How To Make Hypnotic Techno

This is a quick guide to how make hypnotic techno in Ableton Live. Plus some techno production tips thrown in. I love the looped, evolving detuned techno sequences of raw hypnotic techno that you hear from artists sand DJs like like Chlär and D Dan. Here I’m using Ableton’s Operator with 3 Saw waves, detuned, and a Chord unit to make a thick 3 note chord. The sequence is driven by an SQ step sequencer to pump out note notes as well as modulation.

Here’s the hypnotic techno track we’re making today:

---

See also: Pumping Techno Rumble Kick, How To Make An Industrial Techno Sequence In Ableton, Techno Drum Patterns and Programming Tips, How To Make Lo-Fi House, and our full Operator Tutorial. You can find all the free Ableton presets here.

FOLLOW US FOR FREE SAMPLES, RACKS AND TUTORIALS…

---

How To Make Hypnotic Techno In Ableton Live

You can download the rack in the Downloads section below.

Ableton’s Operator is one of the best synths for hypnotic techno, and the SQ Step Sequencer is great for these sort of sequences by using velocity to modulate various parameters on the synth, like you would on a modular set up.

Step 1: Add A Kick Drum

I add a four to the four kick drum pattern. This is just a really simple kick drum with no processing. I use ‘kick 2’ from our free 909 sample pack, as it is already processed.

Step 2: Set up the hi hats and snare pattern

The snare is from the 909 pack I mentioned above. The snare is processed with Overdrive, and some Reverb, then a bit more Overdrive to bring out the reverb. It’s a really standard pattern – I just put the snare on beats 2 and 4.

The closed and open hats are from our free 606 pack. The 606 hats sound great saturated. I’ve processed them both with overdrive. Separately on different channels.

The closed hat pattern:

The open hat pattern:

Here’s the drums all together….

Step 3: Set up a sub bass sequence

I set up a 3 note sequence playing low sinewaves on operator. I want a short sequence for a rolling sound. There are 2 sine waves, I move the fine tuning on B one is off a bit (by 4) to get a slightly detuned and phatter sub bass. It is then overdriven slightly with an Overdrive unit, and filtered down with an Auto Filter so we just get the bass frequencies.

Here’s a picture of the sequencer and part of Operator, you can see the 3 note global loop length highlighted in red. This complements the 6 note length of the main sequence. These shorter sequences give the loop a rolling and pumping feel.

Here’s how the sub bass sequence sounds on it’s own:

Step 4: Make a reverse kick before the drop

I like a reverse kick sound before a drop. I make this by copying the kick channel, then deleting all the midi except for one bar. Then in that bar I leave only one kick, I delete the last 3 kicks, so there is only one kick at the start of the bar. So there is only one kick on the entire channel.

I then Freeze that bar and Flatten it. This means that there is now a one bar section with the kick in audio, like it would be if I recorded a drum kick in from hardware. I then reverse that sample. And then move it to in front of the drop.

Here’s how the kick looks, you can see it reversed at the end of the bar. I’ve also highlighted the ‘Reverse’ button as it’s not always easy to see.

Here’s the reverse kick then 4 normal kicks, you can hear the sucking sound before the drop…

It’s quite a subtle effect by o a big system it introduces the drop nicely.

Step 5: Set Up The Main Hypnotic Techno Synth

Here I set up the SQ Sequencer, then a Chord unit for a techno chord (0, +3, +6), which makes a nice and nasty Birmingham / Spanish techno style chord from every note played into it. Then there’s the Operator with a 3 Oscillator, detuned saw wave patch.

Then the sequence is processed with an EQ to boost the mid-high end and cut the bass out. Then an Echo for delays and a Reverb for Space, and then an another EQ-8 to shape the sound one last time. I’ve made this channel into a rack, there’s more info on it below in the rack section, about how and why the modulation does what it does….

Here’s how the sequence sounds on it’s own:

And here’s the full loop:

---

What’s In The Hypnotic Techno Rack

You can download the rack in the Downloads section below.

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 hypnotic techno sequence.

The SQ Sequencer is playing a 6 note sequence. Having it shorter than the standard 8 or 16 note loops give the sequence a rolling feeling, as the loop restarts earlier than normal.

The SQ Sequencer will pump out this note information and tell the Operator what notes to play. I’ve put some notes much higher, using the Octave row, so you get some contrast between high and low in the sequence.

Here’s what the sequencer looks like, you can see the different values for velocity….

The Velocity row in the sequencer is really important too, as I set some parameters on Operator to be controlled by it. The filter envelope decay and cutoff are set to be modulated by velocity. This way they can all be modulated by the velocity row in the sequencer. Sort of like having a hardware sequencer, and the top row is wired to pitch and gate as normal, but the bottom row is wired to other parts of the synth as a modulation source. If you turn the velocity settings high on the sequencer for a step you’ll hear that step cut through the filter more. This makes for really nice movement in the sequence. Also, I set the pitch of Oscillator A to be modulated by velocity, so the more velocity, the more the note will be detuned and nasty.

Here’s a picture showing Oscillator A being mapped to velocity so it’s pitch is modulated separately from the sequencer.

Then there is a chord unit which means that every note that comes from the sequencer is converted into a 3-note techno chord. The chord is set up a 0 (the root note) plus 3 and plus6 semitones, which is chord used a lot in Birmingham techno.

The Operator synths is a since 3 oscillator saw wave synth patch with all 3 oscillators detuned for a thick nasty Birmingham techno / Spanish techno type sound. No frequency modulation, all oscillators are routed to the filter. A bit of glide for some slight legato note slide. Some filter drive for distortion and a tight filter envelope (which opens up with the velocity sequence).

Then the sound is EQ’d, delayed, reverbed and EQ’d again. The delays are synched so they are rhythmic and in time with the rest of the loop.

The effects processing of the main hypnotic techno sequence.

The Macro Controls For The Hypnotic Techno Synth

You can download the rack in the Downloads section below.

Time – this controls all envelopes on Operator, making them sorter or longer, so it is great to tweak to build tension etc.

Filter Freq – the filter cut-off.

Filt<Vel – this is how much the velocity row in the sequencer will affect the filter cutoff.

4x Oscs Release – the length of the main oscillators. Turn it up for really long notes (the filter cutoff will need to be up as well to hear the effect).

Echo Fdbck – delay feedback – use to build tension

Echo Mix – the mix amount of the echo unit.

Reverb Decay – the length of the reverb – use it to build tension.

Reverb Mix – the mix amount of the reverb unit.

---

---

Raw Hypnotic Techno Sequence In Ableton Live – Video:

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

(video coming soon)

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

---