Building a Track and Making Effective Transitions w/ Jacky
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Start your free trial to get access to this pro course and hundreds more on Mixmasters
Get Started for FreeBuilding a Track and Making Effective Transitions w/ Jacky
Course Contents
Course Preview
Setting Up Your DAW
Building A House Track From Scratch
Building Upon The Basics - Part I
Building Upon The Basics - Part 2
Live Q&A
Live Q&A session
Make Label-Ready Music
Learn Music Production Skills From The World's Best Artists.
About This Course
Renowned DJ & Producer Jacky shows you how he starts to build a House track from scratch in Ableton Live and how to stay productive when producing music.
In this session, Jacky begins to breakdown how he goes about building a track from start to finish, offering essential workflow tips and other productive techniques to allow you to effectively arrange your musical ideas and formulate them into a track.
Jacky mostly uses Ableton’s stock plugins, however he also reveals one of his favourite external plugins for Ableton Live: OhmBoyz.
You will learn how to:
- Optimise your workflow and maximise your productivity
- How to set up a project file template
- How to create the basic components of a House Music dance track
- Creative techniques for adding groove
- How to create a ‘fat’ bassline
- How to use send and return tracks effectively
Lessons:
1. Setting Up Your DAW
Jacky reveals his template for how to start creating a track from scratch in Ableton Live and shares some tips on how to organise and speed up your workflow to ensure that you stay focused on the creative elements of music production. He covers how he sets up his send and return channels and how he uses one of his most used plugins: OhmBoyz.
- How To Set Up Your Tracks in Ableton Live
- Setting Up Send & Return Channels
- OhmBoyz Plugin
2. Building A House Track From Scratch :
Jacky goes through the fundamentals of how he builds a House track from the beginning. He shows you how he uses production techniques such as subtractive EQ to clean up the kick drum, compression, delay and other tools to improve the key percussive elements (e.g. the clap and hi hats) of a dance music track.
- Building The Foundations: EQing The Kick Drum
- Building the Foundations: Clap
- Stereo Imaging Trick: Using Delay
- Building the Foundations: Hi Hats & Using Sidechaining
3. Building Upon The Basics - Part I:
Here we explore how Jacky builds upon the track’s basic foundations: adding swing and groove, using quantisation. He also reveals some workflow tips to aid productivity, such as: key mapping and grouping tracks in order to uniformly process percussion and apply FX.
- Adding Swing & Groove
- Adding A Snare
- Work Flow Tip: Grouping & Processing Percussion
- Work Flow Tip: Key Mapping
4. Building Upon The Basics - Part II:
Learn how Jacky creates his basslines, using Ableton Live’s stock plugins. See how he applies saturation and sidechaining to ensure a tight low end that works well with the kick drum. He also reveals how he creatively makes use of vocals to add texture to his songs.
- Adding A Bassline
- Improving The Bassline
- Adding A Vocal Texture
5. Live Q&A :
Jacky answers questions on House Music Production in Ableton Live.. Questions include: How wet/dry should FX be when applying them; why blend 2 different kick drum samples; what order to apply audio effects and where does Jacky get his infamous Kimonos
- Using return channels - how wet/dry should FX be when using them?
- Why do you blend 2 kick samples together?
- Why do you use 2 EQ audio effects in one audio effect chain?
- Where does Jacky get his Kimonos?

Meet Your Teacher
Jacky
DEFECTED favourite Jacky has in a short space of time racked up an impressive collection of releases across Elrow Music, FFRR, Repopulate Mars, VIVA and of course DFTD among many others. Known for his versatility when DJing, his chunky studio productions reflect this too, spanning the genres of disco, tech and deep house.
Having hit the top of the Beatport charts on numerous occasions with his tracks and his own label, Jacky & Friends, you will learn a lot from this larger-than-life electronic artist who has worked his way up to the top.
Discussions
Dream of finally finishing that draft or launching that side-hustle? Make your next creative project your best yet, with simple steps from creative superstar Emma Gannon!
Discussions
Dream of finally finishing that draft or launching that side-hustle? Make your next creative project your best yet, with simple steps from creative superstar Emma Gannon!
About This Class
Dream of finally finishing that draft or launching that side-hustle? Make your next creative project your best yet, with simple steps from creative superstar Emma Gannon!
In this new class, Emma shares the framework that allowed her to overcome self-doubt and carve her own path as an author, broadcaster, and podcast host. The secret to her success? Fed up with feeling afraid—of failure, of not being good enough, even of success—Emma dug into the science behind self-sabotage and learned exactly how to get out of her own way.
Now, Emma is sharing what she’s learned so that you can do the same: unlock your creative potential while feeling energized and empowered!
Together with Emma, you will:
- Identify the patterns in your life, and let go of habits that don’t serve you
- Cut out comparison to figure out what you really want and need
- Silence your inner critic by talking back to negative beliefs and behaviors
- Own your success and vulnerability—both go hand-in-hand with creativity
Packed with insights and examples from Emma’s personal journey, this class is designed for every creative who needs a pep-talk or extra push to get started—and includes five exclusive downloadable worksheets to support you along the way.
Whether you’re looking to break through block, remove self-imposed pressure, or simply approach each new project with intention, this 45-minute class will unlock your confidence as a creative. Get started and celebrate taking the first step!
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All you need to follow along is a pen and paper. Download the worksheets to follow along with Emma’s exercises, or jot your thoughts in a notebook.
Resources
- Introduction
- Week one
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