House music was born in Chicago in the early 1980s, and almost everything that defines it has stayed remarkably intact. The four-on-the-floor kick — every quarter note, relentless and precise — is the foundation. Above that sits an architecture of soulful chord stabs, syncopated bass lines, offbeat hi-hats, and melodies that borrow freely from gospel, funk, and jazz. Tempos run between 120 and 130 BPM, a range narrow enough to feel like a genre consensus, wide enough to stretch from peak-hour energy to late-night warmth. Deep house pulls that range toward the lower end and replaces any aggression with sophistication — more complex harmonic movement, richer chord voicings, and a groove that prioritises feel over impact.
What distinguishes deep house in particular is its approach to harmony. Where a lot of electronic music relies on simple minor triads or basic power chords, deep house draws from jazz in a way that few other club genres do. Jazzy 7th and 9th chord voicings, parallel harmonic movement, modal chord sequences that don't resolve in predictable ways — these are what give deep house its characteristic warmth and sophistication. The influence of producers like Larry Heard, Frankie Knuckles, and Larry Levan runs directly through the harmonic sensibility of the genre, and that heritage is not accidental. It's why deep house has a musicality that a lot of four-on-the-floor music lacks.
Getting that harmony right is the hard part. Programming a convincing four-on-the-floor kick and a standard 16-step hi-hat is straightforward; writing a chord stab that sounds genuinely jazzy, or a bass line that's syncopated without losing the pocket, requires real theory knowledge and deep familiarity with the genre. That's precisely where high-quality house and deep house MIDI packs make the difference — giving you harmonically accurate progressions, expressive melodies, and genre-locked drum patterns that you can build a full track around from day one.
What Makes Great House & Deep House MIDI Files
House and deep house MIDI is a different proposition from most dance music MIDI. The genre demands both rhythmic precision and harmonic sophistication in a way that requires genuine musical knowledge to deliver. Here's what separates quality house MIDI from filler content:
Jazzy Chord Voicings
Deep house doesn't do triads. The genre's harmonic identity comes from extended and altered chord voicings — maj7s, m7s, 9ths, 11ths, dominant 7ths with suspensions, m9 chords spread across multiple octaves. A classic deep house chord stab might be a Dm9 with the 9th on top, voiced so the inner parts create harmonic tension without muddying the low end. These voicings have a direct lineage in jazz, and they're what separate a chord stab that sounds genuinely soulful from one that just sounds like a random collection of notes. Any house MIDI pack that relies on basic major or minor triads is missing the entire point of the genre.
Parallel Harmony and Modal Movement
A distinctive feature of deep house chord progressions is the use of parallel harmony — moving a chord shape laterally up or down the keyboard while keeping the interval relationships intact. A minor 7th voicing that slides up a whole tone, then back down, creates movement that feels both unpredictable and completely natural. Alongside this, deep house frequently uses modal chord sequences: progressions that stay within a mode (Dorian, Mixolydian) rather than resolving to a tonic in the way functional harmony does. This is why a lot of deep house has a hypnotic, circling quality — the chords move but they don't want to stop moving.
The Four-on-the-Floor Foundation
Every element of house — chords, bass, melodies — is built around the four-on-the-floor kick. That means the chord stabs and bass lines need to be written with an understanding of where they sit in relation to that kick pattern. Soulful chord stabs typically land on the off-beats and upbeats, giving the groove its forward momentum without conflicting with the kick's downbeat authority. Syncopated bass lines weave around the kick and snare, implying the groove rather than duplicating it. When MIDI is written without this rhythmic context in mind, it sounds disconnected from the actual feel of house music — correct notes, wrong placement.
Offbeat Hi-Hat Phrasing
House hi-hats don't sit on the grid like a standard four-on-the-floor pattern. The offbeat hi-hat — the 16th-note hat that falls in the gaps between the kick and snare — is where the shuffle and swing of a house groove lives. In deeper house, this might be a subtle swing percentage applied to an open-closed pattern; in classic Chicago house, it's a snappier, more mechanical offbeat feel. The relationship between the kick, clap, and hi-hat is a signature of the genre, and drum MIDI that gets this right will immediately feel like house music rather than a generic 4/4 pattern.
