B RECORDS

6. Grance, Soulmac – “Happy Incident”

In organic house, much of the track’s energy comes from the high percussion, but unlike commercial EDM, which can rely on bright, almost sizzling highs, organic house leans toward a warmer, softer approach. Achieving this typically involves additive analog EQ. While digital EQs can offer precise, surgical boosts for a bright, cutting, high-end, analog EQs tend to shape frequencies with a softer, warmer character.

One go-to technique to achieve this warm sheen is by applying an analog emulation EQ to the high end of your drum bus or instrument groups. Whether it’s lead synths, supporting arpeggiators, or the whole drum mix, gently boosting the high shelf with an analog EQ adds a smooth brightness that enhances the mix without becoming harsh.

Digital EQ boosts in the five to eight-decibel range can make a track sound overly sharp and brittle, whereas an analog EQ, like Enhanced EQ, based on tube-series analog hardware, delivers a soft, natural brightness. This is especially effective for organic house, where a subtle lift in the high-end keeps the mix warm and inviting without crossing into sterility.

Let’s listen to an example. Here we have a great shaker loop but the high frequencies still need more life.

It’s honestly a bit of both. I’d lean toward calling it a specialty plugin since I tend to use it for specific tasks, like injecting life and analog warmth into certain elements – usually synth-based leads or chord progressions. It’s great for turning something overly clean or sterile into something with character and depth that fits better in the mix.

That said, I also use it on a group level from time to time, adding subtle saturation or compression to help a stack of sounds blend together. For example, it works really well on layered pads or vocal stacks, giving them a bit of glue and warmth without losing the individuality of each layer.

For me, it’s about flexibility.

Guitar Rig isn’t necessarily something I throw on every track, but when I do use it, it’s because it can solve a problem or add something unique that other tools can’t quite replicate. It’s more about finding the right moments for it rather than relying on it as an all-purpose solution

Hyperbits pro tip: When using Guitar Rig on group tracks, experiment with your favorite dynamic EQ plugin after the chain to tame resonances that might build up from the saturation or compression applied to multiple layers.

Start using Hyperbits tips in Guitar Rig

We wanted to give a massive shoutout to producer, educator, mentor, and wizard on the deck, Serik Slobodskoy AKA Hyperbits, for taking the time out of his busy schedule to chat with us about how he uses Guitar Rig every single day in the studio to achieve massive results.

Time and time again, we are reminded that it’s rarely ever about one massive, drastic move in a track that defines it. Instead, it’s a buildup of hundreds, maybe even thousands, of small and minor changes and adjustments that make music come alive and give it that nuanced and detailed quality we most often associate with warmth.

The best part?

Guitar Rig gives you all of these touch points and modulation stages directly in one single plugin environment so that you can stay focused and get the warm results in your mixes fast and efficiently; making more music that gets top-quality results like a nod from Kasakde just like Hyperbits did (and it’s, in large part, because of tools like Guitar Rig).

Learn more about Guitar Rig 7

With a Phrase tool, you can chop up a melodic loop or sample and assign each MIDI note to trigger a different chop by duplicating the loop across the keys and selecting different start points.

From there, you can program jumps and skips across the sample in precise, customizable patterns, almost like a granular sampler. This method gives you control over the randomness and allows you to fine-tune the glitch effects.

Pro tip: Always re-sample and record the output as you experiment. Even a small parameter tweak can uncover a sound you don’t want to lose.

4. Dynamic ear candy in seconds

This is the flip side of what we talked about earlier – harmonic textures and slower, moving elements like pads. Here, it’s about ear candy: those small details, like melodic riffs at the end of a phrase, guitar runs, or plucks, that fill the mix’s pockets.

These elements are key to achieving a polished, professional sound, but can be tricky to create on your own if for any other reason that, by the time you know you need them, it can be hard to find the creative juice to pick the perfect sound after you just wrote the chords, leads, bass, and maybe even vocal lines.

Modern, tempo-driven genres like hip-hop, melodic house, and trance require even more attention to how these patches interact with your track’s tempo, swing, and groove. Adjusting ADSR parameters like attack, sustain, and release is crucial to ensure the strings move with – not against – your track’s rhythm. Default settings on most patches are often about ninety percent there, but that last ten percent is where the magic happens.

It’s the difference between a groove that feels locked in or one that drags or rushes. Taking the time to align these details with your track’s unique tempo and energy is key and is often a step newer producers overlook. Dialing in these changes is essential to make strings feel alive and fully integrated into your arrangement.

Pro tip: Not all string libraries have dedicated amp envelopes, but almost all still offer ways to control the amplitude over time (which is what we’re after). Words like fade-in and even Glide settings can help soften one layer, leaving space for a brighter-attack layer to work its magic.

