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Wiley: responsible for a grime wave, apparently.

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7. You can change the feel of a beat by playing with individual hits' velocity values. This can create more human sounding snares and hi-hats.

8. More individualistic sounding beats can be developed via the use of unusual percussion. Eastern sounds work particularly well, but any quirky percussion (used tastefully) can help liven up a rhythm.

9. Because of grime's lopsided rhythms, you may find that percussive loops, or indeed any looped samples, are tricky to get sounding right alongside your beats. Consider chopping up such loops and mapping them up the keyboard so you can trigger them in a manner that fits your track's overall rhythm. Remember to cut each sample accurately or you may find that the release portion of certain hits clash with the rest of the track's flow, especially if using samples of loose live playing.

10. Rather than the warbling, warped bass of what was once known as speed garage, grime's basslines are generally less obvious. By sending pulse waves through a low-pass filter tied to an envelope, you can create the sort of round bass employed by Lethal Bizzle's chums More Fire Crew. By experimenting with different decay times and envelope amounts, a wide variety of tones can be created, and by turning up the attack time, an old-school reverse bass (a la Double 99's RIP Groove) can be fashioned.

11. If you want to experiment further with filter envelopes, try using different slope types if your synth supports them. If it doesn't, you may be able to force it to if it has a capable modulation matrix. This can be done by using the filter envelope amount to modulate the attack or decay time – positive modulation creates a convex slope, negative modulation a concave one. This will give the filter sweep a different sound, so try experimenting and see what happens.

"Chop up loops and map them up the keyboard so you can trigger them in a manner that fits your track's overall rhythm."

12. If you're after that old-school hardcore-esque buzzy bass sound, as rocked by MIA on Bucky Done Gun, route a simple sine synth sound through a degrader plug-in – a setting of 8 bits will give you a none-too subtle effect. Set your synth's pitchbend range to plus/minus an octave and get busy with your keyboard's bend wheel for that idiosyncratic lo-fi bass ride.

13. Does your bass sound a little lacklustre? Don't worry, there are plenty of ways to spice it up. If your synth has multiple filters, try routing individual oscillators through each, using different envelope times to create yet more complex bass sounds. By running your basslines through a little tube simulation or subtle overdrive you wan warm them up a bit, but try to avoid applying too much distortion – start small and gradually increase the levels to find the sweet spot.

14. When working with a lot of low frequency sounds, such as thumping kicks and sub-bass, it's important to be able to hear what's going on down there. If your speakers aren't up to the job, you may find it helps to use headphones occasionally – all but the cheapest 'phones should go low enough to let you know whether your sub-bass frequencies are clashing. It's best to check this during the composition stage, as attempting to fix it during mixdown can be a headache.

15. Using a step sequencer is a great way to quickly come up with new rhythms. And if you're stuck for inspiration, try taking advantage of any randomise tools you have available to you.

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