Uncategorized

5. Back up your sounds

Many producers have stories where they’ve lost dozens if not hundreds of hours or work because of a hard drive failure. If your sounds are stored in a single location, all it takes is one accident, loss or hardware failure to wipe out your entire library.

Working without backups is an unnecessary risk, and if you value the time you’ve spent developing your sound library and project archive it makes sense to take precautions in this area.

External hard drives are relatively cheap – because you’re not working from these backups, you can use a cheap HDD rather than a fast SSD – so your first line of defense should be to back up your sounds on at least two external drives in addition to whatever drive you work from. This will ensure that even if there’s a problem with one of the backups, you’ll have at least one other backup to restore your data from. Dedicated backup software such as Carbon Copy Cloner for MacOS is available to make creating backups easier.

Ideally you’d want an “offsite” backup, in case that, say, your studio is struck by a meteorite while you’re out getting coffee. If that’s not practical for you or you’d just like a more convenient solution, consider making a backup of your sound library in an online storage space, for example a Google Drive or Dropbox.

It’s also possible to backup your whole computer with automated online backup services like Backblaze, and this alongside regular local backups will give you peace of mind that your sound library isn’t at risk.

Start organizing your sound library today

In this guide we’ve looked at five ways to make it easy to organize your sounds, improve your production workflow, and protect your work for future use.

If you’d like to learn more about music making with Native Instruments check out Kontakt 8, What is Kontakt?, Getting started with Kontakt to create music and The 100 best free Kontakt instruments in 2025.

Download Komplete Start free

What’s the difference between a synth and a pad?

Pads can be created with synths, but of course not all synth sounds are pads. Typically pads have long amplitude envelope attacks and release times, which means that they fade in and out smoothly, and often pads will feature some kind of filter modulation or modulation-based processing that keeps their sound gradually moving and evolving. Let’s create our own pad sound now to solidify our understanding of what pads are, and what makes a good pad sound.

How to make pads in music

1. Create a smooth amplitude envelope

Let’s start by adding Massive X onto a MIDI track in our project. Let’s check out the initial patch’s amplitude envelope in the bottom left-hand corner of the interface. Here we can see that the A (Attack) and R (Release) knobs are set quite low, giving us quick attack and release times, and a snappy sound.

What is a glitch effect?

A glitch effect is the deliberate use of digital errors, stuttering artifacts, and unpredictable sonic disruptions to create weird textural elements. It’s a form of controlled chaos — distorting, stretching, chopping, and resampling sounds to create something unexpected.

Glitch sounds first emerged as a happy accident from malfunctioning CD players, digital distortion, and corrupted audio files. Over time, producers started replicating these unpredictable elements with sampling, granular synthesis, and creative editing. Now, glitch is a staple in electronic subgenres like IDM, glitch-hop, and experimental music. They are also used in films to create strange sci-fi effects.

You can hear some glitchy rhythms and digital artifacts in “Bucephalus Bouncing Ball” by Aphex Twin:

Layering multiple synths and samples together to get a cohesive sound that’s greater than the sum of its parts isn’t so much a secret in music production, but it does seem like something that is hard to quantify. Because of this, most new producers spend years or trial and error throwing sounds together to get that massive, nuanced sound that their favorite artists easily pull off.

If only actionable advice and overarching workflows could make layering sound straightforward, right?

Luckily, Syence, a duo based out of southern California, has found the recipe for success when it comes to layering. Zach, one of the members, came to chat with us about how he layers libraries and sounds in Kontakt 8 to produce his unique take on modern music, one that has all the punchy and clarity of commercial dance music paired with the swagger and energy of the underground.

With a recent release on Anjunabeats and a nationwide tour on the horizon to support the release of this 2024 capstone release – their first album next to happiness  – there is no better time to hear how they work their magic and how tools like Kontakt (and others) have shaped their sound and defined their career.

How are strings arranged?

Strings are arranged by following a series of creative steps based on the aspects of arrangement: rhythm, harmony, instrumentation, and form. Once you have the basic idea for your string section, go through each of these aspects in turn, deciding how to approach them based on the kind of string composition you want to make.

Rhythm (when notes happen in time) and harmony (how the pitches of the notes combine to create chords) are the building blocks of a musical arrangement. Complex rhythms will create more energy and excitement than simple ones. Major harmonies will sound more uplifting, minor harmonies more sombre, and dissonances (clashing notes) can create tension.

Instrumentation means deciding which string instruments should play which notes in your score. There are many smart ways to use instrumentation to get the best out of your string ensemble – we’ll get into some below.

Finally, form means deciding what structure your string arrangement should have. Are there two different melodies that happen one after the other? Is there a repeating chorus with verses in between? When you’re happy with the previous steps, move the MIDI material around in your DAW to create the form that sounds best to you.

There’s a balancing act in blending both synthesized and organic sounds. But one thing to keep in mind is that organic house is at its best when percussive elements such as bongos, shakers, claps, and toms, are sampled, or even recorded for authenticity. These earthy textures provide a foundation for introducing more synthetic elements like leads or arpeggios without losing the organic feel.

