Here is our list of the best plugins professional producers are using to make high-level music so that you can get similar results in your music.

The concept of melody when pertaining to music production doesn’t just lie in bringing a slew of notes played one after another to make something that ‘sounds’ good anymore - it’s evolved into a beautiful balancing act of balancing many technical but equally beautiful elements.

But what really goes into actually achieving all of this within the context of melodic techno?

Whether it be the notes being played, the tone, layers, and grit of the actual sounds being used in your favorite melodic techno, the subtle psychoacoustic effects giving listeners ears more than what they think they’re hearing or even getting close to emulating that sought after analog warmth - the best melodic techno ideas come from bringing humanistic qualities to digital sounds, but with a core focus on manipulating those sounds to make the listener feel and truly evoke something nostalgic, brooding and larger than life.

The foundational production techniques used to evoke the core characteristics of melodic techno can be broken down as follows:

For each of these 6 categories, I will be briefly breaking down one plugin that aims to act as a one-stop shop for the said category but should be noted that these cater to all the major cornerstones of what they aim to do both inside and outside of the genres of techno.

Analog synth-forward sound palates for plucks, basses, effects (and beyond)

Arturia is back with their V9 Collection which adds to their already endless library of synths, cementing this as one of the most robust yet cutting edge collections of monophonic bass synths to polyphonic pad synths along with infinite presets, sequencers & effects built in. Even with the V8 release becoming an industry staple - Arturia has always boasted and brought us the best and most convenient synth collections on the market, and this V9 collection is no different.

Capturing the essence of nostalgia but making it oh so accessible, this V9 collection is a must for any producer, as this collection contains pretty much every single iconic sound used in music since the dawn of time.

I’d then open up the Yamaha CS-80 for making some deep Blade Runner inspired pads to fill up some space to bring some slight progression, then finally top it off with some lush synths, strings and plucks from the JUP-8 V. The beautiful part of this all? You can stack and audition all these sounds using their Analog Lab, having the ability to play multiple sounds from multiple synths as if you were conducting your own melodic techno symphony.

Finally, all the synths have an ‘Advanced’ tab which includes modulators, keyboard mappings, sequencers and many effects, furthering the already incredible utility this collection brings. 

Brooding evolving atmospheres for technical leads, pads and drones

While Arturia may bring you the classic sounds needed to get the foundations down, the best melodic techno tunes usually involve texturally layered and evolving soundscapes that really draw the listener in and create those iconic live “moments”, and these Slate and Ash Kontakt libraries are cheat codes for getting intricate yet palatable moods in a matter of seconds. 

The focus of the engine boasts being one of the best in shifting and stretching in real time, resulting in almost infinite possibilities. Combined with the Colours engine for even more control over the included presets, this library will spice up those dull moments you're struggling to fill up within your productions. Including sounds like leads, bells, pads, drones and vocals straight from the heavens - Auras should be your swiss army knife for articulating that larger than life tone melodic techno is known for.

Cycles at its core showcases the power of their Loops engine, which brings together a looper, step sequencer, splicer and granular synthesizer all in one, allowing you to sequence one or many samples while playing around with the volume, pitch and grain or each step, while further breaking each one of those individual samples up into individual steps (up to 25 per sample). 

While the presets included are immaculate, the fun really begins when you drag and drop your own samples onto each step and start playing around with the Loops engine and making your own sequence of granulated controlled chaos. 

Landforms shares core architecture and ideas with the other two Slate and Ash products in that it is very much so also about expression control and evolving characteristics, but the focus here is applying a sampler to their endless library of acoustic and string oriented instruments combined with a synthesizer to create a different, more textured and airy type of sound. 

While it might take a bit to dig into these libraries, it’s an ecosystem I urge everyone to spend some time learning…there’s a reason these libraries were used in movies like Annihilation before they were being sold commercially!

Check out more on this bundle here.

Unique yet musical midi sequence generation and manipulation SABROI

For all the Ableton users out there, Max for Live is one of the most thriving open source ecosystems within the production community and has surely become the place where the coolest musical innovations currently take place. With developers creating tools they wish they had, there’s so much cool stuff going on within this space.

