11 Pop Production Techniques That Are Everywhere Right Now!

The more pop songs change, the more they stay the same, right? Not quite! Sweetwater staff checked some bubblegum earworms pulled from the Billboard Hot 100 and other leading music charts. We heard some surprises, including lo-fi confessionals by stars who typically go for gloss, cumbia norteña from South Texas, and an eclectic variety of contemporary country. Several production trends stood out.

Pop artists are leaning into remote collaboration from the comfort of their homes, often using great gear and software sold here at Sweetwater. Hitmakers aren’t divorcing themselves from commercial studios, but recent pandemic circumstances disrupted how pop music was created in previous decades. It even might have disrupted the sound of the music itself.

On the flip side, listeners are reshaping production by consuming music differently. More than ever, engineers and producers have embraced mixing for headphone listeners, embracing isolated listening driven by the popularity of earbuds like Apple AirPods that simulate stereo depths more intently than yesteryear’s headphones.

Producers, composers, artists, and players can find plenty of inspiration and a new trick or challenge to tackle. Read on for 11 tools and trends that recent pop hits just can’t put down!

Vocal TrendsPan, Double & Process According to Vocal Range(s)Take a (Vocal) BowPunched-up “Bedroom” VocalsMixing/Production TrendsLo-fi Intros & OutrosMassive Stereo Fields (for Small Devices)Evolving Filters & EQCombine “Real” & Synthetic SoundsInstrumentation TrendsFunky Bass Guitar & Synth BassSupportive Acoustic Guitar PickingSparse Synth & Keyboard MelodiesSingle-coil Shimmer: Teles, Strats & Plug-ins

Vocal Trends

Pan, Double & Process According to Vocal Range(s)

Vocalists laying down their own backup vocals is nothing new, but many singers are increasingly stacking their voices. Vocal stacks are an easy way to thicken pop presence, so long as you’re careful not to muddy the mix. Panning, processing, and tactical doubles can help tracks stay airy and appealing without making them muddy or, worse, thin.

Let’s examine “Anti-Hero,” a track from Taylor Swift’s 2022 Midnights album that’s currently Swift’s longest-running #1 hit (in the US and the UK — “Anti-Hero” is still performing admirably in late 2023). The song’s pre-chorus dips into low alto registers that aren’t as voluminous or defined as Swift’s high register. Production adds presence by doubling the alto range with even panning to the left and right. This thickens presence and gives Swift room to harmonize with occasional breaks from the strict double on one side of the mix. Lastly, Swift uses the vacant center space in the mix like a window, occasionally popping in to observe and comment on her lyrics — a Swiftian Greek chorus to our antihero’s tragedy.

The relationship between panning and a diverse range of vocal tracks can be a very fruitful one that lets you craft immersive, nuanced mixes that even have literary merit. That’s the magic of mixing; don’t deny your dynamic responsibilities even if you aren’t playing an instrument! Artists may not always be interested in or understand these finer production points, so mastering them (and knowing why/how they work) is a way to make yourself invaluable to performers.

Check out our top panning and doubling plug-in options below! You can always double vocals manually, but some prefer the sound of an artificial double. (The Waves Abbey Road Reel ADT plug-in, for example, crafts artificial doubles by mimicking a tape machine process used by the Beatles and Abbey Road Studios’ other frequent fliers.)

Add to cartLearn MoreAdd to list

Add to cartLearn MoreAdd to list

Add to cartLearn MoreAdd to list

Take a (Vocal) Bow

The vocal bow is a low-effort way to send listeners off with extra-warm, fuzzy feelings and a personalized wave from the artist — it’s like being a good host. Making the singer the final sound listeners hear lets them subliminally leave thinking about the artist in today’s fast-paced streaming world.

“Dance the Night” by Dua Lipa and “Kill Bill” by SZA both end with a punchy staccato quip from the singer. Contrast these with SZA’s “Snooze,” which ends with an ongoing vocal flourish that slowly fades. Neither method is groundbreaking but may help listeners connect the song with the artist, thus boosting brand recognition and future plays.

Every track doesn’t need a vocal bow (doing so would sound repetitive), but there are many ways to add this technique to your bag of tricks. So, here are our tips for giving it a go! Try recycling a repeating lyric from a chorus, pre-chorus, or even the first verse if there’s a standout line. The bow works best when the closing line mirrors a track’s general theme, so choose accordingly. Also, be mindful of energy. Remember that you’re showing people the door, not setting up a new chorus! Don’t be afraid to shorten lyrics, modify chord progressions, sustain notes longer, or cut them short.

