Now to make our techno loop more funky, and professional, we add VSTs.We have our basic techno loop as shown on the first page. of this tutorial. It sounds ok, but it needs a little bit of oommpph to get it really going. I personnally enjoy harsh techno beats. So the first VST we are going to use is Frohmage, and use the Base custom levels (with middle dial on 9806). Remember making sure that only track 0 is affected. Frohmage looks like this when altered:
This now dulls out our techno loop. Now add the vocoder VST to channel 1, using these prefs:
Now to add another VST to our kick. This one gives it a bit of grit. The overdrive VST. Again onto track 0, with drive: 87%, output: 2.5db, and muffle: 13%. Now to apply a bit more grit to channel 0. Subsynth VST first. Make sure that the track is set to 0 this time (thats where the kick and snare are playing). The various numbers should be:
Type: divide
It may sound strange, but we want the loop to be an accompaniment, jingling away in the background rather than a leader- that will be the job of the kick. Speaking of the kick, back to it. Now the last VST that needs to be added to the techno loop is the multi-band compressor. This adds some power to the whole song. Because I know that it does this it should really be added to master. The values for the compressor are:
Your VST table should look like this, when we have added all the VSTs:
Now if you listen to the two channels together and press play, you should have a kicking loop that is harsh and powerful. You might be thinking, "my, all those numbers...how did you know them?" Well, the main thing is experimentation. I found one techno loop and played it. I then went through all the VST plugins and saw what they did. As I have stated before on this site, experimentation leads you to some great sounds and lets you be free with your music. What now? Shall we add to the techno beat, make it more interesting? I think so, and we can do this by utilising our original loop and Drumatic 3 so we can create additional effects. By adding, one, or all of these following four additions will make your loop fuller and more interesting. 2. By adding the original loop to channel 2, generally untouched, but to drop the loop by an octave, so press F3, then Q within track channel 2 on line 00:
4. By adding an open(f#2) and closed(g#2) hihat to track 3, it will add even greater depth. They can sound quite loud, so you can adjust the volume in Drumatic- by adjusting a knob on the bottom right hand side.
We shall also add in a clap(d#2) and a wooden click(c#2) to channel 4. So if you have put all of the above points into MT2, then you will have a techno loop that looks like the picture below :
As you can see we can get some very good results using simple, a basic system, yet free software combined with a techno loop. Your whole track should sound something like this (an MP3 sample, right click to download). If you turn off track 00, this is what you should get this (an MP3 sample, right click to download) Now you may be wondering I never got that..how...why.... Well if you want to see how it is done, "right-click", and then "save target as" on this link. Why? Well it is the Madtracker File (.mt2) containing all of the above. Simply load it into Madtracker, and see what I have done. Enjoy!
Have you heard those chip style beats? guess what. They are easy to do, so here is the free guide to making chip sounds. So how do we create a chart worthy track? This needs other conditions to be used. for one we have to add various other effects to the track to give it a polished feel. Now, if you want to learn to add a professional edge, for free, to a track, while given indepth guides (even easier than this) then click here for a complete 3 in 1 approach to making, marketing and ultimately selling your professional track. |
