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Tired of static, lifeless tracks? The secret to captivating your listeners lies in adding movement to your music. When your sounds continually evolve, both individually and as a whole, your track stays fresh and engaging from start to finish. In this article, we’ll share tips for adding movement to your tracks, including using Kontakt’s envelopes to shape the attack, decay, sustain, and release, using LFO’s to add movement, using Motion FX in Playbox, and creating a more interesting sound with Flair and Phasis. You can get all of these tools in Komplete 15, the comprehensive suite of instruments, effects, and sounds that empowers creators across every genre to produce professional-grade tracks. Jump to these sections: Shape the...

After eighteen months of sonic shapeshifting and genre alchemy, BICEP, the ever-evolving Northern Irish duo of Andy Ferguson and Matt McBriar, have released what may be their most poignant CHROMA track to date. The final single from the pair’s ambitious CHROMA series, ‘CHROMA 010 BRILLO’, arrives as both a euphoric finale and a soft exhale — a track that distills the essence of the project into one shimmering, soulful release. This moment marks the culmination of a sprawling and unpredictable chapter in the BICEP story: one that has encompassed ten digital singles, a series of boundary-pushing DJ/AV hybrid shows, and a fluid new identity crafted in collaboration with futurist design studio Terrain (led by David Rudnick). CHROMA has...

Kontakt has become a go-to tool for producers who want to get more out of their synth sounds – especially when you’re working entirely in-the-box and relying on VSTs to bring character and depth to a track. But like anything in music production, knowing when to keep it simple and when to dive deeper is where most people get stuck. Few understand this better than Flight School, the duo recently signed to Kygo’s Palm Tree Records in partnership with Sony Music. They’re known for blending electronic production with pop vocals, and now they’re shifting into a new sound – mixing drum and bass rhythms with polished, radio-friendly toplines. Plugins like Kontakt, Hybrid Keys, and Monark are a huge part of keeping things fresh while working...

If you’re producing music, one of the most important tools you’ll come across is reverb. It’s a ubiquitous audio effect that fundamentally informs how we perceive sound. Reverb adds a kind of three-dimensional depth to sound and makes things seem as if they’re in a space. Small ambiences and sprawling cavernous reverbs alike, reverb is one of the audio effects that can take your music from sounding amateur to something distinctly ‘more.’ In this article, we’ll explore five creative reverb techniques to elevate your productions and mixes, from nuanced ambiance to transition automation. Jump to these sections: What is reverb? Creative ways to use reverb in music production Add space and depth with subtle reverb Use gated reverb on...

It’s one of the magic tricks of music production: turning a simple sound into a whole world you can get lost in. In the right producer’s hands, a piano can be much more than just a piano: it could be an ethereal tone engine, a shimmering synth pad, or even a whole rhythmic ensemble. That producer could be you. All you need is the right tools and some clever techniques. In this article, we’ll show you how to use Noire to create rich, immersive soundscapes out of just a few notes. This innovative piano plugin, which captures Nils Frahm’s concert grand, is designed to give you a range of tools for crafting immersive sound. Whether you’re composing a cinematic piano score, writing ambient music, or looking for new sound design approaches...

Humans have used their voices to shape, create, and produce music for centuries. Our connection to the human voice is so strong that, until just a few decades ago, instrumental music rarely topped any music charts. The voice is a powerful tool, and using it effectively can have a massive impact on your music career. No one understands this better than RayRay, one of Asia’s loudest exports. Known for her bass-heavy productions, she seamlessly integrates the human voice in both familiar and unconventional ways. RayRay uses plugins like iZotope VocalSynth to push vocal boundaries, drawing listeners in with familiar tones and then flipping expectations with innovative effects. Her approach has earned her millions of streams, hundreds of...

Notable tracks that were added to DJcity this week. View them all here. Download the tracks below. (* indicates DJcity Exclusive) Ty Dolla $ign – ALL IN Tiësto & Sexyy Red – OMG! Sabrina Carpenter – Manchild GloRilla – Typa IAmChino, Pitbull & Victor Cardenas – Soy Asi Lana Del Rey – Summertime Sadness – Tall Boys Remix * Bankroll Ni – I’m So ATL – MarkCutz Rock Yo Hips Intro * Burna Boy – City Boys – Da Phonk & Lincoln Baio Lean On Remix * Lil Wayne & SIDEPIECE – A Milli – SIDEPIECE VIP Edit Rob49 – WTHELLY – Albert Harvey Remix DJcity’s weekly picks are selected by Sir Marcus. To receive them via email, click here. The post Fresh Weekly Picks Featuring Ty Dolla $ign, Sabrina Carpenter, Tiësto, GloRilla, Lana Del Rey, + More...

