Deep house is house with the lights turned down. It keeps the steady four-on-the-floor kick, but plays it softer and rounder, and adds a deep rolling bass, lush jazzy chords on an electric piano, warm pads, and a soulful vocal drifting over the top. It sits around 120 to 125 BPM and trades peak-time energy for a late-night, understated mood. Here is what each part is and how they fit.
Works in any DAW, with any drum sounds and any synth or piano, hardware or software. Nothing here needs a particular plugin.
Deep house is a warmer, more soulful and laid-back branch of house, usually around 120 to 125 BPM. It keeps house's four-on-the-floor kick but plays everything softer: rounded drums, a deep rolling sub bass, lush 7th and 9th chords often on a Rhodes-style electric piano, atmospheric pads, and soulful or minimal vocals. The mood is late-night and understated rather than the peak-time push of tech house or big-room house.
It is a branch of house rather than its own separate thing, so the foundations are the same. If you have not built a plain house groove before, the house music guide covers the kick, the off-beat hat and the arrangement that deep house sits on. Deep house is largely what you get when you take that foundation and soften every part of it.
| Part | Typical | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Tempo | 120 to 125 BPM | The slower end of house, unhurried and steady |
| Kick | Four on the floor, soft and round | The anchor everything leans on, padded rather than punchy |
| Off-beat hats | Muted or brushed | The house bounce, dialled back so it whispers rather than ticks |
| Sub bass | Deep and rolling | A warm low end that rolls along under the groove |
| Chords | 7ths and 9ths, often electric piano | The jazzy, soulful colour that makes it sound deep |
| Pads | Atmospheric and sustained | Air and warmth filling the space around the beat |
| Vocals | Soulful or minimal snippets | A hook or a texture, often just a sung phrase |
None of these is a strict rule. Deep house is a feel more than a checklist, and plenty of tracks leave a part out. What tends to stay constant is the softness: wherever a normal house track would hit harder or brighter, deep house eases off.
Keep the four-on-the-floor kick soft and round, put muted or brushed hats on the off-beats, and run a deep rolling sub bass underneath. The drums follow the same house pattern, just played gently, and the bass is deeper and warmer than in most other house.
Deep house still puts a kick on every beat, but the sound is padded rather than sharp. Reach for a rounded kick with its weight low down rather than a hard click on top. It should feel like a heartbeat holding the track together, not a hit that jumps out at you. Keep it steady, keep it in the same place every bar, and let it sit under everything else.
The open hat on the off-beats is still what gives house its bounce, but in deep house it is dialled back: softer, shorter, sometimes brushed or filtered so it breathes rather than ticks. Place it halfway between the kicks as usual, then pull its volume and brightness down until it sits inside the groove instead of on top of it. The bounce is still there, just gentle. Closed hats or a light shaker on the smaller subdivisions can add a little roll if it feels too bare.
The bass is where deep house tends to earn its name. Write a deep, rounded sub bass that rolls along under the kick, usually smooth and continuous rather than plucky and sharp. Keep it in one low register so the low end stays clear, and let it move with the chords rather than fight the kick. Because the kick and the bass share the same low frequencies, many deep house tracks sidechain the bass to the kick, so the bass dips a little each time the kick lands and then swells back. That keeps the low end clean and adds a gentle pump. The sidechain compression guide walks through how to set it up. Use it when the low end feels crowded rather than as a rule.
Lush 7th and 9th chords, often played on a Rhodes-style electric piano, are most of what makes deep house sound deep. These extended chords carry far more colour than plain triads, and the soft electric-piano tone is the classic deep house sound. Warm pads sit behind them to fill the space.
A plain triad is three notes; a 7th or 9th chord adds one or two more, and those extra notes are where the soulful, slightly jazzy feeling comes from. Deep house leans on them heavily. If you are new to building these, the chord progression guide covers how chords are built from a key and how to extend them past the basic triad. Move as little as possible between one chord and the next and they drift rather than jump, which suits the mood.
Much of the deep house chord sound is not only the notes but the instrument. A Rhodes-style electric piano, soft and bell-like and a little warm, is the classic choice, often with a touch of chorus or reverb to widen it. Play the chords gently, let them ring, and keep them in a comfortable middle register so they sit above the bass and below the vocal. Short stabs work too, but the held, mellow version is the one people picture when they think of deep house.
Underneath or around the chords, a sustained pad adds air and warmth. Keep it quiet and wide, more felt than heard, so it fills the space between the beats without crowding the chords or the vocal. Slowly opening a filter on the pad over several bars is a common way to add movement without changing a note, and it fits the unhurried feel.
Keep everything understated: soft drums, space between the parts, a soulful or minimal vocal, and less energy than a peak-time track. Deep house is late-night music, so the aim is a warm, unhurried groove you sink into rather than one that pushes hard.
Vocals in deep house are usually soulful and restrained, often just a short snippet or a repeated phrase rather than a full lead. A single sung line, chopped and echoed, can carry a whole track. Keep it fairly low in the mix so it floats in with the pads rather than sitting out front like a pop vocal.
The mood comes as much from what you leave out. Where tech house and big-room house push the energy up and fill every gap, deep house tends to hold back: fewer parts, softer sounds, and room for the groove to breathe. When a section feels flat, the fix is usually to soften or subtract rather than to pile another layer on top.
Loop just the kick, the muted off-beat hats and the rolling sub bass for a minute. If those three already feel warm and unhurried and quietly pull you in, the track will work, and the chords, pads and vocal are the colour on top. If it feels stiff or busy before the minute is up, the fix is usually to soften and subtract, not to add another part.
Everything above is a set of decisions you can make by hand, and it is worth learning to make them. The slow part is often the bass itself: finding a deep, rolling figure that follows your chords and locks to your kick, then getting it into the track as notes you can still edit.
REHEAT is a writing tool that generates the deep rolling basslines deep house rides on. Give it your chords and it writes a bass part that follows them and stays locked to your kick. Find a line you like and you have two ways to use it: drag the MIDI straight onto a track in your DAW, or play it live through your own synth, locked to your kick. Either way the notes are yours to keep, to change the key, the sound or the timing later.
That is the point of writing the part rather than printing the audio. A bassline is worth more as notes than as a recording, because the notes survive every later decision about the sound and the arrangement.
Free to hear in the browser, no signup. It runs as an Audio Unit, a VST3 and an AAX. Everything above still works by hand in any DAW too, which is rather the point of writing it down.
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