It didn’t need fixing… but essentially we’re making the same point, which is that there aren’t really shortcuts
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Nice thread, I like to see other people struggling with the same question I am asking to myself every day 
I totally agree with what has been said about carefully programming and using only one track to get that “tracker” feeling. Also, it really depends on the kind of IDM you want to make, many Aphex Twin releases have very simple, basic rythms, look for basic drum patterns like “Impeach the President” and add a few variations. The important part it’s the sound design.
But, if you want to go into the random/glitchy part of IDM, this is where I am at the moment using only Elektron machines and no sampled breaks :
-BUY A MACHINEDRUM (seriously, there is not better drum machine with IDM sounds out there);
-Download Autechre Sysex files, study the kits tweak them to your flavour, clear the rythms (they have already been used anyway, let’s come up with something original);
-Multimap tracks (watch Max Marco tutorial on how to do this, it will blow your mind);
-Sequence it with 1 MIDI track from Octatrack using either an LFO or an ARP (I build several tracks for different flavours to come out in the track); you can go with a normal LFO for a constant loop or random LFO/ARP for crazy random madness;
-From OT you can grab a loop of crazy madness and loop it over and over; REPETITION LEGITIMIZES;
-Let a flex machine listen to the madness, put some FX, randomize reproduction with LFOS, here you can build a bounch of ghost notes in different flavours. Has anybody said “SCENES”?
-Learn to arrange a song (still working on it);
Example (this is my first experiment, need to clean the last part but I think I pretty nailed the IDM feeling):
(Octatrack+Digitone+Microcosm+Machinedrum)
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Listen to lots of live drum solos, or even just complex drumming from prog, jazz, fusion etc. I’ve found that my drum programming has become so much better since I stopped thinking “omg IDM is so rAnDoM!” and started trying to replicate the phrasing of my favourite drummers.
Of course, it’s also fun to go completely unorthodox and make weird, lop-sided patterns, but I’d never suggest going for total randomness.
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…no sequencing theory…
there’s rhytm elements…and harmonic elements…and melody elements…aaaaalwys.
no matter what genre…
and there’s mood…
and the basic rules of all music…the six floors…
u ONLY got a sub, low, lo mid, lo hi, hi and air band…
whatever u do, only ONE element can play the first string at each of these floors at any given moment…
while sub and air usually just carry along and got no dedicated composition elements of their own…
if u want more, u’ll need to shape and group them with eq’s, so that ur elements don’t squeeze against each other, all fighting on their own, each for their attention, but get to become one thing, to work together…compliment each other…
and each of those floors need at least one dedicated compression on their own…
and the more elements have to walk hand in hand, the more u might need some ducking effects, so that they can come upfront, ping pong the overall attention to each other…
…so, if u got one 16th sequence running prominent already, the last thing u need yet, is another 16th sequence on top of it…
start with harmonic content, instead of rhytmical elements for a start…
if u got a cool bassline, it will tell u where the kik and the snare gotto go…
the sequence then, will counterpart all on it’s own…
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It’s funny, usually I’m really into saying that music theory is important, but with IDM it’s pretty free.. or at least it should be. It’s fun to analyse though 
A lot of the classic IDM stuff out there came from people trying to make rave tunes but not quite getting it right (I think RDJ or Paradinas said something like this in an interview once), or using weird mixing/composition choices etc. Then it all spiralled from there I guess. There’s a lot of trial and error, happy accidents etc involved, and there’s not really a template or a central theory to IDM.. unless you want to make Aphex copycat stuff 
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like half of the forum, me included 
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Nothing wrong with that tbh! A lot of my stuff rips off Autechre pretty heavily, soo.. 
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Oh man. This is so true. I keep going back to the staples of BOC Aphex etc. its like a black hole sucking you in and the gravitational pull is just too strong😱
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I think that’s really the thing. You have to love programming the stuff and be down to put in the hours. Exploiting mistakes and happy accidents is all well and good but you still need to have a solid backbone and a groove going on.
