Dharma returns to La Mano’s Sound Du Jour with Home Trip, an EP that connects his background as a trained multi-instrumentalist with the break-driven, melody-forward side of his production. The Sunderland-born, London-based producer has already touched labels including Permanent Vacation, Me Me Me, and R&S Records, and this release feels like a clear extension of that lane.
There is a lot going on across the record, but the writing still feels direct, especially in the way synth lines, vocals, and drum programming stay locked around the central melodic ideas.
The title track “Home Trip” is the obvious place to dig in because it balances big-room lift with a more personal, melodic center. Hammer’s remix pushes it into a chugging house direction, while “Tundra” and “Techno Bagpipes” show Dharma working with a wider palette of rhythms and bright synth movement. The EP has enough range to feel complete, but it never loses the melodic thread that makes the whole thing feel connected.
For this How It Was Made feature, Dharma walks through the tools behind “Home Trip,” including Ableton Operator, Soundtoys EchoBoy, Ableton Utility, and Ableton’s Arpeggiator. The best part here is how much of the workflow comes back to stock tools, routing, automation, and knowing the gear well enough to move quickly. It is a solid reminder that a track can feel polished without relying on a long list of expensive plugins.
Ableton Operator
So for the lead synth in Home Trip I opted to use Ableton’s Operator. Operator is Ableton’s stock go to FM synth which is incredibly user friendly.
My reasoning for using this synth truthfully is how quick you can navigate the interface. Ableton’s stock plugins fit nicely into the main interface and avoiding countless pop up windows really speeds up my writing process.
In this track I’ve actually disconnected all of the oscillators and am using Operator as a standard subtractive Synth. Using a single sawtooth waveform, automated lowpass filter, long release on the amp envelope and abit of spread, very little further processing was required to create a lead synth with depth.
I’d advise anyone wanting to use operator, or any other synth in fact, to learn as much as you can about the synth. The more understanding you have of a tool, the more you can utilise it without requiring a million extra unnecessary plugins.
Soundtoys EchoBoy
For digital delay, Sound Toys Echo Boy is my go to. It’s a great sounding delay and a fantastic tape delay emulator which I use extensively.
On this track, and to be honest, many others, I tend to use Echo Boy on my delay bus. I usually start off using the Space Echo preset and alter the parameters according to the situation. In this track for instance, I wanted the vocals to have a 1/8th dotted dub sounding delay. Because I wrote the tune in half time, I applied a 1/16th delay with dual echo for extra space which was very effective in bringing the vocals forward in the mix.
This synth is obviously great as a bus delay but could also be incredibly powerful for Sound Design purposes. Experimenting with the feedback (within reason) and delay times on single hit percussion can be incredibly fun.
Ableton Utility
One of my most used tools has to be Ableton’s Utility. Simple yet effective, its really useful to control Stereo Width and Volume. Volume being a big factor, as it allows you to automate the level of a track whilst leaving the channel level untouched, which is ideal for mixdowns.
Within this track I use Utility as a volume control as well as a stereo imager. For example, I am using a Reese Bass which is famously ‘wide’. I wanted to reduce the wideness within the midrange, but maintain centered in the sub region. Utility allows me adjust the stereowidth with the ‘width’ parameter. It also includes a mono cutoff, allowing all frequencies in this instance below 500hz to playback mono.
Playing with stereowidth is something that can also be used as a tool in automation. I often play around with the ‘Width’ Parameter which can be a cool tool to build and release tension on individual channels.
Ableton Arpeggiator
Ableton’s arp is a go to tool for sure. Arpeggiators can sound abit mundane but there is plenty of room for experimentation and I’ve used it often throughout this track.
In Hometrip I have a whole ‘Arp’ group. What I like to do is copy and paste instances of the same synth and vary the arp settings on each instance. It’s always fun to experiment with different timings, Steps/Distance and Style.
The arpeggiator can also be used as a sound design tool. Sometimes I experiment by changing the rate to milliseconds. You can make interesting sounds when automating this parameter.
Quick Fire Hot Takes
Hot Take #1: The industry can be discouraging but you gotta keep plugging away and remember why you love doing this in the first place!
Hot Take #2: Don’t be afraid to be yourself. Your art should be a reflection of you.
Hot Take #3: It’s cool to be inspired from your peers, work with other artists and it can help broaden your perspective.
Hot Take #4: You don’t always need the best, newest gear. Master what you have access to.
Will Vance is a professional music producer who has been involved in the industry for the better part of a decade and has been the managing editor at Magnetic Magazine since mid-2022. In that time period, he has published thousands of articles on music production, industry think pieces and educational articles about the music industry. Over the last decade as a professional music producer, Will Vance has also ran multiple successful and highly respected record labels in the industry, including Where The Heart Is Records as well as having launched a new label with a focus on community through Magnetic Magazine. When not running these labels or producing his own music, Vance is likely writing for other top industry sites like Waves or the Hyperbits Masterclass or working on his upcoming book on mindfulness in music production. On the rare chance he's not thinking about music production, he's probably running a game of Dungeons and Dragons with his friends which he has been the dungeon master for for many years.
