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🎛️ How to Build Your Signature Sound

🎛️ How to Build Your Signature Sound

Plus how to mix your tracks as you go

The Hidden Frequency
April 30, 2025

Welcome to the Hidden Frequency — your go-to source for the latest news on synths, industry trends, production techniques, and new music. Whether you’re a seasoned producer or just starting out, we provide the best tools to help you level up your music. If you were forwarded this email, don’t forget to subscribe to our newsletter so you never miss a thing!

What’s included this week:

🔦 SPOTLIGHT: How to build your signature sound
🎛️ WHAT'S MOVING THE NEEDLE: The sample pack revolution
🎚️ SHAPING THE SOUND: Mixing your track from the ground up
🎵 NEW MUSIC: Sally, Etrnalize | V-SouL, & more
🔥 WHAT'S BUZZING: Sultan + Shepard, Swedish House Mafia, * more
🧰 THE ESSENTIALS: Must have tools for your bag

TOP TRACKS

Every week, we bring you gems from indie labels and unsigned artists that deserve to be heard.

🔊 Etrnalize & V-SouL - Truth [The Masterbeat Project]

🔊 Cartoon, AC13, Jessee - Made For The Game (ft. KAZHI) [NCS]

🔊 SALLY - Ce Soir [Slyckr Records]

🔊 Zanoii - Needed Me [Seal Network]

🔊 DAVID BLK & Djorgiou - Believe This [Seal Network]

Got a track that you want shared with the community?

Email us at [email protected] with the title “SUBMISSION” and include a link to your track!

SPOTLIGHT

🎯The Producer’s Palette — How to Build Your Signature Sound

Every great producer has a sound — not just in terms of style or genre, but in the unique fingerprint that runs through their tracks. You can usually tell when it’s a Fred again.. record before the drop even hits. Same goes for Anyma, Charlotte de Witte, or Chris Lake. That consistency doesn’t happen by accident — it’s curated, designed, and refined.

This week’s spotlight is about developing what we call your Producer’s Palette — a consistent set of tools, techniques, and textures that sound like you.

🎨 What Is a Producer’s Palette?

Your palette is made up of a few key elements:

Your go-to synths or samplers (VSTs or hardware)
Your favorite drum kits and textures
Your FX chains for reverb, delay, or saturation
Your arrangement structure or phrasing style
Tonal colors — like whether you tend toward warm/analog or cold/digital timbres
Recurrent motifs or sound design choices
(e.g. detuned leads, filtered noise swells, glitched vocals, etc.)

Think of it like a painter who always uses a specific kind of brush and color tone. They can paint wildly different subjects, but there's still something unmistakably theirs in every canvas.

🧪 Start by Auditing Your Past Work

If you’ve made 5–10 tracks (even unfinished ones), lay them out side-by-side. Ask yourself:

What types of drums do I gravitate toward? Punchy? Lo-fi? Organic?
Which synths or instruments do I reach for first?
What kind of space do I create — wet and reverby? Dry and intimate?
Do I tend to build tension in a certain way? Filter sweeps? Volume automation?

Look for recurring choices. These are your default instincts — and they can either be refined into a clear palette or intentionally broken if they’re holding you back.

🧰 Build a Custom Toolkit

Once you’ve done that audit, start building a streamlined production ecosystem:

🎛 Synth rack with 2–3 VSTs you know inside-out
🥁 Drum sample folders with your favorite shots
🎚 FX chains that uniquely color the track
🎼 MIDI clip library of melodies that you’ve made and can use as starting points

💡 Artists Who’ve Mastered This

Let’s look at a few examples:

Anyma has a consistent sonic signature across melodic techno:
dark, cinematic synths, crisp hi-hats, and vocal snippets drenched in plate reverb.
Overmono build their world from warped breaks, pitch-bent vocals, and dense layering — but their FX chains and samples remain eerily consistent track to track.
Fred again.. leans into emotionally raw piano loops, sample-chopped voice memos, and minimal drum grooves — always using the same granular texture as glue.

These artists evolve over time, but they never abandon the core palette that defines their identity.

🧠 The Benefits

Finish Tracks Faster
You already know what sounds you like. No more endless browsing.
More Cohesive Sound
Even if you jump genres — your “sonic fingerprint” remains clear.
Brand Recognition
Fans and labels start to recognize you just by the sound — not just the name.

🔁 Evolve, Don’t Abandon

You don’t have to stay boxed into the same sound forever. But evolving your sound doesn’t mean tossing your whole toolkit. Add a new synth. Try a fresh vocal treatment. Replace your snare collection. Just keep enough of your palette intact so it still feels like you.

Create a “palette template” in your DAW — drum rack loaded, FX chains set up, three synths ready, and your favorite limiter on the master. This becomes your launchpad. From there, just create.

WHAT’S MOVING THE NEEDLE

In 2025, we're seeing artists opening up their sonic toolkits to the world. Rather than guarding their signature sounds, producers are packaging and releasing the very building blocks that define their music—giving fans and fellow creators unprecedented access to their creative process.

