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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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7. Tempo-based ping-pong delay is a useful tool for breaking up a track and helping it flow between sections. Gradually switch between fully dry and fully wet towards the end of eight bars, then pull the wet signal out a split second before the start of the next section.

8. We often put effects on individual channels but forget that we have a perfectly applicable main output too – and minimal house is ideal for some output bus action. Try assigning a high-pass filter, tempo delay or low-pass filter across your main out and apply it judiciously.

"Minimal house is meant to sound spacey and tripped-out, so apply loads of panning and tempo-based tremolo alongside some manually timed tremolo."

9. The only thing better than using individual processing is using them in combinations. Try dropping down to one delayed synth part, pitchbend it down over one octave, insert a sidechain gate to the main output, and trigger it with eight short notes for a rhythmic, turntable-breaking effect.

10. If you're using a certain sound to duck all the others through your sidechain bus and you already have ducking compression applied to the channel, it will also be ducking the track you're using to trigger the effect! Create an identical channel to the trigger, mute its output and use that as the source.

11. Minimal house is meant to sound spacey and tripped-out, so apply loads of panning and tempo-based tremolo alongside some manually timed tremolo. Stereo wideners will also add to the vibe. Be careful not to overdo the effect on bass-heavy sounds, though, as this could seriously effect the balance of your mix (although it can sound cool in drops and breaks).

12. Minimal house requires crazy effects, so before you start, create a couple of effects buses with the craziest reverb and delay settings you can come up with. We're talking ducking, panning, low-cuts, compression, more compression, widening, EQ, enhancers and maybe even a little gating. Then use automation to generate short bursts of sound with them.

13. Whenever any element is sounding too sensible or straight, reach for a pitchshifting or chorus effect. Try layering a riff with a quieter version detuned by five semitones, then throwing across a nice five-voice chorus plug-in. This will turn anything into an all-spinning, all-dancing backroom blaster.

14. Glitchy effects, such as the ones Audio Damage's Replicant produces in its default mode, sound much better, groovier and less disruptive if you place them before a delay, as the repeats put back the groove and roll. This even works with heavy edits over the whole mix – place a tempo delay on the output and only raise the wet signal when you need to.

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• Alberto Sánchez Domínguezpretty good...