Punched-up “Bedroom” Vocals 

The charts always have room for slow-burn singles! Recent examples show a preference for intimate, pared-down arrangements, perhaps because of the pandemic and the preceding rise of lo-fi bedroom pop on YouTube. Artists as prominent as Taylor Swift embraced scaled-back production during early COVID lockdowns. (She recorded her album folklore at home and then sent it to engineers.) Are the intimate sounds of “home recordings” taking on new life?

From pre-production to mastering, sparse instrumentation in any minimalist pop hit draws attention to the vocals. Take the tearjerker “What Was I Made For?” by Billie Eilish, which was written to play as the Barbie movie’s credits roll. “What Was I Made For?” opens with sparse piano and a lone vocal track before introducing soft, sad beds of muted orchestral strings and later thickening things with washed-out vocal harmonies.

The main vocal is intimate, longing, and exceptionally “breathy” for a pop vocal (engineers regularly minimize vocal breathing noise in pop tracks, but not here). These aspects convey vulnerability and, in literary terms, reinforce lyrical themes packed with existential questions (the lyrics stand on their own but also echo Barbie‘s major plot points).

So, if vulnerability and a lo-fi bedroom sound are vital to the song, and the song is tied to a major motion picture, then what does it take to craft a vocal that falls far from the polished ivory towers of pop but still has red-carpet appeal?

Mic choice is critical. Eilish reportedly used a Neumann TLM 103 large-diaphragm condenser microphone. A knockout mic, the TLM 103’s extended frequency range, low self-noise, and sensitive large diaphragm capture a detailed performance that Eilish croons out comfortably without overexertion, mimicking the sensation of someone softly singing directly into the ear. The TLM 103 might also help singers deliver a better performance, as this mic’s detail will capture imperfections.

On a budget? No problem! Sweetwater has mic options for everyone, with numerous large-diaphragm microphones up for grabs. We recommend the Lewitt LCT 540 S or the Audix A133 for a workhorse mic, but if you’d like to explore this microphone style more affordably, then the RODE NT1 5th Generation gives phenomenal value.

Chiseled EQs, compression, and managing proximity effect are essential to crafting a great bedroom vocal. You can’t beat the FabFilter Mastering Bundle plug-in collection. It includes limiters, EQs, multiband dynamics, and more — invaluable tools to use when taming your performer’s low end without losing rich detail. Another trick pros love is doubling up on compression/limiting. If you’re using a limiter to smooth out peaks, then you might also want to raise troughs using a FET-based compressor or plug-in, such as the Slate Digital FG-116 Blue Series.

Cleanup in post may also be needed when using any high-sensitivity mic. Of course, you want a bedroom vocal to have some mouth noise (for the lo-fi authenticity), but not all noise is good noise. The Solid State Logic Vocalstrip 2 vocal processor plug-in packs a must-have de-esser and de-ploser (plosive ducker) for easy cleanup.

Add to cartLearn MoreAdd to list

Add to cartLearn MoreAdd to list

Add to cartLearn MoreAdd to list

Add to cartLearn MoreAdd to list

Add to cartLearn MoreAdd to list

Add to cartLearn MoreAdd to list

Add to cartLearn MoreAdd to list

Mixing/Production Trends

Lo-fi Intros & Outros

Like the vocal bow, intros can be subliminal hooks. That’s prime real estate for sonic branding! The lo-fi intro eases listeners into a track with a sound that’s intimate, humanizing, or relevant to what’s coming.

What counts as lo-fi is open to interpretation. For example, “Un x100to” by Grupo Frontera, featuring Bad Bunny, opens with clicking drumsticks counting off a 2/4 beat — a timeless lo-fi intro before lo-fi was cool. This count-in takes us deeper than production. It feels like standing near a drum kit at a gig.

Next, listen to “Flowers” — Miley Cyrus’s anthem of independence. It opens with a guitar sample treated with a warm chorus effect. The intro isn’t grand — far from it! But the brief sonic swirl helps prepare us for the track’s assertive themes, lyrics, and bass line.

