r/TechnoProduction

Perhaps an uninformed question, but what’s your approach to layering open hi hat sounds? Do you have a strategy, or “whatever sounds good”?

Thanks- n00b

Do i just lack the patience to make something so intricate or is there some randomisation involved?

If so, what do you think of them? Which modules do you use? I want to buy one or two modules for my portable set up. I’m only interested in studio use and not for playing live. Which ones would you recommend? Thanks!

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I love techno, but my adhd makes me incapable of producing just techno. I make house, trance, hardstyle, try genre blending more and more. While I love all music really, electronic/edm especially, most of my inspiration comes from being online. Mainly instagram. I think it's not inherently bad but there's something I cannot get over and that is the automatic process of comparing myself to other people I know personally and are active in the industry or the people I don't know.

I have big dreams, I have the passion and obsession, I have the skills that I hone as much as I can. I just cannot keep enjoying making music if I compare myself to other djs and producers.

A lot of people are jumping on trends, like the "groove" techno sound that's been around forever but has been more popular in the past 2 years or so. I feel like a lot of the scene is just the same formula just like with hard techno. Dont get me wrong, there are good artists in techno, like ignez, deas, alarico, chlaer.

Yet, I find myself in this weird limbo where I want to be up to date with the music and trends, but social media keeps replacing my passion with obsession of growing my reach, networking, needing to be the one with the numbers etc.

I have my own inspirations, that I find from being online, because someone eventually posts something good. You just need to know where to look. Then again, I find I enjoy producing less and less, because the feeling of love when I create gets overshadowed by all the comparisons I make to the others.

Is the solution to just go offline for a while and then come back when the damage gets undone?

I've somewhat recently started making techno (raw hypno hardgroove). I come from a forest/darkpsy backround. In techno are there any rules for layering hi hats? Can I just add more and more for energy or should I remove one when adding another? Do you guys get super anal about kickbass phasing like psy heads or do we just slam bass over the kick tail? Also I use bitwig, does anyone have a ML 185 alternative for bitwig or know what it does and if I could recreate it in the grid.

It's been a while since I last posted here and I'm happy to be back.

I've been doing a live stream the last two Sundays at 4:30PM IST and today is no exception. Today's session will be focused on VCV Rack and Ableton Live. As always I will start a track from scratch and show you everything I do along the way in real-time. You can tune in through my school's YouTube channel: https://youtube.com/@Beatworx

If you're keen on this I would love for you to join me today.

PS: Mods, if this post doesn't qualify or goes against the rules, please feel free to remove it. This is just my attempt at making producing Techno more accessible to all.

Hey guys, I stumbled across a lot of posts here on Reddit and in other forums where people always seem to have the same questions about the best free plugins. Ofc there aren’t plugins especially for techno production ( honestly just use what you like) but it motivated me to go through my plugin library and sort out my most used free plugins an share them. Many of these are well known but maybe somebody stumbles across a plugin which they didn’t know.

Feel free to add your own free gems.

My list, not in particular order:

• TDR Kotelnikov - honestly my most used compressor. It almost never distorts and in my opinion is goated for beefing up kick drums and just throwing it on the master bus with a slow attack and fast release.

• D16 Frontier - I rarely see people talking about this free limiter and I don’t know why. I only use this limiter and it’s easy to use and has the well known quality of the d16 group.

• Flux mini 2 - just a free and well designed volume shaping tool. Why paying for kick 2 and other plugins when you get the same thing for free?

• soundtoys Little radiator - just a phenomenal distortion by soundtoys. Nothing more to add

• glitchmachines fracture - very versitale plugin and my go to for „f*** around and find out“ sessions. Just go crazy with the knobs and record the output. Then resemble it and voilá. Instant dark vibes

These are my go to free plugins. Ofc there are a lot more but I don’t want to talk about something I don’t fully understand or have used for a longer period of time ✌️✌️

Maybe it’s me, but I can never find the right hi hat sound, especially open hi hats. They always sound thin and “clangy”. Maybe it’s just me, but if you have found a pack that you LOVE, I’d be happy to hear about it.

