What tempo should I use for EDM?
Most big room and progressive EDM sits at 126 to 128 BPM. Future bass tends to run faster, around 140 to 160 BPM (often felt as a half-time 70 to 80). Tropical house is slower, around 96 to 104 BPM. Electro house and hard-hitting club tracks often use 126 to 130 BPM. Put the number in the prompt rather than leaving it to genre defaults, since "EDM" alone covers a wide range.
How do I get a proper build-up and drop?
Describe the build and drop as separate moments rather than one blended description. A build-up usually means rising white noise, a filtered lead, or a snare roll that gets faster. A drop usually means the kick and bass return at full volume with a lead sound (supersaw, pluck, saw) on top. Try: "rising build-up with white noise sweep and snare roll, then a supersaw lead drop with sidechained bass". Section tags such as [Build] and [Drop] are a common convention that models follow often but not always, so pairing the tag with a sound description gives a better chance of the right result.
EDM vs house vs trance: which prompt fits?
EDM is a broad umbrella that includes house, future bass, electro house and more, so "EDM" alone gives an unpredictable result. If you want the driving, hypnotic four-on-the-floor sound with a minor key and a long, layered build, that is closer to trance, which usually runs 128 to 142 BPM (uplifting trance 136 to 140, psytrance 140 to 148) and often sits in F# minor, A minor or D minor. See our trance prompt page for that direction. For festival EDM with punchier drops and supersaw leads, stick with the prompts on this page.
Should EDM have vocals?
Decide upfront and say so. Instrumental big room and progressive tracks work well with "no vocals" or "instrumental" stated explicitly, since without it some models add a vocal anyway. Future bass and EDM pop usually want a short vocal hook or pitched, chopped vocal phrases rather than full verses, since long lyric sections can crowd out the drop.
Getting this made properly
Lyro Music turns a description, a vocal or a beat into a mixed and mastered track. It routes sung lyrics (including Turkish) to Google's Lyria 3 Pro, and vocal chops, tempo-locked beats and audio-input work to ACE-Step 1.5. There's a free prompt generator at /ai-music-prompt-generator if you want help building an EDM prompt from a plain description, and tracks run from 30 seconds to 3 minutes.
Lyrics skeleton
Original, for structure
[Verse] Lights are low, the crowd counts down Hands go up before the sound [Build] Hold it, hold it, here it comes Hold it, hold it, feel the drum [Drop] (Instrumental) [Outro] Fade to black, the night's still young
Common mistakes
- Saying just "EDM" with no subgenre or tempo, which gives an unpredictable mix of styles; name the subgenre (big room, future bass, progressive house) and the BPM.
- Describing the drop but not the build-up, which can produce a track that jumps straight to full energy; describe the rise (white noise, filtered lead, snare roll) too.
- Leaving out the lead sound, which often defaults to a generic pad; name it (supersaw, pluck, saw lead, arpeggio).
- Mixing contradictory moods like "dark" and "uplifting" in one prompt, which confuses the mood; pick one mood per track.
- Adding percentages or dB numbers to shape the mix ("bass +6dB"); in our measurements on ACE-Step 1.5 these numbers were not read, so describe the sound in words instead.