Chapter 5 · your first beat
Which kick is tuned to the bass?
It is B. The kick lands on the same note as the bass, so the low end sounds like one instrument. In A the two clash and the bottom of the mix gets muddy.
Record Label and Electronic Music Academy
Online course · EMPB · taught in English
Learn to produce House, Techno, Organic House or Afro House from zero. Ten chapters take one track of yours from the first sound to a mastered WAV, at your own pace.
One track, ten chapters
Every chapter adds to the same project. Pick a genre in chapter 1 and keep scrolling: the panel shows what your session looks like at each step. Chapters 5 to 8 end with an assignment you send in, and each one gets personal feedback.
Choose House, Techno, Organic House or Afro House and learn to hear what defines it: the tempo, the kick, the space and the width of the mix. Everything after this is built in your genre.
Listening exercises with A/B comparisons
Oscillators, filters and envelopes, one control at a time. You design the three sounds your track will use: a lead, a pad and a bass.
Synth · ADSR Envelope · Oscilloscope · Filter Sweep
A beat in the Drum Box, a melody locked to the scale, chords from the Progression Generator. You export the MIDI into a folder called My track.
Drum Machine · Melodic Sequencer · Chord Progressions · Progression Generator
Each sound from chapter 2 gets rebuilt in Live from a recipe the Synth gives you, one track per sound.
Synth recipe for Drift
Open the starter project for your genre, load your own kick from the Kick Designer and program the beat in Live. You send a short loop as your first assignment.
Kick Designer · starter Live project
Plan the sections in the Arrangement Canvas, drag the structure into Live and turn the loop into a full track: intro, build-up, drop, breakdown and outro, with a filter rising into each drop.
Structure Map · Tension Builder · Arrangement Canvas
EQ, compression, sidechain and space. The bass ducks every time the kick hits, kick and bass stay in the centre and dry, nothing clips.
EQ Visualizer · Spectrum Analyzer · Compressor · Sidechain · Stereo & Panning · Reverb · Delay
A limiter that stops before it crushes the track, a loudness reading you understand, and the export settings. You finish with a WAV of your own track.
Limiter
What happens around your track once it is finished: author rights and collecting societies, Creative Commons, open decks, and how to work on a track with another producer.
Genre deep dives that show where to take your sound after the first finished track.
Hear it first
Three pairs taken from the course quizzes. Press play, switch between A and B while it plays, then make your guess. Headphones help.
Chapter 5 · your first beat
It is B. The kick lands on the same note as the bass, so the low end sounds like one instrument. In A the two clash and the bottom of the mix gets muddy.
Chapter 7 · mixing
It is B. A compressor on the bass listens to the kick and turns the bass down for a moment on every hit. That gap is the pumping you hear in house.
Chapter 8 · master
It is B. Its peaks sit about 4 dB closer to its average level, so the kick loses its punch even though the overall volume matches A.
The tools
All 20 are free on this site, so you can try them before you decide. In the course each one appears in the chapter where you need it, next to the exercise that uses it. This is the Drum Machine from chapter 3: click the grid and press play.
Studio · for students
Students also get the OHXALA RECORDS Studio, a sketch environment in the browser where you program a beat, shape a bassline and play a chord progression without installing a DAW.
Who it is for
Probably not for you
If you have been producing for more than a year and want advanced sound design or professional mixing, this course starts too early. Those topics are planned for the next Academy modules.
Real references
Fisher · Massano · Peggy Gou · Charlotte de Witte · Adriatique · Alignment · Chris Stussy · Ohxala
The chapters point to real tracks to show what each idea sounds like on a finished record, like why one kick hits harder than another.
Price
€97launch price · one-time
Until 31 December 2026. From 1 January 2027 the course costs €149.
No subscription. Access arrives within 24 hours of buying and stays with you, along with every update to the course.
Card, Apple Pay or Google Pay
Included
7-day guarantee. If the course is not right for you within 7 days of getting access, email us and we refund the full amount.
FAQ
The course is taught in Ableton Live, and the starter projects are Live sets. If you do not own Live, the free 30-day trial lets you record and export, which is enough to finish your track.
The 20 tools run in the browser with nothing to install.
The course is designed for about 2 to 3 hours a week over 4 to 8 weeks. You keep access for life, so you set the pace.
Yes. It starts with what an oscillator is and ends with an exported track. You do not need any music theory.
English. The same course exists in European Portuguese as the PMEI.
Email the Academy at ohxalarecords@gmail.com. The four assignments also come back with written feedback on your own work.
Yes. Within 7 days of getting access you can ask for a full refund. The details are in the refund policy.
Access arrives within 24 hours. Chapter 1 begins with choosing your genre.
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Electronic music production, courses and interactive tools. Made in Portugal.