Afro house production 101

Deep, groove-focused, and soulful, Afro house is one of the most exciting regional styles of house music thanks to its focus on hypnotic synth textures, exhilarating percussion, and catchy hooks.

Artists such as Black Coffee, Culoe De Song, and Keinemusik have been surging in popularity with their dancefloor-friendly vibes and slick production.

In this tutorial, we’ll show you how to make Afro house from scratch using Native Instruments 360 Plus. We’ll go through the Afro house production process from building a beat and creating a groove to arrangement and mastering.

Jump to these sections:

• What BPM should Afro house be?
• What are the most important elements of an Afro house track?
• How is Afro house different from deep house or amapiano?
• Producing an Afro house track
  1. Deep house drums
  2. Adding an Afro house groove 
  3. Smooth keys 
  4. Making an Afro house bassline 
  5. Composing a lead line
  6. Creating a compelling atmosphere
  7. Arrangement
  8. Mastering

To follow along with this guide, you’ll need Kontakt 8 Player, Massive X, Battery 4, Ignition Keys, Phoenix Keys, Solid EQ, Ozone 12 Standard, Leap Afrobeats, and Leap House Grooves.

All of these plugins are included in the Native Instruments 360 Plus subscription, so you can get them all for one low monthly price.

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What BPM should Afro house be?

Afro house typically ranges between 110 and 125 BPM, a range that is conducive to expressive vocals, organic drum patterns, and hypnotic basslines. The range of 118 to 122 BPM is often preferred, giving a track energy but enough room to have a satisfying Afro house groove.

What are the most important elements of an Afro house track?

The most important elements of an Afro house track are the four-to-the-floor kick drum, rhythmic percussion, soulful vocals, and danceable basslines. These are accompanied by deep, atmospheric chords or synth parts, and melodic lead lines.

How is Afro house different from deep house or amapiano?

Afro house is typically more uptempo and rhythm-driven than amapiano, with a strong focus on percussion, syncopated grooves, and repeating melodic motifs. It often blends deep house synthesis with African rhythmic patterns.

Amapiano is more laid-back and song-focused. It usually features slower tempos, long drum basslines, spacious arrangements, and vocals that play a central role in the track’s identity.

Deep house leans toward a minimal and atmospheric sound. It often uses jazzy chords, soft basslines, vocal samples, and long-form arrangements rather than dense rhythmic layering.

Now let’s listen to some examples to clarify these differences.

First, here’s some Afro house:

Here’s another tune with Afro house production:

Now, here’s an amapiano track for comparison:

Finally, some classic deep house:

Producing an Afro house track

1. Deep house drums

When making any kind of house music, it makes sense to start with the drums, as these are the beating heart of the music and provide us with a foundation for the rest of the track.

First, set your DAW’s project tempo to 122 BPM.

On a MIDI track, load up Kontakt, click the Leap button, then select the House Grooves Leap kit. Double-click Prophet Kit to load it up.

Leap kits give us a palette of sounds that we can use to jam out musical ideas in real time, or like traditional sampled loops. Sequence Prophet Kit to play C3 and G3 for four bars, giving us a four-to-the-floor kick drum on C3, and shuffling tops on G3. We’ll use velocity values of 100 for everything in this guide unless otherwise specified.

These deep house drums give us a solid beat that we can start to add Afro house flavour to.

2. Adding an Afro house groove

Afro house often uses percussion rhythms to create a more involved groove. Let’s use another Leap kit to create that for us. On another MIDI track, load up Kontakt again, this time selecting Afrobeats and the Grootberg Kit.

This time, sequence the kit to play G3 and C4 for four bars.

This adds a funky pair of percussion loops.

Let’s balance our track, turning them down so we don’t clip the master channel. Set the Prophet Kit track to -4.2 dB, and the Grootberg Kit channel to -3.6 dB.

3. Smooth keys

Next, let’s add some smooth keys to give our track a musical foundation. Again, we’ll use Kontakt, this time selecting Electric Keys Phoenix and the Punchy Suitcase preset.

Set this track to -7.3 dB to balance it with the other elements.

We’re going to create a single-chord groove with this instrument in G minor.  You can copy the part we’ve used here or come up with your own part, playing extended G minor chords.

You’ll notice that the part we’ve used has a lot of timing and velocity variation, because it was played live with a MIDI controller. You might find it easier to get a natural feel if you play a part with a MIDI controller, but programming it in with less timing and velocity variation will sound fine too.

Here’s how everything sounds playing together.

4. Making an Afro house bassline

Let’s use a Massive X bass sound to create a weighty bassline. On a new MIDI track, add Massive X, then click the Browse button. Click the Character button, then select the Sub tag to show only sub bass sounds. Double-click the Bump preset to load it up.

Set this track to -11.1 dB.

Copy the MIDI we’ve used here, which plays G2 until the final two notes, where it plays C3 and D3.

This simple bass groove is propulsive and makes our song feel danceable.

5. Composing a lead line

A common element of Afro house production is an infectious lead line. To create a lead line, add Kontakt on a new MIDI track, and load up Ignition Keys’ Eclipse preset.

Set this track to -12 dB.

Copy this simple part, which plays G3, A2, and G2 notes.

6. Creating a compelling atmosphere

Afro house tracks tend to have a full, polished sound, and currently, ours sounds a bit too minimal. Let’s add a couple of elements to give it a full sound that will provide listener interest and make it more danceable.

First, let’s add an atmospheric chord to give the track a weightier and more intense feel. Add Massive X on a new MIDI track, and this time load up the Freebirds preset from the Browser.

Set this track to -22.9 dB.

Copy the G minor 9 chord we’ve used here. Note that we’ve used a variety of velocity values for the notes. Feel free to stress or de-stress certain notes to get your own feel.

Here’s how the chord sounds with the rest of the elements.

The low end of the chord is making the mix sound muddy, so let’s use an equalizer to remedy this. Add Solid EQ to the track, and set the High Pass Filter (HPF) to 142 Hz.

Let’s add one more element to make our mix more compelling. Again, add Massive X on a new MIDI track, selecting the Morphing Arp preset.

Set this track to -26.4 dB.

Play this on G3 for the full four bars.

Here’s how it sounds in context.

Now that we have a solid-sounding set of musical elements, let’s create an arrangement.

7. Arrangement

Here’s an example arrangement that you can copy, or you can create your own.

8. Mastering an afro house track

Let’s create a quick master of our track. Add iZotope Ozone to the master track, and click the Assistant View button.

You’ll be prompted to play back the loudest part of your project. Play it back from bar 25, where all the elements play at once. Note that once Ozone 12 has finished processing, the mix will get a lot louder. Turn your speakers or headphones down to compensate.

Ozone will automatically create a custom mastering chain for you, and you can try selecting different Targets to change the sonic profile of the master.

Start making Afro house today

In this tutorial, we’ve shown you how to make an Afro house track using instruments and effects from Native Instruments 360 Plus.

The subscription is full of instruments and effects that make producing Afro house easy. Load up your DAW and start making your own Afro house with NI 360.

Try for free