melodic techno

[Evil G]

a Q for the few peeps around here who are into more melodic/synthy techno rather than the mostly percussive stuff which most people seem to be into...

what are your thoughts on modulating to different keys, or even just "plain" chord progressions within the same key? since there are "no rules" in techno, is it ok to stay in the same key the whole time, or does that doom the track to being boring and flat?

one of the things that puts me off of a lot of trance is how cheesy the key modulation sounds after an epic breakdown. i'll be into it until the bassline descends into another key and then it just turns my stomach (sorry to the trance guys in the croud...lol, that's just how if feel about it!).

so i guess what i'm really asking is, anybody got any tips for making something melodically interesting while avoiding the cheese? so far, my melodic stuff has avoided the cheese by playing it safe and sticking to a couple of chords, but i guess i'm feeling more adventurous these days.

[dirty_bass]

Well, I love a well made melody, pure percussion is fine, but it doesn`t really say much.
I think making a really nice meldody out of more unusual sounds can work.
Combining odd sounds, that together build up a nice chord or melody is a "techno" way of approaching things.
A lot of people will say that nay melody is cheesy, but personally, I`m starting to find the more obvious, purely percussive "look at me I`m so hard"
techno to be cheesy.

Proper songlike key changes, and more complex chordal progressions may well work, and it`s something I really want to investigate myself.
As long as it`s done tastefully, I don`t see anything wrong with it.

[lau]

Think cari is the man....

just listen to his records to get some id'zz

[RDR]

i presume you're talking about cari lekebusch?

[lau]

i presume you're talking about cari lekebusch?

yupzz lekebusch I mean..

He always seems to create melodies with freaky sounds...

[fresh_an_funky_design]

funk d'void makes some nice melodic techno

[RDR]

i presume you're talking about cari lekebusch?

yupzz lekebusch I mean..

He always seems to create melodies with freaky sounds...

Yeah man, Cari's production values are super high!

[lau]

Yeah man, Cari's production values are super high!

Like I said he is the man :rambo: Though haven't heard really good stuff of him lately...

Think his old work rocks like hell... :shock:

b.t.w.
love you naoto hattori avatar... that guy can paint ;)

[detfella]

and cari is playing darkside :rambo: can't wait!!

re: the melodies i like the devils note, bernstein used it in west side story a lot.

The no-no interval, or tritone

There's another reason why the G7 moves so satisfyingly to the C. It's called the tritone interval. This interval will make your straight hair curly, your milk go sour, and will propel the G7 smack into the C with cataclysmic force. (That last sentence sounds great if you pretend you're Charlton Heston.)

The tritone is an interval, which means it's two notes: B and F. Play a B and an F, listening to how unusual they sound together and how much tension they produce.

[Starfuqer]

adding a melodic progression to techno would just make it sound like tech trance or tech house

[detfella]

disagree totally. didn't 90% of first techno tracks have melodic progressions?

[herman]

disagree totally. didn't 90% of first techno tracks have melodic progressions?

At least , its something thats sadly lacking now

[dirty_bass]

adding a melodic progression to techno would just make it sound like tech trance or tech house

hahaha
I hate sub sub genres.

Adding a bassline to techno makes it bassline techno
Adding vocals makes it vocal techno.
Techno has no rules. It`s an attitude.

[xfive]

What if it has a bassline, vocals, melodies, and banging perc?

:shock:

:lol:

[audioinjection]

What if it has a bassline, vocals, melodies, and banging perc?

:shock:

:lol:

trance :lol:

[xfive]

What if it has a bassline, vocals, melodies, and banging perc?

:shock:

:lol:

trance :lol:



noooooooooooooo!!! We're doomed.

:headache: :help: :bash: :silenced:

[Starfuqer]

disagree totally. didn't 90% of first techno tracks have melodic progressions?

whigfield saturday night?

[RDR]

disagree totally. didn't 90% of first techno tracks have melodic progressions?

whigfield saturday night?

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:


"Saturday night and i like the way you...cameras ready prepare to flash!"

Wasnt that greenwigfield?

