Welcome to our guide to making techno stabs. This Ableton tutorial uses Ableton’s Wavetable synth and native effects to make an industrial techno stab. You don’t need to make it yourself, there’s a free rack to download in the Downloads section below.
See also: all our Techno Technique articles. You can find all the free Ableton presets here.
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How To Make A Techno Stab 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 the stab….
The sound is made in Wavetable and a couple of stock effects plugins. (You can get the rack for free in the Downloads section below).
The patch is made with a tight filter envelope with a rounded attack to give it that wub sound. The stab is really distorted and noisy too, then filtered down to take off some of the harshness. The envelope with the rounded attack is used to modulate the filter cut-off mainly, but also the wavetable positions of both oscillators, and this gives the stab movement too, so the sounds changes quickly across the stab as the filter and both wavetables move quickly with Envelope 2.

If you’re setting up the sound from scratch you want to bring the filter down low and then get the cut-off modulation right first and tweak the envelope so the stab works in the track. Then find the right sweat spot for the wavetable position, and tweak the modulation and the position for those until you get a sound you like. You’ll need to jump between each of them tweaking them until it sounds right.
I’ve detuned the oscillators here for a really thick and nasty sound. You want to go too noisy and detuned to being with and then the filter will take off a lot of that harshness.
I used loads of distortion here – you can see in the patch that drive is added at both wavetable’s filters. For the same reason I’ve added plenty of Unison too.
I’ve used LFO1 to keep the filter and oscillator 2 moving just slightly so the stab is not static but changes over the bar too. You could make LFO1’s speed slower to the stab is changing over a longer period if you like, like 2 or 3 bars.
After Wavetable I’ve added an Overdrive Unit for even more distortion and then an Echo and a Reverb for rhythmic delays and some feeling of space.
I’ve set the Macros up so you can automate or tweak the most important parameters. Time and Global Mod control the modulations in Wavetable globally: so increasing Time makes all envelopes longer and turning it down make them all shorter and tighter, and Global Mod will make all modulations amounts increase or decrease depending on which way you turn it. So tweaking these will change Env 2 and open or close the stab up.
There’s Cutoff mapped too: turning this up will reveal the whole stab and it will be longer and harsher – lift it up for build ups etc. Amp release will increase the tail of the stab and can turn the sound into a long tone.
I mapped Osc 2 Position to a Macro too, which you can automate slowly throughout the track to keep the stab slightly changing. Then there is the Echo feedback and mix (which controls the delays), the feedback can be used for build ups and to build tension etc. Same for the Reverb Decay: use it for lengthening the reverb tail and building tension.

Some Other Things To Try…
Try using different envelope shapes – it will massively change the shape and feel of the stab as a lot of the the character comes from the attack shape.
You can also change the oscillator wavetables and adjust the modulation on them too. Try the more noisy/distorted wavetables.
The Oscillator effects are worth a look as well: try tweaking them until you find something you like, then move the setting a bit back from that sweet spot and use the envelope to move the modulation over the sweet spot. You’ll have to adjust the effects level and modulation amount until it sounds good.
The Macro Controls For The Techno Stab Rack
You can download this techno stab rack for Ableton Live in the Downloads section below.
What the macros do:
Time – controls all the envelopes on wave table making them eat the longer or shorter
Global Mod – This makes all the modulations more or less depending which way you turn it
Filter 1 Freq – This is the cut off for the main filter inside wavetable
Amp Release – This is the release of the main amp envelope which will make the stab longer which will be more noticeable if the filter is up
Osc 2 Pos – This is the position of the 2nd oscillator’s wavetable. Move it to change the character of the sound.
Echo Fdbck – Delay Feedback
Echo Mix – Wet/dry mix of the Echo unit’s delays.
Reverb Decay – the length of the reverb – turn it up to add tension and create builds.
Techno Stabs 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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