Yes, surely, except if you use the song mode. The MD one, for example is like a tracker, very adapted to IDM. OT one, also
After DJing for years at events where people need to talk instead of dance, I try to make my music something that’s full sounding, but you can talk over it.
Instead of blistering walls of noise, I like a lot of space in my music.
Lots of times when making tracks, I go through it and subtract a lot of sounds.
I widdle stuff down to only what’s necessary.
This is SUPER fun with conditional trigs.
Lately I’ve limited my new tracks to 1bar patterns and conditional trigs.
Also only using 3 tracks with the AK.
I like building in parameters like that, if forces me to stay in some lines, and in a way helps me develop a style instead of getting lost in unlimited options.
I also get really addicted to hearing each sound.
I want to highlight them.
I choose things so deliberately, and try to leave room to showcase that effort.
With conditional trigs, I NEVER choose a random percentage.
I fiddle with it and choose something on purpose.
My workflow is slow, but rewarding in the end.
I mean IDM existed quite a bit before KOAN and Eno advocating for it.
God, I need this 
1 Realizing space through Elektron band/width filters
2 Using AHR envelopes to shape timing
3 “just use less shit!” the hardest so far!
@bodymechanics Since this is a more universal struggle (and my personality is definitely more-is-more) do you have any abstract tips or guidelines you use to separate wheat from chaff?
Slowly start removing sounds until it’s not a blob
Speaking on conditional trigs and also removing elements to let tracks breath, do you happen to use the neighbor “NEI” trig conditions at all? I’ve never really dove into them and it could add some nice empty spaces for an IDM track at certain moments.
I use all the conditions except percentages.
They are so useful, especially when turning simple drum beats into something that evolves.
just use the amen break, it works
I tried, didn’t lead to anything interesting. I guess I lack imagination when it comes to this style.
I find the amen break slightly annoying at this point, but this is just a sidenote 
I’ve resigned myself to the fact that I will be stuck in undergraduate sequencing the rest of my life and never reach PhD level.
Amen break is tired. if you look at the IDM/braindance artists that did use breaks, the Amen Break (Squarepusher and The Venetian Snares aside,) wasn’t used as much as say, Incredible Bongo Band’s Apache break, or Rusty Bryant’s Fire Eater.
It does pop up, but it doesn’t define the genre the way it defined drill n bass, D n b, jungle, breakcore etc.
Sure, i just found that amen works as source quiete well, when i tried slicing, where other drumloops didnt sit so well. I still process it though.
Im on your side. The Amen break is called Amen, Brother! for a reason… its from God’s lips.
Its as ubiquitous as a 4 on the floor house beat at this point.
And thats why people hate it… its everywhere, and like 4 on the floor, some people say they hate it and its overplayed, but its instrumental.
The Amen break can be used in any type of way… as a sample, or just sequenced with different hits, or even chopped and screwed… You just need to make it unrecognizable, but the brain will pick up the familiarity if the micro chops and give you a nice hit of dopamine or seritonin… what ever happy juice it is.
And this may be a hot take, but I think polyrhythms are used more than Euclidian generators, even though its literally the same thing… Programming in different length sequence loops has more control than trying to hope that a Euclidian generator spits out the rhythm you need. I think IDM is less generative with the more popular producers.
I agree. A lot of what people think is “random” or “generative” Is carefully programmed and sequenced. In particular, Euclidean rhythms and probability seem to be used way less by the bigger artists than a lot of amateurs think.
this is a bit fluffy but…
its kinda funny just how wrong this article is.
the only theory of dance music (dumb or smart) is don’t be boring and make people dance. whatever it takes to get there
ehhhh, braindance/idm wasn’t and isn’t about shaking ones butt on the dance floor.
“What’s the sequencing theory in IDM?”
There shouldn’t be one. That’s the whole point of this IDM thing, one just gets to go crazy and hope for the best. Once something starts to adhere to theories, it starts to become normalized, and from normalization, things start to become more and more similar, which is unfortunate in IDM because, in my opinion, it started as a very radical and lawless musical thing only bounded by a musician’s imagination, creativity, and fearlessness.