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EBM Industrial Square Wave Sequence In Wavetable

This is a quick guide to how to make an acid-like square wave step sequence in Ableton Live and make it into an EBM/industrial track. Inspired by artists like Schwefelgelb, Front 242, Nitzer Ebb, Phase Fatale. Get the rack for free below…

You can get the Ableton rack for this in the Downloads section below.


See also: all our Techno Technique, and EBM articles. You can find all the free Ableton presets here. See here for a full guide to Ableton’s Step Sequencers.


How To Make EBM In Ableton Live

Here’s a run down of the patch from left to right of the midi effects, instruments and audio effects I’ve used to make this EBM patch in Ableton Live 12:

EBM Sequence In Wavetable

This started off as a square wave acid sequence using Wavetable and the SQ Sequencer (new in Ableton 12). But then I added in the other 2 oscillators and some distortion and it took on a much more industrial and EBM feel.

The patch is made up of 2 square waves in Ableton’s Wavetable, and a Sub Oscillator. The 2 main oscillators are detuned: one up 20 cents and the other down 20 cents.

Then I have added Wavetable’s oscillator effects, I’ve selected the FM one. This makes the sound much nastier and fuller. For the same reason I have also added unison with five voices for a really thick sound. You almost want to go too far with the distortion and detuning because you are going to tame the sound down with the filter and filter envelope afterwards.

I then set the filter envelope to Env 2 with a really short decay and I turned the cut off of the filter quite far down. Then I set the envelope to modulate the filter frequency in the mod matrix. This leads to a really short, clipped stab as the filter only opens and then closes for a very short time.
I then add drive distortion on both filters to make the sound even nastier.

I then go back to the SQ sequencer and set it up to play some notes that I like on the pitch row.
Then on the octave row I set a couple of notes to be an octave higher which leads to some variation in the pitches. Then I changed the lengths as well to add a little bit of variation so not every note is the same length.

I then use the velocity row like a second row in a hardware sequencer like you would in a Eurorack modular synth, sending a cable to somewhere weird on another part of the synth.

I draw in some random velocities on the Velocity row of the Sequencer. Then I go to Wavetable’s mod matrix and set some parameters to be modulated by velocity. So these parameters will be changed by the velocity row in the SQ sequencer.

I press play while I’m doing this so I can get a feel for the sound as I can hear it. I set filter one frequency and the effects amount on both oscillators to be modulated by velocity, you can see this in the screenshot for the patch. Then I go backwards and forwards between Wavetable’s mod matrix and the sequencer and tweak the amounts and the velocities untill I get something that I like.

This way you get a ‘modular’ sequence and a moving sequence, as every single step has a different filter and effects amount. If you want it to sound more ‘modular’ then change the loop length of velocities to something different like maybe five or six notes. You hear this in a lot of modular synthesis pathces, as the sequence will then run at a very different loop length to the rest of the track and it will interact differently and every bar will be different. I’m keeping it at 8 notes though as I like the repetitive nature of this sequence.

EBM Sequence In Wavetable - Ableton effects

I then set up Roar which is an excellent distortion unit, it’s worth almost getting Ableton just for this. I set it up so it’s just got one stage and I add some initial Drive distortion, and then I add some soft shaper in the in stage one as well and that is basically it for the Roar patch for some nice distortion after the filters.

Then there’s a rhythmic delay which I’ve set up to add a in sync pumping to the sequence.

Then last of all there’s a Utility just to control the volume down a bit because me often gets too high when you’re using a lot of distortion.


Some Other Things To Try…

Changing the filter envelope and sequencer settings will have big effects on the sound. Also the wavetable oscillator settings – try using the more distorted or harmonic wavetables for harsher, more industrial EBM sequencers.


The Macro Controls For The EBM Patch:

Here’s the Macro controls in the rack and what they do….

Time – increases or decreases the length of all the envelopes in Wavetable.
Global Mod – increases or decreases all the modulation amounts of anything modulated in Wavetable.
Filter 1 Freq – the cut-off of the low pass filter in Wavetable.
Filter 1 Res – the cut-resonance of the low pass filter in Wavetable.
Filter 2 Drive – Drive distortion at the second filter.
Osc 1 Effect 2 – The FM effect amount on Oscillator 1.
Roar Drive – The drive distortion amount on the Roar distortion unit.
Delay Feedback – how much the delay feedback back into itself. Turn it up to add tension and create builds.

How To Make EBM In Ableton Live

How To Make EBM In Ableton Live – Video:

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

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Downloads

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