How Pros Do It: BICEP - can I recreate their track?

The track blends breakbeat style with house music elements. Establishing a strong drum groove is essential to the production process.

• Unlike strict house music with four-to-the-floor kicks, this style uses more relaxed kick patterns • Kicks are manually grooved with intentional lags and placements to create a unique feel

• Use a rim shot rather than a traditional snare for a cleaner sound • Add minimal hi-hats with high pitch to prepare the deep ambience • Include syncopation and technical shuffling for groove

Snare and kick patterns should communicate with each other. Deviate from the grid itself to create grooviness while maintaining cohesion.

• Bright open hats paired with dark closed hats create easy mixing contrast • 16th note groovy hats deviating from the grid for natural feel • Both hats sourced from the same sample with applied groove and EQ processing

Apply sidechain compression from the kick to support the hat patterns and maintain rhythmic cohesion.

• Two methods: vocoder with increased bands creating longer, grittier tones, or distortion chain with reverb and heavy overdrive • Distortion method produces less resonated, more natural sound compared to vocoder • Use mapped buttons to blend between clean and wet signals while recording movements

Add a clap sample at the start of every two bars as a finishing element. The complete drum groove becomes the backbone for layering additional elements.

• Use simple two-note bass movement: root note and one note four semitones down • Common technique in this style creates standard harmonic foundation

Remove the stereo unison effect on the sawtooth oscillator to prevent phase issues in sub frequencies while maintaining stable low-end coherence.

Keep sub bass in mono to avoid phasing between channels. Add fundamental sub-bass on top while removing it from the unison instrument for clean, dark bass character.

The result is a dark, greasy bass sound that establishes deep ambience and pulls the listener into the track.

Use the Exhale instrument with vocal pad sounds to create ambient drones. This is a common technique in the genre for enhancing overall atmosphere.

• Exhale offers multiple vocal pad options and slice versions for quick shaping • Four-marker controls allow rapid sound design and customization • Produces recognizable 'ah' sounds commonly used in the style

• Apply high-end EQ boost to enhance brightness • Use mid-side EQ, boosting the side mode for stereo width • Apply sidechain compression from the kick to duck the ambient sound

The combined bass, drone, and drum elements establish the track's foundation, bringing the production to approximately 80 percent completion.

Create a signature pad sound characteristic of Bicep productions using layered synthesis techniques rather than simple sine waves.

• Enable envelope and LFO modulation on oscillator tuning for dynamic pitch movement • Add slight LFO delay for organic feel before modulation kicks in • Apply bite movement on the low end to add fullness and thickness

• Use filter cutoff with envelope movement and resonance • Add glide and vibrato for smooth, expressive transitions • Apply EQ to concentrate the sound and shape tonal balance

• Add reverb and sidechain compression ducking to vocals • Use echo chain with decking and wobble effects for tape-like feel and panning • Save as preset for reference and future use

• High-pitched bell synth sound commonly used in the Bicep style • Create with soft tones and extended release for natural decay • No sustain needed, allowing the note to trail off naturally

• Apply chorus to push sound to the sides and create ambience • Add distortion with growling and noise texture for character • Use super slow auto pan similar to the original track

Original vocals from the Bicep track are layered into the production without additional processing.

• Create return channel for drum processing with slight reverb, compression, and distortion • The combination of noise, distortion, and dirt primarily comes from this return channel • This technique introduces the characteristic dirty aesthetic of the production style