Contrast “Flowers” with Luke Combs’s cover of “Fast Car.” Combs’s hitmaking, conventional soft-country spin on Tracy Chapman’s classic opens with a slide guitar performing a gentle swell. Is it lo-fi? Maybe it’s not — in the customary sense. However, the warm slide guitar supplements slick production value with country bona fides while immediately keying us into the song’s principal instruments.

Each intro above chips at the fourth wall in savvy ways that enhance the appeal. Stay curious, and be sure to experiment! Check out plug-ins, such as the XLN Audio RC-20 Retro Color, Baby Audio Super VHS, and Waves Retro Fi lo-fit effects chain plug-ins, three Sweetwater favorites for adding lo-fi crackle and color in record time.

Add to cartLearn MoreAdd to list

Add to cartLearn MoreAdd to list

Add to cartLearn MoreAdd to list

Massive Stereo Fields (for Small Devices)

Many producers are embracing consumer shifts to solo listening by embracing mixing for headphones. Headphones have been around for decades, but the rise of premium earbud products, like Apple AirPods, puts a newfound importance on mixing for the end user. If you aren’t using ‘pods to reference tracks before the final export, then you should be! Most listeners will hear your creations through ‘pods or earbuds, so checking on these systems keeps you in touch with your audience.

AirPods now offer expanded spatial capabilities and deliver extremely impressive dimensionality for their size. Sweetwater’s look at Apple’s Spatial Audio simulated surround sound technology and its relationship to Dolby Atmos goes into more detail, but producers should know that most current major pop releases are mixed for Dolby Atmos, including recent albums by the Weeknd, Billie Eilish, Justin Bieber, Ariana Grande, and Olivia Rodrigo. We’ve listed some top stereo mixing plug-ins below that will enrich your mixes with wide, new dimensions.

Add to cartLearn MoreAdd to list

Add to cartLearn MoreAdd to list

Add to cartLearn MoreAdd to list

Add to cartLearn MoreAdd to list

Add to cartLearn MoreAdd to list

Add to cartLearn MoreAdd to list

Evolving Filters & EQ

Filter sweeps in pop are an evergreen trick for raising anticipation during transitions, but modern mixes often expand their use of filters even more. The Arturia Mini-Filter filter plug-in software — or any plug-in with filter automation — makes punching in sweeps easy (and pushes the field of dynamics beyond the mere ebb and flow of decibels).

“Calm Down” by Rema, featuring Selena Gomez, puts filters to rigorous use on everything from acoustic guitars to beats. Pop country loves giving acoustic guitars and vocal tracks a lo-fi radio quality using filters and EQ (those familiar with Pink Floyd’s iconic “Wish You Were Here” will know this is nothing new). SZA’s recent synthy R&B album SOS demonstrates extreme filtering with tracks smothered in lowpass filters (with exceptions, including keys, vocals, and some high-frequency percussion) ­that weave beds of muffled lo-fi sounds decorated with open melodies.

Any filter plug-in with automation tools allows more variation and control over everything from cutoff frequencies to waveforms. Such widespread control can add nuanced life and movement to extended filters, which keeps things from sounding like the producer hit a big red filter button and stepped away.

Learning filter automation often improves your production prowess over time. Automation can enhance old-school sweep transitions while making it easier to chop sweeps into repeatable building blocks for your tracks. With an automation sequence, a big initial chorus sweep can be pasted into the second, third, or fourth chorus and then be altered to build momentum in new ways.

Guiding automation with a touch controller or footpedal is a satisfying, tactile way to mix music. Check out the BOSS EV-1-WL wireless MIDI expression pedal for a MIDI-capable footpedal option. The novel Expressive E Touché SE multi-touch expression controller offers programmable multiaxial expression control for a desktop-friendly solution. Lastly, you can always map parameters to your MIDI controller’s faders, encoders, or mod wheel to tweak automation as you go. The JL Cooper FaderMaster Pro MIDI automation controller also offers extensive fader control designed specifically for MIDI automation.

Add to cartLearn MoreAdd to list

Add to cartLearn MoreAdd to list

Add to cartLearn MoreAdd to list

Add to cartLearn MoreAdd to list

Add to cartLearn MoreAdd to list

Add to cartLearn MoreAdd to list

Combine “Real” & Synthetic Sounds

Novel sounds that excite today’s listeners often mix synthetic and natural sounds to give music a fresh feel. Since the late 1970s, pop music has leaned heavily on synthesis. All contemporary music blends some form of synthetic sound (synthesizers, beats, digital processing, samples, etc.) with material instruments.