Mark your calendars for August 22–25, as Into The Wild returns to the picturesque Chiddingly Estate in Sussex for its 11th magical year! More than just a festival, this vibrant, family friendly gathering has evolved into a celebration of creativity, connection and consciousness. What started in 2014 as an intimate get-together has blossomed into a 5,000-strong community, where friendships form under the stars, collaborations spark by campfire, and milestone moments – from marriages to births – become part of the festival’s living story. The 2025 edition promises its most expansive programme yet, with over 200 workshops set to take place, and the first wave of artists just announced! Festival-goers can dive into everything from wild...

With ENDLESS™ Legend 2 entering Early Access, composer Arnaud Roy returns to the franchise with a soundtrack shaped by texture, movement, and technical precision. Kontakt sits at the center of his process, used not just for playback, but for building and manipulating his own sampled instruments. Roy worked with field recordings, analog synths, and orchestral layers to develop a score that adapts across faction themes, world events, and gameplay modes. Kontakt let him keep the workflow tight – whether he was tuning custom percussion, stacking sound banks, or creating playable textures from found sounds. In this interview, Arnaud Roy explains how he used Kontakt across the ENDLESS Legend 2 score, why he mixed the full project in Dolby...

A unique instrument that combines chords, samples and effects into a single tool, Playbox is the perfect antidote to beatmaker’s block. Compatible with both Kontakt and the free Kontakt Player, Playbox includes over 320 presets that utilise 200 chord sets and 900 samples. This makes it easy to come up with inspirational musical ideas in a flash. If you’re interested in fully exploring the creative potential of Playbox, you can load up to 450 of your own samples, use 15 FX to process them, and randomize parameters to create unexpected combinations of sounds. In this guide to using Playbox in your own music productions, we’ll look at how rhythmic patterns, melodic patterns, chord patterns and sample layering work in the instrument...

Flavor of the Month is your exclusive scoop of fresh DJ edits, remixes, and bootlegs, chosen by the ROAD Podcast crew. These DJcity exclusives are the secret ingredients to spice up your set. Create an account to listen to these tracks for free. For full download access to these edits and much more, new users can subscribe to DJcity for only $10. Here are the #FOTM selections for June 2025: Moliy & Silent Addy (ft. Skillibeng & Shenseea) – Shake It To The Max – DJ Bizzon Hype Intro PLUTO & Sexyy Red – WHIM WHAMIEE – Serg Sniper Hype Intro B Jack$ & Zeddy Will – Get Jiggy Bankroll Ni – Im So ATL Myaap – Fairy Rob49 – WTHELLY – MarkCutz Hype Intro 803Fresh – Boots On The Ground Follow the R.O.A.D. Podcast on Facebook, Instagram...

Want your demos to have a professional sound without getting bogged down in endless tweaking? We’ve distilled five key tricks from our massive library of production advice, with a focus on efficiency, to get you sounding closer to a finished studio track in no time. Try all of these tricks yourself with a free trial of the NI 360 subscription, the new way to create, produce, and polish your music. 1. Nail it at the source by capturing clean recordings The foundation of a great-sounding track is a clean recording. Setting proper input levels on your interface or recording device ensures your raw tracks are clear and free from unwanted digital clipping and distortion. Give your signals some headroom – you can always increase the...

Finishing tracks is one of the most common hurdles we face as producers and songwriters. We’re all familiar with the dreaded folder of uncompleted projects and eight-bar loops. This can happen for many reasons: a lack of inspiration, technical challenges, or simply not knowing how to complete a project. The process of finishing tracks can be daunting. But there are methods that you can use to streamline your workflow and overcome these obstacles. In this article, we’ll look at strategies to assist you in completing your tracks and getting them heard. Ready to unlock your track’s full potential? Try NI 360 free and implement these tips to finish your track today. Jump to these sections: How can I overcome creative blocks when...

ASHRR’s unique approach to production has always leaned on a mix of organic and electronic textures, and that’s something they’ve perfected over time – especially when it comes to drums. There’s no substitute for the authenticity and depth that recording live drums brings to a track. The nuances of real percussion, the natural room reflections, and the human feel add a level of character that purely digital beats can’t always replicate. But even the best live recordings sometimes need a little extra weight, punch, or grit to sit just right in a mix. That’s where Battery 4 comes in. ASHRR layers MIDI-based drums underneath their recorded percussion – as they did on their latest EP Please Don’t Stop The Rain which features a standout...

