Dub Techno Effects Chains

Welcome to our guide to making dub techno effects chains. All you need to know about dub techno FX, with a free Ableton rack mimicking tape delay, vinyl crackle and desk distortion.

I love dub techno from the likes of Deep Chord and Basic Channel, so here I’m showing step by step how to set up the effects chains with delays and reverbs, as well as adding saturation, tape errors and noise to the chain.

You can buy our Dub Techno Sample Pack –> on our store.

Buy our packs at our Shopify store, use this code for 60% off: SBCOM60STWD

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How to make a dub techno effects chain in Ableton Live..

Note: you don’t need to make this from scratch, you can get the rack in the Downloads Section below and then follow along.

Step 1 – set up the dub techno chord

First of all add a chord to the Sampler (or use a minor chord patch on a synth). I have sample pack for chords for dub techno which you can get here, in the video example below I use the sample called ‘C Chord 6’.

You can buy our Dub Techno Sample Pack –> on our store.

Step 2 – add a filter and envelope to shape it

Then I filter it down by lowering the cut off. So it sounds hidden. I then make the filter envelope Amount 72 so it fully engages. You want a tight, short envelope so the chord pokes through the filter for a short time. You can open it up and tweak it later.

Step 3 – add modulation for movement

I then add a Velocity midi effect and turn the ‘Random’ up, this generate random velocity modulations, which we will send to the filter…. I set the Cut off and filter envelope time on the Sampler to be affected randomly, by settings the ‘Vel’ to 79% and the ‘Time<Vel’ to -43% (these are under the filter and filter envelope). This means the random velocities will keep the filter cutoff and envelope length jumping about randomly.

Step 4 – add multiple delays and reverbs

I add 2 Echo units and a Reverb unit – these are the key to the dub techno effects chain…

I set the first Echo unit to have a bit of Reverb, then I set the delay timing to 2/16ths, and I add some error on the Left and Right by small percentages and set the delay to Ping Pong for stereo width. In the Modulation tab I add some ‘error’ with the Mod for the Delay at 11%. This makes it like a tape delay / space-echo type error.

I do something similar with the second Echo unit but a 3/16th delay time and different errors, and less reverb.

Then on the final Reverb unit I give it a big 3.97 second Decay and I use the Input Filter and the Diffusion Network to take some of the high end off.

We will tweak these later, these are just starting points…

Step 5 – add a bandpass filter and modulate with LFO

Then I add a Bandpass Filter between the two Echo units. I keep it moving with an LFO and I add Phase which splits gives it a lot more stereo width.

This filter is a great effect, but it cuts out too much of the top and bottom end. If you have the latest version (Ableton 12.2 I think?) you can use the wet/dry to turn it down and let some of the dry signal through. If not you can add some of the original signal back in by adding the Autofilter to a group and then adding a second chain with nothing in it. This adds the dry signal back in so you get the filtered signal with the moving LFO and the original too. You can see this in the image above – the ‘dry’ chain in the group.

Step 6 – add hum or noise to the signal chain

Then I add in a Vinyl Distortion effect before the first Echo unit, and turn up the ‘Crackle Volume’ – this means little vinyl crackles will run through the dub effects.

Step 7 – subtle distortion and phaser and chorus effects to phatten and widen the chord and delays

Then I add more effects: I add a Chorus and Overdrive after the Sampler to thicken and slightly distort the Chord. I then Add a Phaser and Overdrive after the Bandpass Filter which ads that nice phasing stereo effect and a bit more distortion. Both Overdrive units are not fully wet, they are only doing a little bit of drive distortion to mimic analogue desk drive.

You can add Feedback to both the Chorus and Flanger for some weird tonal effects too. A little bit goes a long way.

Step 8 – add final distortion

I add a Drum Buss at the end of the chain (not fully wet, at about 50%), and with some Crunch at about 14%. This really brings out the delays and vinyl crackle artefacts in the delay chains.

Step 9 – tweak everything

At this point you want to go back and tweak everything again so it all works together.

The last thing I do is I then set up the most important parameters to tweak as Macros so I can tweak them live as an instrument. I’ve put the rack I made and the macro in the Downloads Section below so you can get it for free. There is a list of the Macros below…

You can buy our Dub Techno Sample Pack –> on our store.

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What the Macros do on Dub Techno Effects rack:

Get the rack in the Downloads Section below.

Random: this makes the chord more random, it increases the random chance that cutoff will open up more of the filter envelope or filter decay time.

Filter Freq: opens the filter cut off.

Filter Decay: The filter envelope decay – use it to shorten the stab.

Chorus Fdbck: Feedback on the Chorus unit – use it to add those weird tones to the dub chain.

Crackle Volume: adds a vinyl crackling to the effects change.

Echo 1 Fdbck: The amount the first delay feeds back into itself.

Echo 1 Reverb: Adds reverb tone to the first Echo unit.

Echo 1 Mix: Wet dry for the Echo’s delays and reverb

BP LFO Amount: How much the bandpass filter moves with an LFO.

Flanger Fdbck: Adds weird feedback tones from the flanger.

Flanger Mix: the wet/dry mix of the flanger – which adds a phasing stereo effect.

Echo 2 Fdbck: The amount the second delay feeds back into itself.

Echo 2 Reverb: Adds reverb tone to the second Echo unit.

Echo 2 Mix: Wet dry for the Echo’s delays and reverb

Reverb Decay: The length of the reverb on the main reverb unit at the end of the delay chain.

Final Crunch: Adds crunchy distortion after the Reverb unit, it will pick out the other delays artefacts in the chain with distortion.

You can buy our Dub Techno Sample Pack –> on our store.

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Dub Techno Effects In Ableton Live – Video:

Here’s a video tutorial and run down of the rack on our Youtube channel….

Please subscribe to the youtube if you haven’t yet: youtube.com/@studiobrootle 

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For more dub techno posts here on the blog click here. Also you can buy our Dub Techno Sample Pack –> on our store.