Dub Techno Recommendations

The Lounge General Discussion
#41

great documentary about the way of dub into elektronic music (or vice versa??)

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#42

iā€™ve been enjoying this podcast for the past few days

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#43

not as laid back as most of the stuff in this thread but itā€™s also a bit more of a direct nod to dub. always loved this Cari Lekebusch track

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#44

Moritz von Oswald and all his aliases!

Sensual Physics

Pablo Bolivar

SpecDub & Ilias Katelanos

Terry Lee Brown Jr & The Timewriter (Plastic City)

This one is currently on repeat at my house :slight_smile:

And I highly recommend these two radio-channels. They play quality dub-techno 24/7!
http://tunein.com/radio/Shanti-Radio-Channel-I-s109452/
http://tunein.com/radio/Deep-Mix-Moscow-Radio-s48720/

#45

Echogarden monthly radio show

they also will release the 2nd Echo Garden compilation during christmas for free this year. I guess lotĀ“s of good stuff!

#46

Definitely my fave release of the year. Very chill, deep, i dunno more innovative down-tempo technoā€¦ kinda wavering, earthy feel. great alarm clock :slight_smile: Mastered by Pole too

#47

Funny you should mention that releaseā€¦ Iā€™ve drifted off to sleep to that one for the last about 5 nights - lovely stuff.

#48

Also just discovered the Dub Techno playlist on Spotify ā€¦ pretty damn good!

#49

Youā€™re welcome. But I really just passed you the ball and you scored the goal! Excellent video. Iā€™m going to be watching that while I make some custom vocoder racks! Honestly, for my modulator I just used my regular beat track. I love the trick of using a random breakbeat for some crazy random stab fx and repeats.

For anybody who might be interestedā€¦ there are several good dub techno tutorials on youtube. Iā€™m generally seeking a more old-school Rhythm & Sound feel, but these guys produce some good tutorials.

Atabeylive

Fingers in the Noise
https://www.youtube.com/user/FingersInTheNoise/videos

Tons more out there on youtube, for sure.

First tutorial I ever followed to make that classic stab sound:

Ronny Pries dub techno chord stab tutorial
http://www.ronnypries.de/blog/music-production/a-look-at-dubtechno-chordsnstabs/

Along with experimenting with the vocoder, these max4live devices are fun to play with (based off TM404ā€™s own hardware):

Dub Machines
https://www.ableton.com/en/packs/dub-machines/#?item_type=max_for_live

Almost bought this one in the recent sale. Didnā€™t pull the trigger because I want to make my own fx racks first.

Polytek
https://www.ableton.com/en/packs/polytek/#?item_type=max_for_live
[/quote]
Iā€™m loving this vocoder technique. Having soooo much fun right now.
Recipe for hours of Dub Techno fun:

  1. Understand the Ableton Vocoder technique.
  2. Grab the excellent Dub Machines max4live fx.
  3. Load up some analog synth minor chord stabs. Using Diva, Juno 106, Analog Four, Samples, Abletonā€™s Analog, or whatever is at hand really.
  4. Get a solid beat going. Rytm or 808/909 samples, etc.
  5. Noise washes with MS20 or sampled vinyl/tape static.
  6. Last but not least a heavy 808 kick transformed into a bass-line.
    Canā€™t believe how much fun Push 2 is, especially with anything Ableton native like Analog, Operator, or max4live devices. Tweaking the Dub Machines fx is absolutely amazing.
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#50

Yes itā€™s really cool, i wish I had time to explore this further.

Btw, do you see a way to reproduce such approach with the Elektron machines, totally otb ?

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#51

Yes itā€™s really cool, i wish I had time to explore this further.

Btw, do you see a way to reproduce such approach with the Elektron machines, totally otb ?[/quote]
Dern. I typed a long reply then my browser crashed! I basically said I thought about doing this via hardware for a long time. One of my favorite Dub Techno artists is a devout hardware user, but some others have said in recent interviews they just use software. Even ones who built their rep back in the day using hardware. They saidā€¦

  1. if software had been around they would have used it.
  2. They bought stuff cheap and used what they had.
  3. No way would they have paid todayā€™s prices, etc.

If I were to do it all hardware, itā€™d be a long and expensive list.
Iā€™d probably get

  1. a nice large analog mixer with plenty of sends.
  2. an Octatrack to play back long samples of noise washes from MS20, vinyl static, tape hiss, etc. Amongst other things. Also to MIDI sequence synths.
  3. A4 for melodies? Sold my A4 Monday though. Keeping my MS20 for classic hands-on analog goodness.
  4. Rytm for drums and bass-lines (with 808 kick sample). Maybe supplement with TR-8.

Now, how to get that vocoder trick in hardware? Donā€™t know for sure since Iā€™ve never done it. But I would think youā€™d need a modulator and carrier. So if you want the drum loop thing for a modulator - maybe some sort of sampler? Maybe route a drum loop out of an Octa, MPC, any old Akai, or something like Volca Sample even. Anything handy that you can change up drum loops for varietyā€™s sake.

MAM hardware vocoder? Seem affordable, unlike some of the museum pieces out there.

Then any decent synth or sampler for a carrier. Play or program minor triads. Repeat.