3. Keeping the grid on with MIDI placements

One of the biggest criticisms of computer-based music is its reliance on the grid. Whether you’re clicking in notes on the piano roll, heavily quantizing, or dragging in Kontakt’s pre-generated chord progressions, the result can feel rigid and mechanical. This grid-based nature can amplify the lifeless quality often associated with VST and sampler-based strings. However, with just a minute of extra effort, you can transform those strings into something much more human and expressive.

The trick is simple: turn off the grid. Go into your MIDI clips and make small, random adjustments to the timing of individual notes – just nudging them slightly left or right. This doesn’t need to be drastic; tiny variations are enough to mimic the natural imperfections of a live performance. For instance, if you’re working with a four-bar loop, duplicate it across sixteen bars and make subtle timing tweaks to individual notes in each iteration. These minor changes create a sense of organic variation, fooling the listener into hearing the human nuances of a live string section.

This technique requires minimal time and effort but has a massive impact on the realism of your strings. It breaks the monotony of the grid and breathes life into the performance, making it feel authentic and dynamic.

2. Spatial expansion using Split Mix

If you really want your reverb, texture, and space in your track to feel alive, they need to feel larger than life itself. This quality is hard to put your finger on exactly, but it is something that reverb presets can rarely live up to. And it’s something that a lot of producers tend to overlook. But, a little stereo widening can make all the difference, making your track feel open and all-encompassing versus stale, lifeless, and a bit two-dimensional.

You don’t need to go crazy. A little bit of stereo widening can go a long way. Think about using mid-side processing or panning automation to have some of these effects move to the left and the proper channels to create more room in your mix. A bit of width helps glue ambient layers together while still giving them enough space to breathe.

In Guitar Rig, the “Split Mix” module lets you do just that. Adjusting the width parameter to about 60-70% opens up the space without overdoing it. For an alternative approach, use the ‘Crossover Split’ setting in Split Mix. This allows you to split the signal by frequency, applying different effects to separate bands. This brings out a nuanced texture that changes across the frequency spectrum, giving your ambient atmospheres a new layer of depth and dimension.

Pro tip: A mix is all about contrast. Use Split Mix to create different ambiences on the left and right channels, which will result in an ultra-wide and highly detailed stereo field that is greater than the sum of its parts.

What is Massive X?

Massive X is a synthesizer plugin with powerful wavetable oscillators, multimode filters, customisable routing and a selection of insert and stereo effects.

Does Massive X have standalone?

Massive X does not have a standalone application, which means that it needs to be used within a DAW. Massive X VST, AU and AAX version plugins are available.

Does Massive X have presets?

Massive X does indeed include many, many presets, and these can be a great way to get started with the synth. To access Massive X’s preset library, click the patch name, which when the synth launches will be ‘Init – Massive X’

Beyond mastering, I often use Ozone 11 modules in the mixing process, whether on individual channels or mix buses. These modules are incredibly versatile, whether for dynamic EQing, handling resonances (Stabilizer/Clarity), tackling specific low end issues (Low End Focus), or shaping transients. In some cases, I use them to experiment with sound design – like transforming sounds entirely using Stabilizer’s Transient Mode. Both the Exciter and Imager are also invaluable tools during mixing, offering excellent tonal shaping and spatial control.

For dance music, I prioritize low-end tightness, punch, and stereo imaging, while for acoustic or melodic genres, I focus on warmth, natural dynamics, and tonal balance. For example:

• Melodic techno: I emphasize subtle midrange details and target a loudness of around -7 LUFS.
• Drum and bass: I ensure the sub bass is controlled, transients remain sharp, and loudness is pushed as far as possible, sometimes reaching -3 LUFS.

Ozone isn’t just for mastering…

I frequently use its modules in mixing, too – whether for taming resonances with Dynamic EQ, addressing low-end issues with Low-End Focus, or adding tonal character with Exciter. Sometimes I even use tools like Stabilizer in transient mode to experiment with sound design.

Modules like Imager and Exciter are particularly useful for shaping spatial and tonal aspects during mixing.

What is a transient shaper?

Before we dive in, what does a transient shaper do?

A transient shaper is used to manipulate the attack and sustain characteristics of a sound. It focuses on the transient portions of a sound – the initial peaks or hits, like the snap of a drum or the pick of a guitar string – and allows precise control over how these transients are emphasized or suppressed. This makes it easy to control how punchy, snappy or roomy a drum track sounds.

So, is a transient shaper just a compressor? No, it’s not: while they do share similarities in that they allow you to control the dynamics of the input signal, the big difference is that transient shapers are dependent on a threshold level in the same way compressors are. Transient shapers will alter all audio inputs in the same way regardless of the input level, whereas compressors rely on the input level to determine how to affect the sound. So, how these effects are controlled and how they affect the sound are different.

Multiband transient shaping might sound like an intimidating concept to the beginner, but it’s a very simple technique to achieve with Neutron 5 Transient Shaper. Crucially, it’s easy to hear how the effect affects the audio input signal, so you should have little trouble getting to grips with it.