Chicago house

History and character

The original house, produced in Chicago between 1984 and the end of the '80s. It grew out of the DJs of the city's Black and gay clubs — Frankie Knuckles at the Warehouse, Ron Hardy at the Music Box — and out of radio station WBMX with its Hot Mix 5 (from 1981). DJs extended disco and Italo records with drum machines and reel-to-reel tape; local producers began making their own records with cheap machines. Jesse Saunders — On and On (1984), played on a Korg Poly-61 and a drum machine, is considered the first; then came Chip E. ("Jack Trax" EP, 1985), Farley "Jackmaster" Funk ("Love Can't Turn Around", UK top 10 in 1986), Steve "Silk" Hurley ("Jack Your Body", UK no. 1 in 1987), Marshall Jefferson ("Move Your Body", 1986), Larry Heard/Mr. Fingers ("Mystery of Love", 1985; "Can You Feel It", 1986), Jamie Principle and Frankie Knuckles ("Your Love").

The labels Trax Records (Larry Sherman) and DJ International (Rocky Jones) pressed hundreds of 12" records, often on shoestring budgets; the record stores Importes Etc., State Street, JR's and Gramaphone served as the distribution channel. The sound is raw: hand-programmed Roland TR-808, TR-909, TR-707 and TR-727 drum machines, Juno, TB-303, short samples, vocals that are often spoken or shouted ("jack your body"). The deep and acid strands, and the more rhythmic and minimal "jacking", already exist within Chicago house, later evolving into the ghetto house of the '90s (Dance Mania).

Aesthetics: a physical, hypnotic groove, few elements played in loops, direct energy, club spirituality ("house music is a feeling"), lo-fi production that is now a sought-after aesthetic.

Scales and keys

Convention: Roman numerals are relative to the major scale of the same tonic (uppercase = major, lowercase = minor, ° diminished, ø half-diminished, + augmented; b/# = degree lowered/raised relative to major: in A minor F = bVI, G = bVII). The notes and chords below are calculated exactly from the formula.

Dorian

• Formula: 1 2 b3 4 5 6 b7 — steps: W H W W W H W
• On G: G A Bb C D E F
• Diatonic triads: Gm i · Am ii · Bb bIII · C IV · Dm v · Edim vi° · F bVII
• Seventh chords: Gm7 i7 · Am7 ii7 · Bbmaj7 bIIImaj7 · C7 IV7 · Dm7 v7 · Em7b5 viø7 · Fmaj7 bVIImaj7
• Characteristic note: the major sixth (E in G Dorian): it makes the IV major (C, C7, C9).
• Use: the i–IV vamps (Gm7–C9) and the sustained seventh/ninth chords of Chicago deep and soul house; the basses play tonic, fifth and b7 with octave leaps.
• Common mistakes: using Eb (b6) in the melody over the C major chord.

Aeolian

• Formula: 1 2 b3 4 5 b6 b7 — steps: W H W W H W W
• On C: C D Eb F G Ab Bb
• Diatonic triads: Cm i · Ddim ii° · Eb bIII · Fm iv · Gm v · Ab bVI · Bb bVII
• Seventh chords: Cm7 i7 · Dm7b5 iiø7 · Ebmaj7 bIIImaj7 · Fm7 iv7 · Gm7 v7 · Abmaj7 bVImaj7 · Bb7 bVII7
• Characteristic note: the b6 (Ab): darker loops, typical of many jacking tracks and early productions with 303/SH-101 basslines.
• Use: bass riffs on i–bVII–bVI (C–Bb–Ab), repeated minor stabs, m7 chords in chord memory.
• Common mistakes: too many chords: jacking house often uses just one, or none.

Minor pentatonic

• Formula: 1 b3 4 5 b7 — steps: W+H W W W+H W
• On E: E G A B D
• Characteristic note: five notes with no semitones, perfect for bass riffs and stabs over a single chord.
• Use: one-bar repeated basslines (E–G–A–B–D with octaves), spoken or shouted vocals, monophonic synth riffs.
• Common mistakes: lines that are too long and melodic: in Chicago jacking the bass is a short, almost percussive pattern.