Working backwards for me has worked and yielded many good results. I start with the complete and most complex pattern I want to use and slowly take parts/triggers/automations etc away from it. Less is always more and sometimes that rhythm that seems to have so much going on in it really doesn’t. It’s the subtleties of a whole that make it seem so dense.
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I was just taking the piss a little…I do think you’re right that sometimes talent is talent, just that often what we attribute to talent is instead the product of time and effort. Either way, as you say, it isn’t easy.
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Thanks everyone for all the message!
Looks like you’re kind of agreeing on some points.
- It’s mainly meticulously programmed beats ‘by hand’
- Not so much about generative, random, Euclidian or other type of sequence generator
- Xox, tracker or step sequencer are all good. Personal preferences here
- IDM looks complex but there is actually not too many voices involved, just perfectly interacting and tightly composed
- To gain clarity in the mix, eq mainly
And most important it’s a hell of a work that need to be fully dedicated to build the track … Well here is my main problem (with talent 
).
I don’t have much time to play music at all and I’m mostly ‘jamming’, throwing stuff and see what sticks. I’m never composing and I think this is the key to this kind of music.
Nevertheless I’ll take the advice to try to recreate exactly the rhythm I’ve in my head or some jazz, funk I hear here and there and keep it simple. Sounds like an interesting challenge. When I find time …
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I‘m for random and once you take a random part and loop it or use it again it isn’t random anymore and can spark further ideas for the track.
As for cutting breaks, try to not slice single hits but rather cut, for instance from the snare including ghost notes or licks with the following percussion and so on, then play with it and you’ll see that it becomes something different.
This applies to sampled musical phrases as well.
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I think there’s distinctions to be made in what is being randomised here instead of us agreeing (not saying anyone is saying this fwiw) ‘random is bad’. Randomised pitch on a primary synth voice is probably way too chaotic, too random. A subtle sample and hold LFO applied to say hi-hat decay, possibly useful randomness.
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Oh yeah, totally.
Random trigger/pitch generation is what I’m talking about.
Sample and hold is a good friend to the IDM.
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Wow, this thread blew up.
Found this and kinda laughed.
also…
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Have you looked at the Boss 505mk2 loopstation. Im like you at work most of the time and stuck behind a desk so time is limited in the studio. The loopstation could help you get quick ideas down fast and you can tell if something is going to work or not. IDM is quite simple compared to other genres in that the formula is quite formulaic. Best of luck!
I’m really loving this thread. I appreciate all of the insights and tips from everyone. It’s come at a perfect time for me too since I recently started exploring the idea of making idm. I didn’t even realize that’s what I was doing at first Most of my electronic music is instrumental or abstract collage/ambient without any clearly defined beat, but I recently started incorporating home made percussive sounds like clicks and taps from field recordings. While I don’t use the types of sounds that are generally associated with idm, it’s structured similarly; or at least I’d like to think so, but maybe I’m totally off.
Anyways, my outsider approach is to use a certain function in the koala app, which is the ability to instantly jump from one pattern to another while retaining the playhead position. Basically, I make a bunch of patterns with similar but varying chunks of short percussive sounds but I leave one pattern blank. I then record me jamming out, quickly jumping between different programmed patterns and the blank pattern, while using koala’s stutter effect to grab little off kilter loops. If I like what I’ve recorded (if it has a good groove), I’ll take it and put it into my M8 or Octatrack to be sliced up and programmed on the grid/step-sequencer.
This approach makes it easy to find sample chops that work well with one another, because the sample already retains a certain groove with small percussive details that are in time.
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stimulants+attention to detail+way more time than most people could justify
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Whenever I hear IDM it’s pretty much all I, very little D, and the M part is fairly dubious :0)
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I always liked breaky beats etc. and tried a lot of ways to get there easy and fast but the outcome wasn’t satisfying. A few times i sat down and programmed the drums of every bar differently, adding a few variations here and there, tweaking drum fills until they really flowed… It took me 2-8 hours for a track but then the drums sounded like i wanted.
Imo it’s mostly hard programming work and it’s rarely reached by random trig stuff or tricks like that.
Randomness can help though. And maybe i haven’t found the easy way yet and there actually is a simple strategy to succeed.
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