>Step by step

1. Techno beatmaking

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We’ll start by building a drum kit; set your DAW BPM to 128. From filesilo. co.uk, get the techno samples/MIDI files folder and load Kick_15.wav into a blank drum rack. This is a synthetic-sounding kick that works perfectly in a techno track. Draw MIDI notes to trigger the kick on each beat. Next, we make a rumbling, warehouse techno reverb from our kick. 2

Add Cableguys’ WaveShaperCM to a fresh return track. Set a -6dB send from the kick drum to the return, then select the 2-BIt preset in WaveShaper.

Hear the kick crunching, in a gabba-esque tone. Load Acon Digital’s CM Verb after our distortion. Use the Medium Chamber preset, then turn off the dry signal to leave just reverb-soaked distortion. 3

We’ll turn the reverb send down to -9dB, so it blends into the mix. Now, let’s add perc into the mix, courtesy of Audiorealism ADM CM’s great emulated TR-606 drum kit. Load ADM CM to a fresh channel, then switch Sync mode to Host, so ADM CM’s playback is triggered by our DAW. Let’s use the onboard sequencer to create an open hi-hat pattern. 4

Hit the Pattern Write/Clear button, and let’s program our own pattern. Select the OH (open hat) instrument, then dial in an open hi-hat on each offbeat. Add a new MIDI clip to the channel, then draw in a one-bar note to trigger our pattern. We’ll reduce the open hat’s Decay to 100ms, for a tighter initial sound that we can open out with automation later on. 5

Let’s create a longer arrangement. Duplicate the drums over 16 bars, so we can get non-perc elements in. From the samples folder, import Delayed Radio Loop 02.wav onto a fresh audio track; this is a vocal snip that’s very techno. Reduce the channel’s volume to -15dB, then duplicate the audio across the entire 16-bar section. 6

Time to add another sample for a more dystopian sound. Add TV_ Talking_(100bpm).wav at the end of each eight bar section. Reduce the channel to -6dB to retain balance, then load Subsonic Labs’ Wolfram CM. We’ll fire up the CM Beer In My Farfisa preset, adding a sustained delay tail to our static sample and making it feel part of the track.

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Another element fleshes things out. Grab DX_Bells_05(100bpm).wav from the sample folder, and place it on a new audio channel. Shorten the clip to one bar, then apply an aggressive fade out. Copy the audio snip, so it plays every four bars. Reduce the channel to -7dB, so our mix balance is preserved. Next, we start building our full arrangement.

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Unlike other styles of music that are more focused on building to a drop, techno is arranged in a more progressive manner, with emphasis placed on making the sounds in the arrangement evolve. Let’s build our arrangement. Duplicate the parts we’ve added already to create a 64-bar section in total. Mute the open hat, bells and vocal snip for the first 16 bars.

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We’ll mute the vocal snip for the second 16 bars, with the bells muted for 32 bars. Duplicate the final 16-bar section twice, for use as the basis for the drop. Let’s strip back the previous section now. Mute all the bells except the first one, then consolidate the vocal snips into one. Apply a fade to the vocal, so it disappears over 16 bars.

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Mute the kick and open hat for the last two bars before the drop, so the sound effect we added earlier is emphasised. We now use Vengeance’s VPS Philta CM to filter the kick. Add it to the channel, then draw in automation of the high-pass filter so the kick sounds increasingly hollow during this section. Next, mute the open hat from the first eight bars of the drop.

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Make the arrangement evolve by automating the decay of our open hat. Draw in automation, so the hat becomes more intense as the intro develops, before snapping back to a tight sound on the drop. We’ll ramp it up for the second 16 bars of drop, before muting the hat for the last two bars. Automating the kick’s filter for the last two bars creates a fill.

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Automate the kick’s reverb return volume leading to the drop, so it increases to 0dB before snapping back to its usual -9dB after; this makes the reverb swell into a cool effect. To finish, add a crash cymbal to the start of each 16-bar section to mark them out. Head for the sample folder, and grab 80s_Cymbal_04. wav. Reduce the channel to -18dB.