Today’s pop habitually merges both camps — look at hip-hop’s recent neo-soul trend or the lasting tension in pop country between polish and authenticity. There are no set rules when blending “real” and synthetic sounds, so reflecting on how you integrate them is often helpful. A basic blend might involve an acoustic drum kit countered with a synthesized melody line or the inverse: 808s paired with acoustic guitar power chords, which give you an indie-rock flair.

Modernizing a real/synthetic blend might look even more unusual. For instance, what if you have an Auto-Tuned vocal that feels sterile? It was crafted in a DAW, so re-amping the vocal through a miked PA speaker could liven it up with a touch of room sound and grit. You could do the same with virtual instruments — a bass synth might shine with the added character of a rattling speaker cabinet. On the other hand, physical instruments can be re-amped with extreme processing — EQs, compression, amp/speaker modeling — to finesse sounds that players may not typically seek out. Blend away, find a sweet spot, and embrace the cyborg!

Instrumentation Trends

Funky Bass Guitar & Synth Bass

Funk bass is back in a big way! Thick grooves with attitude can be played the traditional way (check out a Fender Precision Bass for a go-to vintage choice or a Specter NS Pulse II for more modern transparency). Pop hits we sampled captured a funky attitude by giving the bass lots of attitude and movement. You’re more likely to hear plucked octave walks and skips than aggressive pops or slaps some might associate with all things funk bass. Tracks like “Flowers” by Miley Cyrus let the bass drive the song, not just support it. Giving bass room to roam is a great way to give a mix some substance and heft with lots of room left over for singers and other instruments to shine. Achieve these sounds using a bass guitar and funky effects with your favorite monophonic bass synth or a tasty MIDI virtual bass pack like the Toontrack Modern Funk EZbass MIDI pack.

Add to cartLearn MoreAdd to list

Add to cartLearn MoreAdd to list

Add to cartLearn MoreAdd to list

Add to cartLearn MoreAdd to list

Add to cartLearn MoreAdd to list

Supportive Acoustic Guitar Picking

Pop never abandoned the acoustic guitar, but it’s safe to say the classic 6-string is enjoying a renaissance. Strums, fingerpicking, minimalist loops, and more — acoustic guitars are all over recent hits. Two songs — “Calm Down” by Rema, featuring Selena Gomez, and “Last Night” by Morgan Wallen — use acoustic guitars very differently. The former’s rhythmic minimalist loop is exceptionally low-key and likely created with software for a more polished sound. Compare that with Wallen’s “Last Night,” which opens with what is likely a real acoustic guitar tightened with filtering and quantization.

Virtual guitar plug-ins, such as the MusicLab RealGuitar 6 acoustic guitar software virtual instrument, can achieve either sound. Pop producers love RealGuitar 6 because you can use it without having guitar experience!

Guitar choice is critical when using an actual acoustic guitar. Best practice favors the mix-ready sound of a small-bodied acoustic guitar. Taylor acoustic guitars are studio favorites and prized for their modern high-fidelity sound. The Grand Concert style is a perennial favorite for crisp fingerpicking with a clear, focused sound. Similarly, acoustic guitars with orchestra and auditorium body styles, like the Larrivée OOO-60 or the Martin 000-28, paved the way for the Grand Concert style, and discerning ears may find these brands more “vintage-sounding” than Taylor acoustics.

Why do we recommend these acoustic guitar body styles for recording pop? These styles heavily emphasize mid and treble frequencies, and they fit neatly into most pop mixes. Guitars with a large sound chamber — think of dreadnought and jumbo body styles — have a more pronounced bass response. That low-end power is essential in specific contexts but often makes pop songs sound muddy. For a more detailed look at how size affects the tone of acoustic guitars, check out the article below!

Lastly, Gibson proudly offers studio-grade strummers that feature a “big but not muddy” sound. The Gibson Acoustic Hummingbird Studio Walnut acoustic-electric guitar features a comfortable fingerboard and a square-shouldered body style that helps tame assertive bass.

