thought you may know

[@Tonepusher]

@@sw5l It's a distorted drum loop with a lowpass filter automation (with a good amount of resonance). You can replicate that in any DAW. :)

[@sw5l]

@@Tonepusher awesome, I'll have to experiment way more, thanks again

[@Tonepusher]

@@sw5l no problem man :) don't hesitate if you have questions! 🤘

[@Noone-of-your-Business]

_"This is the snare without processing":_ synth talk for "without any _further_ processing in addition to the heavy compression, EQ and transient shaping that is baked into the sample".

[@Tonepusher]

lol you're right thats why you dont need to add much...

[@lukasgruber1280]

comprehensive and useful, tnx a lot for this!

[@Tonepusher]

hey thanks again for your comment, always appreciated 🤘

[@worksofein6449]

I was only looking for a dark ambient playlist to jam while I work. Now I've ended up going down a rabbit hole of your videos and just realised I've been using your serum presets for years.

[@maximkazakov6662]

Awesome tutorial! Something like "how to DE" and "how to Aggrotech" would be also cool to see, keep it up! 🙂

[@Tonepusher]

thanks! yeah aggrotech is definitely on the list 👌🏻

[@Testgeraeusch]

That was a really nice guide. Thanks :)

[@Tonepusher]

hey thanks to you 🤘🏻😊

[@DEADLINETV]

Awesome tutorial, my man! Very good insights here and zero BS.

[@Tonepusher]

haha thanks man! yeah no secrets here, choose the right sounds, good sound design, eq compression. No secret plugins lol

[@DEADLINETV]

@@Tonepusher That's it! Cool stuff!

[@montazownianr1]

You are master of EBM Universe :D

[@Tonepusher]

The He-Man of EBM! 💪🏻🤣 haha thanks man🤘🏻

[@MarcVFons]

thanks a lot!!

[@Tonepusher]

thanks to you for commenting man, helps a lot the gods of the algorithm 🤘🏻

[@DielectricFailure]

If you have music on Apple Music, I’d be happy to buy it. All your videos have sweet sounds and great music you make.

[@Tonepusher]

Well I have some old stuff released. Productions I did back in 2017. I don't have anything recent (yet) lol I'm working on stuff right now :)🤘

[@ChernobylAudio666]

I, too, also like dirty things. \m/ Awesome video, dude!

[@Tonepusher]

haha 🤣 dirty but not muddy please.

[@user-wb5cf4tu3d]

Would also be great if you could give some tips on the harmonic part of this. Which scales fit for EBM, which intervals work better? Seems like you're using mostly octaves and a couple seconds here, is that right? Is that a minor scale, or some phrygian or something?

[@Tonepusher]

I'm not the best Music Theory guy around tbh. I mostly trust my ears hehe I believe this track is in the F minor scale. Most EBM artists were using hardware sequencer at the time. So very often, they were modulating the WHOLE track up or down in semitones as choruses or bridges...as it was MUCH easier than writing a completely new part. So if you want to try it. Just write a cool bass riff, then take the whole thing and move it up or down randomly where you think it sounds good. It really makes that EBM modulation vibe.

[@user-wb5cf4tu3d]

@@Tonepusher yeah, well, that's the thing - I want to understand how to write a cool bass riff :) And I run into so many sound design videos, but barely anything about music theory as applied to a certain genre - such as EBM. I keep trying by myself, but everything ends up just the same - 16th through couple bars with occasional minor and major seconds around. And I do not see how I can escape it and stop making the very same loop again and again

[@Tonepusher]

@@user-wb5cf4tu3d haha ok yeah I understand your pain. Well maybe I could make some videos about that. There's so many ways of writing ebm or industrial basslines. Right now I'm thinking that you should use fast BPMs (160 and higher) and 1/8th patterns. Think about Rammstein's guitar riffs but on synths.

[@user-wb5cf4tu3d]

@@Tonepusher cool. Thanks, I'll be looking forward to such videos if you end up making them! Sure, industrial is such a broad genre, and I'd love to understand the structure of its various kinds.

[@ZiMnY-DrAn]

😎👍

[@Tonepusher]

EBM ftw ! 🤘

[@kaboozle]

What’s with the easy listening piano jn the background?

[@Tonepusher]

It's for you to relax and leave a comment.

[@EBMZEQUENZER]

It's so hard to find anybody remotely interested in making EBM Lots of Industrial Techno : mehhh Cheers 🥂

[@Tonepusher]

hey thanks man. Yeah there's close to nothing on youtube about industrial...I've been doing this for 20 years so I figured I should share. Thanks for commenting man 🤘🏻

[@maskedleatherface8379]

I would like to know how to make a sound as Centhron has. So powerful

[@Tonepusher]

Yeah Centhron is very very well produced. I might make an "aggrotech" tutorial sometime soon 👌🏻

[@maskedleatherface8379]

@@Tonepusher thanks, would be great :)

[@guferro7576]

The stompers are cumming with this video. LOL🥾⚙⛓

[@jonl.b7168]

Which pack is the FMFM bass from?

[@Tonepusher]

It's from the "electronic body music" pack. This one: www.tonepusher.com/product-page/electronic-body-music

[@jonl.b7168]

@@Tonepusher Bought 2 packs 🤙

[@Tonepusher]

thanks for the support 😊

[@paincult7121]

Gotta know what key you're writing this in, man.

[@Tonepusher]

It's in F ! I'll leave the project on my Patreon if you ever want to dig deeper hehe

[@spankthenun]

in the studio making a new track with your new EBM pack, great presets

[@Tonepusher]

Haha nice! 🤘🏻 I like your latest stuff. Just so you know most of the bass sounds are velocity sensitive. I like to design sounds like that now. Way faster to write dynamic basslines. Let me know when it's released :) Curious to hear that

[@spankthenun]

@@Tonepusher thanks man, I am loving the new Main Bass... already using the velocity on that one. Glad you are doing that... it is killer. I am using your John C Bass from another pack on our latest tracks. But this main bass is giving it a run for the money, better control.

[@Tonepusher]

nice to know!! yeah I called it "main bass" because I pretty much use it on every track as sub layer! It fits with pretty much any disorted one(if you add an HP filter on the distorted layer). You guys always have great basslines on your tracks 👌🏻