Ableton Forum

Hey everyone,

I would like to start this topic because i'd like to share different techniques of producing Techno with Live. I live in the Netherlands so I don't exactly know if Techno means the same here as it means there, but i guess you got the point. (Detroit, Cox, Kowalsky etc)
Before, i used Cubase and Reason to compose but now its Absolutely Ableton!! It's da shit to compose without letting the fun go! And fun is what music making should all be about....but thats old news in this place
My setup: Ableton, Alesis synth as midikeyboard, BCR and BCF for the real fun, various hardware fx for ....whatever..., a P4 3.0 GHz PC with a 4-in/8-out soundcard and the Korg MS 2000R.
I got a load of sample cd's and a few VST's and vst-i's as soundsources.
The great thing about Live is the way it lets you do everything so quickly. Mostly i start with an impulse and drop a kick sample or 2. Than i use one for punch (change starttime, pitch, decay etc.) and the other kick for 'oomph'. I draw them in a one bar ( or more) midiloop as i like (4x4) and press ctr-D to copy that clip to the next line and start drawing hihats or perc. play with velocity and sound manipulation. When everything is to my liking, i assign all the outputs of the impulse to different tracks for further sound design (fx, compression, EQ....). And then i go on like that with other instruments.... untill i got a fair load of clips to play with. Put fx on the trax and on the master (HP-filter). Then for the real deal, assigning BCR/BCF knobs (in my case...love them! ) to anything i want and to the track triggers! And off i go!! But imo Techno is a real art form and so i'm curious to what other people do to compose a techno track. How do you use the sound design tools, what kind of tools and instruments and fx... I hope you guys like to share this with me and the rest.

Cheerz

Bump.

I'm compleatly green in production and i'm interested in hearing more like this.

anyone got links to threads or sites with storys like this.

Thanks cramm!

edit

Once ive made drum loops i resample 1 or two bar loops and divide them into 1/4 bar sections then drop em in impulse... each pad set to gate and recreate the loops... usually 4 pads normal and 4 pads revese... fucking great fun and easy to controll.

Take a little time with the pitch and time settings to get em sounding good though!

909, MD, MPC, 303, mixer, efx.

That's why i started this topic! I read some techniques i didn't think of before! Started a new track yesterday with an impulse. Three kicks to create some phat punchy kick. I start with a low oomph-kick and adjust the start time to isolate the 'oomph', no attack sound. The next kick i choose contains lots of attack, ie. mid-hi. Here i adjust the decay time to isolate the start sound, ie. the attack. Combine, adjust pitch, filter, stretch, and drive and maybe add another one to really drive your neighbours nuts. watch the peak levels tough....Don't forget to lower the volumes of the kicks. If needed, ad a compressor to evry kick individual.
I downloaded the DBlue Glitch vst a few days a go...it's some serious shit!! You can create 16 patterns of a 16 step sequencer with in each pattern a different fx sequence. assign an encoder to the pattern chooser and one button to toggle the vst on/ off and off you go!!

Hope to hear some more of you guys!

Cheerz

An easy trick that works well both in production and Djing is a delay set at 1/8 (half a beat) , 100% wet.
Put it on a send channel and put the channel on the B-side of the crossfader.... now assign a knob the the crossfader

By swinging the crossfader left-right-left-right at 1/8 intervals you can create typical techno hickups in drumtracks , basslines or whole tracks.

This technique was used since the early days of techno by spinning 2 identical records with the second one starting half a beat after the first and crossfading like hell ... only difference is now you can dot it on single tracks or groups of tracks without having to duplicate them , just turn their send to the delay up and assign them to the A-side of the crossfader.

some general techniques:
- ducking compressor (search the forum )
- check out 1 if the thousands tutorials on reece/hoover/whatever baspatches

my techniques in ableton:
- primarily work in arrange view (32/64 bar loop) , testing new clips/sounds in the sessionview and when it works adding them to the arrange view
- assign buttons to every mute of every track/impulse/... and then jam away muting realtime while twisting every knob on my controllers
- I play a lot with the stretch function (assigned to knob for realtime control) on the impulse drumkits but most of the time exclude the kickdrum
- (for techno) almost always put a heavy compressor on the whole track / drumsection to get the effect where all those almost silent hihats, rides and snares suddenly jump up to the front of the track as soon as you mute the kickdrum (in combination with the delay-crossfader technique posted above)
- instead of using 3 notes for a 2bar uninterrupted bassline , I put them down as 8e or even 16e notes with a long decay and polyphony set to 1 --> by turning down decay on the breaks you can turn the whole riff into staccato
- ...