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Virtual Riot Masterclass: Advanced EDM Production at Slam Academy
Jun 12
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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:
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.
- Share every trick he knows about heavy electronic music production.
- 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.
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.
A tidy library means you can sketch ideas fast without diving into sound design rabbit holes mid-session.
- 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:
Listeners stay hooked because the motif is familiar, but each cycle delivers a fresh payoff.
- 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:
Result? A club-ready dubstep riff born in minutes.
- 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
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Abstrakt Sonance
(Tyler Myroon)
Bursting from the rugged wilds of Western Canada, Abstrakt Sonance fuses the primal pulse of nature with gritty urban basslines that are revolutionizing music. Operating from his secluded forest sanctuary, he's
struck sound gold with industry titans like D Double E and Flowdan, while also resurrecting the classic vibes of funk phenoms, Skyler Jett and Ronald LaPread from The Commodores with his diversity of production skills.
With a performance resume spanning the iconic stages of Outlook, Shambhala, and Red Rocks, Abstrakt Sonance has painted his unique sonic signature across four continents, gathering a following that is as raw and compelling as his sounds.
With a performance resume spanning the iconic stages of Outlook, Shambhala, and Red Rocks, Abstrakt Sonance has painted his unique sonic signature across four continents, gathering a following that is as raw and compelling as his sounds.
Youngsta is one of the figureheads of dubstep; a long-running resident at scene-defining club night FWD>> and the DJ who first played some of the genre’s most-loved anthems,
he continues to be a hugely active figure in dubstep’s development. His weekly show on Rinse FM draws deep for new music, helping to expose and break talented new producers, and the founding ethics that defined dubstep in its early years still remain at the heart of his DJ set.
He’s also famed for his distinct aesthetic – selecting beats that are at once colossally
heavy and beautifully intricate, claustrophobic yet with a keen ear for space and silence. “The sound is just me,” he says, explaining that he’s hesitant to pigeonhole the music he plays.
Virtual Riot is one of the most sought-after producers worldwide and is considered one of the most popular representatives of the dubstep scene. He is known for his unique productions and intense, elaborately produced shows.
He is a global touring artist performing at the biggest festivals in the world such as EDC, Coachella, Tomorrowland, Lost Lands, Rampage, Bassrush, and many more. Virtual Riot is Beatport’s best-selling artist of all time in the genre of dubstep and has gained 400k+ followers on YouTube with more than 1 million streams of his music per day. In the DJ Mag Top 100 DJ’s, the biggest DJ poll in the world, Virtual Riot is ranked 78th and has worked with the likes of Skrillex, Getter, and Kill The Noise, along with remixes for Zedd, The Chainsmokers, Flux Pavilion, Excision, and Pegboard Nerds.
James Patrick is a sound artist, music producer, author and educator. He has been creating original electronic music works and events involving technology and live music since the 1990s. He is the co-founder and owner of Slam Academy.
James was one of the first Ableton Certified Trainers in the world, helping pilot the trainer program in 2008, and has since been a leader among Ableton educators. His first 10 years of teaching sound design and audio production were at the Institute of Production and Recording in Minneapolis, before moving onto Dubspot in New York City. Since starting Slam Academy in 2012, he has taken on private clients from around the world that range from beginners to some of the most prolific musicians of our time.
James was one of the first Ableton Certified Trainers in the world, helping pilot the trainer program in 2008, and has since been a leader among Ableton educators. His first 10 years of teaching sound design and audio production were at the Institute of Production and Recording in Minneapolis, before moving onto Dubspot in New York City. Since starting Slam Academy in 2012, he has taken on private clients from around the world that range from beginners to some of the most prolific musicians of our time.
MikeRat has been with Slam Academy since 2013, and is now the lead in-person instructor; teaching classes from our flagship Ableton program all the way to Sound Design and Mixing and Mastering. He's also a pillar of the local bass music scene, having played at The Armory, First Ave, and is a resident performer at Infrasound Music Festival. He's an expert in weird, glitched-out, wompy bass, and has been heard on labels like Wormhole and Street Ritual. Mike's approach to both music production and teaching is to lead with his heart, and he places an emphasis on community and camaraderie in the classroom and on the dancefloor. You can catch him running the Ableton Live User group every month, as well as hosting workshops on community wellness within the music scene. He's also a seasoned drummer, turntablist, and loves chatting with students about music theory.
DJ Mickey Breeze (McKinley West) is a DJ, Artist and teacher. With over 10 years of musical experience that started as early as the age of 5 years old, the world "prodigy" would be an understatement. He started playing instruments at age 5 and now plays trumpet, drums, piano, violin and cello. At age 8, he began producing music electronically, and by age 10 DJing seemed like the logical next step that combined production with the knack for live performance he picked up as a musician.
Breeze has had some very high profile gigs as a DJ, including playing at the SXSW music festival, three times at the "Twin Cities Pride Festival," the "Tostitos Cantina Bowl" during the Super Bowl LII festivities, Twin Cities Dilla Days, the St. Paul Winter Carnival, the 50 Years of Ebony Fashion Fair and opening for the Afropunk band, "AstralBlak." He was also the former house DJ for the Minneapolis-based Music Television show "Candy Fresh." In 2019, he participated in the Deeper Learning Conference in San Diego, and was also a featured DJ at the "Last of the Record Buyers" tent for the SOUNDSET FESTIVAL, the Midwest's largest One-Day Outdoor music festival.
Breeze has had some very high profile gigs as a DJ, including playing at the SXSW music festival, three times at the "Twin Cities Pride Festival," the "Tostitos Cantina Bowl" during the Super Bowl LII festivities, Twin Cities Dilla Days, the St. Paul Winter Carnival, the 50 Years of Ebony Fashion Fair and opening for the Afropunk band, "AstralBlak." He was also the former house DJ for the Minneapolis-based Music Television show "Candy Fresh." In 2019, he participated in the Deeper Learning Conference in San Diego, and was also a featured DJ at the "Last of the Record Buyers" tent for the SOUNDSET FESTIVAL, the Midwest's largest One-Day Outdoor music festival.