  1. RE-201 or BOSS RE20 pedal. Maybe Strymon El Cap. Some other nice hands-on pedals and chain them up for whacky mixer send chains. Strymon pedals are very tempting!
  2. Either stab samples through Octa or actual synths like DX-7, Juno 106, etc. Anything thatā€™s fun and sounds good really. Digital and Analog for variety, hence DX-7 and Juno 106. Iā€™m also really liking the sound and versatility of the Nord Lead A1. Had a Lead 2x and really miss it. Canā€™t seem to replicate in in software.
  3. Something nice on the mix bus like a Fatso.
  4. Maybe a strymon Deco on some groups as well. Sherman filterbank and/or Restyler as well for extra fun.
  5. Record to tape. Reel-to-reel, maybe 4-track if you want lo-fi?

As you can see, my wish-list is insane. I was on my way there. Still have a few things just for fun. Butā€¦ Push 2 is really curing my GAS. Itā€™s so nice and immediateā€¦ IF, big IFā€¦ you take the time to set up templates, racks, macros, etc.

Key for me is just have fun, experiment, and get hands-on (within a budget).

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#52

for most of the gear there are really good emulations available.

For delays I recommend:

  • Soundtoys Echoboy, NI Guitarrig Tapedelay, U-He Satin
    (NI Tapedelay and Satin you can tune in also very nice and subtle noise!)

For tape emulations I recommend:

  • UAD Studer A800, U-He Satin (Studer has also a noise/hiss knob)
    but there are also tons of other plugins available nowadays

For analog compressor emulations:

  • kind of LA2 emulation such aus UAD LA2A or NI vintage compressors

and using some Roland Dimmension D chorus can work wonders! So my favourite signal chain so far:

Korg Volca bass 3 osc (0, +5, +7) -> audio in -> UAD Studer A800 -> Roland Dimmension D -> Pultec HLF-3C -> LA2 grey face -> send to 1 or 2 or 3 different deleays.

#53

Moritz von Oswald RBMA Lecture

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#54

@bwax Iā€™ll try to get deeper in the Ableton approach, but usually I cannot say too long in front of a computer because I do it all day long.

I wonā€™t buy Push, I just got a brand new A4 and it gives me so much joy !!!

Now that I have both Monomachine and A4, I was wondering if I could feed one of them with a drum loop from OT or whatever and use the synth as a vocoder. does anyone see a way to reach this ?

Of course there is the OB possibility, but Iā€™d like to reach the workflow described earlier with my Elektron machines. Do you guys think there would be a way ?

#55

I totally understand. This is a large part of why I started down the hardware route myself. However, doing modern electronic music, Iā€™m sure most people end up staring at screens of various sizes for various lengths of time. Just gotta find the right combo and workflow.

I think the whole ā€œcomputer for day-job, need something else for musicā€ conundrum can be solved, or eased somewhat, by getting a stand-up desk at home. Better for you in general, plus allows you to dance around a bit and feel the groove. Small but overlooked detail in my opinion. Even coming home from computer job to play guitar would be kinda dull if you had to sit down the whole time.

I think a large part of the problem is not staring at screens necessarily, but pent up energy from sitting so still all day. Shift as many duties from the mouse to controller knobs as you can. Elevate your gear. Move around, dance, shake, rattle, and roll.

Stand-up desk, good hands-on controllers like Push 2, maybe a couple pieces of good old knob-per-function hardware. Iā€™m set. 95% of my GAS is cured.

Does the OctaTrack have a vocoder effect? Would be great for Elektron Dub Techno peeps if it did!

#56

Mauritz von Oswald sets the standard to shoot for, imho. Just wish he and Ernestus would do more Rhythm & Sound recordings. Canā€™t get enough of that sound!

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#57

Although it might be theoretically possible for either the MM or Analog Four to do this, the small number of filters in the AF and the lack of DSP power in the MM would likely preclude Elektron from even trying to implement a vocoder in either instrument.

#58

No.

Itā€™salso highly unlikely that Elektron would add a vocoder to the OT because of the amount of processing power that it would require, even if they continue to add new features to the OT in the future.

#59

OK I must say I donā€™t know much about vocoder.

The Ableton Dub Techno use is basically a synth whose trigs+velocity come from a drum sample.

Letā€™s say this is the target.
How would you set up an Elektron-only installation to produce this.
Would this be possible, with the current possibilities of each machine ?

I know the MM and A4 can use their inputs to produce sound, but I have no clue how to reach the goal or if itā€™s even possibleā€¦

#60

A vocoder for musical use is essentially a set of bandpass filters. The filters process the carrier signal (synth chords in your example) but the levels of each filter band are controlled by the modulator signal (drum loop in your example).

The Elektron instruments really arenā€™t designed to have the kind of audio processing capabilities of a vocoder BUT you could have a lot of fun with an AF/AK or a MM:

[ul]
[li]MM: pass a synth chord sound through several Thru machines and put filters with narrow WDTH and various values of BASE on various tracks[/li]
[li]AF/AK: use a synth chord sound as an audio input and try the ā€˜Filter Bankā€™ setup example given in the manual, using F2 only as a bandpass filter on each track (I donā€™t have an AF/AK so I donā€™t know exactly which values to use for other parameters).[/li]
[/ul]

Then try controlling the levels of each track using LFOs and p-locks.

It wonā€™t sound much like a vocoder, but thereā€™s a lot to explore.

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