The Stack

Welcome to The Stack, where UK electronic music heritage meets modern production.

We dig into the sounds, techniques, and stories that shaped house, garage, and techno from warehouse raves to worldwide dancefloors.
Expect deep dives on classic hardware, honest production advice, and cultural context that connects the dots between Chicago's underground and today's global scene.

No fluff, no clickbait, just knowledge from thirty years in the trenches, shared with producers worldwide who value authenticity over algorithms.

Yamaha TX81Z FM synthesiser, home of the Lately Bass preset used across classic house

The Bass That Was Hiding in a Preset Slot: Why Lately Bass Defined Classic House

Lately Bass was a factory preset on a cheap FM synth, and it ended up on countless house records. Here is why that FM bass cuts through a mix like nothing else.

Classic house chord voicings in the Ableton piano roll from the Korg M1 House Chords pack

You Do Not Need to Know Theory. You Need the Chords That Already Sound Like House.

Most house chords come from a small, familiar set of voicings. Here is why a MIDI and chord pack gets you there faster than learning theory from scratch.

Roland Juno-106 synthesiser, the analogue polysynth behind classic house pads and bass

The Juno-106 Was Never the Best Synth in the Room. That Is Exactly Why It Defined House.

The Juno-106 was cheap, a bit noisy, and everywhere. That ubiquity is why its pads and bass carry so much emotional weight in house music, and why the sound still lands today.

Collage of the vintage machines in the Heritage Sounds Bundle: Casio CZ-101, Roland Juno-106 and Korg M1

The Records You Love Were Built on a Handful of Machines. Here They All Are.

Classic house was built on a small set of affordable machines, used everywhere until they became the genre. Here is the whole palette, multi-sampled for Serum 2.