How to Make Afro House Like Black Coffee (Complete Tutorial)

Afro house has seen a rapid rise in global popularity, with artists like Black Coffee leading a sound that originated in South Africa in the 1990s but now resonates across the world. In this complete tutorial, Yannick from The Producer School walks through every element of an afro house track - drums, percussion, synths, bass, piano, vocals, and arrangement - showing exactly how to capture that deep, organic, and spiritual quality that defines the genre. All sounds and the full project file are from the Oasis pack, the ultimate afro house producer pack.

What Is the Foundation of an Afro House Track?

The foundation of afro house is built on two interlocking layers: the kick and a tom loop. The kick should have a deep, clean low punch without excessive attack or click at the start - a softer, cleaner kick rather than an aggressive, attacky one. Underneath the kick, a tom loop sets the groove and rhythm of the track while also filling the lower-mid frequencies. This tom loop has its low end rolled off at around 80 Hz with an EQ, because a separate sub-bass will handle the deep low end. The high end of the tom is also reduced slightly to remove unwanted click. Kickstart side-chaining is applied so the tom loop ducks whenever the kick hits, preventing them from clashing. This combination of kick and tom loop gives afro house its characteristic deep, rolling rhythmic feel before any other elements are added.

How Do You Build the Percussion Stack in Afro House?

Afro house relies on a rich, layered percussion arrangement. Here is how to build it up step by step:

1. Start with a noisy shaker, programming MIDI notes with velocity variations for a more realistic, slightly electronic feel. A Vocodex plugin with its noise section (instead of a synth modulator) adds white noise to the shaker. Automating the release knob extends the white noise tail, creating a technique of letting the shaker grow and becoming noisier - useful in transitions and buildups.
2. Add a high wood percussion shot with reverb for tonal variety.
3. Place a tom shot on the second and fourth bar for variation. This is a more realistic-sounding tom compared to the electronic 808-style tom loop.
4. Add two shaker loops - one that plays a single hit at the end of every bar. This one-hit shaker placement at the bar end is a technique drawn from afro house productions, adding energy and anticipation.
5. Include a real shaker loop for additional rhythmic texture.

The goal is a percussion arrangement that feels both electronic and organic at the same time.

What Does the Sub-Bass Do in Afro House?

The sub-bass in afro house plays a specific and deliberate role: it fills the deep low end while the tom loop handles rhythm and groove. The preset used here is called "Bass South" - a Serum patch using a filtered saw wavetable to create a pure sub-bass character. It plays a single sustained note on the root note of the track. The processing is minimal: Kickstart for side-chaining to prevent clashing with the kick, and a high-pass filter to remove the lowest sub frequencies, allowing the kick to have its own space. The sub-bass does not add melodic movement or rhythmic variation - its job is purely to provide weight in the lowest frequency range and support the tom loop above it. This separation of duties between the tom loop (rhythm) and sub-bass (weight) is a key principle of the genre's low-end design.

How to Create the Signature Synth Sounds in Afro House

Afro house uses a specific set of synth textures that blend electronic and organic qualities:

• High synth sequence: A preset from the Oasis pack that generates a high, shimmering synth sequence from a single note. EQ removes the low end and boosts the very high end for air. A panning LFO modulates it slowly from left to right - an effect clearly audible on headphones. A Fruity Filter allows the cutoff to be automated throughout the arrangement.
• Top lead: Recreated from a reference track by Kind of Musique and Black Coffee, playing its pattern with cutoff automation applied gradually during the arrangement.
• Effect sound: A preset called "Lead Sand", inspired by the kind of small effect hits used in afro house productions - plays at the end of bars as a textural accent that is odd on its own but adds character in context.
• Pad: A simple E minor chord (the root key of the track), low in volume, filtering open gradually during the arrangement to add ambience and space.

What Role Does the Piano Play in Afro House?

The piano is an essential element in afro house - it appears in countless tracks in the genre and gives the music much of its emotional and spiritual quality. In this track, it is introduced later in the arrangement using a Direct Wave sampler in FL Studio with a "Closed Grand" preset. The piano plays the chords of the track - E minor, A, and G - following the same progression as the bass once it starts changing notes. The processing chain makes a significant difference: an EQ removes the low end (since the bass handles that range), OTT multiband compression at a high depth level adds presence and punch, a large atmospheric reverb adds depth and space, and Kickstart applies subtle side-chaining to keep it from clashing with the kick. A second piano pattern introduces a high top melody later in the arrangement, adding a melodic dimension that lifts the track.

How to Arrange an Afro House Track from Start to Finish

Afro house arrangements are gradual and patient - elements are introduced in stages over long periods, typically in 16-bar blocks:

1. First 16 bars: High synth sequence (heavily filtered), kick, tom, noise hat, and FX sounds only.
2. After 16 bars: Sub-bass introduced, plus the lead - but both still filtered, not fully revealed.
3. After another 16 bars: Pad introduced along with a shaker loop. Filters start opening gradually on the pad and lead.
4. Chorus begins after another 16 bars: Vocal introduced. The bass shifts from holding the root note to following the chord progression - E to A to G.
5. Piano section: Piano chords introduced after the vocal section, along with the high piano melody and additional drums (tambourine shaker, acoustic hat loop, additional hats, clap at lower volume, extra tom hits at the start of every four bars).

Throughout, ambient texture sounds - vinyl noise, white noise, drone pitched to the root note - run under everything to provide an organic, human quality characteristic of the genre.

All sounds used in this tutorial - including the tom loop, shaker samples, sub-bass preset, synth presets, piano samples, and vocal samples - come from the Afro House Bundle. The full project file is also available in the pack, giving you a complete working template to study and build from.

Tutorial by Niek, co-founder of The Producer School. For more production tutorials, subscribe to The Producer School on YouTube (280K+ subscribers).