>Step by step

Making a techno groove with D16 Drumazon

1 Having set my project tempo to a techno-appropriate 125bpm, I load D16’s excellent Drumazon TR-909 emulation plugin, disable Internal Sync (as I want to trigger it via MIDI in my DAW rather than use its onboard sequencer) and create a MIDI clip consisting of four notes triggering the kick drum.

4 Distortion adds bite to the hats, while a high-pass filter gets rid of low-mid clutter. Then come the aforementioned delay and reverb, the delay filtered to keep things dark and subtly mixed, the reverb set to a moderately short tail, filtered to remove the lows and extreme highs, and mixed about 20% Wet.

2 The default kick sound is lacking in body and character, so I raise the Pitch to alter the tonality, and lower the Tune setting to reshape the envelope. A touch of EQ improves presence, while a wodge of analogue-style distortion adds body and reins in the overly clicky attack.

5 Now for a handclap, which is placed on beats 2 and 4, of course, at full velocity. Once again, this is sent to its own mixer channel, where it’s tuned to sit comfortably with the kick and snare, and heavy distortion is applied to give the sound more sustain.

3 Next, I create a new audio track and route Drumazon’s open hi-hat to it, for independent processing. The pattern is kept simple, as I’ll be using delay to embellish it, and the Decay is shortened, as I’m also going to be using reverb, which will extend the sound somewhat.

6 Last but not least, a funky percussion element. I send the Low Tom to another new mixer channel, program a simple, syncopated sequence, crank the level, lower the Tune and Tune Depth, and maximise the Decay. Finally, I transform this dry sound with heavy saturation and a carefully-tuned reverb.