Virtual Riot Masterclass: Advanced EDM Production at Slam Academy

Jun 12 / Slam Academy
Virtual Riot visited Slam Academy to reveal how saw-waves, randomization, and smart workflows fuel his signature dubstep sound. Get his best Ableton tricks, arrangement hacks, and creative insights—then watch the full workshop video and start leveling up your own tracks.

Virtual Riot’s Advanced EDM Masterclass: Sound Art Recap

How a saw-wave, some randomization, and a room full of curious producers turned into pure inspiration at Slam Academy.

Meet the Mentor: Virtual Riot

Valentin “Virtual Riot” Brunn kicked off the workshop with two promises:

  1. Share every trick he knows about heavy electronic music production.
  2. Keep it fun—because learning should spark as much dopamine as a filthy drop.

Alongside teaching Slam Academy’s new Advanced EDM Production course, he stressed the importance of mental health: getting out of the studio, collaborating, and “touching grass” now and then.

From Pure Tone to Poly-Rhythm

“A saw-wave pitched down becomes rhythm.”

Valentin demonstrated how slowing a saw-wave reveals a natural polyrhythm. Drop the interval to a fourth or fifth and you’ll hear musical ratios (2:3, 3:4) your ears instantly love.

Fun fact: those same intervals translate to complementary colors—orange and blue—in the light spectrum. Physics + art = magic.

Randomization & AI: Your Secret Co-Producers

  • Sonic Plant 2 (the revamped “plant synthesizer”) now clones any sample into a playable patch with AI-powered knob-tweaks.
  • Massive’s old-school Randomize All button is still gold—just lock oscillator pitch, smash the dice icon, and save the gems.
  • Rule of Thumb: Surprising yourself often leads to more excitement—and better tracks—than slavishly reproducing sounds already in your head.

Ableton Stock FX Hacks

Valentin turned a raw saw-wave into a dubstep growl using only built-ins:

Step Device Purpose
1 Band-Pass Filter Carve a tight 1 kHz band
2 OTT x 3 Crush & bring back the lost tone (three is the sweet spot)
3 Corpus / Frequency Shifter Add aliasing grit
4 Erosion Inject controllable noise for extra bite
Pro Tip: Stack 20+ instances of Chorus in a rack, map one macro to every rate knob, and you’ve created a new instrument—“Hyper-Chorus.”

Building a Personal Sound Library

Long flights + no headphones? Organize your samples.
  • Curate favorite Splice files into clear folders (Kicks, Claps, Vocal Chops).
  • Save randomized synth patches as presets.
  • Collect “signature” transitional FX (reverse swooshes, dolphin squeaks—yes, really).


A tidy library means you can sketch ideas fast without diving into sound design rabbit holes mid-session.

Arrangement Philosophy: A B A C

Great drops balance repetition and variation:
  • A (call) – B (response) – repeat A – twist into C
  • Next pass: A – B – A – bigger twist D


Listeners stay hooked because the motif is familiar, but each cycle delivers a fresh payoff.

Workflow in Action

Valentin’s live demo:
  • Simpler slices a vocal hit → pitched, looped, resampled.
  • Side-chain rack auto-ducks everything but drums (MIDI trigger on C1).
  • Quick drum groove: trusty “Janet” hi-hat + Decap kick/snare.
  • Layer clean sine sub under the distorted mid bass (grouped tracks).
  • Texture plugin sprinkles airy noise that tracks input volume.


Result? A club-ready dubstep riff born in minutes.

Takeaways for Your Next Session

  • Experiment playfully. Turn mistakes into textures.
  • Use AI and randomizers as inspiration engines, not crutches.
  • Protect momentum. Separate writing from deep sound design—swap later.
  • Keep learning. Slam Academy’s courses (Ableton Live, Mixing & Mastering, Music Business, and more) expand every angle of your craft.
Ready to dive deeper? Become a member to get full breakdowns, project files, and weekly live Q&A.

Watch the Full Workshop