Inside Billboard-Topping Producer Bryan Yepes’ Serato Workflow

When Bryan Yepes talks about music, he doesn’t start with hits or hardware. He starts with feeling.

“I think music’s huge on feeling, whether it brings you nostalgia, or some sort of emotion,” he says. “Those are my focuses. Is this making me feel something? Does this take me somewhere?”

That philosophy has carried the Miami-born, LA-based producer from church basements to the top of the Billboard charts. Along the way, he’s stacked up a star-studded lineup of artists and credits, Drake (Laugh Now, Cry Later), JuiceWRLD (The Bees Knees) and Don Toliver (New Drop), just to name a few. 

Yepes is proof you don’t need a million-dollar studio to make a hit. Some of his biggest songs like Ring Ring with Travis Scott, started in a quiet corner, sparked by nothing more than a feeling and an idea. 

“A lot of times I’ll be jamming out—whether I’m playing guitar or just outside, nowhere near the studio, and I’ll grab my phone and record it,” he says. That’s when Serato Sample steps in.

“It’s one of the biggest cheat codes.” With Sample, Bryan syncs those raw sketches and flips them into something new—pitching, stretching, transposing, chopping vocals—before bringing color and movement with Serato Hex FX.

The Session

In our new short film, Bryan opens up his process, showing how Serato Sample and Hex FX help him turn sparks of inspiration into records that connect.

Yepes’ story isn’t about industry plugins; it’s about community. “The idea of how music can unify people is insane,” he says. Collaboration has always been central to his sound.

For this session, he enlisted friends BNYX (credits with Juice WRLD – The Bees Knees, Drake – Laugh Now Cry Later, Don Toliver – New Drop, and Post Malone – Waiting For Never) for a slick bassline, and BBYKOBE (producer-turned-rapper) to add percussive elements and a few chart-ready bars. Together, they create a “switch-up” in the track, honoring Bryan’s love of unconventional arrangements.

“Where it starts is not where it ends up. That switch-up is what makes it special.”

With Sample holding the foundation steady and Hex FX adding color and grit, Bryan’s rough guitar idea transforms into a fully formed track. Proof that the best tracks are built in motion, not isolation.

Serato Sample: The Cheat Code

Bryan doesn’t always produce in conventional ways. Sometimes it’s a phone memo becoming a hook or a re-pitched riff taking on new life—but whatever the path from spark to record, Sample gives him the flexibility to follow it. Even if that means he doesn’t have his production set-up with him.

When he saw how Producer Dahi (credits with Kendrick Lamar, SZA, Childish Gambino) used Serato Sample, it completely shifted his approach. “I’d only been using it to chop and arrange samples, but he showed me how deep it could go,” Bryan says.

From there, Sample became his tool for reinvention. “I’ll hit Find Samples, select all, reverse them, tweak the pitch into a whole new world—and you’d never know where the sound started. I even flip the BPM opposite to what it’s set at, just to take it somewhere unexpected.” In fact, Sample has become a sort of gatekept industry secret:

“I’ve been in sessions where people literally minimize Sample like they don’t want to give up the cheat code. But that’s what it is—a cheat code.”

Hex FX: Bryan’s Sound Design Go-To

Once the idea is down, Serato Hex FX takes over. “Hex FX is on every track. No matter what it is, it sounds good,” Bryan says. “It colors your sound—adds grit, texture, emotion.”

Part of the fun is rule-breaking. “I’ll throw a vocal preset on a guitar, or a drum preset on a bass,” he says. “It doesn’t matter. It brings the whole thing to life.” He even embraces a little chaos: “Every time you open Hex FX, it throws a preset at you. That randomness helps you find tones you weren’t even looking for.”

The Pro Tools Workflow

For Bryan, the magic isn’t just in each plugin individually, it’s in how they work together. “I’ll build the foundation with Sample, then throw on Hex FX to bring color and texture,” he explains. That workflow now lives comfortably in Pro Tools, with Serato Sample and Hex FX available with AAX support.

Make Bryan’s Tools Your Own

The same tools powering Bryan’s workflow are now yours to explore. Free to try today.

Try Serato Sample Free
Try Hex FX Free

Now available with AAX support for Pro Tools.