Making Fat House and Techno Drums in Ableton Live #1
With global recognition for his live modular shows and releases on Carl Cox and Christopher Coe’s Awesome Soundwave label, Saytek is definitely someone whose advice is worth listening to. In one of his latest lessons for Mixmasters he looks at how to make fat, gritty, and punchy drums in Ableton Live.
All of the techniques he uses are done with stock instruments and FX within the DAW.
His lesson is full of tips, tricks and powerful producer insights. Here are some of our favourites:
Making Fat House and Techno Drums in Ableton Live: Producer Insights
- Add filtered reverb to your kicks for a Techno vibe.
- Use Overdrive to add distortion to your kicks.
- Layer an identical kick drum an octave lower than your existing one and EQ out the higher frequencies to add sub bass.
- Automate filter movement on claps for interesting results.
Full Tutorial Description
Boosting frequencies in kicks to add fatness. Adding and EQing reverb to a kick drum. Adding analog distortion to your drums with Saturator. Adding more distortion with Overdrive. Layering kicks with elements you like and processing them to form one cohesive sound, using Auto-Filters, ADSR, EQ and a Glue Compressor. Making gritty Techno style closed hi-hats with EQ, Redux and other processing. Automating Auto-Filter movement on 808 claps. Using ADSR, pitching and processing to make dirty 909 open hi-hats. Programming a call and answer pattern with 808 and 909 toms from Ableton Live’s core drum kits. Adding filth to your drums with Drum Buss.
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