Ableton Forum

Hi I have been trying (unsuccessfully) to make techno i just cant seem to get the basic sounds and beat right. i was hoping someone on here would know of any websites or books that would be of any help. any advice is much appreciated

here's my tip, apologise if you already know this. i know all techno doesn;t have a four to the floor beat but a lot does:

start with a four to the floor/disco drum beat:
kick on every quarter beat.
hat on every other eighth beat (between each kick)
snare or clap on the second and fourth beats.

add extra percussive sounds to taste. Use a groove template or shift stuff back and forwards.
add a bassline and some pads, let everything loop and cuts bits in and out.

The consistently plodding bassdrum represents elapsing time. It might seem simple enough on its own, but when embellished with various other percussive elements, you give the impression that the space between elapsed time is becoming more and more frantic. Play with giving that bassdrum a push using all your other percussion elements. Tension. Then decide which direction you want time to flow using the bassline. Forward, backward, left, right, up, down, repeated glitch in the matrix, deja vu. You are the master of time and space. Once you've committed to all that, the rest of the synths are depending on personal intent and taste

lamby123...my recommendation, get a subscription to http://www.sonicacademy.com/ (no I don't work for them...) Their "How to sound like..." tutorials are the best I've seen (and I've take quite a few)...will get you hands on Live training for a specific genre you want to produce. Here's a song I did from their "tech trance" lessons:

http://soundcloud.com/tim-scudder/sonic

http://drop.io/dancemanual

Actually quite helpful...has some formulas for synth timbres in there that are pretty good starting points.

thanks for all the advice its making a big difference already got the beats sounding right so it should all start flowing... ps that dance music manual link is ace

i was recommended a book called Music Theory for Computer Musicians

im gonna buy it in the new years

cheers

If you're stuck with choosing what notes to use in a bassline and you have no idea about chords or scales, just use C Major (no sharps or flats). That way you won't get any dissonant sounding notes that sound out of place.

Of course, feel free to transpose up or down as you please.

yur2die4 wrote:The consistently plodding bassdrum represents elapsing time. It might seem simple enough on its own, but when embellished with various other percussive elements, you give the impression that the space between elapsed time is becoming more and more frantic. Play with giving that bassdrum a push using all your other percussion elements. Tension. Then decide which direction you want time to flow using the bassline. Forward, backward, left, right, up, down, repeated glitch in the matrix, deja vu. You are the master of time and space. Once you've committed to all that, the rest of the synths are depending on personal intent and taste

I really love this answer, thanks. Not a practical approach, but a metaphysical purpose for making your own sound within the techno paradigm. Cool. More important than technique maybe?

sigmainfotech wrote:hi...
i am quite new here..
hope you all help me out....

what exactly are you getting at? social experiment? artistic reflection of electronic music's repetitive nature?
http://forum.ableton.com/search.php?aut ... 9&sr=posts

Reminds me of an NPC in an RPG

elements have to "balance". i.e. thumping kicks need to be offset by piercing hats and everything in between needs to FLOW. think of writing rhythms like melodies, i.e. with continuity and direction.
or just go boom tish crack tish boom tish crack tish and stick some shit over the top.

1nfinitezer0 wrote:

sigmainfotech wrote:hi...
i am quite new here..
hope you all help me out....

what exactly are you getting at? social experiment? artistic reflection of electronic music's repetitive nature?
http://forum.ableton.com/search.php?aut ... 9&sr=posts

some spambot was able to register and searched for "friends"

use the 909 drum racks that come with live... thats a good starting point if you are after that early techno sound.

no offense, but musictheory/techno seemed like an oxymoron to me

no serious i listened a lot to techno, but i guess, that would be my tip:

Listen and rebuild some of your favorite tracks, put em on an audio track in ableton and there you go. TRy to rebuild one by one BD, HH and so on, try to match the sounds

It ain`t to hard at the beginning, it gets hard, by the time you want to form/create your own vision, that sounds fresh for all those serious and interested people in that genre.