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Marshall Jefferson is a bona fide house music legend.

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15. If you intend to use an acappella to add vocals to your tracks, remember that you're not just limited to using it straight. Cut-up phrases can be spliced together to create new, less obvious vocal riffs.

16. Rather than using 101 sounds in a single track, deep house is more about getting the most out of each individual element and working it into the track to create a seamless whole. If your lead sound has its filter cutoff frequency tied to an LFO, for example, you can try turning up the LFO rate to a high speed to change the lead into a sound effect. This technique can be useful when you want to create transitions between different sections of your track.

17. While standard 909 kit sounds may be easy to come by, deep house requires something a little, err, deeper. Try lacing your 4/4 patterns with more exotic or unusual percussion. World music can be a great source of inspiration (or sounds, if you're feeling cheeky), especially if it's jazz-influenced. Take a trip to your local library to see what horizon-expanding CDs they have available.

18. When using instrumental samples or loops from another track, you'll almost certainly find that you need to cut them up and re-sequence them to fit. If the instrument features sustained notes - strings usually do, for example - don't worry about timestretching it to fit exactly, as this will probably cause unwanted audio artifacts. If a particular part runs short, consider crossfade looping, which can be done easily in any audio sequencer by fading the sample out on one track while simultaneously fading it in on another.

19. Like all house music, deep house relies on repetition to a certain extent, but there's a fine line between a catchy groove and a robotic lack of funk. Introducing variations to your lead lines will keep them from sounding stale, even if they're just subtle changes of timing or emphasis. If you feel that a transition needs a lift, consider letting the bassline break out a bit to take the focus off the track before returning to the familiar groove.

20. When using processors that you might usually sync to your host's tempo (delay, phaser or filter effects, for example), consider letting them run free instead. This works particularly well with delay effects, helping to avoid unwanted phasing that may occur when a sound coincides with a delayed version of itself, as well as sounding groovy.

21. When using synth riffs, it's possible to get a more organic feel by using any pitch randomise features that your synth may have. If your favourite synth doesn't have this feature, you can create a similar effect by applying small, differing amounts of LFO modulation to each oscillator's pitch. If it's too pronounced, turn the modulation amount or LFO speed down.

22. To make your hi-hat programming more kosher, use mute groups to ensure that open and closed hats don't trigger at the same time. If your drum machine or sampler doesn't have this feature, manually edit your drum patterns to stop this happening.

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