How to Program a House Beat Using Only Audio

Aug 13th in Production by Mo Volans

There are loads of ways to program beats—from using an Akai MPC to recording your own drums—but often some of the best techniques are the most direct. In this tutorial we'll learn how to create a house beat using just raw audio and a handful of plug-ins, with not a virtual drum-machine or sampler in sight...

Author: Mo Volans

Mo Volans has been releasing tracks for well over a decade with many of the world's top electronic labels. Having worked with a long list of high profile artists, he has enjoyed top ten success on numerous of occasions. Mo records under the names MoHawk, Twisted Air, and Openair and also writes music for TV and film. 
Mo is also a prolific writer and journalist writing for publications such as Music Tech, Remix mag and EQ.

Note: this tutorial contains embedded audio that will not display in a feed reader. Click back to the site to read the tutorial with audio or download the Play Pack at the end of the tut.Step 1

Start by adding enough tracks to accommodate all the drum sounds you think you’ll use. This way you can add sounds quickly, the track will be there for you and your creative flow wont be broken.



Don’t worry too much about whether the tracks are mono or stereo for now. You can always change this as you go. The same goes for the amount of tracks: just add and delete as you go.



Step 2

The first drum sound added here is the kick--the core sound of any house/dance beat. Many people seem to think there is a golden rule about kicks being in mono, and although there are good technical arguments for this, many producers are using stereo and mono kick samples. Remember Joe Meek’s catch phrase: ‘If it sounds right, it is right’ ... make up your own mind.


In this case only one kick was used but layering different styles of kick can often give great results, so feel free to experiment. A subtle amount of EQ was added here to bring it into line, with small amounts of high-end reduced and low-end added. 

As straight audio files are being used in this tut, you must ensure your start and end points are dead-on throughout to avoid noise. Fade out any samples that contain clicks, pops or noise.

Kik drum.mp3

Step 3

Once the four to the floor kick is running satisfactorily you can start to add extra drums to the mix. Next on the list is a snare drum added to the third and fourth beats of every bar. This sort of programming is integral to creating a classic house sound, giving emphasis to every other beat.

Take your time choosing the right sound here, as some snares will sound great alone but won't work with your chosen kick. Of course, you can always go back and change your arrangement, as long as the two drums gel.



From this point onwards most of the drum sounds have their lower frequencies filtered with high-pass filters to ensure they don’t clash with the kick. Some room reverb has also been added here to give the sound some extra dimension.



Snare.mp3

Step 4

To give your snare sound some extra snap, layer a clap or higher frequency snare sound alongside it. These sounds can then be panned to create a stereo effect and some slight sample based delay can be added to one of the signals to alter their timing and add further separation.

At this point, take a look at your overall mix and make sure you are still working with a decent amount of headroom. Select all your drum tracks and lower their volume if you need to: performing this action regularly will save you a lot of work later.




Clap.mp3

Step 5

A simple open hat on the off beat completes the basic structure of your house beat. From here on out its a case of adding extra percussion and FX to make the pattern your own. This hat has had its lower frequencies cut and its higher frequencies boosted to give it some extra bite.

Feel free to add some closed hats running at 16th intervals to add pace if needed.

Open hat.mp3

Step 6

Choose a basic percussion sound and start to build a groove by placing it in different positions between the existing drums. Once you start to find the right pattern, try layering the sound and different FX to each layer.

Pan the sounds to different areas of the stereo field to create some space and then group the sounds together to give you control over them.

Percussion 1.mp3

Percussion 2.mp3

Percussion 3.mp3

Step 7

Rather than using just a regular crash, try layering some noise-based effects samples and wooshes together. Further stereo delay or reverb can then be added to these sounds to extend their decay.

If you find these sounds start to mask other sounds in the drum pattern, send them to a group and insert a sidechain compressor, using your kick as a key input. These will cause the FX group to duck and allow the main body or your drum track to be heard clearly.



Crash.mp3

Woosh FX.mp3




Step 8

To add some pace and further groove to your pattern try adding some percussive drum loops with their low frequencies heavily cut. Obviously not all loops will work first time and it may take a certain amount of trial and error to get things to gel.

If you like the feel of a loop but it’s too noisy or is interfering with other sounds in the mix, try using a gate to clean things up.


loop 1.mp3

loop 2.mp3

Step 9

When you have finished constructing your loop you may have a few different groups for similar elements in your pattern, but it can be really useful to have a drum master. This will give you absolute control over your drum level as a whole and give you a chance to apply any final processing, such as EQ and compression.





You can take things one step further here and apply some parallel compression to the entire drum mix. If you need any instruction on this, check out my tut on creating a parallel compression buss in Logic.

Listen to the finished product:

House beat final.mp3

Download the Play Pack for this tutorial (7.5MB)

Contents

  • Logic source files
  • Audio files
  • Full-size screenshots
  • Printable PDF tutorial

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User Comments

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  1. Craigsnedeker August 13th

    Sounds awesome! what program is this?


  2. Les August 13th

    Wow, that’s got to be the most clear way of doing things that I’ve ever read, thank you!

    Are you going to follow it up with some bassline and lead tips too?


  3. Mo Volans August 13th

    sorry i usually put a list of software used ;) this is Logic Pro 8 and ive only used native Logic plug-ins. so this will load up directly in Logic if you have it.

    Dont be fooled though this can be achieved using any DAW, its all generic stuff.


