That made me laugh.
PS, there is a car alarm making techno outside right now.
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fm Drum sounds are also a good source, essentially they can be as noisy or melodic, as you want them to be. Experiment with vst´s , vital is a good drum sound generator.
In my opinion thats house, not techno. Yeah I know personal interpretation etc.
Techno is anything but the above formula.
Get rid of snares, unless its a 2 bar phrase and you put a single snare toward the end of the 2nd bar. Claps are fine. Hats rule. Rides rule more. Percs, meh, some weird janky texture loop is better, again, just my opinion. Actually, rim clicks are fine. (Not rimshots, everyone gets that wrong)
I make techno once in a blue moon. I rarely share it, its really hard to do it well.
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It’s also a lot about filling the gaps.
Having the sounds/ samples which carry over to the next trigs to fill thr space with something.
A hint of reverb or subtle delay fill the gaps without being too dominant.
Claps at various velocities are great at that too.
And break loose from the static patterns like you described. Place the trigs all over the place, listen, feel the groove, change the position of individual trigs until your happy!
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I’ve found Schillinger’s system (Schillinger system - Wikipedia) suitable and useful when I do techno.
You’ll find a very huge pdf that explains it in details via a quick Google research.
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I’m not sure what kind of techno you’re thinking of, but for the more hypnotic stuff I like (Claudio PRC, Luigi Tozzi, Oscar Mulero, that kind of vibe), I had a realisation a while back that the reason I wasn’t getting results I was happy with is that I was focussing on the wrong thing. This modern stuff is often more about the processing than the raw sounds and the programming.
That’s obviously not entirely true, you need a good foundation, but actually I’ve found the raw ingredients are often quite basic but a long signal chain of delays, reverbs, etc. gives it its character. More true for synths but also often the case for drums. For this reason, I switched from my Elektrons to Ableton, as there’s just so much more potential for “sound design”, and it’s made a big difference.
Just thought I’d share in case it sparks any inspiration, as this wasn’t obvious to me until I came across some great videos (check out Mordio on YouTube for example)
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Oh yeah and sidechain everything lol. Not necessarily super noticeably, but it makes a huge difference to the groove. A ride or open hi hat side chained to the kick can sound great without being too cliche.
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Would dropping the velocity/filtering for the hits that sit on the kicks work just as well?
I think this (side chaining or volume ducking) is an implementation detail of a bigger idea: call-and-response. The kick is making a statement and the hats/rides are answering. I further think that you’ll get much more interesting drum patterns if you think about interplay/conversation between voices or groups of voices (of which call-and-response is one type). E.g. a three-hit rhythm repeated across a bar or two, but in different instruments, will create a flow that’s conversation-like, provides lots of scope for variation, and adds a slower cycle over the faster-cycle kick-hat underpinning.
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Opsix ! distorted drum, reverb etc. - but i know what you mean - the processing part is in the box so much cheaper… Oscar Mulero stuff is really awesome.
I think he often uses abeltons resonanter device. His groove focuses on mutating drum sounds, which are heavly distorted. Really great and intense stuff he makes.
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I dislike sidechain compression.
If you mix into a compressor you can do the pumping thing, but in a much nicer way.
Similar kind of results if mix into a distortion.
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Really interesting point that side chain is a kind of call and response! You’re absolutely right.
For quite raw and short sounds, velocity could do the same thing, but for sounds which are more sustained (either because they are long sounds, like a ride, or because you added reverb or delay), the result will be different as the sidechain will modulate the volume of the sound as it plays, whereas velocity would just change the volume at the start then it would be static. You can achieve the same thing with volume automation or a volume LFO, some prefer that but I find sidechaining really quick and it works well
Would be interested to know more about how you approach this.
I’m not talking super obvious EDM sidechain, just a small amount so everything kind of slightly makes room for the kick and comes in and out to the beat. I tend to get it to a point where it’s just easily noticeable then dial it back a bit. Of course it’s not compulsory 
but I’ve watched a lot of masterclasses etc recently and some subtle sidechain on most elements is a very common approach in modern techno
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Yeah honestly I’ve watched a lot of masterclass type vids and it’s funny (and reassuring lol) how many producers approach is “take a sound, mess around with random sequencing and loads of effects until it sounds good” lol. But the trick I guess is to first know which effects work well, and they then have mastered a few tricks to take what they’ve created and tame it and arrange it to work in a track.
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The DSI Tempest has a feedback parameter - if you use that - it distortes in a very pleasant way - in Abelton live one could use the send FX for feedback chains (with compressor, delays, reverbs, distortion.) This also gives upredictable results.
Random LFO´s are also good for this, to modulate stuff while feedbacking.
Interesting! Got more resources to checkout?
Yes. Side chain has its place but mixing into a compressor can really make the track groove.
Some excellent info here-
http://www.subsekt.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=8418
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Sure, this guy and that other guy have made good courses about what the system’s about.
But the method alone doesnt worth much, it’s more about how you will appropriate it and the workflow you’ll creat from it’s principles.
If I may talk a bit about how I use it :
(My english and my logic are broken)
1st step : I define 2 numbers for my interference
exemple : A=7, B=4 (for 7*8 = 28t)
A: 7+7+7+7
B 4+4+4+4+4+4+4
IntAB : 4+3+1+4+2+2+4+1+3
2nd step :
I’m going to cut some “syllables” from those sequences to create my patterns later.
As I’m looking for some repetititvity and to put a huge 4/4 kick behind it, I’m looking for something that will be an even number of “syllables” (to easily make collages that will fit 4/8/16/32/64 bars).
Exemple : 28t/4 = 7 = 3x2(+1) (I’ll delete the (+1) because it doesnt fit in my cuttin plan)
3x2 but it could be anything else, I just found it to be a good compromise between options and redundance.
B [ 4+4 ] + [4+4 ] + [4+4] (+4)
A: 7+7+7+7 => [7+1] + [6+2] + [5+3]
IntAB : [4+3+1] + [4+2+2] + [4+1+3]
3rd step : I’ll add a layer of variation for my IntAB “syllables”. It’s just to have more options for building my patterns, so it could be whatever. To keep it simple i’ll just switch the start and the end of my syllables :
IntAB : [4+3+1] [4+2+2] [4+1+3]
IntAB’ : [3+1+4] [2+2+4] [3+1+4]
Then I got a matrice :
4th step :
I have enough syllables to make patterns, like AI-AII, or IntAB’I+BIII
5th step : Adding more variations into my patterns, like silencing event every two
exemple : IntABI-IntABII : 4+3+1+4+2+2 => (italic for silence) 4+3+1+4+2+2
then i’ll go and start superposing my patterns. As t doesnt get any value it could be anything : 1/4th, 1/8th, 1/16th… Depend of the instrument.
The goal isnt to “program” a beat, if you add variations and break the rules all the time it wont be boring.
This method make the “next groove” easier to find 'cause I never start from a blank sheet : I have a pool of syllable that I can assemble/shake (or mangle) that will make sense.
This or idk, I just find it fun to made up arbitrary rules to compose with.
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Thank you! Going to give this a read. Subsekt is a cool forum. Seems quite quiet these days but it’s a goldmine of advice
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Thanks for the overview! Man this looks rather complex to make patterns, but as I understand it you always have something to start from.
Checkout David Meiser Interview on his release Spirals.