Tutorials · OHXALA RECORDS
Electronic music production tutorials
There are more production tutorials than anyone could watch in a lifetime, and the problem is rarely a lack of information. It is the order. A sidechain video watched before you can program a convincing beat teaches a technique you cannot use yet. This page puts the OHXALA RECORDS tutorials in the order a track gets made: listening, rhythm, sound, harmony, arrangement and mixing. The examples use Ableton Live, and the interactive tools run in your browser, with nothing to install and no account. If you are new, start with phase 0.
00Where to start
Before any technique: how to organise your learning, which DAW to pick and what you do, or do not, need to buy.
- How to learn electronic music production
The five-phase path this page follows, explained step by step. Start here.
- Sketch your first track in the browser
A beat, a bassline and a first structure using only the tools on this site, with nothing to install.
- Best DAW for electronic music
The main DAWs compared on what matters when you are starting out.
- You don’t need expensive gear
What you actually need at the start, and where spending money does not help.
- Unlocking your DAW
From an empty project to your first beat: the parts of the screen and the moves you will use in every session.
- Less is more: native plugins
Why the instruments and effects that ship with your DAW are enough for a finished track.
01Listening
Production starts with your ears. Before touching any knob, you train what to listen for.
- Producer’s ear 2.0
Active listening exercises to hear frequency, dynamics and space in a mix.
- Producer’s ear 3.0
How to use reference tracks to compare your track with the ones you admire.
02Rhythm and groove
In dance music, rhythm comes before melody. The kick and the groove hold the track together.
- Build your drum rack in Ableton
Set up your drums in a drum rack with the kick on its own track, so you can process it separately.
- Design your kick
What changes in a house, techno or afro house kick, one parameter at a time.
- The human side of rhythm
Swing, variation and small moves off the grid that take a beat out of machine mode.
03Sound and synthesis
Understanding how a sound is built is what gets you out of presets.
- How synthesizers work
Oscillators, filter and envelope, and how to build your first sounds from scratch.
- ADSR envelopes explained
Attack, decay, sustain and release, heard in real time.
- The power of sound design
Build your own textures and signature sounds with few plugins and a lot of processing.
04Harmony and melody
Theory only as far as it helps: scales, chords and what makes a progression work.
- Music theory for electronic music
Scales and chords in the service of groove and emotion, without the classroom.
- How to make a melody for electronic music
Scale, rhythm, motif and chord tones: a method for writing melodies that stick, and what changes in each genre.
05Arrangement and finishing tracks
This is where most people get stuck: turning an eight-bar loop into a track with a beginning, a middle and an end.
- From loop to full track
A method to stop starting tracks and start finishing them.
- The art of arrangement
Build a journey through a track with tension, breaks and release.
- Your first collaboration
Split the work, share sessions and stems, and finish a track with someone else.
06Mixing and mastering
Balance, dynamics and final loudness, with every process heard before it is explained.
- EQ basics for electronic music
Cut and boost frequencies so every element has its own place.
- How compressors actually work
Threshold, ratio, attack and release, with the effect of each one shown and heard.
- Creative sidechaining
Sidechain beyond kick and bass: rhythm, space and movement.
- LUFS, loudness and limiting
How loud your master needs to be, and how to get there without crushing the track.
07By genre
The same fundamentals applied to specific genres.
- How to make organic house
Groove, texture and restraint in a genre that lives on space.
- Afro house drum patterns
Programming percussion with groove beyond the grid.
- House chord progressions
The progressions you hear in house, and why they work.
- How to make techno
Kick, rumble and tension, the foundation of club techno.
08Choosing a path
For people who would rather learn with a fixed structure and feedback.
- Online production courses in 2026
Point Blank, Berklee Online, Futureproof, Sonic Academy, EDMProd and EMPB compared on clear criteria.
The EMPB course follows these phases in ten chapters, with the same tools and a finished track of your own at the end. The in-person workshops walk the whole path in two days, currently taught in Portuguese.