>Step by step

1. Creating a house-style beat

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The basis of any house track is the driving 4/4 drum kit. Set your DAW’s BPM to 125, then add a drum rack onto a blank MIDI channel. Download the Make a House track samples folder from filesilo. co.uk (see p93); import 80s_Kick_10.wav onto a blank pad, which is a classic, New Order-sounding kick drum. Next, we’ll add percussion into the mix. 2

From the same folder, load 80s_ Hat_02.wav onto another pad. This is a splashy drum machine closed hi-hat that works on the offbeat. A snare is next, so grab 80s_Snare_03.wav and place it on a new pad. This snare sounds a bit too 80s right now, so use the sampler’s ADSR envelope to tighten the decay, sustain and release, removing the Phil Collins tail. 3

Add a two-bar MIDI clip to the channel, then program in a simple drum pattern. We’ll place the kick on each beat, and snare on beats two and four. Drawing in notes to trigger the hi-hat on each offbeat adds momentum to the drums. Reduce the hi-hat and snare velocities to around 80, so they blend into the mix better. Now, let’s add a clap layer. 4

Head to the samples folder again and load Clap.wav onto another drum pad. Pitch the clap up by three semitones, so it sits more effectively with the other drum sounds. Add some notes to our MIDI sequence, so the clap is triggered on beats two and four, as well as on the last 16th note of beat two. Reduce the offbeat clap velocities to 40 to add subtlety. 5

A few percussion loops glue our quantised drums together, while adding ‘swing’. Go to the samples folder and import PC_Tambourine_128-02.wav onto a blank audio track. This tambourine loop sounds great, but is too loud; reduce it to -15dB. Add PC_BasketShaker_128-01. wav, as it suits the feel nicely. Turn down the shaker until it gels with the drums. 6

To finish the drums, add a breakbeat sample. Import DF_BeatD_85-04.wav from the samples folder, then if you use Live, set the warping mode to Repitch to pitch up the break to the correct tempo, like using the pitch control on a turntable. Cut out the first beat of the break, and delete the rest. Duplicate what’s left across the loop, then reduce it to -20dB.

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Let’s build on our drum kit with sounds that work for our intro. Duplicate the two-bar drum loop into a 16-bar section. Head to the sample folder and grab a funky guitar loop to get any dancefloor grooving. Import DF_BPup_ Tele_110-E.wav, and set warp mode to Complex Pro to reduce artefacts. Copy the guitar loop across the arrangement.

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Turn down the guitar, so it sits more cosily in the mix. Grab a horn stab from the sample folder next; import OT_ Stb-Horns-E3.wav onto a new audio track. Place the stab on the second bar of the section, then duplicate it three times so there’s a stab happening every four bars. Turn down the horn stab to -10dB, so the levels are kept in check.

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A bass guitar sample adds funk to our track. Import DF_RayMutron_120-E. wav onto a fresh audio track. Change the warp mode to Complex Pro, then split the sample into two one-bar sections. Copy the second section across to the eighth and 16th bars as a fill, before duplicating the first section to fill the gaps. Now, let’s start building the arrangement.

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Start by moving what we’ve made over to bar 49, so there’s space before to start building the intro. Copy the drums to fill the first 48 bars, then mute the kick from the first 16-bar section. We’ll also mute the shaker for the first eight bars, to embellish the arrangement further. Copy the horn stabs across the entire intro next, to start adding a musical edge.

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Mute our programmed kick, snare and hat groove for the last 16 bars before the drop. Copy the guitar into this section, then delete all drum and music clips from the last bar before the drop. Duplicate the bass fill into this gap, so we can build up to it using effects. Grab 70s_Synth_Rise.wav from the samples folder, and place it four bars before the drop.

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Some outdoor ambience adds flavour to our intro. Import GO_ BirdsVarious-21.wav onto the arrange page, then duplicate it across the intro. Turn the bird noise down, so it blends in. Grab Crash F.wav from the sample pack, lower it to -6dB, then place it at the start of every 16-bar section so it defines each part, adding detail to the arrangement.