Here's how to create a techno track for release.

The techno track that we want to create is this, Alphabeti: Click here to play in a new window

Creating a techno track is really simple as long as you have got one thing...and this is really important.

You need the right sort of sounds.

There I have said it...that is the ultimate way to create a track. Why? Because a simple cool sound can set of your mind thinking about different loops and tracks. If you have a crap sound then the mind just won't think good things for you. its like it wants to save you from your tunes.

On the other side as well. If you like a certain style of music then you need a certain style of sound. If you are into celtic music then it is not really a good idea to use techno sounds throughout.

So to create a techno track that is what you need. What did I use? I predominantly used a great VST (a software synth that can be loaded up into your sequencer). Vanguard. If you want techno then this is the one that you should be hunting for. There are not too many presets to start your mind thinking, but that is cool, because you don't really want to use presets. What you really need to do is find a preset that you like and then start to adjust it, start to mess around with it. That is the whole point of having dials and sliders that you can move around. So my sounds that I used within the techno track, Alphabeti are based upon presets and then had the VST's effects applied to them, or had various sound waves attached through the VST.

Next is to find a sequencer of your liking. Now for most of you, you already know that I favor Madtracker, but only because I am used to it...not because it is better than everything else on the market- far from it. But I find the whole tracker system so much more easier than say using Reason to build a track, especially if you want to mess around with ideas on the fly. You can can check out what it has to offer here: creating a techno track

Next are the drums. I hate finding drums because they are so time consuming to get right. I went through over 30 different loops that I created from hand just to get the right one. I have a habit though of keep on coming back to a loop day after day and then changing that loop...tweaking can become a problem. So when it is right...keep it. For quickness I used Reason 4 (Reason 3 is exactly the same in the drum area) to create the drums I needed. If I wanted to create a drumloop slower (as you can experiment more) then I would have loaded in each sample in as many channels as I want (just like Reason but not limited to 16 as in Reason). Then I would have created my loops. Also you may notice that if you put too many hi-hats in Reason it won't play one. This got annoying but it wouldn't have happened in a sequencer as it plays whatever you type in. The drums at the very start were samples that came with Madtracker. Same with the shaker that comes in half way through the track.

Now to see what works. Once you have found the basics then it is time to create a scrap board and then see what works and see what doesn't. So you just mess around in your scrap page. It is easier to do this now rather than later on because eventually you will build up your page to a final built up song and you will know what works with what and what doesn't before you create a track blind. My scrap board is actually used in the track. It is the last musical explosion towards the end when everything is used.

Do you have any influences? This is where your influences and cool techno track ideas come into play. How are they structured? What sounds are they using? Do they like big drums, more bass, minimal tracks, C64 style sounds, a chorus, a chorus that is played through the track? All these need to be considered. However.

You never want to rip off someone and make a techno track directly like theirs because your music won't get is fair play. Fans and listeners alike will just see you as a rip off artists and that is not good. Sure use their structure or similar sounds but just make it your own. Apply some different sounds or just tweak that structure a bit. Make your music yours.

For me I used a structure like the group Vitalic...but I even went closer and chose the song Poney Part 1. Now if you listen to that and listen to mine they will not sound the same, far from it, but I used the rough structure as a basis and then I used my own style and sounds to make up a different track altogether.

The first thing to be made was the actual final synth line and then I built the whole techno track around getting to that synth line. The problem came in that if I played it from the start, it would become boring. So I needed you to be lured into liking it. So I got different instruments to play the same rough notes as the final synth line so that it wasn't too much of a shock when it was played.

The start is just a false lead, you think that it is going to be slow and dull, with a poor sound...then hopefully when the "bass line" comes in with the drums you then start to take more notice. But this is also achieved by using a different instrument (the strings) which come in about 8 seconds after the start of the song...AND the use of the start sound as a bass line.

Not to be boring: In any techno track you need to make sure that people don't switch off or forward the music. So my tracks changes quite quickly as I understand that some parts will be boring if played continuously. So the boring start instrument must be saved by bringing in something else...but where do you go from there? Evolve it? Yes and no. You evolve it by changing the instrument and keeping with similar notes in such a rapid way that it sounds better. Then you have to watch as that becomes boring. So the sound changes automatically with filtering and then I add a mini-lead which will occupy attention while I build up to something else. I brought them in through automation. The sequencer adjusting various aspects of the sound- volume or filtering, automatically to levels that I drew into it.

Not to be boring 2: Boring can also be stopped by how one pattern of the techno track links into another and how you bring in an instrument. This is the process that I love. Sometimes how you bring in an instrument can be a hook and also it can increase the listenability of another aspect of the track. So with the drums, just a roll will do, or as the same track is being looped the drums can be built up and it sounds pretty cool. Sometimes a track needs to be stopped, reworked and then go back to the original- just like close to the end. When I played the whole track back I realized that the final full sounds were a bit too much. So I stopped it, gave the "interlude" similar sounds to the main track and then went back to the main track. Now the main tracks seems refreshed. It occurs twice in the track, one close to the start and one close to the end.Ultimately, you have to think, how am I going to get from one instrument to the other?

I have totally bored my wife with this track because you have to play it over and over again to see if everything lines up properly, if everything still keeps with the scrap board. And because I have mini monitor speakers you had to hear it. Some samples were played over and over again and their dials adjusted.

The worst one is when you think you have it, then save it off as a WAV file. You will find many, many different flaws that you just will not hear within your sequencer. I have got 9 different versions of the track and each one has a minor flaw. The worst was feedback issues which wasn't picked up in the scrap board. There is a string that plays through the track and doesn't change. With one sample it created huge amounts of feedback to a point Windows Media Player would stop half way through. I thought it was sample delays, feedback (you would have thought) and even post music editing...but it wasn't. It all came down to that it was made up of sawtooth waveforms and they clashed with the sawtooth waveforms on other samples. The other samples fitted the track well and wouldn't be replaced, so I replaced the string to a softer version with no sawtooth waveforms. It solved my problem.

A good track is when: When I played it though Windows Media Player I didn't have any post techno track processing. I don't think it needed it because I created or found the sounds at top quality and the kicks were bulky enough to go without processing. I didn't want to drown out the track with just bass or kicks. I think that is a good thing. Sometimes people just max the volume on everything and that is just a mess. Also they never know what they want people to listen to. At different times in the track I wanted you to listen to something, whether that be the drum and bass section, the various leads or a string. A track is never intended for you to listen to everything in one go. A good track is one where the artists knows what they want your to listen to and what they want to compliment. Sure you can hear bass lines or strings within any track but they are there as hooks that are complimentary to the main hook. You have to work out what you want people to listen to and at what point. Therefore your track doesn't become such a jumble.

After that I made the WAV file into an MP3 using Audacity, then uploaded that MP3 file to Soundclick and then advertised it.

If you want to go further into techno music making. Check out my successful :) ebook that covers everything that you need to know about creating a techno track