[Starfuqer]

Saturday night , and the air is getting hot

with my baby


or something like that
She had like 3 videos or something
lol

[Komplex]

adding a melodic progression to techno would just make it sound like tech trance or tech house

oh no, we wouldn't want the music to be mis labeled and put into the wrong category cus then it just wouldn't be good would it ;)

[Starfuqer]

adding a melodic progression to techno would just make it sound like tech trance or tech house

oh no, we wouldn't want the music to be mis labeled and put into the wrong category cus then it just wouldn't be good would it ;)

you care enough about sub genres not to post in the trance section

[Jay Pace]

Adding drums to techno makes it rock and roll

True techno is the the silence in between other louder bits of silence.

Everything else is wuss-core for roboplegic romcocks.

[dirty_bass]

Adding drums to techno makes it rock and roll

True techno is the the silence in between other louder bits of silence.

Everything else is wuss-core for roboplegic romcocks.

Hahahaaa
Good to see other people see the absurdity of applying restrictions and boundaries to techno.

[TechMouse]

Adding drums to techno makes it rock and roll

True techno is the the silence in between other louder bits of silence.

Everything else is wuss-core for roboplegic romcocks.

Hahahaaa
Good to see other people see the absurdity of applying restrictions and boundaries to techno.
Absurdity?

I agree 100% with what Jay is saying.

[Evil G]

a bit of a drunken thought to add....

plastikman did a 6 min drum track on the sheet one album (1993). it was amazing that he made an interesting track using (i think) just a 606 and 909, but the best thing about it is how damned good it makes the bassline sound in the following track. ;)

[dirty_bass]

a bit of a drunken thought to add....

plastikman did a 6 min drum track on the sheet one album (1993). it was amazing that he made an interesting track using (i think) just a 606 and 909, but the best thing about it is how damned good it makes the bassline sound in the following track. ;)

That`s the essence of a minimal set though.
Give people barely enough of anything to dance to.
Then now and again, something, ANYTHING, even a once note riff, will tear the roof off.

I`ve pissed myself in many a minimal set, when it`s been nothing but 808 and 909 for ages.
Then a teeny tiny blip comes in playing 2 notes, and people go nuts.

It`s the starvation principle.
Give people nothing but water for days.
Then give them a piece of celery. They will think it is the most wonderful thing they have ever tasted.

[Evil G]

like playing hard to get...

[Ritzi Lee]

http://www.juno.co.uk/ppps/products/174595-01.htm

an example of a melody techno track of mine.
regarding making melodies there's a big comparence between:

techno <-----> funk / soul

or:

trance <-----> classical string music / opera.

So make it funky, like making chicago house music.
Only the sounds are ruff, hard, deep and as minimal as possible.

modulating and filtering / resonating sounds also make big differences to keep it interesting.

[Starfuqer]

http://www.juno.co.uk/ppps/products/174595-01.htm

an example of a melody techno track of mine.
regarding making melodies there's a big comparence between:

techno <-----> funk / soul

or:

trance <-----> classical string music / opera.

So make it funky, like making chicago house music.
Only the sounds are ruff, hard, deep and as minimal as possible.

modulating and filtering / resonating sounds also make big differences to keep it interesting.

have an example of one that modualtes to a new key or changes chords like the orginal guy was asking about ?

[rounser]

Then a teeny tiny blip comes in playing 2 notes, and people go nuts.
"Set building" through boredom really gets on my tits, sometimes...when people are trying so hard to have a good time despite mindnumbingly dull music that they cheer when a high hat comes in on some bog prog because it's the most interesting thing that's happened for the last ten minutes... :rambo:

[detfella]

I wish those musicians would not allow themselves any repetitions, and would go faster in developing their ideas or their findings, because I don't appreciate at all this permanent repetitive language. It is like someone who is stuttering all the time, and can't get words out of his mouth. I think musicians should have very concise figures and not rely on this fashionable psychology. I don't like psychology whatsoever: using music like a drug is stupid. One shouldn't do that : music is the product of the highest human intelligence, and of the best senses, the listening senses and of imagination and intuition. And as soon as it becomes just a means for ambiance, as we say, environment, or for being used for certain purposes, then music becomes a whore, and one should not allow that really; one should not serve any existing demands or in particular not commercial values. That would be terrible: that is selling out the music.