How Size Affects Tone of Acoustic Guitars – With Sound Samples

Add to cartLearn MoreAdd to list

Add to cartLearn MoreAdd to list

Add to cartLearn MoreAdd to list

Add to cartLearn MoreAdd to list

Add to cartLearn MoreAdd to list

Add to cartLearn MoreAdd to list

Sparse Synth & Keyboard Melodies

Synths are one of pop’s few anchor instruments. Current chart-toppers reveal that contemporary synthesizer approaches often lean into retro synth nostalgia without necessarily defaulting to ’80s glam-wave cheese.

Taylor Swift’s synth hit “Cruel Summer” taps into ’80s nostalgia with a huge-sounding bass synth pounding out simple lines. That’s something anyone can groove to — Swiftie or not! Synth work and production come from St. Vincent and Jack Antonoff. Antonoff, a longtime Swift collaborator, first rose to prominence with the 2012 synthy summertime hit “We Are Young” by fun., an indie band. Antonoff has since become one of the most undeniable forces in pop production today. The Antonoff sound has a way of snatching retro nostalgia and blending it with utterly contemporary hi-fi glitz. In addition to Taylor Swift, Antonoff’s production credits include work from Lorde, St. Vincent, Lana Del Rey, Carly Rae Jepsen, Clairo, and more.

Antonoff’s influence is vast but doesn’t define contemporary pop. On the flip side, artists like SZA have recently drawn textures inspired by 2010s dream-pop acts, such as Tame Impala and Beach House, artists who come from a similar time and place as Antonoff’s band fun. but approach their art with a different sense of style. SZA’s SOS album demonstrates a mellow, dream-pop style, complete with drowned-out synths and beats that lethargically shuffle at tempos far below the average pop hit.

Add to cartLearn MoreAdd to list

Add to cartLearn MoreAdd to list

Add to cartLearn MoreAdd to list

Add to cartLearn MoreAdd to list

Add to cartLearn MoreAdd to list

Add to cartLearn MoreAdd to list

Add to cartLearn MoreAdd to list

Add to cartLearn MoreAdd to list

Single-coil Shimmer: Teles, Strats & Plug-ins

In the 2010s, the electric guitar took an overdue hiatus from pop music, only to come back more ethereal and mature. Today, pop electric guitars favor clean sounds, and distortion rarely shows up except for solos. Knowing this, pop engineers will want to own at least one electric guitar (or MIDI plug-in) with a strong, pleasing sound with minimal processing. It’s easy to sweeten a clean guitar with mixing and effects when it already sounds good, but no number of effects can fix a source riddled with low-quality tonewoods, rusty hardware, or crackly electronics.

Fender’s versatile Nashville Telecaster is capable of every tone a pop producer could want (sure, it’s excellent for Nashville country, but it’s also great for so much more). The Nashville Telecaster adds a third pickup to Fender’s original design for a guitar that sounds and feels like a Telecaster but packs the extended tonal range and pickup options of a Fender Stratocaster.

A Fender or any quality electric guitar outfitted with single-coil pickups will excel in the studio. Players can achieve massive sounds with a clean sound or simple effects like reverb, delay(s), and modulation. That said, humbucking pickups often do the trick and are the right call when evoking lo-fi hip-hop or jazz.

Either guitar is a great studio pick. Players can achieve truly massive sounds with little more than a Fender electric plus plug-ins. How do you get massive sounds? Simplified chord voicings and arpeggios are often the trick. Check out this video from one of our YouTube affiliates, Chords Of Orion, for tips on mastering chord voicings! This style has long been used in ambient/instrumental genres like post-rock and was further mainstreamed by artists like ODESZA and Lana Del Rey in the mid-2010s.

Add to cartLearn MoreAdd to list

Add to cartLearn MoreAdd to list

Add to cartLearn MoreAdd to list

Add to cartLearn MoreAdd to list

Add to cartLearn MoreAdd to list

Ready to Pop Off?

We can safely say that pop music pivots — but never on a dime. Like a big ocean liner, music’s most lucrative genre is slow to turn. And like the Ship of Theseus paradox of Greek lore, pop gradually phases out sounds that feel tired without losing the essence of what makes pop a fun, infectious genre. Gear constantly shapes this evolution, and Sweetwater proudly offers software and gear for whatever sound you’re chasing. Our team of knowledgeable Sweetwater Sales Engineers are standing by with know-how at the right price — give them a call at (800) 222-4700!
The post 11 Pop Production Techniques That Are Everywhere Right Now! appeared first on inSync.