Ableton Operator Presets

Here’s some free presets for Ableton’s Operator, after our Ableton Operator Tutorial, which had a few patches in it. Here’s a follow up with a few more Ableton Operator Presets to download, with a description of each and audio previews.

Operator is an impressive FM synth, which looks simple but is capable of a lot of different sounds due to it’s multiple routing options and operator types. From 80s Yamaha DX-style pads to modern distorted techno drones and dark sub basses. The 1980s digital synths like the DX7 didn’t have filters, but operator has a filter with overdrive and a shaper to add harmonic distortion to the sound like an analogue synth. I hope this article serves as a bit of a how-to as well, by describing how I made these sounds, so you can learn how to make your own as well.

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Download The Operator Presets…..

Downloads

You can download this pack by subscribing to the mailing list here, you’ll get a link to download all the free presets, samples and racks we’ve ever made:

See also: our UK Garage Drum Pattern guide for a UK Garage bass Operator preset.

Also… here’s some other Ableton Racks I’ve made which also include Operator:

Techno Tom Sub Bass Rack – A sub bass with pitch envelope, like a very low tom.
Techno Rumble Kick Ableton Rack mk2 – A techno kick made in Operator, plus reverb sub bass.
Ableton Operator Sub Bass Rack – A dark and nasty sub bass generated in Operator and then processed.
Techno Kick Ableton Rack – A techno kick generator using Operator.

A Run Down Of The Operator Presets:

Dirty Sub…

Play at C1, or there abouts, This has three sinewave oscillators routed to the output, all detuned for a phat siney sub. Then all three are frequency modulated by Operator D for some extra growl. Then added shaper drive and filter drive for some nice distortion.

Early Beltram 101…

Play at C2. This one has four oscillators, no FM – they are all routed straight to the output (you can see this in the routing icon bottom right, the four squares are next to each other in a line). All oscillators are detuned with each other for a thick detuned mono synth sound. Filtered and driven for some nice distortion.

Body Music Bass…

Play at C2. I set the routing to the ‘square block’ which means Oscillators A and C are routed to the output. And then each one of those is FM modulated by it’s own Oscillator (Oscillator D modulates C and Oscillator B modulates A).

This way I set up a detuned sound with A and C, then tweak the FM on them individually to taste on D and B.

This has a short filter envelope for that plucky EBM bass sound, with some filter modulation on Key and Velocity (so higher keys and velocities poke through the filter a bit more for a varied sequence.) Also heavy drive at the filter too.

Tight Env Detuned Bass…

Play it at C1. This Operator preset has oscillators A, B ,and C detuned against each other. Plus Oscillator D with a tight envelope frequency modulating them all. Filter Drive and resonance added in the filter section to further sculpt this bass.

FM Sub Hit…

Play at C1. Oscillator A and B provide the sub bass weight, detuned against each other. Oscillator B is then frequency modulated by Oscillator C, which has a tight envelope and ‘off’ fine tuning so it makes the bass hit plucky. A tight filter envelope and plenty of filter drive.

Even More Ableton Operator Patches….

We’ve also made a few different posts with free Ableton racks that use Ableton Operator, here’s a list of them below, but you can get them all in the Downloads section above, along with the others in this post.

How To Make An IDM Beat In Ableton – with a free rack Ableton Rack for the main IDM synth sound which uses Operator and a random velocity generator to make random FM bleeps. As well a beat repeat.

Chord Sequences inspired by DJ Bone, Jeff Mills, Detroit techno – A Jeff Mills inspired detuned Detroit techno chord generator for alien sounding techno stabs and sequences.

Dub Techno Tutorial Ableton – An Echospace / Basic Channel influenced dub chord Operator preset rack. I really liked making this one, it uses a chord unit to generate chords in Operator from any one note you play, and then it is re-pitched in Grain Delay an octave down to add a sub layer to it. All are dub delays with delays and reverbs too.

EBM Bassline Tutorial: Ableton (Nitzer Ebb / Phase Fatale style) – A free detuned EBM / industrial bassline preset with some metallic FM modulation.

Free Ableton Operator Presets: Sub Basses – It includes some dark and detuned menacing sub bass presets and an Ableton Rack to tweak to taste for a big low end.

M1 House Organ Ableton Tutorial – a guide to making that 90s House Organ preset / Piano House / Deep House Organ Sound in Ableton, plus a couple of house organ presets included.

Free Ableton Operator Presets: Epic Pads (and rack) – a preset and rack to generate epic and evolving pads. I love designing pads, this one uses parallel modulating filters to generate evolving movement in the chain.

Ableton Tutorial Techno FM Bass – a techno FM bass stab in Ableton, made in Ableton’s Operator, it is frequency modulated, detuned and cut short with envelopes. And it has a sub bass oscillator built in to beef up the low end of the bass.

Ableton Tutorial – Drones in Operator – a dark drone generator which uses Ableton’s Operator, distortions, chorus, delays and reverb, as well as the Chord midi effect.

Free Ableton Operator Presets: FM House Basses – a preset pack of frequency modulated FM basses, which I designed for raw Chicago house, but can be used in techno and even EBM.

Free Ableton Operator Presets: Techno And Acid Sequences – inspired by early techno including Jeff Mills’ bleepy FM techno as well as step sequenced detuned techno and acid. There a few different sinewave bleeps, acid tabs and frequency modulated techno sequences, as well as two Ableton racks to customize the sounds.