issue 48 · 2026-08-25 · for people who make house

PSP 2445 reverb at its lowest price yet

PSP's 2445 reverb just hit a serious sale. If you've ever wanted the EMT digital hall and plate inside your DAW, this is the move. The rest of the issue: a free vocal-tract plugin from Steve Duda, a HOFA trick that loads any VST into SYSTEM's routing, and a concrete guide to placing sounds front-to-back.

📅 today · time-sensitive

⏳ expires in 7 days

PSP 2445 EMT Reverb at Deep Discount($29)

Algorithms inspired by Dr. Barry Blesser's original EMT digital designs, officially endorsed by EMT. $29 gets you the 244 hall and 245 plate with three activations.

2 min read · deal →

◢ learn

▶ 909 Kick + Tambourine Clap: A Punchy Progressive House Groove

The 16th hats straight, no swing, and the breakbeat layer underneath—that's the progressive house pocket you can try right now.

gold at 01:00, 04:30, 06:15 · watch →

▶ Vocal Stutter the Fred Again Way with LFO Tool and Kickstart

LFO Tool at 1/16 and Kickstart at 1/4 give you that vocal chop effect without touching audio clips.

Mix Depth: The Brain's Rules for Distance

The brain uses seven cues—saturation for proximity, pre-delay ratios, high-frequency roll-off for air absorption—each one actionable.

◢ free & gear

Pink Trombone: Steve Duda Made It a Plugin(free)

Run any audio through the vocal tract with the FX version—breathiness, tone, articulation. It's free and built by the Serum developer.

2 min read · grab it →

◢ the word

Load Any VST or AU Into HOFA SYSTEM's Routing

Pull any plugin into SYSTEM, then apply multiband, M/S, parallel routing, oversampling, feedback loops. Intro €49.

3 min read · read →
♫ In Rotation
 
Emanuel Satie, Maga, Sean Doron — Moving On
the filtered piano stab that slices through at the second drop
— LarryLuxe's pick
📊 The Charts
 
#96 Dellavega Benne La (Original Mix)
▼ 54 · 1d · ▶ hear
#15 J.K. Rollin No No No
▲ 80 · 7d · ▶ hear
#84 Glenn Underground Work That Mutha (Radio Acid Mix)
▼ 48 · 1d
#23 KOYENGA Indigo (Extended Mix)
▲ 63 · 7d · ▶ hear
#07 Divolly & Markward, Quentro, Jamy Nox — ESPERA (Extended Mix)
back on · ▶ hear
Most Reached-For
Most reached-for this week: ableton live (19 mentions)
🏛 Blast from the Past
 
Armand Van Helden — The Funk Phenomena (1996) · mid-90s
Still the reference for how a single vocal hook, a filtered disco loop, and a relentless kick make a room move — no extra parts required.
  • sample: Canned Heat “Got to Get Funky” vocal — The hook is lifted from Canned Heat’s "Got to Get Funky" — a tiny two-bar slice that becomes the entire track’s engine. Armand isolated the vocal phrase and a sliver of the horn stab, dropped them into a sampler, and let the loop ride.
  • technique: low-pass filter build / drop — The loop starts heavily low-passed so all you hear is a muffled thump. As the 16-bar build progresses, Armand opens the filter cutoff all the way, the full vocal and horns erupt, and the floor goes off. It’s the definitive filter house move — teach your arrangement to breathe by closing the top end, not just pulling the fader.
  • label: Henry Street Music — Came out on Henry Street Music, Johnny “D” De Mairo’s label that also pushed Kenny “Dope” Gonzalez, Todd Terry, and DJ Sneak. Henry Street defined the raw, sample-heavy New York house sound of the mid-90s — loop driven, no crossover airs.

🔮 Producer Horoscope (for fun) — Your LFO is syncing to a tempo you didn't pick. That groove is yours now—lean in.

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