re: a richie hawtin track
It starts with 30 or 40 - I don't know, I haven't counted them - fifths in parallel, always the same perfect fifths, you see, changing from one to the next, and then comes in hundreds of repetitions of one small section of an African rhythm: duh-duh-dum, etc, and I think it would be helpful if he listened to Cycle for percussion, which is only a 15 minute long piece of mine for a percussionist, but there he will have a hell to understand the rhythms, and I think he will get a taste for very interesting non-metric and non-periodic rhythms. I know that he wants to have a special effect in dancing bars, or wherever it is, on the public who like to dream away with such repetitions, but he should be very careful, because the public will sell him out immediately for something else, if a new kind of musical drug is on the market. So he should be very careful and separate as soon as possible from the belief in this kind of public.

[Starfuqer]

staukhausen reviewed a richie hawtin track ?

kind of funny

[Komplex]

adding a melodic progression to techno would just make it sound like tech trance or tech house

oh no, we wouldn't want the music to be mis labeled and put into the wrong category cus then it just wouldn't be good would it ;)

you care enough about sub genres not to post in the trance section

No there is another reason why I don't post in the "trance" section :)

[Ritzi Lee]

http://www.juno.co.uk/ppps/products/174595-01.htm

an example of a melody techno track of mine.
regarding making melodies there's a big comparence between:

techno <-----> funk / soul

or:

trance <-----> classical string music / opera.

So make it funky, like making chicago house music.
Only the sounds are ruff, hard, deep and as minimal as possible.

modulating and filtering / resonating sounds also make big differences to keep it interesting.

have an example of one that modualtes to a new key or changes chords like the orginal guy was asking about ?

Most tracks by Octave One, or Funk D'Void.

[stjohn]

but does richie hawtin get away with it?? i think he might
poetry can often be very subtle and for me, minimal is subtle...
plus when he did that DE9:closer to the edit, it was nicely chopped up, never draggin on!
technodoes not have to be a complex array of percussion
sometimes the hypnotic nature of repitition will suffice!

but it helps if u are stoned...... :crackup:

minimal - stoned, chillin!
bangin - buzzin, clubs!

[Jay Pace]

Then a teeny tiny blip comes in playing 2 notes, and people go nuts.
"Set building" through boredom really gets on my tits, sometimes...when people are trying so hard to have a good time despite mindnumbingly dull music that they cheer when a high hat comes in on some bog prog because it's the most interesting thing that's happened for the last ten minutes... :rambo:

So don't go to minimal nights.

If its big and obvious your after, maybe try drum & bass. Or trance.

Each to their own mate.

;)

[stjohn]

if anyone has not yet done it.... have a listen to closer to the edit....
2 really nice snippets of melodic minimal techno, which i think are both different edits of carl craig - the climax

i fuqqin love that mix!

[dirty_bass]

I love Closer to the edit.
But it isn`t a very good representation of a true hawtine minimal set.
Sometimes it gets too anal.

[Jay Pace]

Hawtin minimal sets are unusual, in that he seems to oscillate between raw minimal stuff to quite big records.
I don't think I have ever seen him not play acid storm. Most always pontape as well.

I thought "closer" was a little off the mark. And "silent intelligence" was properly self indulgent.

Love both his mix albums though...

[audioinjection]

background germany has sick minimal stuff, check them out

http://www.juno.co.uk/labels/Background+Germany/

[rounser]

So don't go to minimal nights.
No, I like minimal...it's the banal percussion prog of the early noughties which does my head in (and still gets played out a bit), and was very difficult to avoid back in the small town I was in. You'd go for something else and have to sit through hours of warmup of this stuff...

[Jay Pace]

I think minimal done well with skill borders on the sublime.

But done badly, and you are left listening to what sounds like a bunch of 12yr olds locked in a room with an 808 for 4 days.

The less talent you have as a dj the more you have to rely on your records to keep people interested. But talented djs can make otherwise dull records sparkle because they know the context in which to use them.

;)

[Mindful]

I think minimal done well with skill borders on the sublime.

But done badly, and you are left listening to what sounds like a bunch of 12yr olds locked in a room with an 808 for 4 days.

The less talent you have as a dj the more you have to rely on your records to keep people interested. But talented djs can make otherwise dull records sparkle because they know the context in which to use them.

;)

well said