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Those all important hoovers are easy to program in Steinberg's A1 synth

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07. When programming chopped up breaks for hardcore, try tying the low-pass filter cutoff to velocity. For best results, make sure you stop the velocity affecting the patch's volume level. Rapidly triggering the same note with increasing or decreasing velocity also creates a neat effect. This works with a high-pass filter, too, though avoid taking too much low-end away from the beat, rendering it weedy.

08. While snare or kick drum rolls still have their place in hard dance music, you really need to add something a little different to stop them sounding clichéd. For example, a phaser effect with automatable frequency can add a lot of movement to the sound, as can pitchshifter or degrader effects. A good rule of thumb when sourcing sounds for a drum roll is to keep the release times down to avoid notes running together.

09. If you're using heavily distorted gabba-style kicks, try running them through a high-pass filter sweep on the fill for a dirty techno effect.

10. Interesting rhythmic effects can be created on sounds with heavy reverb by changing the pre-delay time, although you may have to experiment a little to get the right timing for your track. Try varying any available damping settings to sculpt the sound into something a little bit different - changing your reverb's size setting will alter the sound more radically.

Get vocal

11. If you're using live vocals on your hardcore track but they don't sound loud enough, you'll probably find that running them through some compression works better than simply turning them up in the mix.

12. If you're using a short vocal snippet that becomes repetitive, try chopping it up and replaying it with a different rhythm. To develop this idea further you could stutter parts of the vocal, or use a little timestretching or pitchshifting to completely change the overall sound.

13. To make a spoken word vocal sound harder, treat it to some overdrive or degradation. If your overdrive effect has any kind of frequency controls, experiment with them, as you may find they'll help you create a harder or more intelligible effect. If the clarity of your vocals is important, consider mixing in some dry signal when using degrader-style effects on low bit-rate settings.

14. It's possible to turn a sung vocal into a totally twisted effect by stretching out a sustained note and looping it - use crossfade looping if possible as it delivers much smoother results. This sustained note can then be pitchbent in your sampler or gradually effected with plug-ins to create a handy bridge to be used before a drop or break.

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