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2. How to make piano house with Mixed in Key’s Captain Chords Epic
1
Start with the tempo in your DAW at 124bpm. To make things simple, you can reuse the drums from the previous tutorial or create a simple groove by adding a kick, clap, and hi-hat patterns. Mixed in Key’s Captain Chords Epic is a fantastic tool for idea generation. Install and choose the key and scale you’ll write in and press ‘Go’. In the Chord Progression section, click Edit. 2
In the Banks tab, select ‘Top 20’ and in the Progressions tab, select ‘House Music in Major’. In the chords section, select your favorite chord progression. For a simple, straightforward pattern, choose Vi-i-Vii. In the Rhythm section, select Edit. In the Filter section, select genre, and banks section, choose a bank like ‘Everything’ or to be more genre specific, Deep House. 3
In the Rhythm drop-down menu, scroll through the presets and choose a syncopated rhythm for your chord progression. ‘Clave Inspired Chops’ is a good one to start with. Once you’re happy with the chords, export the MIDI pattern by clicking on Export MIDI and dragging the clip to your DAW. Navigate back to the plugin, and select VST Output. 4
Add a new MIDI track and choose a piano instrument. There are many great piano plugins on the market, including the classic Korg M1, IK Multimedia’s Pianoverse Addictive Keys, or Native Instruments’ Hybrid Keys, Noire, or Alicia’s Keys. On the MIDI channel with the piano VST, route the MIDI from Captain Chords and set the Monitor to In. 5
Make the piano sound mono (we add Ableton’s Utility and select Mono). Add an EQ and roll off below 100 Hz, and above 6 kHz. Boost in the high end around 5 kHz. Subtly compress the piano with your EQ, (we’re using FabFilter Pro-C 2) using a fast attack and release. Add a little extra compression as a sidechain and automate it during the drop only. 6
Duplicate the piano MIDI track and remove the Utility plugin to make it a stereo track. Change the EQ by boosting in the high/mid frequencies around 8 kHz and use Dynamic EQ. You may want to roll off high frequencies above 18 or 20 kHz. Bring the volume of the stereo piano down to about half the volume of the mono piano.