Record Label and Electronic Music Academy
Academy · OHXALA RECORDS
The academy of a record label with more than 100 releases. Start today with the free tools, take the online course at your own pace, and meet us in a room with a laptop in front of you and someone beside you.
The path
You do not have to do all of them, or in this order. But it is the order in which each one pays off most: first listen and experiment, then learn with a method, then work in a room with other people. Scroll and follow the signal.
20 interactive tools that run in the browser, each built so you hear one concept at a time: synthesis, envelopes, rhythm, chords, EQ, compression, sidechain, structure, limiting. Alongside them, the blog tutorials are organized by phase, from the first sound to the master.
Free · no sign-up · in English and Portuguese
Ten chapters that take one track of yours from the first sound to a mastered WAV, in House, Techno, Organic House or Afro House. The tools appear inside the lessons, every chapter has a quiz, and four assignments come back with personal feedback.
€97 until 31 December, then €149 · one-time payment · lifetime access · certificate · taught in English
The whole path walked once, in a room, across two three-hour days. You leave with an exported track and the Live session to keep going at home. Two instructors for ten people. The Viseu edition is taught in Portuguese, and an English edition runs in Lisbon once eight people have put their names down.
Viseu · November 7 and 8 · 3:00 to 6:00 pm · €50 · in Portuguese
A full weekend of making music. It is the step after the workshop: masterclasses with working producers and DJs, talks, gear sessions, coaching on your project and presentations of every participant's work.
Venue, date and price announced to the list first
An afternoon on one thing only, with someone who does it for a living: kick design, mixing low end, somebody's record taken apart in front of the room. No prerequisites, open to people who produce and people who just want to watch.
First session to be announced · a different guest each time
Who teaches
The in-person formats are taught by Luís Marques and Isabel Ferreira, both members of Ohxala and both certified trainers under the Portuguese CCP scheme. The online course and the tools were built by the same team.
Behind it is OHXALA RECORDS, an independent label since 2019 with more than 100 releases. The examples in the lessons come from real tracks from the scene, and so does the vocabulary: what you hear on a dance floor, explained at the level of someone starting out.
The principle
Every concept lands first in a tool where you hear one parameter change, and only then moves to the DAW. It works the same way in the course, the workshops and the blog.
Next editions
Future dates get set where there is demand, and an English-language workshop runs in Lisbon as soon as eight people have put their names down. Tell us your city, the format you want and, for a masterclass, the subject. We tell you first, and send nothing else.
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It is free, runs in the browser and needs no sign-up. When you want a method, the EMPB is open.