Producing House with Native Instruments

A great house track combines several elements into one effective package. In this course, electronic music pro Thomas Cochran breaks down all these elements and shows you how to create and combine them using readily available Native Instrument plugins. You'll learn not only which instruments to include - drums, synth bass, piano, pads, funk guitar, lead synth, and more - but also how to treat and process them for maximum House music effect! These videos are for those new to producing house tracks.

Introduction & Song Foundation

• Introduction & Song Play-Through (02:36) - In this video, Thomas introduces the series and plays though the track we'll be creating.

• Electronic Drums (14:41) - We start off the track by adding in some 707 drums, which provide the rhythmic foundation for the song.

• Acoustic Drum Layers (13:45) - Discover how to take the drum patten and layer in acoustic drums for a more disco-inspired tone. This provides some extra character and makes the production more dynamic.

• Synth Bass Pt. 1 (10:00) - Learn how to make a super funky house bass stab. This video covers sound design and the programming of rhythmic bass lines.

• Synth Bass Pt. 2 (12:09) - Here, we get more detailed in the note-programming process of the bass line.

• Dance Piano (12:41) - Now that we have a strong rhythmic foundation, we build melodic components of the song by adding in some piano chords.

Additional Melodic Layers

• Synth Pads (14:47) - Learn how to construct synth pads to fill out a production while still keeping the sound of the track nice and open.

• KONTAKT Funk Guitar (09:40) - This video demonstrates how to take a patch from KONTAKT and use it to program up a funk-inspired guitar patch, providing additional rhythmic interest to the song and filling up the space between the chords.

• Vocal Stab (15:20) - Discover how to use the GLAZE plugin from Native Instruments to make dance-inspired vocal chops.

• Juno Lead Synth (10:03) - This video shows how to program and compose a Juno-inspired lead sound using the SUPER 8 plugin to fill out the drop section.

• Reverb Disco Strings (10:57) - Next up, we program some disco-inspired string hits to add some variation to the drop.

Final Adjustments & Layers

• FX & Fill Synths Pt. 1 (09:22) - This video begins to wrap up the production by adding in synth and effects layers to fill up the song.

• FX & Fill Synths Pt. 2 (07:23) - Thomas wraps of the production side of the track by adding in a custom FX white noise stab to the track.

• Arrangement Pt. 1 (10:12) - Next, we begin to arrange out the song and adding some variation to the patterns in the track.

• Arrangement Pt. 2 (08:20) - Thomas wraps up the course by adding a few more adjustments to different sections of the track by with some melodic variations.