this year i decided to start producing techno music. I experienced in DJing and a record collector for a long time, with my own taste and style. So I have exactly in mind what I want to produce. I decided to get the Octatrack along with a Blofeld, Volca Keys a Reverb/Delay Pedal and an Analog Mixer which I did´t use much yet, because of the limited amount of outputs.
I got the Octatrack for about a month now. I researched and read the Manual patiently and I think I understand the concept of scenes and patterns.
What i come up to now is that i Sample synth sounds from the Blofeld/ Volca into the Octatrack for synth sounds etc. The rest is filled with a kick and some percussive elements from samples or field recordings. So i might come to the point where I got a loop with which I am satisfied.
From there I think i did´t have enough knowledge to put this loop into a full track with enough variation and sound shaping.
I put many hours into learning the octatrack and learning about production but I´m still not at the point where i really understand how i can controll this loop and build it into a progressing track.
I would be really really thankful if you guys could help me get out of this stage of the static loop and show me some tips and techniques on how i can build a deep droning techno track with many variations out of my static loop with the octatrack.
To show you the direction of my music. It is generally slowly progressing/ hypnotic “deep drone techno” :
Thanks a lot for helping me getting closer to finishing my first track!
Am I correct in assuming that the youtube track is an example of the type of arrangement and song structure you are aiming for?. (At first I thought you were posting your own progress - but it became obvious that it is a finished track as it played on!)
Here’s one way to break through from small loops into more complex arrangements: Start in the middle and work outwards.
For example…
Start your track in the middle of the Bank. Let’s say Pattern A9. Build up a nice 4bar pattern. Use all the tracks - fill it out with all the percussion and lead and bass you want in the finished track. It doesn’t matter if it is perfect - just get to the point where the loop works.
Now copy this to patterns A8 and A10.
Patterns A8 and below are going to get progressively simpler and patterns A10 and above are going to get progressively more complex.
So, on pattern A8, take away one track, or one part of one track, or make one of the tracks a bit simpler. Copy this to A7 and repeat the procedure, A6,A5… - until you are at A1 with just one track or at least a very simple loop
On pattern A10 makes things a bit more complex. Add a little variation on one of the 4bars of one of the tracks. Copy to A11 and repeat the procedure, maybe with the same track or a different track. Increase complexity until you get to A16.
Now start again from A1 and play all the way through to A16. Experiment with how long you stay on a particular pattern and don’t be afraid to jump around and skip patterns. Maybe you will scrap some patterns altogether. Maybe some will stand out and you might copy those to a neighbouring pattern and make some different changes.
Most importantly, don’t worry about conforming to rules - just have fun.
It sounds like you have a solid grounding in what makes a good tune and you’ve certainly taken the right approach to learning the Octatrack (patience and lots of manual reading!)
Yes your are right this is an example of the direction I want to go musically. I will try your technique, thanks for that! That is a good plan. But in this kind of deep hypnotic techno there is not so much changing in the patterns. There are mostly subtle changes in the pads/drones with effects. So what i´m lacking more are techniques to play with the sounds of a running pattern. To shape them with effects and make them progress slowly throughout the track.
If you’re more interested in sound evolution than pattern evolution then use scenes. Set up different parameters on two scenes, assign them to Scene A and Scene B on the crossfader, then slowly move between them. I like to design it so scenes 1-8 are for Scene A and 9-16 are for scene B. Then I start with 1 & 9, crossfade to 9, change A to 2, crossfade to 2, change B to 10… etc. You can pretty much make a whole track out of one pattern that way if you want to.
The other great thing about this approach is that you can also combine it with pattern changes to add more variety if you so desire.
Thanks for that, That´s how i will set up my scenes. But do you guys have more tips in terms of making sounds envolving. Like which effect combos etc are best to use for that?
Take the top ten songs that you like, grab a notepad or sketchbook and breakdown the structure of the songs as you listen to them.
Note the structure of the song and where/how/when sounds/loops/instruments come in and out.
Then use these “rules” to structure your own stuff
@rikrak Wow, this is a good idea for any sequencer. I’m waiting for my Octatrack to arrive (today, hopefully!), but have been noodling away on the OP-Z for a few months. I’d always been starting minimal and layering into subsequent patterns, and I tend to get stuck mid-process. I’ll definitely try your approach the next time I sit down to do a full track. Thank yo so much!!
@fmshred are you perhaps wanting to know more about how to start and develop a drone? If that’s the case, I too would be very much interested. I’ve been turned onto ambient by my partner and some local musicians (and also love dub/drone techno!). I’ve had Ableton for two years with a few great soft synths but made the decision to go DAW-less (all hardware for at least composition and performance). I’ve just purchased an OT MKII, Digitone, AH MKII, Strymon Timeline, and Strymon Bigsky (among a couple other pieces) and I would love to know some techniques for building drones. I’ve made a couple of attempts in the last week here and have some basic stuff I’ve come up with but it is far more challenging than one would think.
If this is what you’re wanting to know more about I too would love to hear some replies! Especially with incorporating the OT (for droning, not beats/loops. I’ve got that bit sorted out) as I’ve just been feeding the DN into the pedals and going from there.
@rikrak great tips! Coming from Ableton myself I’ve been stuck in loops for two years now. I have a hard time structuring things even though I understand structure for the music I have in my head. This is an excellent starting point for me!
I’m into this kind of sound… a large part of it as you say are the gradual shifts. Scenes are great for this, as are LFOs. I’d suggest having slow running LFOs with small depth modulating some parameters of the key elements of the track - subtle enough that you don’t hear it right away but it keeps your ear interested. Don’t be afraid to tweak stuff in real-time - for me this is the joy of hardware vs Ableton. I approach my music as a single live take rather than worrying about arranging in device - like you say, the arrangement in tracks like this can be as little as bringing in a hi hat or taking out the kick for a few beats.
In terms of specific effects, reverb is a big one obviously for the sense of space. The reverb on the OT isn’t the best but it’s passable, may be worth investing in a reverb pedal/iOS app though for lusher sounds. Delay also of course, again the OT delay is a bit of a let down eg due to lack of proper ping pong mode but it’ll do! Experiment with resampling sounds e.g. cover them in reverb, resample, add more effects, resample…
One specific effect that I’ve heard in a lot of deep techno that you can do on the OT is a short blast of noise through the comb filter with high feedback - it creates a metallic stab sound that you’ll recognise from loads of tracks. Modulating some of the parameters of this can create a great rhythmic underpinning for this type of track. This tutorial is a great starting point: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=DhjEjB7Jgh8
I’d love to hear what people have been doing in this kind of sound with Elektron gear!
