Detroit Techno on Ableton - Need your help/How to

[TechnoLover]

really nice one! thanks for the tip! gonna check to see if i can afford it

[TechnoLover]

I finally made my rythmic patterns on a real TR-909 and this brought me an amazing sound! I took some old VST's to create my strings and also to make a "percusive melody" such as the one in Rolando's Jaguar... I finaly achieved to mix some old disco touch with some deep detroit sounds and i love the result!

Will show you to your guys as soon as my master is okay, but it wouldn't have been possible without you guys... thank you! and keep posting, it's important to keep learning!

I am also looking for some good VST's to make some "Detroit Strings" ... Any suggestion?

[contakt321]

Try the Tal series, specifically the Tal U-No 60 which is their Juno emulator (it's free)

[ScarKord]

I am also looking for some good VST's to make some "Detroit Strings" ... Any suggestion?

Again, FM synth's are great for those cold 'icy' string and pad parts.

Here's a very quick demo of a couple of FM8 presets along with some typical 909 beats...

http://www.scarkord.com/audio/detroit_thing.mp3

[TechnoLover]

ScarKod > you really impressed me with this demo... I just bought FM 8 ! (they should hire you in their marketing team )

Can you give me some tips on it? Which presets did u usz? That sounds amazing mate! Thank you

[ScarKord]

ScarKod > you really impressed me with this demo... I just bought FM 8 ! (they should hire you in their marketing team )

Can you give me some tips on it? Which presets did u usz? That sounds amazing mate! Thank you

Glad you liked the demo - and I only wish I was getting some commission from NI!

The presets I used were "Fingered FM" on the bass and "Soft Strings" for the pad / string part. In terms of tips, you can do a lot of tweaking in the 'Easy/Morph' tab (which is on the left of the plugin, under the heading 'Navigator') just by playing with the 'Harmonic' and 'Brightness' knobs in the Timbre section. If I recall, on the strings I took the Harmonic knob down a few steps but the Brightness up a few as well as dialing a little bit of vibrato in to get a more string like wobble. I also added the FM8 reverb too as it only has Chorus on the preset it by default. The bass part had a touch of Harmonic reduction but nothing else!

The arpeggiator is pretty special too, check out some patches using the Browser and selecting 'Tempo-Synced' or 'Arpeggiated' in the Articulation column - some of those patches are almost tunes in themselves!

Anyway, hope you have fun with FM8, it's probably the soft synth I get most use out of as there's always something in there that will fit into whatever I'm writing. (Sounding like a Marketeer again!)

[TechnoLover]

Would you use FM too to make some "percusive melody" (as the one in Rolando - Jaguar , as example) ?

[TechnoLover]

*bump*

[TechnoLover]

up! in case of anyone else can give some tips

[TechnoLover]

Hello again!

First I would like to wish you a happy new year and a lot of happiness and success in your life!

I was wondering if (I know that's not usual to act like that, so don't worry if you don't agree!) some of you big-knowledge-guys should upload me some techno (detroit is the most important but "oldschool funky techno (Beltram, ...)", dub and tech-house are good too) MIDI patterns for the native 909 and 808 kits from Ableton Live!

I am working on this for more than a month and I feel now I would only be able to improve if I can't see some stuff for some better producers! (That's what I've done a lot of time in my "career" (if I can call it like that), receiving ableton projects for some experienced guys, ... and it helped me a lot to improve, to understand, to make tests,...)

Thank you so much for everything you teached me, and (again) all the best for you guys!

Cheers,

[contakt321]

I honestly think you might be overthinking it, or making it out to be more complicated than it is. I really do think just analyzing tracks and recreating them will be the most beneficial thing for you to do.

If you think about it, most of your heroes were using just the 808, or the 909 - you have access to these sounds.

Then, if you think, these drum machines aren't that complicated, and other than swing, are generally hitting on beat, all the time making easier to figure out what's going where.

