Our 5 Favourite Artist Track From Scratch & Track Breakdown Tutorials

If you are looking for insight into an artists music making process then it doesn't get much better than "Track From Scratch" Or Track Breakdown Tutorials. These tutorials are often extremely valuable, firstly because they are so rare, but more importantly because they allow you to learn more about the artist and their "typical" music-making process.

Both video types offer unique perspectives, where Track From Scratches are often more of a raw, trial & error type format, and track breakdowns often teach you about the creative decisions behind how a more-polished song was made.

Here are some of our favourites:

Max Chapman Shares His Beat-Making Secrets (Track From Scratch).

In this 2017 tutorial, we see Max Chapman's typical process for programming a basic drum groove in Ableton. If you're a beginner or someone who needs to go back to the foundations of creating a drum beat, then this is a good place to start.

Latmun - Footsteps (Track Breakdown).

In this tutorial, we get a breakdown of one of Latmun's older releases called 'Footsteps', which features on the label Hot Creations. Here, he covers an interesting workflow trick to get Logic Pro speaking to Ableton Live, as well as discussing elements like Drums, Basslines, Synths, Plugins, & Mixing.This one also offers a good insight into Arrangement and how you might structure different sections of your track.

Rich Nxt - Natural (Track Breakdown).

In this tutorial, we get to see behind the scenes of Rich Nxt, one of the original residents of Fuse London. He is someone with plenty of dancefloor rollers to offer and this breakdown gives a glimpse of how to replicate those grooves.

Djoko (Track From Scratch)

This one is perhaps one of my favourites from the list as I love the music from Kolter (formerly Djoko) and admire his ability to constantly bash out tracks like its nothing. Here, we see him build a loop, starting with those groovy drum elements that are so common in his music, before moving onto the funky bass and minimal synths.

Check out our blog post " Tutorials From The Source: Djoko/Kolter" for a complete list of free tutorials on this artist.

Josh Butler - Right Time (Track Breakdown)

Finally, we have prolific house producer Josh Butler breaking down his track "Right Time." This one covers all the elements in the track as well as providing a good introduction to mixing, plugins, & arrangement.

If interested, you can find a more up-to-date tutorial from him here.

And there you have it, 5 of our favourite artist "Track From Scratch / Track Breakdown Tutorials." Some of these tutorials are much older so the process of each artist may have changed somewhat. However, many of the tips & techniques shared are still valid and should give you a good general understanding of their process.