Afro Tech is the bridge between Afro House and Melodic Techno, pushed by artists like Juno, HotLap and the Magnifik label. This from-scratch build takes one loop from a bare skeleton to a floor bomb in four levels: the skeleton, the groove, the detail, and the lead. It is the same loop the whole way through, so you can hear exactly what each level adds.
Level 1: The Skeleton
The five parts that have to work before anything else.
Key settings:
- Kick: four on the floor
- Clap: straight for now, plus a clap loop reinforcing the kick (it should make the kick bigger, not muddier)
- Clave carrying the 16th energy, short and repetitive
- Sub bass: a simple offbeat, one note
- Two long, held, quiet atmospheres for the world the track lives in
Level 2: The Groove
Same elements, no new ideas, just better rhythm in the two parts that matter most: the clap and the bass.
Key settings:
- Clap: redrawn from straight into a reggaeton-flavoured pattern
- Bass: syncopate the offbeat, drag notes off the grid and leave gaps so it grooves against the clap
- Split the bass in two: sub for weight, a gnarly mid bass for character
Level 3: The Detail
Where the loop stops sounding like a loop and starts sounding like a record. Fills, ear candy and one more bass layer keep it from getting boring, which is a different job from the groove.
Key settings:
- Percussion: tom fills that restart the loop every 8 bars, fast accent perc, organic perc loops
- Cymbals for the high end: an offbeat shaker, a long sustained ride, a 16th shaker loop, a crash
- Ear candy: an impact atmosphere at the drop, plus sprinkled noisy transitions
- One more bass layer: a sub drop for that classic Afro Tech low-end move
Level 4: The Lead
The drums stay exactly as they are. One sound gives the track its teeth: a lead that feels like a mid bassline, low and steady but gnarly.
Key settings:
- Serum OSC and FM noise for the grit
- Ride the mod wheel live for expression
- A full effects chain so the lead sits in the mix
- MIDI mostly in F minor, with a borrowed half step (F to F#), Phrygian-color
Grab the full project
Want to open the project next to you? Savanna Vol. 1 has the full project files, 530+ royalty-free samples, and 65+ Serum 2 presets with matching MIDI, everything you heard across the four levels.
Watch the full breakdown
See all four levels built from scratch:
Reference tracks
Typical reference tracks for this style are:
- andhim, adémé, malou – Feel The Love (HotLap Remix)
- Juno (DE) – Last Dance
- Juno (DE), Jamek Ortega – Get Em Up
- Arodes, Ewersen – Too Young
- HotLap – SunBeam
- Meera (NO) – No Space
- Maxi Meraki, Samm (BE), Ajna (BE) – Look Around, It’s Gonna Be Fine
- Ewersen – Keep Trying
