Sounds easy right? yeah it does...why should picking instruments for Your own track be a hustle, it's Your own track after all... hahahaha yeah I used to think so too...
If You really want to realise how important and technical picking the right instrument is, just take a minute or two to listen to some of Your old productions...the very first ones. Ear sores right? Now ask Yourself, WHY? Why do they sound so bad? Mixing, Mastering and horrible drums are some of the factors that most definitely shall come to mind but I am willing to bet 90 percent it's mostly because of the bad instruments.
To pick the right instruments, one has to understand the very fundamentals of music or music making...Music can be divided into three or four main (frequency) sections depending on how one groups the drums.
Highs
Look at the frequency spectrum of whatever Equaliser You use, (I will use FL Studios' Parametric eq as it's most common) You should be able to see that when playing certain sounds...they all produce different red/pink regions on the eq, high hats and snares are most likely to show most activity(most redness) around the 5khz to 16khz(MHZ) and piano sounds are likely most active from 150 to around 2500Hertz...
This only serves to show that some instrumental frequencies are higher than others...High frequencies tend to be the most audible of all frequencies (to a certain degree) as they are easier for the ear to pick up.
Whenever one chooses instruments, be it in Hip Hop, Trap or EDM, it's safe to that Highs need to be taken into account as to balance out the whole sound and give those memorable melodies.
In the Highs You will have to have low highs, mid highs and the highest sound of all (usually Saws in EDM...there are Amphemic saws, Saws and Super Saws usually in that graduating order) the ability to combine all three and mixing them effectively together can provide a very very solid and well sounding balanced (high) frequency sound...and with sound well taken care of one is only left with the task of making catchy melodies(a topic for another too)
Mids
Let's go back to the EQ once again and this time combine it with LIVE music, as live instruments will always be THE refference for any electronic music production...if You were to have a live band play, which sound do You think would record a higher frequency reading, a high hat or an E-piano? the answer can be quite tricky but let's assume the high hat would be higher...this would leave the E-piano as our middle sounding instrument right? (In the middle of the high hat and assuming there is a low kick there too) now imagine a band with only drums and highs...no mid sounds...ask any music producer and they will tell You that Mids are the most important area to focus Your mixing at...why? because bad Mids like or more than any other sectors of music can deaden Your music like suffocating can deaden a living being.
You are not Oxygen but You cannot live without it...same for mids...a track is not mids but without a balance at those 200-2600Hertz frequencies...You might as well delete the track before release because nobody will be able to listen to it for 3 seconds straight.
The Lows
“The ITU designation for radio frequencies in the range of 30-300kHz”,says google when explaining the low frequencies
http://www.google.nl/search?client=ms-rim&hl=en&q=what+are+low+frequencies
As You might have seen...The Mids and Highs cover a very big portion of the frequency spectra...that is why they are divided into Low Mids/Highs Middles (usually not mid mids but mid highs can be used at times) and high mids/Just Highs...but it's not usual to hear High lows as it is normal to hear low highs...this is because the Low spectrum is relatively small and does not really need the divisions to understand.
The Lows can encampus drums, basses and sub-basses...they can be quite easy to make as almost everybody understands their importance...if not, then imagine Your favourite Rock band without that Guitar shredding god on the bass guitar then You will realise how important the Lows are...You already know the importance of Kicks from previous articles too...
So all in all, in selecting instruments one has to take the frequency spectrum into consideration and make sure all the main frequency sectors are taken care of...and You are already half way to that hit...
Here is a typical list of most commonly used instruments for different frequencies...identify some of them from Your favourite track and see how they balance the spectrum just plain on their own without mixing or mastering.
Have a great day.
Your W. A. Production team