So excited to start this 
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Christian’s tutorials are not only about sound design and arrangement, they all offer very good tips to enhance workflow.
With this tutorial I think one get’s a road to create something in the direction of the amazing track ‘Duo Tone’ by Petar Dundov and Gregor Tresher from 2011 and other kind of tracks.
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Thanks @chriz ! It is definitely a path to create tracks in a similar vein to those. Petar Dundov makes some fantastic melodic Techno.
Just wanted to share my track in which I used the techniques explained in this tutorial.
Its my first attempt, but I like it. The producion needs some work and maybe its too melodic, but thats fine by me. Already working on next track 
Maybe you have some tips, Chris?
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Thanks for sharing @maartensiem !
Great for a first attempt for sure. “Too” melodic is subject to taste and this is definitely not overblown. I would say that perhaps a little diversity, slight builds and accents along the way in your arrangement of percussion might go a long way to add and subtract energy and focus throughout the track. Looking forward to the next one. Great stuff
Very nice and usefull tutorial!
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Interesting info about the kick time adjustment based on time between kicks. I like maths!
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Yes, just thought it would be good to highlight how it works!
Thanks a lot!
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Interesting series! Especially the sequencer, I am going to watch the techniques video too. I still have a question though. How is the structure of a melodic techno track? I cannot see clear break’s, build ups and drop’s in it.
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Thanks for the kind words! As I’ve discussed in past chats regarding structure, there is no defining necessity for any break, build-up or drop depending on the intended outcome of the track. This does not mean there is any reason to not have them, rather, it is a great test of all the ideas and cohesion of the elements of a track to not require any of these things to begin with. Try to hold the tension with smaller, less obvious touches first. My suggestion is to focus on the inherent groove and touches of melody over the course of 5 or 6 minutes to make the track interesting by itself without the need for any of these usual suspects. Then, when you do want a build or drop etc it will have even more impact because you’ve got the energy just right in the whole track - and the more pronounced elements will not feel forced, obvious or obligatory.
Sometimes it’s fun to loop 128 bars or so and enjoy noodling/overdubbing with some return fx, or just with cutoff and release of your synths for example. Utilise midi control to the max and group similar sounds etc, messing around with just the mute function on different elements will give you a good feel of how energy can shift in your tracks just by playing around. You might even end with something much more epic this way. Happy Music making…
Thank you for the reply! That helps a lot. I am going to try out these techniques in practice. I am also very interested in the sequencing. I once tried to make a ‘melody generator’ in Max for Live. So maybe I get back into that and use that for a melodic techno track.
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Hey, if you don’t mind me asking…why do you route tracks to an audio bus rather than just grouping them? For instance, you take the three synth sounds and send their output to an audio track. Is there a difference or a practical reason behind doing it this way rather than grouping the tracks? Thanks in advance if you can answer my question.
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Hi @budsticky… good question! They are essential the same in many ways except for a few things like individual track delay, no individual sends, visual reference… there are a few discussions about it on the ableton forums. If you just want to group and effect together - then the group function is great. I also prefer the traditional bussing because it is familiar. Perhaps the best way to think about it would be to group similar behaving channels together that will only require the same sends and track delay etc… then bus them for mixing later. The beauty is that we have all these options actually.
Great tutorial! Super useful.
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Nice
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that is really nice
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really useful transferable ideas and skills, cheers!!
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Definitely will check this one…nice!
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Hi Christian! I absolutely love your tutorial. Great stuff so far. Especially the bit where you calculate the time for the length of the kick drum. So helpful. I have a question regarding your bass part. I was wondering how you got the second note in your custom bass preset to sound like something is happening with the pitch. It sounds like the note is falling into the next bar when it loops. I was wondering how you did that? With a pitch envelope? Just curious. That little extra bit made a world of difference. Thank you in advance!
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