MusicRadar

A minimal house arrangement doesn't have to have a lot in it, but what's there needs to be right...

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By straddling the line between deep house, tech house and proper techno, minimal house is enabling DJs from all of these genres to push the boundaries. Indeed, today you'll see many heavyweight techno DJs, including Richie Hawtin and Josh Wink, focusing their sets and studio output on minimal house. Even some big name trance and progressive DJs are starting to get in on the act.

Of course, minimal house is also being created in home studios around the world, which is why MusicRadar has put together this selection of essential production tips. This may not be a musically complex genre, but you'll need to learn some specific technical skills if you want to master it…

1. To enhance the energy of your tracks, add pre-delay to certain elements, such as basslines, riffs and, occasionally, percussion. For example, if you have two hi-hats playing on the offbeat try pulling one slightly forwards. There are no hard and fast rules for length, though, so experiment 1ms at a time.

2. Minimal tracks are inherently glitchy, as they use a variety of evolving and unconventional delays, flanging and other effects. This makes it one of the only genres for which the default random preset on Audio Damage's Replicant plug-in is ideal. Try using it on delayed 'plinky' lead lines for some truly stunning and unique effects.

3. A classic trick for creating breakdown builds in minimal tracks is to increase the rate and feedback controls on a delay until it causes it to really scream. Then, at the very peak of the build, carefully pull the feedback and wet level right down to zero.

4. Sidechain gating can sound good with pads, but you can also use a thin-sounding riff with huge amounts of fast delay as a substitute. Insert a sidechain gate so that you get tiny bursts of riff and delay, producing a sound that's a little more interesting than a regular pad. After that, add some more rhythmic delay!

5. One of the best ways to come up with minimal riffs and percussion is to play very basic patterns and then apply tempo delays (even to basslines, although you'll probably need to filter some of the low frequencies off the delays). Whenever you're working on riffs, have a delay already set up for experimentation.

6. Simple riffs need exciting production to keep them… well, exciting. Try setting a pitchbend range of 24 on your bassline, copy an eight-bar part, transpose it up 24 semitones and then draw in a pitchbend line from the bottom-left to the top-right of your MIDI CC editor for a four-octave rise to use in breakdowns.

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