Minimal / Techno / Tech House Production Thread

walkerismyname · August 24, 2010, 6:18pm

[quote]onetwoseven (23/08/2010)[hr]Hey everyone!

I’ve got an ableton project here for you to download.

https://www.yousendit.com/download/aHlSWWVyTEQ3bUN4dnc9PQ

This is something that I’ve decided not to use but I think there’s plenty of tips and ideas in there. I’m sure you guys will be able to get something out of this.

Any questions let me know![/quote]

thanks for sharing dude:D:D:D

i deffo recommend checking this out

i got a few tips of this that gave me inspiration to get a track arranged that i’d been mucking around with in session view for weeks and was getting nowhere…

ICN · August 29, 2010, 6:05pm

Just bringing this in from the Tutorials section where Dennis, Slender & myself were talking about Ben Klock & that ****'d up Berghain sound:

Dennis was describing about how to get that sound:

[quote]dennis148 (29/08/2010)[hr]i recently did a try to recreate that sound in ableton.

it think the key is eq,eq,eq (get a lot of space in the sound),long reverb chains, bitcrushing, delay and comrepssion of course. but it’s not that easy :([/quote]

Slender & I asked him to post a bit about what he did exactly… & fair play he said:

[quote]dennis148 (29/08/2010)[hr]actually i took a 909 kick and lowfiltered at ~300hz added a long reverb and layered it with a bandpassed tom. also reverb on the tom and dont forget compression (not to much). i think this is a good starting point.

i also used a pad and bitcrsuhed it (for textures) and cutted lows and highs out of it. for percussions i just used woodblocks with filters and delays on it. all with native ableton plugins. dont forget to give every element enough room (eq).

i’m no professional and would like to get hints of other more experienced users :)[/quote]

I’ve kinda done the same thing one Perc type stuff. I got a snare sample that had a bit of low on it & also almost like a bit of white noise on the top of it. It had a lot of that hi w.noise freq stuff on it that you’d see in a analyser.

I put a 24 low & 24 hi filter cut on it, and suppose it was a bit like a band pass filter in shape. it was mainly from around 300ish to around 1k ish (mess around). I had a delay on the insert, and had the wet at less than 10%… again, depends on the pattern… sounded pretty cool.

The Snare pattern was more like a Perc pattern. It was going @ different velocities & was gating on note lengths, so it was choppy & then longer in places. Sounded ok.

Cant remember if I put a reverb on it… If I did it was probably a little bit of plate on a send.

Agree that a lot of that sound is EQ’d heavily on the Top Freq’s… Serious amount of bitcrusing too. I’ve used Overdrive & Bass Amp Settings on different elements.

Delays & Reverbs are being used as Inserts and are really wet. You can get some interesting rhythms with delays 100 wet & faded up.

ICN · September 2, 2010, 2:39pm

Heres something that will help you create a good groove where all the different elements build up & form the rhythm supportively.

Make an 8 Bar loop @ 125 in your arrange

Place a Kick - not 4 to the Floor… but 2 to the floor… It’ll sound slow like 1/2 time… So thats a kick on 1 _ 3 _ (No kicks on _ 2 _ 4 )

You can put a Clap or a Snare on 2 & 4 if you like… or on 3, or just 4 - whatever you like.

Now build up your bass ( you can use multiple bass sources… a couple of notes from a Sub and a different bass synth up an octave higher… Be creative…)

Try not to put any bass notes on 3 & 4 if you can… unless its some kind of long attacky type sound.

Dont add any Hats just yet… build up the groove with all the other elements.

Add some Perc, Stabs, or Fx’d and delayed elements… try setting different delays on different parts to get the groove going without Hats. You can throw a filter on these to keep them lower down if you like.

Pads - whatever.

When you think its sounding cool & you are bouncing along to it w.out the extra Kicks, try adding the 2 & 4 Kicks back in.

Sounds cool

I’ll bet you’ve just come up with something totally different to what you’d normally do. Not having that extra kick in there really makes you compensate.

Now… as you spread out your track, you can start adding the different elements every 8bars as you go & you still havent even started to think about making hat patterns.