Major with sevenths (soul and gospel)

• Formula: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 — steps: W W H W W W H
• On F: F G A Bb C D E
• Diatonic triads: F I · Gm ii · Am iii · Bb IV · C V · Dm vi · Edim vii°
• Seventh chords: Fmaj7 Imaj7 · Gm7 ii7 · Am7 iii7 · Bbmaj7 IVmaj7 · C7 V7 · Dm7 vi7 · Em7b5 viiø7
• Characteristic note: the major seventh (E) in maj7 and maj9 chords: the soul color of the vocal tracks (Marshall Jefferson, Ten City).
• Use: piano house with IV–V–iii–vi and ii–V–I loops, Prophet or sampled piano stabs.
• Common mistakes: bare triads in the high register, which sound pop.

How to choose between the scales

• Jacking / DJ tools: a single minor mode (Aeolian or pentatonic) over one chord or none; the bass riff is what matters.
• Deep and vocal: Dorian or major with extensions (m9, maj9, 9sus4).
• Piano anthem: major with 7ths/9ths and descending loops.

Start from the pentatonic bass riff and decide afterward whether the chord above should have a major sixth (Dorian) or a minor sixth (Aeolian).

Harmony

Function

Two souls. In jacking house the harmony almost doesn't exist: a bass pedal and a repeated stab, often a single chord for the entire track; the sense of key comes from the riff. In Chicago deep/vocal (Larry Heard, Marshall Jefferson, Ten City) the harmony is soul/jazz: seventh, ninth and eleventh chords in loops of 2–4 chords.

Typical techniques

• Chord memory / planing: an m7 or m9 voicing stored on a synth (Juno, Poly-61, Prophet) and transposed by playing a single note: the chords move in parallel and can leave the scale (the typical "deep" color).
• Pedal: the tonic repeated by the bass while the stab changes.
• Dorian i–IV vamp and alternations of two minor chords a whole step apart (i7–bVII7 or i7–ii7).
• Very few V–I cadences; the dominant, if present, is a 9sus4.

Harmonic rhythm and voicing

One chord every 1–2 bars; syncopated 1/16 stabs. Tight voicings in the C3–C5 range, bass below C2.

Examples

• Gm7 for 16 bars with the stab changing rhythm every 8 (jacking).
• Fm9–Ebmaj7 in planing (Chicago deep).
• Bbmaj7–Am7–Gm7–C9sus4 (vocal house à la Ten City).

Typical progressions

Rhythm and groove

• Feel: the "jack": a mechanical but swung groove, programmed on the drum machine's internal sequencer with shuffle on (TR-909/707): the even sixteenths delayed, equivalent to roughly 56–62% in MPC style (FL Studio: 25–40 on the Channel rack's Swing knob).
• Grid: sixteenth notes; kick on quarters, hat in sixteenths with accents, clap on 2 and 4. One-bar patterns repeated, with mutes/unmutes done by hand in real time.
• Accents: drum machine accent on the even sixteenths of the hats and on the offbeat; basslines with an accent on the second sixteenth.
• Microtiming: the machines' timing is rigid; the feel comes from the shuffle and the accents, not from micro-shifts.

Drums

Kick

On quarters (steps 1, 5, 9, 13), longer and "boomier" than modern house: 808 with medium-long decay or 909 with little click. Often slightly saturated by tape or the mixer. In tracks closer to electro and ghetto house: 3-hit variants (1, 4, 7) or a doubled kick on the 4& (step 15).

Clap and snare

808/909 clap on 2 and 4; 909 snare with a lot of "snap" and high tuning. Sixteenth-note snare rolls (and 1/32 with the 909's flam) in the last 1–2 bars of phrases, often with crescendoing accents.

Hi-hat

Closed hat in full sixteenths with alternating accents (strong-weak), dry 909 open hat on the offbeat. In jacking: open hat also on the second sixteenth (steps 2, 6) for a gallop.

Percussion

TR-727 (congas, bongo, timbales, agogo), 808 cowbell and clave, 909 rim on syncopations. Short patterns, hard panning.

Dynamics and ghost notes

Drum machines only have "accent on/off": dynamics come from the global accent and from the levels of the individual instruments. Recreate it in the DAW with two velocities (100 and 60–70).

Interaction with bass and vocals

The bass is often a line of syncopated sixteenths filling the spaces between the kicks; the spoken vocal ("jack your body", "house music") sits between the clap hits.

