Wouldn't this separate the forum into people who are on the IRC vs people posting here?

Maybe if you embedded/made a client that stayed on the side of the page so that it wouldn't take you off of the forum website.

I think making a channel on the same server could work just for ease of use, but if this does get set up I'd be hesitant to try and piggyback on another channel; the idea would be to connect people from here in a faster way, and allow people on the IRC server to discover the site.

It would be nice to have a chat inside the forum I would like to chat with the forum users in real time, not with posts.

Well remember the point isn't to reduce the posting on the forum, but to facilitate it. It's why I'd rather have a separate chat room than something embedded in the site. Besides, embedding the chat means you can't open any forum link without disconnecting or opening a new tab (and if you're doing that you may as well use a mobile chat client that takes up the whole page). That would separate the forum.

It could also help eliminate the clamoring for a general discussion subforum - people could go onto the chat room (where it won't take up nearly as much server space, and is easier to dump the archives of) for their smalltalk, and it would give people a place to go and ask questions before making the tenth "How do I make the Madeon Bass?" thread.

Like Nala said, with proper moderation and rules that prohibit self-promotion and spamming and all that good stuff, it can be a really valuable asset to a forum-based community.

but if this does get set up I'd be hesitant to try and piggyback on another channel;

Let me expand on this: If we try to piggyback on another channel, there will be people who come there from this forum who do not know that it is a channel for a different site (in this case, the EDM production subreddit). You'll have people asking questions and referring to things that people who are normally in the channel won't understand, because they're not on this forum. This'll lead to a lot of confusion, and as a resource for producers of all skill levels to connect I don't think that's a good idea. Making our own channel also allows us to establish our own identity, be moderated by our own community, and gives people a central place to jump between the forum and the chat.

As far as "if no one will stay", I gotta reference that classic Field of Dreams: If you build it, they will come.

IRC is a nice idea. But as wayfinder pointed out, we could need someone in power here to manage the channel and at least be somewhat active. If someone is willing to do that then I'm all for this, otherwise I can't see it happening.