This is a quick tutorial on making a Mike Parker style bass. I tried to get as close as possible to his sound using stock Ableton plugins. I really the long delay chains and weird pitch modulations of his tracks like Drain Hum and the like. The rack I made here is available for free below…
You can get the Ableton rack for this in the Downloads section below. And you can hear what this patch sounds like in the embedded video below too…
See also: all our Techno Technique, and Hypnotic Techno, articles. You can find all the free Ableton presets here.
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How To Make Mike Parker Style Hypnotic Techno Bass 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 hypnotic techno bass…
This rack is based on Ableton Operator with some added effects. The basics of it is that I use and LFO to change the morph filter settings and the pitch of one oscillator. The LFO has an envelope on it so it’s not just a wub/wobble, it changes over time.

The patch in more detail:
In Operator, there’s 3 oscillators, all sinewaves, detuned from each other. Then the main modulation comes from the LFO modulating the pitch of one of the oscillators (Oscillator c) and the Filter Morph, so the LFO quickly scrolls the filter morph type for a crazy effect. There’s also an envelope on the LFO with changes it’s intensity as the note is played.
The LFO is not synced, so you get a weird rhythm from it. You want to tweak it until it fits with the kick drums of the track.

Then after the Operator there’s an EQ to push the mid-base frequencies then after that there’s a drum buss which adds some drive and crunch to the sound then after that there is 2 echo units to add dubby rhythmic delays with fairly long feedback tails.

Then after that there’s a Reverb unit to add some space and then after that there is a final Drum Buss unit that adds distortion at the end of the chain and then an EQ.
Some Other Things To Try…
Changing the speed of the LFO will make changes to the rhythm of the patch. Also you can make the LFO modulate more things, especially the pitch of other oscillators. Changing the filter and oscillator settings will change it’s character a lot too..
The Macro Controls For The Mike Parker Style Hypnotic Techno Bass Rack…
Here’s the Macro controls in the rack and what they do….
Time – This adjusts the time and length of all filters in Operator.
Filter Freq – Operator’s filter cutoff frequency.
Filter Res – The resonance of the filter inside Operator.
FM Fdbck – This causes oscillator c to frequency modulate itself (this is the oscillator with pitch mod on it).
Shaper Drive – This is the shape driver amount in Operator’s filter.
LFO Amt – How much the LFO modulates the pitch and filter morph settings.
LFO Rate – The speed of the LFO.
Osc C to LFO – How much the LFO modulate the pitch of Oscillator C.
DrmBss Dstrtn 1 – The wet dry mix of the drum buss.
Echo 1 Fdbck – The feedback amount of the first Echo delay.
Echo 2 Fdbck – The feedback amount of the second Echo delay.
Reverb Decay – The length of the decay of the reverb you can turn this up for long tones and builds.
Reverb Mix – The wet/dry mix of the reverb.
DrmBss Dstrtn 2 – one last distortion at the end of the chain.
Mike Parker Style Hypnotic Techno Bass In Ableton Live – Video:
Here’s a video tutorial and run down of the rack on our Youtube channel….
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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:
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