Learning sound design does not start with fancy plugins or secret techniques.
For me, it started by remaking tracks, deconstructing sounds, and obsessing over details.
In this article, I want to share what I really learned by remaking tracks and creating my own samples and presets from scratch. Drums, music loops, synth sounds. And why this process is still one of the most powerful ways to build your own sound identity.
The artists that shaped my approach
My main references have always been artists like Justice, Daft Punk, Wolfgang Gartner, Madeon, Oliver and SebastiAn.
Mostly everything around Nu-Disco, French Electro, Indie Dance and Dark Electro.
I also learned a lot by analyzing artists outside this scene, like Djo and Tame Impala. Exploring different genres helps you understand what truly matters in sound design, no matter the style.
The most underrated skill: practice
Watching tutorials is useful. They give direction and save time.
But what helped me the most was analyzing, dissecting, de-assembling and remaking sounds from my favorite tracks.
Remaking tracks forces you to ask real questions:
• Why does this snare feel so punchy?
• Why does this kick sit perfectly in the mix?
• Why does this synth feel alive even with simple notes?
This is especially important in niche styles like French House or Nu-Disco, where details define the entire groove.
Today, AI tools can help separate stems and isolate elements more easily. But the real learning still happens when you try to recreate things yourself.
Focusing on one sound at a time
One big shift in my learning process was focusing on one sound at a time.
One kick.
One snare.
One synth.
Being a bit nerdy here really pays off. Obsessing over the transient of a snare, the body of a kick, or the harmonic content of a synth teaches you far more than trying to remake a full track at once.
Your remake will probably not sound exactly like the original. And that is not the goal.
What matters are the attempts, the failures, and the experiments. Over time, this builds your own sound signature. It also reminds you that every artist you admire was inspired by someone else before them. It is a cycle.
Learning by creating sample packs
In my case, I learned an insane amount while creating Punchy Drums Vault and Nu-Disco Pop Essentials.
For Punchy Drums Vault, I focused heavily on advanced details. Recreating drums from scratch, imagining the processing chains an artist might have used, and testing multiple approaches.
Sometimes there is no magic at all. Some artists simply use a great kick or snare from an existing sample pack. But not knowing that forces you to imagine the process yourself. And that is where real learning happens.
Using analysis tools the right way
One plugin that helped me a lot is SPAN, especially the Plus version.
It allows you to capture frequency snapshots from different audio sources and compare them. I used it to analyze multiple drum one-shots, for example:
• A snare from Madeon’s “Pay No Mind”
• A kick from Daft Punk’s “I Feel It Coming”
• A drum loop from a Chic track
This level of attention to detail makes a huge difference. You need to dissect what you love in a track if you want to master the style you admire.
Creating your own drum kits and artist packs
If you want to create your own drum kit or an artist-focused sample pack for your music or an album project, simple layering with basic understanding can already go very far.
That said, for drums, it really helps to understand:
• Phase and phase alignment
• Transients
• How a sound is structured
• How to rebuild it from scratch, even in a simplified way
This knowledge also makes mixing much easier later on.
Going deeper with advanced processing
For Nu-Disco Pop Essentials, created with Louis La Roche from Saudade Samples, we spent a massive amount of time on details that may seem small at first.
Recreating sounds from scratch.
Resampling.
Reprocessing sounds multiple times.
One technique that helped a lot was splitting drums into transient and body or tail using dedicated plugins (eg: Transgressor 3). This allowed much deeper post-processing.
Sometimes a very small EQ move on a transient, tested in context with music loops, makes a huge difference. All these processing chains add up, and that is what makes sounds feel professional in the end.
Final thoughts
Remaking tracks taught me more about sound design than any tutorial ever could.
It trains your ears, your taste, and your technical skills at the same time. And over time, it helps you stop chasing other people’s sounds and start building your own.
If you want to create better samples, stronger drums, and a clearer sound identity, remaking tracks is still one of the most powerful tools you can use.