Techno & House Production Thread (Not for Feedback)

[5415]

Happy to have finally found this thread.
On the subject of Maya jane coles the only tutorial I could find is on the house organ lead in What they say:



would love to know how she makes her bass line for tracks like this though:

[hasezwei]

GUYS
WE CANNOT LET THIS THREAD DIE

[hutyluty]

GUYS
WE CANNOT LET THIS THREAD DIE

desperately think of a house/techno related subject

Whats your guys tips for a good open hi hat? i find if i do it too long then the beat sounds messy but i cut it too short and you dont get the chsshh noise.

its a damn tricky balance!

[hasezwei]

offbeat 909 hats/rides/cymbals ftw

depends on the style of course. 909 stuff is more for harder stuff, if youre going minimal i'd synthesize my own percussion or sample weird stuff.

idk dude, post some examples. what do you mean by messy?

well i'd ask about how to mekk dem kickdrumz liek in dis mix
http://soundcloud.com/lebe-lieber-dezib ... squantum-h
but i already took notes last night in the club and im gonna try things out first, after that i'll either post a tutorial or ask a question that wont get answered

i thought of a couple different approaches:
- multilayered kick with 808 underneath, maybe sidechain the 808 to the rest
- kick with reverb send which is sidechained
- kick with separate sub patch

[legend4ry]

How would I go about making metallic percussion? I am loving the sound of it from the techno/808 stuff I have been listening to lately.

[inDistinkt]

How would I go about making metallic percussion? I am loving the sound of it from the techno/808 stuff I have been listening to lately.

This might be a more simple answer than you were hoping for, but I've found pitching closed hats way down and setting up a reverb send makes a nice metallic hit that could be layered over a rimshot or snare. I'm still learning a lot myself so any other input would be nice.

[legend4ry]

It sounds a lot more synthetic than that, ive tried the way you suggested with pretty poor results; maybe I am just not using the right samples?

[inDistinkt]

Got ya. I've only been producing on and off for over a year now, so I'm no expert, and based on previous posts I've seen from you, figured you'd have already tried something so simple haha.

I love the snare in this new Randomer tune. Is this the type of sound you're going for?

[legend4ry]

While this isn't house or techno, first example I can think of.

The jittery percs in the background is what I mean.




Its like that but more, metallic and synthentic; i'm getting synthesis comes into play but i'm rubbish at synthing drums.

[skimpi]

While this isn't house or techno, first example I can think of.

The jittery percs in the background is what I mean.




Its like that but more, metallic and synthentic; i'm getting synthesis comes into play but i'm rubbish at synthing drums.

Yeah I wouldnt really calle that metallic, I think more of this being metallic:



Like the little offbeat hits that come in like at 1.30.

In the cyrus tune I'd say they are synthesised though, but I wouldnt really have an idea how to do it, just mess around with the envelopes on the notes and filters so that they are really short and you doet really get any defined notes come through. Then the effects as well, seems delayed to make them seem more jittery.

[hasezwei]

While this isn't house or techno, first example I can think of.

The jittery percs in the background is what I mean.




Its like that but more, metallic and synthentic; i'm getting synthesis comes into play but i'm rubbish at synthing drums.

i like those jittery percs. they sound bandpassed, probably used to be drum samples at one point. i dont think theyre synthesized.
or try whitenoise with a percussive amp envelope and filter that, maybe envelope on the filter too with a bit of resonance to get the pitched sound.

if its not metallic enough try phasers or flangers/comb filtering.

[hasezwei]

other than that it's all about 909/808 cymbals and hats

found sound/foley works unbelieveably well in all kinds of techno too.

[hutyluty]

offbeat 909 hats/rides/cymbals ftw

depends on the style of course. 909 stuff is more for harder stuff, if youre going minimal i'd synthesize my own percussion or sample weird stuff.

idk dude, post some examples. what do you mean by messy?

aye, ive been using 909 open hats on offbeats but they do go a bit too hard so ive been trying to eq out all of the mids to try and get a kind of open hihat noise like in this (@3:00)



by messy i mean when the offbeat open hat kind of takes over, yet if i mess too much with the asdr it just soubnds quite unnatural

like here: Soundcloud

(no spam)

Anyway- the main point, I think, is to try out other samples rather than rely on the 909 oh too much!

[AxeD]

How would I go about making metallic percussion? I am loving the sound of it from the techno/808 stuff I have been listening to lately.

Got this on lock, my percussion sounds like people banging metal tubing together
I just look for the right samples and add some reverb / eq out the low-mids.

All inspiration came from Scubas Overlay track (the one Skimpi posted)

[dublerium]

How would I go about making metallic percussion? I am loving the sound of it from the techno/808 stuff I have been listening to lately.

Got this on lock, my percussion sounds like people banging metal tubing together
I just look for the right samples and add some reverb / eq out the low-mids.

All inspiration came from Scubas Overlay track (the one Skimpi posted)

Check the naked index releases, one of the sev dah tunes and especially the rivet release have big metallic percussion.



Stomper!



Haven't posted on this forum in a while, been getting my head down on the production side of things. So here to revive this thread with a question.

Skudges lead synths, a lot of them have a similar sound as in the following tune. Any tips on achieving that sound? I personally can't decipher what sort of waveform/s it is. It's a sound pretty signature to them, I don't want to rip it off, just know how to make sounds in a similar vein.



Q-t, the bitcrush on a reverb send was a good shout been implementing it quite a bit cheers.

Lets get this thread rolling again.

[AJGR]

FM synthesis is really good for metallic percussion.

[marktplatz]

Haven't posted on this forum in a while, been getting my head down on the production side of things. So here to revive this thread with a question.

