Download the Ableton Live 7 techno beat project (.zip format) to play around with this example track

In the techno beat live set provided above, you’ll find several samples:

• kick.aif: this is a clean, punchy kick that works well for techno. It has a nice click at the beginning, followed by a punchy sine wave that bends in pitch after a few milliseconds
• snare.aif: this snare has punch and smack to it, with plenty of high-frequency content
• open hh.aif: a very short, minimal sounding click that works nicely for anything minimal
• boink.aif: a high hat and a cup type of sound.
• blip.aif: a synthesized little hit with high and mid frequency content
• tom.aif: a clicky, synthesized tom, very techno

These samples came from SampleMagic’s Minimal/Tech House sample and loop library.

Here’s a quick tutorial of how I made this beat:

1. Create a new Drum Rack Instrument by dragging it from “Live Devices” into the clip/device drop area
2. You should see a grid of 16 squares in the new Drum Rack. Navigate your samples directory with one of the File Browsers, and drag your drum samples into the grid squares. Note: you can select multiple samples and drag them into the drum rack at once, they will be automatically placed in order.
3. If you want your drums to be velocity-sensitive, (which is a must for writing expressive drum paterns) then you will want to select each drum except the kick (either by clicking on a square or selecting it in the Chain List) and set Vel (on the right side) to 50%. The reason I don’t like to set the Vel on the kick drum is because the kick is your constant, you may not want to accidently make the volume of one note louder than another.
4. Now you’ve got a nice drum kit to work with. The typical house or techno beat has a 4/4 kick drum, so go ahead now and create a clip by double clicking an empty slot in the drum rack track, and then double clicking on the newly created clip.
5. Before you start creating any notes, make sure your clip has its Groove set to “Swing 16″, and the global groove amount set to anywhere from 20 or so to 70 or 80. This will make your clip play back with a lot more swing, and this is essential for creating a “groove” feeling. See the image below for where to find the global groove amount:
   
6. Create a Kick drum note on 1, 1.2, 1.3, and 1.4. Play the track so far by pressing space bar, and listen to your simple beat. Now click on the clip and hit Cmd+D or Ctrl+D for PC users. This will duplicate the clip.
7. Now let’s add in some snare in this new clip. on 1.2 and 1.4, add a snare drum note. This is the simplest of all house beats.
   
8. With each new duplicated clip, begin to add in more samples in between the kicks, making it however simple or complex as you’d like. By adding new clips to the drum rack for each new variation, you make it easy to create a progression that will fit into a track. It should start out simple and grow more complex as the song goes on.
   
9. Now that you have several different clips of different beats, you can click record and then trigger each clip and let it play for 2 bars or so, then click the next, then the next after that. This will create a recording of your beats, which you can view by pressing Tab to switch to the song mode.
10. That’s it for now. Good luck! Oh, and if you have any of your own tips, post them here in the comments.

Related articles

• Sonic Transfer: How to build a kick drum
• Sound On Sound: How to synthesize a snare drum (advanced tutorial)
• Tweakheadz: How to write original drum tracks

If you think of a song as an arrangement of layers of audio, then it makes most sense to begin a track with one or two layers. Instead of jumping right into a beat, it helps to ease the listener into the song. The intro gives the listener an idea of what the rest of the song will be like. It sets the mood, and at raves or other dance parties, it gives dancers a chance to catch their breath and rest for a bit.

If you are writing a downtempo or ambient song, it’s good to start the track out with sound effects with lots of delay on them. Try finding some sounds from the special effect presets on your synth. You want to ‘hook’ the listener from the first few seconds of your track. I can’t tell you how many producers start their tracks with a basic drum loop that stretches on way too long before anything interesting happens. In my opinion, that’s a very boring way to start a track (ok, it can be helpful for DJ’s, but still…)

If you’re like me, you like songs that can tell a story, even without words. In order to create a song that can tell a story, it must be able to communicate different emotions throughout the length of the song. This means that your song may contain several different themes all together. So, your song will need to be able to smoothly transition between the different elements. I find that the easiest way to accomplish this is to gradually (or suddenly) drop out most of the layers in your track, leaving only one or two different sounds or instruments. Then introduce a new element that sounds good with the last remaining layers, and use a buildup to introduce a new section. Now you can drop out those last remaining layers, and now you have a completely different vibe!

Another interesting trick is to find a nice long percussive sound and reverse it. Then, when you have the reversed clip in your sequencer, you align the climax of the reversed sound with the beginning of the next bar. This adds suspense, which is cool in my book.