From Private Collection to Public Resource

Artists like KI/KI and TSHA are at the forefront of this movement. KI/KI's sample collection delivers those instantly recognizable textural elements and percussion hits that define her work. Similarly, TSHA's pack gives producers access to her distinctive warm drum processing and atmospheric elements—sounds that previously existed only in her personal library. Others like KSHMR and Mark Knight have created very successful packs that are the foundation for many producers tracks.

Why This Matters Now

This shift is reshaping the producer landscape in several key ways:

Breaking Down Technical Barriers: These packs give producers at all levels access to professional-grade sound design without requiring years of technical expertise.
New Income Streams: Beyond streaming and performing, sample packs have become a significant revenue source for many artists—creating financial sustainability in an industry that often lacks it.
Deeper Artistic Connection: Fans now engage with their favorite artists' work at a deeper level, using these sonic elements as starting points for their own creative journeys.

A Growing Ecosystem

Splice has become central for this movement. According to Splice CEO Kakul Srivastava, artist participation has grown substantially, with many creators earning significant supplementary income through their contributions.

This development marks an important evolution in electronic music culture—a shift toward collaboration and knowledge-sharing that enriches the entire production community. Artists are no longer just performers but also educators and sonic architects, sharing their expertise and distinctive sounds with a global audience.

The sample pack phenomenon represents a fundamental change in how electronic music continues to develop—one that values openness over secrecy and collective growth over individual advantage.

SHAPING THE SOUND

Making Tracks Mix-Ready from the Ground Up

If your track only comes alive after you mix it, you’re likely leaving a lot of sonic potential untapped during the production phase.

Producers across all genres — from Jamie xx’s minimal clarity to Reinier Zonneveld’s maximalist techno walls — know that the mix begins the moment you load your first kick drum. This mindset helps tracks sound polished from the start and significantly cuts down on messy mixes later.

Let’s break down how to make your tracks mix-ready from the ground up:

🛠️ 1. Gain Staging as You Go

One of the biggest mistakes producers make is slapping elements in without thinking about level relationships. Start every sound around -12 dB and avoid redlining your master. Keep consistent levels across groups — this makes it much easier to balance things later without using extreme fader moves or compression.

Tip: Set a “starting template” where kicks sit around -10 dB and everything else fills in around that level. This lets you mix into headroom and clarity.

🎛️ 2. EQ with Intention, Not Reaction

Don’t just EQ after the fact. Think about each element’s frequency role before you even load it. For example:

Your bass shouldn’t fight the kick — maybe it’s sub-heavy, maybe it’s midrange-driven, but not both.
Choose pads that sit above your chords, or chord voicings that leave room for vocals or leads.

Choosing sounds with pre-mixed characteristics can remove the need for later heavy carving.

🧰 3. Use Good Sounds, Not Just Good Tools

Instead of stacking plugins to fix a weak sound, replace it. If a snare needs 3 EQs, 2 compressors, and a transient shaper, it’s probably the wrong snare. Top producers like Kölsch or Bicep are meticulous about sound selection — not over-processing.

Mix less, choose better”

🔁 4. Build Arrangement in Sonic Layers

As you structure your track, think in frequency lanes:

Low: Kick & Bass
Mid: Leads, Chords
High: Hats, Atmospheres

Avoid overloading any one range. Use silence, filtering, and arrangement gaps to let parts breathe.

Listen to: ARTBAT’s “Coming Home” — masterful use of arrangement to separate energy in bands without needing aggressive EQ.

🌀 5. Space Is Part of the Mix

Use panning and reverb/delay to give instruments their space — early in the production process. Don’t wait until the mix to figure out where something sits in the stereo field.

A trick used by melodic producers like Ben Böhmer and Stephan Bodzin: Pan rhythmic synths slightly off-center, while centering the lead. Gives the mix motion without losing focus.

🧪 6. Mix Into a Soft Glue Bus

Using gentle bus compression or saturation on your master (early on!) can help glue elements together while you produce — just keep it subtle. Think of it as painting on a slightly textured canvas instead of a blank sheet.

Try:

FabFilter Saturn (low drive)
SSL Bus Compressor (2:1 ratio, slow attack, low gain reduction)
Ozone Vintage Tape (for subtle high-end roll-off and glue)

🎚️ 7. Use Reference Tracks While Producing

Don't wait until the final mix to compare your track to professional releases. Drag a reference into your DAW and check periodically during production. It’ll help you stay aware of tonal balance, low-end punch, and overall energy.

🧼 8. Clean As You Go

Before arranging, clean your project:

Label channels clearly.
Bounce or consolidate heavy FX chains.
Use color coding for groups (Drums, FX, Synths).
Remove any unused samples or muted clutter.

Think of it as pre-mix hygiene — future-you (or your mixing engineer) will thank you.

Final Thought:

Pro mixing starts with intentional production. If your raw track already sounds 80% there before you even touch EQ or compression, you're working like a pro.

Your DAW’s mix buss should be the final polish — not a rescue mission.

Start treating production and mixing as one continuous process, and your tracks will start sounding bigger, cleaner, and more professional — right out of the gate.