✌️

Here is my dilemma…

I want to get a Behringer RD9 to record techno. I would like to put each individual instrument in its own channel in the DAW so that I can tweak them individually. The only video on YouTube that I found (for lack of trying for long, mind you) showed a drum machine with individual outs being plugged into a mixer, not an audio interface such as a Focusrite. I don’t have a mixer, so I was wondering if it’s mandatory to have one if I want to record individual outs on the drum machine. If it isn’t, and I can do so through the Focusrite, how many input jacks do I need? Or is it just one cable that plugs in, and then I separate the elements (kick, crash, etc.) in the DAW itself, not through the individual cables?

My last question is, if I want to hook up multiple physical electronic instruments and record them to the DAW at the same time (basically a full techno workflow production), what do I need for that? Do I need a multi-input interface, or can I somehow tie them all together? Do I need a mixer? Is there any getting around having a mixer? (Not that I’m against it, just asking)

Thanks everyone!

EDIT: My answer has been found— I need a Uphoria 1820 paired with a ADA8200 to get all the inputs I need. My final question is this: if I want to automate the volume levels of each track in real time, do I get a mixer? If so, does that affect the need for the audio interfaces? How would that all be routed/work/etc?

Ok, so first I don't really make what I think most people claim as techno (Aside from Dub techno), I mostly make what is probably best known as progressive house or was 20-25 years ago (Sasha/Digweed etc etc), and Liquid DnB (LTJ Bukem etc). I dunno, the genres are all over the place these days IMHO. But alas, a lot of my stuff does have techno-like elements (think Digweed when he goes into vortex mode), but I like stuff to be somewhat musical/melodic.

Anyway, I am looking for a hardware synth to add to my set-up, which is mostly in the box with Ableton, Push, (Move on the way), and a Digitakt I picked up when the 2 came out, and the OG was going cheap 2nd hand.

I want something to help with inspiration, as often just playing on the DAW with a midi keyboard is not it, something with a simple workflow and integration with the DAW, is not super complicated, and most of all sounds Great.

I have got a few on a shortlist, so looking for people's opinions on them or any I might have missed. The budget is somewhere around £500, but up to £1000 if it is really worth the investment.

So far, I have on my list of potentials

Hydrasynth

Korg Minilogue

Minifreak

microfreak

Elektron Digitone (looks like DT2 is much better, judging by research ?), although I know little of FM synthesis tbh

A few other Elektron devices, too, such as Sytakt, (other names escape me, I think one is Analog four?

I have done some research and searched on Reddit, but still confused about what would work out best. I am unable to go test things due to a spinal cord injury, so I am interested in the hive mind's opinions, especially if I have missed any that would be ideal

cheers for reading

G

Yeah I know, I know - kinda silly to say repetitive and techno in the same sentence but… I’ve been noticing recently extreme repetitive tracks from some well known artists - I mean the entire track practically being a loop from almost start to finish that either doesn’t change at all or very, very little (recent tracks from Robert Hood and Marcel Dettmann come to mind). I don’t dislike it - especially if it’s a good loop. I’m a big fan of The Field, for example, but some of my friends find his music too repetitive. But some of the music I’ve heard come out recently or even more repetitive than that.

This surprises me at times because as long as I can remember on forums like this and on production tutorials, the general advice has always been for a track to continue evoloving or changing otherwise it is believed people will get bored after just 4 to 8 bars. I suppose this would be true for a mainstream audience, but this advice is also always given in non-mainstream discussions as well. You may argue that if I listen very carefully, I will notice gradual changes going on, but this is not the case. The exact loop will literally play for 1 or 2 minutes or the entire track with little or no change.

I have made some cool 4, 8, and 16 bar loops in refent weeks and the other night was auditioning them to pick the ones that I want to continue developing. I ended up listening to some of them in a loop for several minutes and thought to myself “I’m not sure I want to change much at all.” What do you think of these types of tracks? Have you made tracks like this?

Nilz from The Exchange (R.I.P) had the midas touch for mastering techno, all my favourite tracks are 90s releases mastered by him. I can't quite put my finger on what it its exactly, but these tracks just sound so different to what is being released today.

Does anyone have some insight into the hardware or techniques he used, or just his philosophies?