Major and Minor Key Mixing
House progressions move freely between major and minor tonalities within a single track, often within a single four-bar loop. A progression might start on a minor 7th chord, move to a parallel major, then resolve on a dominant 9th — drawing on the full harmonic palette rather than committing to a single key feeling. This is another jazz inheritance, and it's part of what gives house its emotional range: tracks can feel melancholic and euphoric simultaneously, which is not something many genres manage. Good house MIDI captures this tonal flexibility rather than staying rigidly in one key mode.
MusicCreator House & Deep House MIDI Packs
Every pack in the MusicCreator house and deep house range is handcrafted by Niko Kotoulas — a concert pianist with 26+ years of experience and over 100 million streams. These are not algorithmically generated patterns. Every chord voicing, every melodic phrase, and every drum pattern has been written with direct reference to the harmonic and rhythmic language of house and deep house, using real music theory and real genre knowledge. All packs are 100% royalty-free and work in any DAW.
MusicCreator House & Deep House MIDI Chord Pack
$47
- 3,600+ house and deep house chord progressions
- Jazzy 7th, 9th, and extended chord voicings throughout
- Classic Chicago house stabs alongside deeper, more harmonic progressions
- Major/minor key mixing and modal chord sequences
- All 12 keys included
- 100% royalty-free — use in commercial releases, YouTube, Spotify, sync
- Works in Ableton Live, FL Studio, Logic Pro, and any DAW that reads MIDI
- Audio demos available on product page
MusicCreator House & Deep House MIDI Melody Pack
$47
- Melodic phrases written specifically for house and deep house production
- Soulful, expressive lines that sit naturally over four-on-the-floor grooves
- Gospel and funk-influenced phrasing rooted in the genre's history
- All 12 keys included
- 100% royalty-free — no credits or royalty payments ever required
- Compatible with any DAW and any MIDI instrument
- Pairs perfectly with the House & Deep House MIDI Chord Pack
MusicCreator House & Deep House Drum MIDI Pack
$27
- Drum patterns written specifically for house and deep house production
- Four-on-the-floor kick structures with genre-accurate offbeat hi-hat phrasing
- Classic Chicago house patterns alongside deeper, more nuanced groove feels
- Syncopated percussion arrangements and open hi-hat variations
- 100% royalty-free
- Works with any drum sampler or drum machine plugin
Want to Try Before You Buy?
Download our free MIDI packs to hear the quality for yourself before committing to a purchase. No sign-up required — just grab and produce.
- Grooves Free MIDI Pack — rhythmic MIDI patterns across genres, including groove-focused house-friendly patterns
- Beautiful Free MIDI Chord Progressions — expressive chord progressions with the harmonic depth house demands, free to download
How to Use House & Deep House MIDI Packs in Your DAW
Using house MIDI packs follows the same basic workflow as any MIDI pack. Download, unzip, and you'll find folders of .mid files organised by type — chord progressions, melodies, and drum patterns. Drag any file onto an instrument track in your DAW and it appears immediately as editable MIDI data. The difference with house is in what comes next: instrument selection and rhythmic placement are everything.
For chord stabs, the classic house sound comes from piano samples and electric piano emulations hit hard and clipped — Yamaha DX7 electric pianos, Rhodes patches, and raw piano samples with fast attack and medium decay. Keyscape covers the Rhodes and acoustic piano territory comprehensively. For the brighter, more percussive stab sound of classic Chicago house, load a DX7 preset or a Yamaha electric piano sample and dial in a tight, punchy envelope. In the deeper house direction, a chord played on a warm pad or string ensemble with longer attack and a touch of reverb transforms the same MIDI into something entirely different. The Juno-style pad in Arturia Juno-60 V or Roland Cloud is a go-to for this.