One other effective technique is a good “call and response.” For example, use a plucked guitar preset like “Physical Spain” in Massive to reply to your primary lead. Layering these moments ensures a dynamic and engaging mix.

Balancing stereo width and spatial effects, like panned claps or stereo delays, further integrates recorded and synthesized parts. Together, they create a soundscape that feels alive yet cohesive.

Pro tip: Blend melodic house or indie dance elements into my organic house foundations for originality. Massive, though not always a go-to plugin for this genre, adds unique textures that stand out

1. Custom noise tables

Adding a touch of white or pink noise to your sounds can really help them stand out in the mix and introduce an analog-like grit that gives digital synths a more out-of-the-box feel. While traditional noise tables like pink and white noise are great, custom noise tables can be a highly undervalued feature in synths like Massive X.

Importing your own unique noise banks can bring fresh textures and a personal touch to your sound design. For instance, incorporating a Foley loop can transform a simple white noise sample into something with warmth and a multi-timbral crunch, adding piano-like action to virtually any instrument.

Custom noise tables have an edge over standard ones because they break away from predictability. With standard noise tables, once your audience picks up on the consistent bite or attack, it can start to feel monotonous, like a mosquito buzzing in your ear with every chord or lead hit. On the other hand, custom noise tables offer nuanced, evolving sounds that keep listeners engaged.

By using complex modulation parameters in synths like Massive X, such as an LFO adjusting pitch or a key tracker, you can create a sound that’s almost in tune with your Foley-based noise sample. This approach adds variety and interest, moving away from the repetitive blast of standard noise with each key press.

Pro tip: If you’re incorporating a Foley loop or any found sound in your track to add texture, consider using that same file as the source for your white noise. This technique boosts cohesion in your track, allowing you to repurpose similar elements creatively. It’s an effective way to get more out of less, enhancing the overall unity of your track’s sound.

4. The final drop has something new

More commercial genres of EDM have the luxury of more formulaic compositions where the second drop section is usually just the same as the first with an extra blast of white noise or maybe the filter cutoffs slightly more open. It’s simple, effective, and works on massive systems. But organic house music often needs to be more nuanced, adding entirely new elements or groove layers to make the final drop hit. For PROFF, the final drop, around 4:35, brings in a brittle, strummed counter-melody to keep the groove fresh and exciting.

From a producer’s perspective, these small little additions can often be the hardest to include since we usually feel like we’ve written ourselves into a corner at this point and can’t possibly drum up something that could crank up the track’s energy that final notch. But that’s where generator tools and plugins like Schema: Light come into play.

Schema: Light is packed with acoustic-inspired patches and presets that generate tons of melodic ideas and sequences for you to cycle through with your core melodic and groove loop playing until you, seemingly by magic, stumble upon the perfect combination of sequences, patches, and riffs that align perfectly for that last little bit of melodic sauce you need.

Pro tip: While fishing for that perfect patch, start locking various parameters that you stumble on, be it scale, riff, or layer, so that you slowly work towards exactly what you’re looking for instead of feeling like you’re shooting in the dark for a random preset to work perfectly.

Make club-ready percussion today

We want to give a special thank you to Hannes Bieger, whose approach to drum programming highlights just how critical these details are for creating tracks that resonate in both live and studio settings. Whether it’s the flexibility of VST samplers like Battery 4, the importance of tuning each drum to fit the mix, or the personal touch of modular percussion, Hannes shows that the smallest decisions can have the biggest impact.

If there’s one takeaway here, it’s that great drum programming isn’t just about finding the right sounds – it’s about shaping those sounds to fit the track and elevate its energy. Listening to Galaxies, you can hear how these techniques come together, resulting in a cohesive album that feels as dynamic as it does intentional. For producers looking to refine their drum work or anyone seeking inspiration from one of techno’s leading minds, there’s much to learn from Hannes’ process.

Take a listen to Galaxies and see how these ideas translate into the music and get inspired on the different ways that Battery 4 can give you the tight, punchy control over your drum sequences that you need to make chart-topping melodic techno like Hannes Bieger!

Try Battery 4 today

What is a seventh chord?

To benefit from the information in this article, you have to understand what a chord is and how to form one. We’ll run through this quickly now, but be sure to check out this article on harmony if you want to get a more in-depth look into this concept.

A chord is what happens when you play multiple notes at the same time. We have a standard way of making chords by taking alternating notes from a scale and stacking them on top of each other.

At its core, a seventh chord is a four-note chord built by stacking these intervals above a “root note” (that just means the note you’re starting with). While a basic triad consists of three notes (root, third, and fifth), a seventh chord adds a fourth note: a seventh interval above the root. This additional note adds colorful harmonic texture and opens up new possibilities for writing chord progressions and voice leading.

Let’s use the example of a C major scale to outline this idea. This scale has the notes C, D, E, F, G, A, B in it. To get a C major triad, we’ll take the first note of the scale (C), skip the next note, use the one after that (E), and repeat with the next notes. Therefore the C major triad consists of the notes C, E, and G. That sounds like this: