Breakbeat Production with Future Funk Squad

Future Funk Squad (AKA Glen Nicholls) is a Dance Music and Sound Design icon and has been in the industry for over 20 years. He has released 3 albums to date: Audio Damage (2006), Disorders of Skill (2009) & the award-winning Darker Days (2014), and has remixed the likes of The Prodigy, Massive Attack, UNKLE, Nine Inch Nails, The Crystal Method, Hybrid to name but a few. Alongside this, he is a Sound Designer working in TV & Film, having produced music & sound for such projects as TNT’s The Alienist and many independent films, and frequently collaborates with Composer Rupert Gregson-Williams, who has scored many Hollywood blockbusters. 

Joining Producertech for the first time, Future Funk Squad has created an all-encompassing crash course in writing, producing, mixing and mastering, that will take you from the drawing board to a professional arrangement in just a few hours. 

Kicking off proceedings with some heavy break samples, chunky drums and funky basslines, he then begins to build out the track. Slowly adding more and more elements to enrich the music, he explains along the way when and how to use certain elements, like atmospherics, transitional risers, and what sort of frequencies these elements should be occupying. 

He then begins to arrange the individual elements into something that resembles a track, experimenting along the way, and trying out a number of different options to optimise the impact and pacing of the song. 

Future Funk Squad’s sound design and mixing expertise comes to the fore when he explains and demonstrates his mixing process, which involves committing to the arrangement by working with exported stems. He then finishes up with a quick-fire mastering tutorial and leaves you with a fully-finished, release-standard track. 

Enrolling on the course gets you immediate access to the streamed tutorials, plus the Logic project from the lessons and a bonus pack of Breaks samples from Loopmasters. Enrol now to join Future Funk Squad in his studio and acquire fresh production knowledge and materials to start making quality Breakbeat tracks today!

Sample Module

Part 1 Intro - Meet Future Funk Squad - 0:50 

Module 1 - Creating the Drums 

Learn how to choose and process breakbeats, and layer them with your own oneshot samples to create a punchy, well-rounded drum track. - 19:00 

Module 2 - Developing a Bassline 

Develop a bassline that compliments your drums, whilst learning the basics of a good, catchy bassline. Learn how to expand your bassline by layering it with other synth sounds. - 08:15 

Module 3 - Building out the Track 

Use drum fills, arpeggiators and other rhythmic elements to fill out the rhythm section of the track. - 20:42 

Module 4 - Arranging 

Begin to structure the tracks and elements in a way that starts to resemble a song. - 24:32 

Module 5 - Breakdown Elements

Using pads, risers, and drum rolls, make a breakdown and build up to connect two sections of a song and give your drops greater impact. - 11:42

Module 6 - Further Arranging

Building out the second half and making sure the first verse works with the second. - 09:18 

Module 7 - Tidying up & Filling in the Gaps 

Now the body of the song is made, time to start elaborating on ideas, polishing and adding transitional elements. - 23:50 

Intro Part 2 - Progress so far - 0:51 

Module 8 - Mixing and Building out the Arrangement

Starting to mix the track and identifying and troubleshooting particular areas. Adding and removing musical elements to address these problems. - 24:51

Module 9 - Building out the Arrangement (continued) 

Going through each track and working out problem areas within them and using dynamic processing (EQ, compressors) to correct issues. - 30:35 

Module 10 - Introduction to Mixing 

Learn good habits for mixing. Bouncing out tracks to audio stems and mixing only in audio, in a new project. - 08:22 

Module 11 - Mixing & Mastering 

In-depth coverage of creating the tonal quality of your track, through extensive use of compression, EQing and saturation. - 15:04 

Module 12 - Mixing & Mastering (Continued) 

Delve further into mixing, using Limiters and Stereo Imaging, as well as Tape Saturation to balance out your track and reduce variability across different mediums. - 17:30 

Module 13 - Wrapping it Up 

Final creative touches, with final EQing done to achieve desired sound. Rearranging the track to fit the new sound. Using Loudness Meters to achieve the correct commercial standards for streaming etc. - 29:01

System Requirements

• An internet connection is required to stream the modules in this course.

Please Note: The modules included in this online guide can be streamed within the Courses section of your account area and are not available to download.