Back by popular demand Techno legend Christian Vance is more than welcome once again here at Sonic Academy with an all-new ‘How To Make’ course where he creates a fierce Peak Time Techno banger in Ableton Live!
Christian’s courses are renowned for their clever use of macros and Ableton’s rack generators, and this one is no exception. Using a single MIDI line that feeds three different instruments along with an unconventional use of two separate kicks, this is not only a music creation course but also a lesson in utilising Ableton’s capabilities to jam and have fun with your sounds!
There are no rules here and this one is very much about teaching you the tools to use yourself rather than just recreating the same track again. Once you take the time to map controls and set up effects the different possibilities for your sounds are practically endless.
Just wondering - in the mixdown section - If you dont turn the dry/wet control on the valhalla supermassive send effect up to 100% to let some dry signal through to fatten up the sound - isnt it just the same if you put it on 100 and use the dry/wet control on the track send dry/wet control ? or is it not sending enough of the dry signal through that way - I wont be holding my breath for a reply but Im curious to know
Hi @Abramelin. Of course it is possible to do this but you will be adding more of the original signal into the mix if you let more through the send/return. Fattening it may be… but it also runs the risk of adding more signal, input etc into your main mix. Less control and it gets messy when you need to go back in to fine tune things. You are absolutely correct in your assumption that if you use it just on the track, those percentages will only be the total amount of dry/wet. This is why, under usual circumstances, it is wise to have fx on returns up to 100% so you don’t add more of the original than is required. You can always play around with dry/wet on a track but ONLY if you don’t want to lose the clarity and definition of the original sound. There are no rules, per se, but I tend to stick to those guidelines so I always know how much dry signal there is on any track — unless you want to do otherwise for particular effect.
Hi Christian thanks for your reply - I only ask the question because this is what you’ve done in the tutorial - you have the Valhalla return at 67 % - also - can you please make more of these - I’ve learned so much from your particular style and way of doing things - cannot get enough
Amazing walkthrough! I watch this every few weeks as a guideline, always giving me new ideas from just thinking “ok thats awesome but what if i do this?”, and the possibilities are endless!!! Class tutorial and an absolute class tutor. Massive thumbs up man