Created by a producer and developer Sabroi, AS Steps is a Max for Live device made in collaboration with a techno producer called Hellbound! which captures and enhances his midi workflow within a singular device. It aims to be a simple yet powerful sequencer that can easily generate melodically musical yet randomized MIDI with very little tweaking, plus includes advanced features such as probability control, different randomization algorithms, a harmonizer, a modulator and so much more. 

Step sequencers are instrumental within the world of melodic techno as the best melodies are ones that are almost impossible to play, but possible to randomly generate - those happy accidents. Having deep control over the randomness being enacted makes this device a powerhouse for generating endless inspiration and stumbling across those happy accidents in a purposeful controlled environment. 

Check Out More Of It Here

Lush melodic reverbs and out of this world creative effects

The power of putting an effect on a sound to instantly breathe new life are truly some of my favorite plugins. While there are a bunch of audio manipulation and sound design plugins out there to morph your sound, there isn’t too much talk around the power of delay based ones, especially the old but gold, Valhalla Ubermod.

My favorite plugins are those that are cost effective, but pack an absolute punch, and this has to be one of the most straightforward multi effect plugins that does the most for the least.

The possibilities within the use of melodic techno are endless. Want to turn a kick into a riser and introduce some tonality? Need a long winding alien-eseque atmosphere created off this serum patch you made? Want to give your dark vocals a slight detuned haas effect that has a slight crunch to it while pitch shifting upwards? Well with a few tweaks or added automation to any of the Modulation, Delay Taps, Diffusion, EQ, Drive and Warp tabs, this plugin should be essential for hacking into creative effects with ease.

Harmonic analog emulated saturation on drums and sub

Creative saturation is the key to that subconscious grit you hear when hearing a really polished drums or bass, and Decapitator is one of the greatest to bring forth that exact warmth. Although it can be used to beef up practically any sound (even master and busses), the power of this shines when using this on practically any drum or sub that are lacking character and need that final edge.

The ease of using a single plugin to bring so much life to a sound is unmatched. With the ability to seamlessly emulate parallel compression (via the mix knob), control your tone and choose between 5 different models of analog saturation, this plugin will instantly beef any sound from say, an Arturia product, and would instantly shape it into something ready for the main stage. With leads, basses and subs being the main parts that need to stick out in melodic techno, Decapitator has got you covered when trying to really push your sounds to the perfect limit.

While there’s many saturator plugins on the market, Soundtoys has created some of the best analog sounding distortion algorithms currently out there by closely studied various tubes, circuits, transistors, consoles, preamps, input channels, EQs, compressors and even studio distortion units and piecing together the best elements. Almost being 10 years old, it continues to be one of the best at what it does.

Vintage modeled mixing and mastering for tasteful clarity

One of the most slept on and also most important characteristics within the world of techno production has to be the power of using colorful compression and limiting in the final stages when polishing up a song. What producers do in the mixing and mastering stage can have a profound effect on how the song translates to listeners, and when using products modeled after actual hardware is where the fun really begins, and sometimes the only way to get that perfect clarity needed in melodic techno productions. 

While saturation plugins like Decapitator are more for beefing up as you go, this type of boosting comes in usually towards the end of making a song.

Softube’s Chandler Limited Zener Bender is an analog modeled version of the TG12413 Zener Limiter and Chandler Limited Curve Bender EQ, otherwise known as the hardware used in Abbey Road Studio by Pink Floyd and The Beatles. This is one of the absolute industry standards, with it’s ability to musically clean up or boost whatever frequency range your track needs without damaging the input signals and with the peace of mind that it will almost always sound crisp. It boasts unique features such as external sidechain and mid/side processing for further surgical needs as well.

The golden standard for almost all modern techno, in general, is very much so rooted in this rich analog warmth, so that final punch and attention to dynamics are what gives the listener a sense of that final polish we yearn for when listening to our favorite tunes, and dare I say the essence that makes us dance when we hear music on good speakers.

Shrey Jain is an artist manager with a background in computer science. His current creative endeavors live in managing a plugin developer (and also producer) called Sabroi, running a music label named GODTIER, and of course, contributing to all things musical and nerdy over at Magnetic Mag. Based out of New York City, keep an eye out for him as you’ll definitely catch him attending a plethora of shows, no matter the genre.