Record Label and Electronic Music Academy
Tools · 20 free
Small, focused, browser-based. No install, no account, no cost. They are ordered the way a track gets made: build a sound, understand it, shape it, arrange it, then mix it.
Try it now
It is first on the list and the quickest to get. Play it from your computer keyboard or a MIDI keyboard. Change the waveform, close the filter and hear the character change before any effect.
The Synth page has a guided exercise and what to listen for at each step.
All 20 tools
Each tool isolates one concept so you can hear it change. Use the signal chain to jump to a stage, or scroll and follow it from the first sound to the master.
01 · Instruments · 5 tools
A synthesizer builds sound from raw oscillators, not samples. Waveform, filter and envelope decide the character before a single effect is added, and the LFO sets one of those decisions moving on its own. Play it from your computer keyboard or a MIDI one, no install required.
Keys or MIDIOpen →Perfectly quantized drums are not neutral, they are a specific aesthetic. Program a pattern and nudge individual hits to hear how a few ticks of timing change the whole feel of a groove.
GrooveOpen →Picking a kick by scrolling through a sample folder teaches you nothing about why one works and the next does not. Build one from its parts, genre by genre, and export what you end up with as a .wav.
Exports .wavOpen →Twelve keys and ten scales, with a piano roll that locks to the scale. Import a progression from the Progression Generator and write over the chord tones it marks on the grid.
ScalesOpen →Minor does not simply mean sad and major does not simply mean happy. This tool shows chord shapes, inversions and genre progressions on a keyboard so you can hear the difference a single note makes.
ChordsOpen →02 · Education · 4 tools
Every synth sound has a shape in time, not just a pitch and a timbre. Attack, decay, sustain and release decide whether a sound feels struck or held, sharp or soft. Hear each stage change in isolation.
EnvelopeOpen →Every waveform shape has a distinct sound, and seeing the shape makes the connection stick faster than any description. Watch the wave move as you play.
WaveformOpen →Boosting and cutting the same frequency by the same amount do not sound like opposites. See the curve move as you shape it, and hear why cutting is usually the safer first move.
EQOpen →Every sound has a shape across the frequency spectrum, not just a volume. Watch it move in real time and start connecting what you hear to what you see.
FrequenciesOpen →03 · Effects · 4 tools
The most used gesture in electronic music, and the one most people apply badly by opening the filter too early and too fast. Sweep a low-pass filter and watch resonance change what the movement communicates.
SweepOpen →Depth is not volume. Two sounds at the same level can sit at completely different distances. Adjust decay and send level to hear a sound move backwards without getting quieter.
DepthOpen →A delay's repeats fill the space between hits, which is a different tool from reverb even though both add distance. Sync it to tempo and hear how note division changes rhythmic character.
TimeOpen →A compressor's threshold, ratio, attack and release are usually abstract numbers. Here they are a meter moving in real time, so you can see exactly when and how hard it grabs.
DynamicsOpen →04 · Composition · 4 tools
Loops do not become tracks by accident, they follow a shape. See reference structures for House, Techno and Organic House side by side, section by section.
StructureOpen →Getting stuck on a chord progression is one of the most common places to get stuck at all. Generate one in any key and mode, hear it with bass and groove, and export it as MIDI.
Exports MIDIOpen →A good build-up is a sequence of small decisions, not one big effect. Stack the layers and hear the difference between a build-up that pays off and one that just gets louder.
Build-upOpen →Drag blocks across a timeline to sketch an entire track's arrangement before opening a DAW. See the whole shape before committing to a single sound.
ArrangementOpen →05 · Mixing and mastering · 3 tools
Sidechain is usually taught as a mixing fix for kick and bass clashing, which is the least interesting thing it does. This visualizer shows the compressor's envelope against the kick in real time.
SidechainOpen →Panning decides left-right position, width decides how wide a sound feels. They are different controls that get confused constantly. See both at once.
Stereo imageOpen →A limiter is a compressor with a ceiling it refuses to cross, the last stage that decides how loud a master gets without clipping. Push it and watch the reduction pile up.
MasterOpen →All together
Each of these tools isolates one concept. The OHXALA RECORDS Studio brings them together: drums and three melodic tracks, a piano roll, a channel with EQ, filter and ADSR on every instrument, and a master with compressor, limiter and LUFS metering.
It is where you build a whole track in the browser before moving to a DAW.
From what you learn to what you use
In the EMPB, each one shows up in the lesson where the concept is introduced. Ten chapters take one track of yours from the first sound to a mastered WAV, with a quiz in every chapter and four assignments that come back with personal feedback. €97, one-time payment.