Bass lines need to be routed through a synth with presence in the low-mid range — a sub-heavy monophonic bass synth like Massive, Serum with a low-passed sawtooth, or a dedicated bass plugin like Trilian. House bass sits in a specific register that needs to be felt, not just heard. Make sure the low end of your bass is sidechain-compressed against your kick so the two elements breathe together rather than competing — this is non-negotiable for professional-sounding house.
For drums, any drum machine emulation works well. The Roland TR-909 is the canonical house drum machine, and any plugin that emulates it — D16 Drumazon, Roland TR-909 in Roland Cloud — will get you into the right territory immediately. The TR-808 is widely used in deeper, more bass-heavy productions. Load the drum MIDI into whichever drum machine or sampler you're using, and adjust the swing percentage to match the feel you're after — a touch of swing on the hi-hats makes a significant difference to how organic the groove feels.
For detailed step-by-step instructions specific to your software, see our guides: How to Use MIDI Packs, How to Use MIDI Packs in Ableton Live, How to Use MIDI Packs in FL Studio, and How to Use MIDI Packs in Logic Pro. If you're new to MIDI packs in general, start with What is a MIDI Pack?
House & Deep House MIDI Packs — Frequently Asked Questions
What BPM is typical for house and deep house music?
House music typically sits between 120 and 130 BPM, with most tracks landing around 124–128. Deep house tends toward the lower end of that range — 120–124 — where the groove has more space and the harmonic elements have more room to breathe. Classic Chicago house from the 1980s often pushed toward 130, while contemporary deep house and Afro house productions are frequently more relaxed in the 122–126 range. Getting your project tempo right before you start is important — the MIDI patterns will feel different at 120 than at 128, and the right tempo is part of the genre identity.
What chord types are used in deep house music?
Deep house draws extensively from jazz harmony — major 7th chords (Fmaj7, Bbmaj7), minor 7ths (Am7, Dm7), dominant 9ths and 7sus4 chords, minor 9ths, and chords with added extensions like 11ths. Parallel chord movement — sliding the same voicing shape up or down by a step or half-step — is a signature technique. The genre also frequently uses Dorian and Mixolydian modal progressions that don't resolve in the way functional major/minor harmony does, which gives deep house its hypnotic, open-ended quality. Simple triads are rare; the extended voicings are where the soul of the genre lives.
Can I use these MIDI packs for tech house, Afro house, or other house sub-genres?
Yes. The chord progressions and melodic phrases in the House & Deep House MIDI packs translate well across house sub-genres that share the same harmonic roots — tech house, Afro house, soulful house, garage, and UK house all draw from the same extended chord vocabulary. The drum patterns are written with the four-on-the-floor structure that defines house broadly, so you can adapt them across sub-genres by layering your own percussion or adjusting the swing. The MIDI gives you the harmonic and rhythmic raw material; the specific sub-genre direction comes from your sound design, processing, and arrangement choices.
What VST instruments work best with house and deep house MIDI?
For chord stabs, electric piano emulations are the classic choice — Keyscape (Spectrasonics) covers Rhodes and DX7-style electric pianos comprehensively. For pads and strings, the Juno-style pad is a house staple: Arturia Juno-60 V or any Roland Cloud Juno emulation delivers the right warmth and shimmer. For bass, a monophonic synth with a driven sawtooth or square wave — Serum, Massive, or Sylenth1 — handles house bass well with the right low-mid presence. For drums, the Roland TR-909 is the canonical house drum machine, and D16 Drumazon or Roland Cloud TR-909 are the standard plugin options.
Are MusicCreator's house MIDI packs royalty-free?
Yes, 100% royalty-free. Once you purchase a pack, you can use the MIDI files in commercial releases, DJ sets, YouTube tracks, Spotify releases, sync licensing placements, and any other project — forever, with no royalty payments and no credits required. The license covers both personal and commercial use, and it doesn't expire. What you create with the MIDI is your music; the files are a tool, and the license reflects that.