Sections

There are no real verses and choruses: the "sections" are mutes/unmutes of 8 or 16 bars. Break: remove the kick for 4–8 bars, leaving hat and vocal; re-entry with a 909 crash.

Choosing sounds

Original 808 and 909 or unprocessed samples, 707 for more "plasticky" hats and claps, background noise and mixer saturation. Tune the 808 kick to the tonic.

Typical mistakes

Quantizing without shuffle; using modern hats that are too bright; excessive layering; complex pop-style fills.

Bass

• Sound: Roland SH-101, Juno-106 in mono, unsaturated TB-303, Korg Poly-61; organ bass from the Korg M1 in late-'80s tracks; synth bass with a saw or square oscillator, half-open filter, short envelope.
• Range: C1–C3. In the original productions the sub is less deep than today: the line is heard between 80 and 300 Hz.
• With the kick: the bass plays on the sixteenths between the kicks (steps 3, 4, 7, 8…) and leaves the downbeat free; with the long-tail 808 you need to tune kick and bass to the same note.
• Notes: tonic, octave, b7, fifth, b3; one-bar riffs with octave leaps and repeated notes (e.g. in E: E1 E2 E1 D2 E1 G1 A1 E2).
• Rhythm: sixteenths with rests, accents on the second sixteenth of each beat.
• Examples: the octave riff of "Move Your Body", the repeated basses of the Trax tracks.

Harmonic instruments

• Piano: sampled piano or Korg M1/Prophet stabs (Marshall Jefferson's piano house), on the offbeat.
• Synth stabs: Juno-106 or Poly-61 with chord memory (parallel chords).
• Pads and strings: Juno, Solina, Korg Poly-800; long beds in the deep tracks (Larry Heard).
• Rhodes/organ: in the soul and gospel tracks.

Mid register, tight voicings, little reverb or cheap digital reverb (it is part of the sound).

Melody and vocals

• Vocals: spoken word and dance commands (Chip E., Fingers), or soul vocals (Robert Owens, Jamie Principle, Daryl Pandy) with long phrases and falsetto.
• Hooks: short repeated phrases, often sampled and cut into loops ("stutter").
• Backing vocals: few; unison or octave doublings, gospel choirs in the vocal tracks.
• Instrumental melodies: monophonic synth riffs, one-handed piano lines, bells.
• Effects: cheap digital reverb and delay, tape echo, filters; natural distortion from recording on cassette/tape.

Instruments

Roland TR-808, TR-909, TR-707, TR-727, Roland TB-303, SH-101, Juno-60/106, Korg Poly-61, Korg M1 (from 1988), Casio CZ, Yamaha DX100/DX7, Ensoniq Mirage, Akai S900, E-mu SP-1200 samplers; cheap mixers, reel-to-reel and cassette recorders; vocals, sampled piano.

Drum patterns

Synths and sounds

• Jun-6 V — Stabs, chord memory, bass: Simulates the Juno-60/106: for the stabs, use an m7/m9 voicing across several keys and transpose (or use the chord memory of FL's sequencer); attack 0, VCF decay 200–300 ms, Chorus I. For the bass, saw + sub, filter 35%, short envelope.
• Prophet-5 V — Synthetic piano stab and brass: Two oscillators, saw and narrow square, filter with a short envelope: bright late-'80s stabs.
• Mini V — Bassline: A single square or saw oscillator, filter closed to 40%, moderate env amount, decay 150 ms: a short, round bass in sixteenths.
• DX7 V — FM bass and bells: FM bass presets ("Bass 1") and bells for synth riffs typical of the cheap productions of the era.
• Piano V — Piano house: Bright upright piano, HP at 150 Hz and fast compression for the stab.
• Stage-73 V — Deep chords: Rhodes for Larry Heard-style pieces, with slow tremolo and chorus.

Song structure

A DJ "tool" form, 8-bar phrases, 5–8 minutes long; no radio versions in the original pressings (often a vocal version, a "dub" and an "acapella"/"bonus beats" on the same 12").

"Live" arrangement: many tracks were recorded straight to tape by raising and lowering the faders and muting parts; recreate it by recording mute automation in real time.

Mixing and mastering

Sonic goal

Raw, warm and mono-centric: a big kick, clap and hat up front, a dry vocal or one with cheap echo, little stereo space. The character comes from tape/mixer saturation, limited bandwidth (little content above 12 kHz), noise. References: Marshall Jefferson — Move Your Body, Steve "Silk" Hurley — Jack Your Body, Mr. Fingers — Can You Feel It (instrumental version).

