PSFMer - Pontextual [Techno]

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There is no pontext

I went back to the drawing board because i still wasn't very satisfied with the techno stuff i have already put out. This time i put lots of effort into making the kick as good as possible. Ableton Live's workflow is really good for techno stuff imo. It's very easy to set up parallel processing with individual volume controls and place effects on the entire chain afterwards. This makes the kick processing that much easier and faster i feel. Previously in FL i had to route the mixer channels manually just to have do parallel processing (i might be doing it an inefficient way, but in Live i could set up the same processing in like a click and 2 buttons). I also tried to regulate my use of reverb because i think i tend to wash out things like FX and pads in too much reverb, which gives makes things lose a bit of focus i feel.

Paid special attention to how elements groove together, like the shakers and the hats with the kick. In terms of tonal balance, i studied a bunch of tracks that i like and i found that they generally have the kick much louder than the hats and stuff. Shakers and 16th note hihats tend to sit a little further back, while the off-beat accented closed hihat hits louder and pops up above them. I applied some tiny bit of humanisation by playing with velocities for individual hits, as well adjusting the timings such that they are not bang-on quantised on the grid. Also had some fun with swung delays on the hats. The results were satisfying enough for now, because there is a sense of 'rolling' and groove that pushes the track forward. Still much to learn, i think. Better to just wrap up this track and move on to another one, rather than dwell endlessly on individual elements.

I tried to keep things interesting by changing at least 2 elements of the track every 8 bars or so, and i think it works somewhat. It's what i love about this sort of techno: the continual repetition of a couple of motifs, kept interesting by subtle changes to the elements in the fore- and background. But it's funny because like 95% of my audience will probably still find it boring and unengaging lol

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