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A typical house arrangement, complete with builds, drops and a breakdown.

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12. Join forces

Combining sampled real instrument sounds (bass, drums and guitars, for example) with electronic ones, such as synthesised drums or synth patches, can create much richer sonic combinations than either alone. For maximum control you can then resample them together and shape the envelope and dynamics of the combined sound, blending them to make one rich noise.

13. Reverb reversed

Reverse reverb can be used to create pumping tail effects on a variety of sounds, from drums to vocals. A variation of this is to record the reverb from a sound, then reverse it and place it on another channel underneath. This can then have additional processing applied, and sometimes the original sound can even be removed for a totally different effect.

14. Voice of the people

House music has always toyed with completely instrumental tracks – indeed, some of the all-time great and most recognisable house tracks have had no vocals – but it's far easier to remember (or discover) the name of a track if there's even just a single spoken word in there somewhere. So unless you're very confident in the individuality and memorability of your vocal-free arrangement and mix, do get some voices involved.

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