Kick

• EQ: HP 30 Hz; emphasis 55–70 Hz +2 dB (808) or 60–80 Hz (909); cut −3 dB at 300 Hz Q 2; little click (+1 dB 2 kHz).
• Compression: VCA 4:1, attack 20 ms, release 80 ms, GR 2–3 dB, or none.
• Saturation: tape (Saturn 2 "Tape", Decapitator "A" with drive 2–3) to round off the 808's tail.
• Space: dry. Stereo: mono.

Clap and snare

• EQ: HP 180 Hz, +2 dB at 1 kHz for the 909's "snap", LP at 10 kHz for a vintage flavor.
• Compression: fast FET 4:1, attack 3 ms, release 80 ms, GR 3–5 dB.
• Space: short '80s-style digital reverb (plate 0.8–1 s, pre-delay 0–10 ms) or gated reverb on the clap.
• Stereo: center.

Hi-hat and percussion

• EQ: HP 400 Hz; the 909's 6-bit sounds already have few highs: shelf +1 dB at 8 kHz only if needed; LP at 14 kHz.
• Saturation: light bitcrusher or tape for the vintage effect.
• Panning: hat 10–15% L, 727 perc on the sides (L40/R40), cowbell 20% R.
• Space: short room or none.

Bass

• EQ: HP 35 Hz, body 80–150 Hz, harmonics 600 Hz–1 kHz +2 dB, LP 4 kHz.
• Compression: opto 3:1, GR 3 dB. Saturation: light tube.
• Stereo: mono. Sidechain: light (2 dB) or none: the original sound didn't have it, the interlocking was rhythmic.

Synths, piano, stabs

• EQ: HP 150 Hz, cut 300 Hz −2 dB, presence 2–3 kHz.
• Space: tape or digital delay at dotted 1/8 (≈ 370 ms at 122 BPM) with 30% feedback; 1.2 s digital reverb.
• Stereo: stabs in the center or slightly widened; pads with chorus.

Lead vocal

• Chain: HP 90 Hz, FET compression 4:1 (4–6 dB GR), EQ +2 dB at 2–3 kHz, de-esser.
• Space: short tape echo (slapback 80–120 ms) or 1/4 delay with 20% feedback, short plate.
• Spoken word: drier and more upfront, heavier compression (6–8 dB GR).

Backing vocals

Doubles at L/R 50%, compression 6 dB, 2 s hall reverb, 6 dB below the lead.

FX

Very few modern FX: no long risers; use 909 crashes, vocal reverses, filters.

Buses and groups

Drum bus with tape and 2:1 glue compression (GR 2 dB); a "mixer bus" with light saturation to simulate a cheap console; music bus with group EQ.

Sidechain

Minimal or absent; if used, 1–3 dB on pads only. The groove comes from the rhythmic interlocking.

Master

Chain: EQ (HP 25 Hz, optional LP 16–18 kHz for vintage) → tape → 2:1 compressor (1–2 dB GR) → limiter. Target: −10/−8 LUFS integrated to preserve the 808's punch (the original pressings were far more dynamic); true peak −1 dBTP; crest factor 9–12 dB.

Common mistakes

Making the sound too clean and wide; adding a modern sub that covers the 808 kick; heavy sidechain; long modern reverbs; over-limiting the drums.

Reference tracks for mixing

• Marshall Jefferson — Move Your Body (1986)
• Steve "Silk" Hurley — Jack Your Body (1986)
• Frankie Knuckles & Jamie Principle — Your Love (1986–87)
• Mr. Fingers — Can You Feel It (1986)

Reference listening

• Jesse Saunders — On and On (1984)
• Chip E. — Time to Jack (Jack Trax EP, 1985)
• Mr. Fingers — Mystery of Love (1985)
• Farley "Jackmaster" Funk & Jesse Saunders — Love Can't Turn Around (1986)
• Steve "Silk" Hurley — Jack Your Body (1986)
• Marshall Jefferson — Move Your Body (1986)
• Mr. Fingers — Can You Feel It (1986)
• Frankie Knuckles & Jamie Principle — Your Love (1986–87)