How BRUNELLO Makes Indie Dance: Full Production Breakdown

Brunello is one of the most exciting names in indie dance right now. He is building his own world through Mellow Circus with tracks like Illusions, Ghost Dance and The Clown's Corridor, and his sound is groovy, hypnotic and playful, with support from artists like Marco Carola. In this breakdown, Niek from The Producer School recreates that sound from scratch in FL Studio and shows how to build the synths, bass, drums and percussion. Every sound, and the project file, comes from the Fiction pack, our indie dance producer pack that was heavily inspired by Brunello.

The drums and percussion

The groove starts with a deep, soft kick that has plenty of body and very little attack. Over it sits an acoustic snare top loop with a layered preset snare, plus a double snare and a simple clap at the end of the phrase for punch and variation.

The character comes from the top loops. A glitchy, modular sounding loop gives that drum-computer feel Brunello is known for, and it is joined by an acoustic hat loop and a shaker for movement. A conga loop gets an automated delay on top: FL's Delay with tempo sync off, set around 50 milliseconds with some feedback, which creates a trippy slap that Niek borrowed from Brunello's track The Clown's Corridor. A few noisy glitch and texture loops, including a chopped percussion loop from the Fiction pack, add the old-school analog grit.

The chords and bass

The chords run through the whole track: a B minor shape, with the F sharp dropped at the end of the bar to imply a small melody. It is a Serum preset called Synth Ghosts, a square and Juno style wavetable with chorus, delay and reverb for a spacey, dubby feel, with an EQ to clear the low end and a touch of Kickstart sidechain for movement.

Under that sits a simple, very deep saw bass with a steep filter. It follows the rhythm of the chords, mostly on B, then moving to A and up to C for a dissonant, mysterious feel. It is not a showy sound; it just fills the low end and locks to the kick with a little sidechain.

The synths: drone, pluck and lead

A drone from the Serum preset Synth Evolution adds constant motion. It uses vibrato, with macros for vibrato amount and speed mapped to the mod wheel, so it evolves across the track. A pluck, actually a shortened percussion sound from the Fiction pack, plays a rhythm rather than a melody, sitting on the F sharp (a perfect fifth above the root) for extra tension, processed with EQ, a slap delay, FL's Effector for a bit-crushed edge, and a big reverb.

The main lead in the second half is the Serum preset Lead Jokes. Its glide comes from an envelope on the coarse pitch that jumps up an octave and slides back down, with a macro for glide speed, plus vibrato. A bus of delay, reverb, flanger, distortion and filter turns it into one big phasing sweep.

Atmosphere, vocals and the TPS Space Delay

The atmosphere is carried by hypnotic drone layers: a resonant pad, a vocal loop and a bell-like drone that play through the whole track. Keeping long, evolving elements running is one of Brunello's strengths, and it is what stops these tracks from getting boring.

The vocal hook also comes from the Fiction pack, with a simple EQ for brightness. The last key ingredient is the TPS Space Delay, a preset built for Fiction (with a matching Ableton effect rack). Automating its delay time creates the trippy slowdowns and feedback loops Brunello uses to make things dubby and spacey.

Frequently asked questions

Who is Brunello?

Brunello is an indie dance artist building his own world through Mellow Circus, with tracks like Illusions, Ghost Dance and The Clown's Corridor. His sound is groovy, hypnotic and playful, and he has drawn support from artists like Marco Carola.

What DAW and plugins are used to make the Brunello sound?

This breakdown is made in FL Studio using the Fiction pack. The synths are Serum presets (Synth Ghosts, Synth Evolution and Lead Jokes), with FL's Effector for bit-crushing, Kickstart for sidechain, and the TPS Space Delay for the dubby delay feedback.

What key is the track in?

The track is in B minor. The chords are a B minor shape with the F sharp dropped at the end of the bar, and the bass moves from B to A and up to C for a mysterious feel.

How do you get Brunello's trippy slap delay?

Put a delay on a percussion loop such as a conga, turn tempo sync off, set the time short (around 50 milliseconds) and play with the feedback, then automate the wet level. Niek took this trick from Brunello's track The Clown's Corridor.

Related reading: How to make a Diynamic-style track, master indie dance production in one hour, and the Fiction indie dance sample pack.

Every sound and the project file in this video are from Fiction, our indie dance producer pack.

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