So, take a track you like and try to match the Kick. Get as close to the sound as you can, program it (likely it's 4 on the floor: 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, etc). Now, listen to the snares, again, try to match the tone - listen, is it long or short, etc. Program it (likely it's on 1.2 and 1.4). Now, the hihats - listen for the Open HiHats, were are they, for housier stuff it's on the offbeats (btw each kick), for the Detroit-y stuff, they can be anywhere. Move on to the rest of the instruments, closed hihats (likely in 1/16th notes), crashes (likely on 1.1 every 4 or 8 bars), claps, etc.

Try this w/ 10 tracks, you should be able to get in the ballpark using the 808 and 909 instruments. I bet after analyzing and recreating 10 tracks you will have a lot more knowledge, confidence, and ideas about how to create your own drum loops.

[TechnoLover]

yeah that's what I've been trying for weeks but I am having big issues doin' it ...

(as I still have issues to get that "percusive melody" from Rolando - Jaguar )

[fall 79]

909 shuffle is pretty basic.

Don't make the mistake of so many dudes that get hung up on a particular piece of gear or recreating swing exactly or whatever. It's bullshit.

Find out why the 909 shuffle is good, and then re-create it in ableton.


http://www.goldbaby.co.nz/freestuff.html

you guys are the wright techno specialists

but sorry ...you are recreational "artists" also known as copy cats and you dont have a clue about the idea behind techno...
its all dance music is a bit to big common denominator.. it dont needs to be dance music but it needs to be inovative and original..
that excludes all copycat attitudes. only people that dont have the skills claim otherwise.
techno is no sampling music..its syntheziser music.


Beside that the difference between detroid and other techno is for the main part that the guys are actually able to play some keyboard and dont rely totaly to theire step editors or 1 bar loops.. thats point one..
and second, they dont use style presets.. you cant really say that one of the original artists sounds even close to the other while you guys sound all the same but are 1000´s instead of a handfull inovativ minds..

so you can copy the swing of a 909 as you want..it wont get you any closer when you dont simulate the user ineraction with a 909..

thats my tip at this point.. and i wont get any deeper in that because i dont support your evil doings

Well said!
Influence is one thing, copycat is bullshit...

[TechnoLover]

there is no point in copying their tracks... but these are my favourite tracks ever and I would like to get the "technical skills" needed to be able to work in that way... to make THAT kind of detroit techno... If I wanna be able to re-produce what they did, that's not to copy them but to be able to use the same kind of skills in my own 100% original work!

[broken_specs]

909 shuffle is pretty basic.

Don't make the mistake of so many dudes that get hung up on a particular piece of gear or recreating swing exactly or whatever. It's bullshit.

Find out why the 909 shuffle is good, and then re-create it in ableton.


http://www.goldbaby.co.nz/freestuff.html

you guys are the wright techno specialists

but sorry ...you are recreational "artists" also known as copy cats and you dont have a clue about the idea behind techno...
its all dance music is a bit to big common denominator.. it dont needs to be dance music but it needs to be inovative and original..
that excludes all copycat attitudes. only people that dont have the skills claim otherwise.
techno is no sampling music..its syntheziser music.


Beside that the difference between detroid and other techno is for the main part that the guys are actually able to play some keyboard and dont rely totaly to theire step editors or 1 bar loops.. thats point one..
and second, they dont use style presets.. you cant really say that one of the original artists sounds even close to the other while you guys sound all the same but are 1000´s instead of a handfull inovativ minds..

so you can copy the swing of a 909 as you want..it wont get you any closer when you dont simulate the user ineraction with a 909..

thats my tip at this point.. and i wont get any deeper in that because i dont support your evil doings

Well said!
Influence is one thing, copycat is bullshit...

Sorry, though I don't dispute the innovation of many of the original detroit heads, anyone who thinks they're all keyboard magicians and expert sound designers are mistaken.

Many Yamaha DX presents can be spotted in Drexciya tracks, and I've even known people spot Reason presets in post 00 UR output.

I like to always think of my musical heroes in detroit as far from seasoned musicians, but just the right people (background and determination), at the right place and time (environment).

Regardless, I most certainly agree with the sentiment that copying is bullshit - who do you think they copied from? They certainly didn't spend hours looking at youtube tutorials