South Africa is home to one of the fastest-growing sounds in the world right now. Amapiano didn't just take over Johannesburg and Pretoria, it took over global charts, and South African house has been a serious force for decades before that. Here's what to consider when choosing a mastering engineer for a South African release.
Amapiano's global moment
Amapiano grew out of Gauteng in the mid-2010s, a blend of deep house, jazz and kwaito with that distinctive log drum bassline, and it has since become one of the most-streamed genres on the planet. Tyla's Grammy win for Best African Music Performance put the sound in front of a global audience, and producers from Kabza De Small to DBN Gogo have built genuinely international careers on it.
That crossover changes what a South African release needs from mastering. A log drum bassline has to hit with real low-end weight without smearing the groove, and the track still has to translate on a phone speaker for the streaming audience discovering the genre for the first time.
It's bigger than one genre
South African house has been a serious international force since long before amapiano crossed over. Johannesburg and Pretoria carry the amapiano wave, Durban has its own gqom and bass-heavy identity, and Cape Town has a deep, long-running house and techno scene that's been exporting talent for years.
Each of these needs a different mastering approach. A gqom track and a deep house track from the same country have almost nothing in common sonically. Genre fit within the South African scene matters as much as genre fit within electronic music generally.
Remote mastering, close time zone
South Africa sits one to two hours ahead of the UK depending on the time of year, about as close as an international time difference gets. Files sent in the morning in Johannesburg are usually turned around the same working day in London.
Sam works with South African artists and producers on the same workflow as any other project: files in, master back, revisions until it's right. No studio visit needed, no overnight wait for a reply.
What to look for
- —Experience with log drum bass and amapiano's specific low-end demands, not just house and techno generally
- —Credits that show real work across the genre you're in, whether that's amapiano, gqom, or deep house
- —Monitoring built for low-end accuracy, essential when the bassline is the whole point of the track
- —A workflow that turns around quickly given how close the UK and South African time zones are
- —Revision rounds included so the master matches what you hear in the club or on the system you mix on
Work with Sam
Making amapiano, gqom or house from South Africa? Send your track and get an honest assessment from Sam.
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