Classic house samples of the ’80s and ’90s are still used today for their timeless and instantly recognizable sound. For this year’s 909 Day, we’ve made a pack that pays tribute to these distinct sounds that have been the foundation of dance music for decades. Check it out here and read the tips and tricks below for applying this pack to your next production.

Sound Pack Spotlight: Production Tips and Tricks

For Beginners:

Spicing up a synth loop.

Reversing the last beat, phrase, or bar of your synth loop before it repeats or plays the next progression is a great way to keep things interesting and add flow to your music. The pink-colored sample in the screenshot has been cut in the same place as the original red-colored sample but simply reversed. This small change within the loop makes it so that the progression is not so static, keeping the listener more engaged with your track. 

Experiment with 808 samples 🎛️

Next level: Intermediate

House-style snare builds.

House-style snare builds are a classic production technique used to transition between sections of a dance song. In this screenshot, we have a build section with a snare sample (yellow-colored) that is based on this technique. This kind of build can be done by taking any sort of drum one-shot sample and repeating it in 1/16th notes for 8 bars. 

We also have a reverb mix knob automating up to wash out the snare build, as well as a high pass filter taking out low frequencies and a low pass filter opening up the higher frequencies as the build climaxes. The cut-off point of the snare can be within the last bar of the section. For this example, the cut-off point of the snare is on the 4th beat of the last bar where a drum fill happens, taking us to the next section of the track.

Check out bass house samples 🚀

For Advanced

DJ-style transitions.

Building on the last tip, we have here the full-fledged build section that acts as a DJ-style house transition. This sort of production technique imitates transitions done between house tracks on a DJ mixer. During these transitions, the instruments and drums are gradually washed out with wet effects and filter automation, building tension and then releasing that tension into the next section of the track. 

In the screenshot, we can see that the reverb mix knob is gradually increasing on the “Instruments” group as the build progresses. A delay mix knob is doing the same thing on the green drum loop sample. Lastly, a filter on the “Instruments” group is also being automated to cut off the low end as the build section starts and ends. When bar 17 hits, all the automated effects go back to zero and the beat drop finally hits in full force, completing the transition. 

Get even more 909 sounds here 🥁