Dark atmosphere techno sounds

Hi,
maybe you can give me hints for creating dark, howling atmospheric elements and drones for deep dark techno. They are floating in the background or swell for a drop or just as an event.
I know, really unspecific description. I post a few examples, maybe you can hear what I mean…
examples:

One incredient of course: a lot of reverb.
But what more?
Long attack and decay times, slow moving lfos.
But what is the target of the lfos?
what gives it this howling, screaming touch? Which synthsizers are capable of doing things like this?
Sounds for me like multiple, dissonant oscillators. But I can’t replicate it and don’t come even close.
Please help me :slight_smile:

1 Like

Lyra through a Quadraverb.

Edit: Also, Beads. Makes creepy dissonant choral textures pretty much all by itself.

6 Likes

Before you go any further, set aside 10 minutes to pray to Cthulhu for a swift end. Wear a lot of black and begin by lamenting humankind’s failure to accept the inevitable.

Ok, with the preparations out of the way…

Most of those, to me, sound like they have several layered “drones”. There’s usually a mid-range component and a whistle or wind-like component. The mid-range ones have more complex oscillations: wavetables, looped industrial machine samples, ever-so-slightly-detuned dual or triple analog oscilators, maybe some FM… something to make texture. The whistles might have a significant white or pink noise component, and have sharper resonant filters with moving cut-off. Play both into the same compressor and reverb/delay for the impression of being “one sound”.

One or two of your examples have a vocal-like quality. Dig out/make some choral samples and slow them down for an eerie ritualistic impression. Band-pass and bit crush them to make them sound distant and inhuman.

If you can get hold of an MS-20 or software clone, the filter on that is great for “screaming”, but failing that any resonant filter fed into a distortion should get you somewhere entertainingly unsettling.

Add a lower-still “rumble” layer with shifting low-pass filter, but consider ducking it with a compressor side-chain keyed to the kick.

Use two or three of the same kind of sound, but processed slightly differently for more pressure. Especially good in the mid-range.

(Remember to close the session off with a banishing ritual. You want the end swift and painless, but not so soon that you don’t finish the track off)

14 Likes

Very nice tips from the people above, couldn‘t add anything more.

Just as an extra exercise: don‘t use any reverb.
Things can get a bit washed out and same‘ish if the reverb is used too much. You get much more texture and definition in the sound if you instead use longer amp decay envelopes instead. For stereo width, for example a chorus, or panning the sound sources and oscillators around works equally well.

3 Likes

As we’re on here:

Digitone can do that kind of stuff pretty well. Just dial in odd ratios, crank up (or lfo-modulate) feedback/distortion, play around with fm-amount, go through different algorithms and utilize osc offset(s). Those are also great destinations for the lfos.
Slow attack and long decay & release for amp, filter and modulation envelopes.
Deactivate phase reset!

There are lots of different timbres to explore.

Pitched down choral samples + pink/white noise like @Octagonist said also sound like a good idea!

2 Likes

Lots of experimentation. You can make these sounds with just about any synth, but having odd effect pedals and some eurorack will help a lot. With a DAW you can make tons of sounds by just layering and rendering and pitching. And here’s Blawan…

3 Likes

DFAM + Ventris reverb and only a dash of Octatrack.
Mostly slow attacks and FM sounds from the DFAM or highly effected sequences run through the ventris pedal.

4 Likes

Thank you for your sound examples! Indeed we are getting close here.
Sadly I dont have the Ventris, DFAM, Beads, Qudraverb or Lyra. But my Digitone and Clouds are ready to get experimented with. I think the Quadrantid Swarm can also do a lot here.
I also tried the layering technique with my OT but failed completely. But I felt this is a powerfull technique which is worth getting explored even if there is no howling at the end.

Just looked up clouds and I’d say your well equipped! Of course pedals like the ventris are kinda ambient-machines - but so is the cloud.
Feed it something slowly evolving, eery FM stuff from Digitone.