How to Make Afro House Like Meera

Meera is a DJ and producer from Norway with a deep, hypnotic afro house sound that can keep you hooked for minutes. After support from Damian Lazarus she released on Crosstown Rebels, and her music now gets played by Keinemusik and Black Coffee. Her tracks sound simple, but that groove is harder to recreate than it seems. This video breaks the sound down: the bass, the synths, the drums and the arrangement. Everything comes from Tantra, and the project file from the video is included in the pack.

The foundation: a deep kick and one sub note

Everything starts with a really deep, punchy kick and a sustained sub bass. That steady low end is what keeps you hooked for minutes. The sub is the Adama preset, a saw-based bass with heavy filtering and a bit of distortion to add back some harmonics, but mostly sub. It plays one long note. You need headphones or proper speakers to hear it; on a phone you probably won't.

Heavy sidechain on that bass is essential. It avoids clashes with the kick, and it also creates rhythm: the bass gets sucked into every kick and comes back between them, which works really well on a big system.

Toms for the groove

Before any melody, toms start the groove. A deeper tom with a very short delay plays a rhythm on top of the bass and the kick, and you accent the groove just by adding notes. A second tom answers the first. Its very short delay, around 47 milliseconds, gives it a spacey, slightly strange feel.

A fifth lead and a bass variation

The first melodic element is a fifth lead: a crispy saw preset with three oscillators, two of them pitched up seven semitones for the perfect fifth, with soft saturation, chorus and a little reverb. It plays its own rhythm on top. It does not have to follow everything exactly.

For the peak of the track there is a variation on the bass. Arrangement-wise you have minutes of that single sustained note, and in the peak section the bassline changes a little. It is a simple switch, but it opens room for chords on top. If the low notes are hard to hear, move them up an octave for a moment to check them.

Minimal chords, different sounds

The chords follow the bass variation. The first sound is a Juno-inspired synth with a fast attack, so it hits right away rather than swelling like a pad, with a subtle LFO on fine tune, panning and filter for an analog feel, and some crackle noise. Strumming the chord (each note slightly later than the one before, like a guitar) makes a simple progression sound much better.

The trick for keeping a minimal arrangement interesting is to change the sound of the chords per section. In the second section the same notes move to a gritty, detuned, sample-based lead. Underneath sits a dreamy piano, the Special preset, playing the chords sustained, and later one octave up. Different octaves and different sounds keep it minimal and still interesting.

Last is a pluck playing 16ths on the root note in the background. It is there for drive, under the chords.

Drums that fill the whole spectrum

The drums in this style need life in them. Instead of a static hat, the main loop is noisy and sustained, together with cowbells, and a clave and cowbell loop adds more rhythm. From there it is layering: shakers, hats, texture loops, more hat and percussion loops, some strange textured sounds and ambience.

These loops make the groove and fill the high end of the spectrum. Without them the track lacks body.

The arrangement: do not give it away too fast

The most important part of this genre is patience. The first 17 bars of this track are mostly texture loops, and they are what glue the track together; mute them and it sounds dull. Then you bring in drum elements and the bass slowly, and give every new element time. Arrangements in this style are long.

Automation guides the listener: filter cutoff, reverb and volume, all moving slowly, sometimes over minutes, towards the switch where the bass changes and the chords come in. The kick keeps playing through, while the bass drops out and slowly comes back, which you hear a lot in this style. The FX stay simple, a few noise effects, because the texture loops already fill the top.

Frequently asked questions

Who is Meera?

Meera is a DJ and producer from Norway making deep, hypnotic afro house. She released on Crosstown Rebels after support from Damian Lazarus, and her music is played by artists like Keinemusik and Black Coffee.

What BPM is afro house?

Most afro house runs at about 118 to 124 BPM. Tantra, the pack used in this video, is tuned to 120 BPM.

How do you make a deep afro house bass?

Use a heavily filtered saw sub playing one long sustained note, add a little distortion for harmonics, and sidechain it hard to a deep kick. The sidechain both clears the kick and creates a rhythm of its own.

How do you arrange a minimal afro house track?

Be patient: start with texture loops and the kick, bring elements in one at a time, and let each section breathe. Use slow automation on filters, reverb and volume, and change the sound of the chords per section instead of adding more parts.

Related reading: afro house like Black Coffee, afro house in 2026, and afro house sample packs.

Every sound in this video, and the project file, are from Tantra, our afro and melodic house pack.

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