Tips for creating heavy techno kicks/drums, anyone?

Elektron Gear Machinedrum
#1

I’ve had the MD now for a few months but still not completely satisfied with any sounds I’ve made as regards techno.

Quite often with this machine I’ll end up making something (a genre, perhaps) completely different than I initially intended. That’s the beauty of it in a way,. but I want to focus more on shaping some proper techno kits as that’s what I love best.

Any tips on how to get some heavy techno kicks going?.. also, with hats and rides I really struggle to get a good sound.

I basically end up tweaking the TRX kit quite a bit and a lot of the time I’ll make some drums sound either too thin, too distorted.

Cheers in advance for any pearls shed!:slight_smile:

#2

hello,
I don’t remember exactly where but i found some user guide online, something like elektron advanced techniques, where some tips are listed for the octatrack, monomachine and machinedrum.
there’s some tips on tarekith site. some pdf to download, but I think the key is to layer sounds,
create a ‘‘bass’’ part for your kick, then layer a high frequency tick to get a full drum kick.

I don’t have the MD anymore but you can get pretty powerfull kick from this beast.

#3

Go to the Files section, click MD and documents. Plenty of good advice there.

#4

Don’t know if it helps, but I almost always go to the second bassdrum machine instead of the first.

Also, the FM Machines can give pretty powerful results.

But yea, layer. If you have the UW, throw that in there, or resample with it.

Maybe try to not focus so much on the kick at first, get it going then bring in other elements such as melody / etc and tweak the kick from there to fit right.

#5

One of the guys on the forum made these 808 and 909-packs… maybe you can tweak from there or reverse engineer.

http://www.valerrecords.com/store/

Don’t give up… took me almost a year until I started making sounds I was happy with (dub techno)… :slight_smile:

#6

hey bro … so … the TRX is sure nice out of the box … more the BD2 of TRX … but the EFM BD … pitch 20, dec 100, ramp 22, rdec 105 have a real nice roll off … which … and here comes some magic … eqf 12, eqg 45 … will sit really nice in the off beat section of a fouronthefloor …

then fltf 21, fltw 57, fltq 84 ,

then whatever you had for a kick is not the driving force anymore, but those subby as fuck frequencies… bear in mind you havent even touched the EQ in the master section, nor the compressor! …

if you layer 2 of these together, and make the second one short, but add a higher note frequency on top… maybe with dissstrrrrrooootiiiiinnnnn or filterfrequency, it will become very appealing to the audience, because it seems playful imho …

start at least 2 kits every day from scratch., name them monday 1, monday 2, monday 3, tuesday 1, tuesday shit, wednesday 1 , wednesday weird, thursday 1, friday 1 … and so on,… come back 1 week later and see what you have done …

you will find, that trx bd might be your favourite, BUT … what you learn from the OTHER machines, will help you evolve … i think …

so, next pro tip … funny me, I am an amateur … is …

put 2 low toms, 3 mid toms, 2 high toms on an individual track … press record play over a pattern of 32 bars… and jam a beat into the sequencer… almost like playing piano …

press stop, tweak the highs and lows on your machines and you will see you have come up VERY quickly with a non 4 on the floor beat … even adding another BD on every 4th step will sound VERY VERY natural and organic …

head over to CTL and kiss your ears good bye …

save those kits WITH patterns … H1 has KIT H1 Monday1, Kit H2 has KIT H2 Tuesday 2 … accordingly …

that way you can not just see which machines you like, but also, what is within those machines with pattern tweaking and new rythms …

I should start with youtube tutorials, this typing is getting out of hand …

hope was some helpful stuff for you in here …

2 Likes
#7

Thanks for those specific settings! Just tweaked the Kick and oh my that’s nice!

#8

Check out the great “MD Tips” documents from Wesen, lots ot details and “paint-by-numbers” in there

http://www.elektronauts.com/t/ruin-wesens-md-tips-are-they-gone/7248

Regarding the Kicks, this is one of the key areas for me where the MD prooves thats it’s not a sweet spot machine at all. TRX-B2 might the best to get quickly to Techno style results, but I found the EFM-BD more flexible and tonal.

My two key points for whatever kick machine:
[ul]
[li]Turn up the FLTF slightly (e.g. high pass) with a lot of Q (resonance) to give a thin kick more bottom end.[/li]
[li]Use the EQ to take out some mid range mud to get a less boomy / more defined kick (EQ in the 35 to 50 region IIRC).[/li]
[/ul]

#9

Massive thank you stuartm, Tornfrayed, sean, jeffe, dubathonic and crazymilk57 for your tips. Much appreciated!

I’ll delve in to each of your suggestions. Never thought about adding a pre made pack to the machine but I’ll give that a try too.

Trabant, thank you for the mini essay. You’re a star. I’ll dial in those settings when I get home:)

I’ll report back!

#10

For the time being I have certainly beefed up my kicks.

Firstly, I simply lowered the volume/lev of all the other tracks a little so the kick is loudest.

Another solution I read here was to route the kick out a separate output. I’ve done that and on the mixer there’s a very basic compressor that gives it more oompf.

Trabant, I still have not gotten around to following your tip, but I will;) Thanks

#11

Another trick.

A trick for the EFM BD or TRX BD

Set the decay to around the middle and then use a triggered square wave to modulate the decay time.

The lfo speed and depth become the shape and length of the decay, combined with the initial decay setting, the depth effects the level of change.

This way you can get a more compressed sounding kick drum, because the body/weight of the drum stays constant but then stops quickly but you haven’t actually used the compressor.

Not an issue for the TRX BD2 as it already has a hold time.

If this is giving you the body but not the click then, just use another machine linked to trigger with this one to give you the mid/high freq energy. Can be pretty much anything as long as you filter the bass out and it has a nice transient.

#12

This sounds like great advice. Many thanks!

#13

Some great tips in this thread!

#14

I learned a lot by reverse engineering the 808 and 909 packs. I learned that you can get some real interesting sounds by layering. In the case of a kick you can achieve a lot by setting one instrument to be the “punch” of the kick and another one dedicated to kind a longer decay bass sound. Wow lots of other great specific tips in this thread. Thanks guys!

#15

Try using a TRX or FM Kick and dedicating the gated reverb to it, then tweaking gate time, EQ etc of the reverb and the filter and attack of the synth parameters until you get a massive fat juicy old school gated techno kick.

#16

Will give it a go!
thanks:)

#17

Keep playing and tweaking. Use parameters you’ve never touched before. If found tracks just get heavier in the most unexpected ways. There are millions of EQ bits or specific effects but I’ve found the more you move around it and the more space you give and work with, the fatter everything will come together. Let it breathe, the kicks are all around us.