MIDI instruments can feel lifeless if not approached with intention. Without the right techniques, performances risk sounding robotic, but when treated like real instruments, they can carry all the nuance and emotion of a live performance. For HWIN, expressive performance has always been the foundation of his music. As the creative force behind Cathedrals, his productions pulled in 60 million streams and critical praise from The New York Times and Billboard. Now, with the launch of 57 Records and his debut solo EP Just Like a Flower, he’s shifting focus to foster a community-driven approach to music. His work merges technical precision with human feel, blending Kontakt’s powerful articulation tools with an instinct for live...

Notable tracks that were added to DJcity this week. View them all here. Download the tracks below. (* indicates DJcity Exclusive) Tate McRae – Just Keep Watching PLUTO & Sexyy Red – WHIM WHAMIEE Remix Blessd & SOG – CUÁNDO Olamide & Wizkid – Kai! – Da Phonk Club Edit * Justin Bieber – Sorry – Freejak Remix * Connie Francis – Pretty Little Baby – Eddie Boy Remix * Rihanna – Only Girl (In The World) – BVRNOUT Remix Major Lazer (ft. Nyla) – Light It Up – Dan Gerous & Tommy Montana Remix Bob Sinclar (ft. Big Ali) – Rock This Party (Everybody Dance Now) – MK (ITA) Remix Drake (ft. Majid Jordan) – Hold On, We’re Going Home – Pedrik Remix DJcity’s weekly picks are selected by Sir Marcus. To receive them via email, click here. The post...

Most producers treat Maschine as a groovebox. For BIIANCO, it’s the central nervous system of a live modular rig. Their new single “SPIN,” out now on Ultra Records, leans hard into that workflow – acid-drenched, euphoric, and dialed in with surgical precision using analog gear and MIDI tricks most producers wouldn’t think to attempt outside a DAW. BIIANCO’s been building toward this moment for a while. After a breakout 2023, a viral live video with 35 million views, and a massive ADE performance, they’ve carved out a space where modular synths, hybrid DJ sets, and raw vocal energy meet. Maschine+ plays a critical role in that setup – driving acid bass lines, sequencing in real-time, and routing audio back through synced effects without...

This week on @RoadPodcast, the crew sits down with premier EDM DJ/Producer and one of England’s finest, @JamesHype. They discuss his @ZoukGroupLV residency (01:36) and break down the differences between U.S. and European dance music markets (03:35). James reflects on his DJ roots in England (09:45), shares his thoughts on spinning with @Serato vs. @RekordboxOfficial (20:30), and revisits his first breakout hit, “More Than Friends” (35:01). He dives into his marketing persona as the “Hulk Hogan of DJing” (47:13), talks about his Ibiza residency at @Hiibizaofficial (1:01:04), and vents his frustrations with @BoilerRoomTV and his recent feud with @DeadMau5 (1:11:15). The crew also unpacks how James trolled the @Hardwell meltdown at...

One of the most challenging parts of songwriting is finding a place to start. Faced with the blank canvas in a DAW, creating the initial idea for a song can be tough on some days for even the best songwriters. Starting songs doesn’t have to be a strenuous task if you have the right tools. The latest version of Komplete from Native Instruments provides a collection of inspiring virtual instruments and samplers that allow you to instantly start song ideas, saving time and energy stressing over what to write. In this article, we’ll explore five ways to begin song ideas using tools in Komplete, including Play Series instruments, Kontakt, Leap and Guitar Rig 7 Pro. Jump to these sections: Use Phrases and Chords to create instant...

These are DJcity’s most downloaded tracks of May 2025. Our monthly charts feature top downloads from around the world, plus regional charts for Latin, UK, Germany, Asia, and South Asia. Icona Pop (ft. Charli XCX) – I Love It – MARROW LET’S GO Edit Ayra Starr & Wizkid – Gimme Dat Nelly Furtado (ft. Timbaland) – Promiscuous – Lukas & Frank & Vescu Remix T.I. – Bring Em Out – Richastic Remix David Guetta, Willy William & Nicky Jam – Cuentale DJ Snake (ft. Selena Gomez, Ozuna & Cardi B) – Taki Taki – 5HOURS Remix Jaden Bojsen & Sami Brielle – LET’S GO – MFresh Hype Intro Young M.A – Ooouuu – MFresh Bel Mercy Edit Major Lazer (ft. MØ & DJ Snake) – Lean On – Freejak Remix House Of Pain – Jump Around – MOONLGHT Remix View the full list...