Don Julio By ThisIsMokom | Amapiano | House Fusion

🎶 GENRE:
Amapiano / House Fusion Remedial Production: A complete overhaul of a generic beat sketch, elevating the track into a non-trendy, high-movement club record defined by a "House vibe" and sophisticated R&B vocal arrangements.

💡 WHAT I DID:
Producer & Mixer: Given full creative freedom to redefine the song. I recorded the main artist's freestyle performance, co-composed the instrumental (reworking the Log Drum, percussion, melodies, and structure/arrangement), recorded a dedicated backup vocalist, and handled all mixing and mastering.

✅ MY CREATIVE CHOICES:
The core goal was moving the track away from generic Amapiano by injecting flow and structural movement, creating the desired overall House music groove and feel. This was achieved by treating the entire track as a journey and prioritizing the Log Drum as the main rhythmic driver. Crucial structural transitions were built around the Amapiano Drone, which acts as a "landing before take-off" element, cutting the beat to command attention and anticipate the return of the main groove. The song ends with a "glorious" R&B/Gospel-inspired vocal ensemble for an unusual, yet climactic finish.

🎚️ MY TECHNICAL CHOICES:
The mix began with a 3D mixing philosophy. The Log Drum was made dominant by inverting the sidechain convention (ducking the kick using selective frequency sidechaining). Vocal depth started with panning immediately after tuning. The processing applied to the vocals delivered density and depth control using automation, Transient Shaping, serial compression, and tonal parallel processing, including the 3-reverb trick. The Master Bus used Slate Bus Compression for glue, followed by Ozone for sculpting. Tonal enhancement used Passive EQ (for weight/air) before SUGAR (for harmonics). Loudness was maximized using KClip for strategic transient shaping before the final two-stage limiting process.