Great way of saving something & actually having something to keep 'til later.

ICN · September 2, 2010, 3:01pm

Just listening to some tracks over in the HTSL Thread & heard a couple of cool things in the songs.

Using a Snare that is, or has - some W.Noise in it. As its coming to a Break, the release is increased. Bit different to your stereotypical riser.

Having a synth play a Note / Stabby Chord. As you play it, mess with the Mod/Pitch Wheel on the Midi K.board.

Less is more here - you want expression… not a mess! :hehe:

If you can, try assigning different synth paramenters to the Mod. Usually its Cut Off or LFO amount. Try getting a mental Pad sound and using the Mod wheel to slowly open the filter from nothing leading into a break rather than a textbook Riser.

ICN · September 6, 2010, 5:53pm

Making Techno Basslines / Percussion & Riffs…

Heres a much more organised version of a Template that I’ve been using in Live to make the odd melody or riff. I’m a big fan of Step Sequencers & Arpeggiators, cos you can tweak a sound & create a really cool groove (when it works out! )

The sounds are rough - but hopefully you’ll see the potential.

Its really cool for making Basslines, Perc patterns, Hat patterns…

Its an Arpeggiator on Track 1 & a Randomiser on Track 2.

The idea is to mess around with Midi Clips - making different patterns & automating different parameters - such as pitch & note resolution… then record them into a different channel, resulting in the notes of the arp’d or randomised part.

I’ll let the clip run for 8bars or so, and when I’m happy - I usually then shorten the loop length in the clip to a bar or sometimes shorter & drag it around until I hear something rhythmically interesting.

I’ve put text files in all the clips on the page, so you can follow - but its really simple & straightforward to use. I’ll usually find a couple of things that I like & then export the Midi file to use in Logic.

You can get some really interesting stuff from automating the note resolution - say 1/8’s to 16th’s to 32nd’s. Everything wont be usable… but you’ll come up with stuff that you just wouldnt draw in by hand. Add a pitch bend up or down & you can get some really unique sounding things.

With the Arp, you can draw in a Chord & it’ll spit out a melody, in a sequence of the notes in that chord according to the settings that you choose.

The Randomiser is similar in a lot of ways… but, eh… a bit more random! LOL :hehe:

Just mess around with the controls while the clips are playing & you’ll hear what everything does

Afterwards - Try hooking up the Modulation settings on your Synth so that velocity influences cut off, or pitch or whatever to get some interesting effects.

I’ve put in clips that have been named to try & show the different stages in doing certain things to either the contols on the Arp & Randomiser - or drawing in Pitch bends. Hopefully its easy to follow.

Read each channel downwards. The Arp & the Randomiser channels are routed through to the channel on their direct right. Arming a clip here & pressing play on a clip on the opposing channel will result in the Arp’d or Random’d notes being recorded for you to manipulate afterwards.

Both Midi devices are hooked up to 2 Simpler’s… One playing a Bass & the other one playing a Perc’y thing.

On the Perc Channel, I’ve made a little riff at the end - (which sounds cool) out of some of the notes, which sounded a bit too wild originally.

Theres also a bit of a Drum Loop playing on Channel 1

I know its a bit of an ar$eways way of doing stuff… buts its a great way to jam a bit, rather than punching in notes on a grid.

ICN Arp Random.zip

SHARE YOUR TIPS PLEASE PEOPLE!

ANYTHING IS COOL!!

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slender · September 6, 2010, 9:45pm

Thanks ICN looks like you put alot off work into this

ICN · September 6, 2010, 9:55pm

Thanks P

howiegroove · September 7, 2010, 3:27pm

[quote]slender (06/09/2010)[hr]Thanks ICN looks like you put alot off work into this :)[/quote]

He puts more work into analyzing then actually making music it seems.

ICN · September 7, 2010, 3:36pm

Hey Dude, thats outta hand - quit it with the Tut & App Jokes! :hehe:

dennis148 · September 9, 2010, 10:29am

[quote]ICN (06/09/2010)[hr]Making Techno Basslines / Percussion & Riffs…