Skudges lead synths, a lot of them have a similar sound as in the following tune. Any tips on achieving that sound? I personally can't decipher what sort of waveform/s it is. It's a sound pretty signature to them, I don't want to rip it off, just know how to make sounds in a similar vein.

Ditto on heads-down-in-production mode, having gone through a major dub techno listening immersion in the depths of the winter (not very deep depths here in New England) which has given way to a 36 Chambers re-immersion and a yearning to find a new sweet spot in the space between those things. I happened to have Reason open already and a similar desire to help get the thread some new momentum. So.

I had some luck approximating the Skudge synth with a pair of sawtooth waves a 4th apart (i.e. five semitones; I don't know if that's what their sound is but I'm pretty certain it's multi-pitched) and some mindful filter enveloping: 1+ sec decay on the Thor's standard 24dB/oct low-pass filter with the filter set at ~250Hz and the env amount about 1/3 up. That gives it a sort of Rhodes-like timbral contour. There's some quick portamento going on in the Skudge riff, so I set the Thor to mono legato (but with two oscs on for the two pitches) with portamento on auto and set to be pretty short. I think maybe I hear some detuning, and the sound also seems to have some mid-boosting/bandpassing. The reverb on it is quite subtile and low in the mix, but important. The notes in the riff are in the neighborhood of C2. All together that ends up being a pretty serviceable reproduction, at least a good jumping-off point for similar ideas. Love these sound design challenges, and that is a serious choon, so thanks for bringing it to my attention (this applies to virtually all tracks posted on this thread, directed toward their respective posters).

Also: seconded on FM synthesis for metallics - such endless potential there. Also really good for hornlike sounds if you use a 1:1 frequency ratio.

[dublerium]

Haven't posted on this forum in a while, been getting my head down on the production side of things. So here to revive this thread with a question.

Skudges lead synths, a lot of them have a similar sound as in the following tune. Any tips on achieving that sound? I personally can't decipher what sort of waveform/s it is. It's a sound pretty signature to them, I don't want to rip it off, just know how to make sounds in a similar vein.

Ditto on heads-down-in-production mode, having gone through a major dub techno listening immersion in the depths of the winter (not very deep depths here in New England) which has given way to a 36 Chambers re-immersion and a yearning to find a new sweet spot in the space between those things. I happened to have Reason open already and a similar desire to help get the thread some new momentum. So.

I had some luck approximating the Skudge synth with a pair of sawtooth waves a 4th apart (i.e. five semitones; I don't know if that's what their sound is but I'm pretty certain it's multi-pitched) and some mindful filter enveloping: 1+ sec decay on the Thor's standard 24dB/oct low-pass filter with the filter set at ~250Hz and the env amount about 1/3 up. That gives it a sort of Rhodes-like timbral contour. There's some quick portamento going on in the Skudge riff, so I set the Thor to mono legato (but with two oscs on for the two pitches) with portamento on auto and set to be pretty short. I think maybe I hear some detuning, and the sound also seems to have some mid-boosting/bandpassing. The reverb on it is quite subtile and low in the mix, but important. The notes in the riff are in the neighborhood of C2. All together that ends up being a pretty serviceable reproduction, at least a good jumping-off point for similar ideas. Love these sound design challenges, and that is a serious choon, so thanks for bringing it to my attention (this applies to virtually all tracks posted on this thread, directed toward their respective posters).

Also: seconded on FM synthesis for metallics - such endless potential there. Also really good for hornlike sounds if you use a 1:1 frequency ratio.

Nice one markplatz solid reply! I will give this a go when I get home but from first glance looks like this should result in a similar sounding synth. Few of the things I could hear such as slight verb/portamento/filter enveloping but that's a great help seeing it written down so cheers. Yes it is such a tune, more to come no doubt.

A little tip for some nice atmospheric noises for those that haven't tried it... My mate had a bunch of his dads old records from the '50s, so I took samples doing various things with them (pitch/reverse/short scratches etc) and the technique that has given me a really nice bank of interesting atmospherics was the reversed samples. I recorded them at various speeds, say a minute sample gradually getting slower, cut out a short section, manipulate, pitch down, reverb, EQ, bandpass etc and every time I've given it a go it's resulted in something very atmospheric, textured and something I'll definitely reuse and further toy with. Obviously results will vary and it's the manipulation of the samples that really turned them into something usable but the original tunes were orchestral classic singer songwriter '50s tunes so doesn't matter what the source is.

[4rantare]

Wow! The kick in "Night Jewel" is really cool. I love it. How'd u make it? Care to share your secret or a sample?

[q-t]

Some quick tips:
- For that metallic, non-organic percussion, try using filter envelopes on your usual toms, claps, snares, whatever.
Bandpass and lowpass filters work best for for this. Try using zero attack and shirt decay/sustain for sharp hits and longer attack of you want the "swoooosh"

- If you're struggling with off-beat hi-hats, try layering them.
Use a the standard 909/808 open long hi-hat for the decay and a short, sharp closed hat for the attack. Use EQ and maybe compression to blend the samples.
You can also through in a shaker if you're going for something a bit rougher. Try pitching down for a lo-fi effect.

- Use old breaks for finding unique samples.
I have a pretty big collection of 90's-esque hiphop drum loops which I always use in my tracks.
Old school hip-hop kicks are usually huge and great for adding a bit of grit when layering.
Another great thing in breaks is the space between the hits. Cut out small portions of a snare tail, the reverb of a hi-hat, background humming noise, etc, and put in your drum loops.
Don't be afraid to experiment with the small snips.
Using hits from breaks can also be great if you want a more natural flow to your drums. It will also add a new dimension to the space, since the breaks atmospherics and reverb is not the same as the one-shots you have in your loop.