  4. Anyonomous August 13th

    Would really appreciate if you linked your samples


  5. Mo Volans August 13th

    yep thinking about doing some other parts in the same step by step fashion ;) stay tuned…

    and @ Anoyonomous “Would really appreciate if you linked your samples” im not 100% sure what you mean? do you mean have them playing toghether at each stage?


  6. W. Brent Latta August 13th

    Not only have you made this look really EASY Mo, but you’ve made me totally lust for Logic 8 (again). I’m still using 7.0 and I think that I’m going to have to finally make the leap!


  7. Mo Volans August 13th

    Since the last few updates Logic 8 has become much more stable, im starting to see the same sort of reliability that i saw in Logic 7.


  8. Felon August 13th

    I’ve always created my beats in raw audio - I find you have more control over each individual element.

    If I need to layer several kick drums or snares to get the desired sound, e.g. in a Drum & Bass track, I will create a buss channel for each type of drum, then set the outputs of all audio tracks containing that type of drum to that buss, and then compress using Timeworks Compressor X (one of my favourites… http://www.sonictimeworks.com/p_compx.php). You can get the drum samples to gel really nicely and sound as one.

    Then I generally run an FX channel in parallel with a touch of distortion/drive, some light reverb and then a more extreme compression setting to give the drums some ’sheen’. Then depending on how up-front the drums need to be, it sometimes works to send all my drum buss channels to a new buss, along with the fx, and compress them all together.

    I’ll try & write some Drum & Bass-specific tutorials soon :)


  9. BloodyBeginner August 13th

    I’ve a question about the Drum room. How to add it, is it added to layer seperately or the whole drumbunch?


  10. Craigsnedeker August 13th

    Thanks, whats a DAW? I have Cakewalk Music Studio, can I use that?


  11. Felon August 13th

    @ Craigsnedeker - a DAW is a Digital Audio Workstation - a term used to either describe a computer specifically built to run audio applications, or used to describe a full-feature sequencing application itself. Yes, Cakewalk would be considered a DAW.


  12. Craigsnedeker August 13th

    Ok, thank you. I hope I can do it, maybe I’ll post my result :D


  13. Craigsnedeker August 14th

    I downlaoded that plugin and it installed it in the cakewalk plugin folder automatically, but I can’t find it, anywhere. The help index is no better. anyone know what’s wrong?


  14. Mo Volans August 14th

    @ Craigsnedeke … which plug-in are you referring to ? you should be able to complete this tut using the plug-ins included with Cakewalk or any DAW / Software. Most of them include basic compressors, eqs, limiters and gates etc…

    hope this helps?


  15. BloodyBeginner August 14th

    Could please refer to my question about drum reverb?


  16. Craigsnedeker August 14th

    Mo: The greenmechine one, I installed it, and it installed it in the cakewalk folder, but it doesn’t show up in the program, anywhere.


  17. cheese August 14th

    by linking the samples he means giving us a link to them


  18. Craigsnedeker August 15th

    Talking to me? O_o


  19. Mo Volans August 15th

    @ Cheese and Anon, all the samples are supplied in the download pack, they are within the ‘audio’ folder.

    @ Craigsnedeke, im not 100% sure on this but i would imagine your trying to use a plug-in or format that is not compatible with your DAW. Double check the plug your trying to use is compatible with Cakewalk.

    @ BloodyBeginner, drum reverb can be applied to either separate parts or the entire drum buss. There are really no hard and fast rules here but saying tht if applying reverb to your whole drum mix, use with caution as too much can reduce the impact of your overall sound. Small rooms and ambiences are best for this task.

    For more control here try using a send/return rather than the insert you may use on separate parts.


  20. Craigsnedeker August 15th

    @Mo: I tried to see what programs it could be used in on the website but couldnt’. Where would I find that info?


  21. Craigsnedeker August 15th

    I think I found my problem, nevermind :P


  22. BloodyBeginner August 15th

    Hey Mo, thanks for advice, will try to apply this. What is your tip, in your productions do you add reverb mostly to seperate or the bus layers?


  23. Mo Volans August 15th

    @ BB.. no problem, to be honest i usually add smaller reverbs to each part as insert fx. any reverb i add to the whole drum group is usually for a special effect, on selected parts of the arrangement.

    i rarely add reverb as a blanket treatment to all my drums… but this doesn’t mean its not a valid technique, just my personal preference and technique ;) if it works for you then go ahead.


  24. Skellie August 16th

    @ BloodyBeginner: Mo will be providing a really comprehensive tut on reverb very soon, so keep tabs on the site :)


  25. BloodyBeginner August 20th

    thanks for the info. looking forward.


  26. Stepaan August 21st

    So… In this case, you’re using 13 tracks just for drums? :-) Every day I wonder I have to learn much :-)


  27. Joel Falconer August 21st

    Stepaan: Dude, you think that’s bad, you should try tracking live drums ;)


  28. Dj Steph August 29th

    Thanks, great tuto !


  29. Jack September 2nd

    Hi guys… i’ve downloaded zip but i can’t find logic source file.

    i’ve logic 7


  30. Joel Falconer September 2nd

    @Jack: Check the Logic Project > AudioTUTS.com House drums folder. It’s in there.


  31. Rory October 31st

    Thanks for this tutorial and the others you’ve done, i’m finding them a massive help!

    All the best, Rory.


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