Deep Techno

The deep kick: short, round, tuned to the track

Not a slammer: a round, slightly saturated kick with a short pitch drop and a tail that is deliberately cut so the rumble layer can take over. Tune it to the root (or fifth) of the track.

1. Operator, algorithm with only Osc A audible (leftmost). Osc A sine, Coarse 1, Fine 0. Play F0 (43.7 Hz) or whatever your root is.
2. Pitch envelope: Initial +36 semitones, Peak ~+24, Decay 40–80 ms, Sustain 0. That decaying chirp is the click and body in one.
3. Amp envelope: Attack 0, Decay 180–260 ms, Sustain 0, Release 40 ms. Shorter than you think — the rumble fills the gap.
4. Saturator (12.1): Analog Clip, Drive 3–6 dB, Soft Clip on. Adds 2nd/3rd harmonics around 90–130 Hz so the kick reads on small speakers.
5. EQ Eight: high-pass 28 Hz (12 dB/oct), gentle cut at 300–400 Hz to remove boxiness, optional +2 dB shelf at 3 kHz if you want the click.

The rumble layer: sidechained reverb of the kick

The defining layer. A copy of the kick drowned in short reverb and/or distortion, low-passed, then ducked by the dry kick so it only swells in the gaps. It gives the "rolling" feeling without adding a bassline.

1. Create a return track "Rumble". Send the kick to it at about −6 dB (pre-fader so you can automate the kick fader later without losing the rumble).
2. Hybrid Reverb: algorithm Dark Hall or Tides, decay 1–2 s, size medium, low shelf cut if available; 100% wet. Try the Convolution side with a small plate IR for a tighter result.
3. Roar: Single stage, Soft Sine or Diode shaper, Drive 10–15 dB, post filter low-pass 200–250 Hz, Tone dark. This turns the reverb wash into harmonics in the 60–150 Hz band.
4. EQ Eight: HP 40–50 Hz (keep it out of the sub), LP 160–200 Hz 24 dB/oct. Optional small bell at 90 Hz +2 dB.
5. Compressor with external sidechain from the kick track: ratio 4–8:1, attack 0.5–1 ms, release 80–120 ms, threshold until you see 10–15 dB of gain reduction. The release sets the "roll"; tie it to the tempo (a 16th at 128 BPM is 117 ms).
6. Utility: Mono, Bass Mono on, output around −8 to −12 dB relative to the kick.

Variations: replace Hybrid Reverb with Echo (dual delay, dotted 8th + 16th, feedback 60%, Reverb section on) for a rhythmic rumble; use Drum Buss Boom (frequency tuned to the root, Boom 30%) instead of Roar for a cleaner sub-rumble.

Sub: drone on the root, or none at all

Many deep techno tracks have no separate bassline; the rumble is the bass. When you do add a sub it is either a sustained drone on the root (ducked by the kick) or a single off-beat note. Keep it pure.

1. Drift, Osc 1 Sine, Osc 2 off, filter MS2 low-pass fully open, Voice mode Mono, Glide ~60 ms so note changes slide.
2. Amp envelope: Attack 20 ms, Decay 0, Sustain 1, Release 150 ms. Write one long note per 4 bars on the root (F0, ~43.7 Hz, if the kick body is tuned to F1, 87 Hz, an octave above; or keep the sub an octave below the kick body).
3. Sidechain Compressor keyed from the kick, 4:1, attack 1 ms, release 90–110 ms. Deeper ducking than the rumble so the kick is never masked.

Off-beat hat and 16th shaker: filtered, dull, slightly loose

The hat is quiet and dark. Think of a 909 open hat low-passed at 8 kHz, or synthesised noise, playing off-beat 8ths with a shorter 16th shaker underneath for motion. The looseness comes from velocity and timing, not from being loud.

1. Drum Rack with a 909 open hat on one pad (Drum Sampler: decay shortened to ~120 ms, filter LP 9 kHz) and a short closed hat or synthesised noise (Operator, Osc A Noise, amp decay 25 ms, filter BP 6 kHz) on another.
2. Program the open hat on the off-beat 8ths, the closed hat/shaker on 16ths with velocity cycling 60-90-70-100 (use the Velocity MIDI tool: Random 15%, then Velocity Shaper for a per-bar curve).
3. Group → Auto Filter (12.2) low-pass 24 dB at 7–9 kHz, light drive. Dull hats sit behind the reverb instead of on top of it.
4. Erosion (Wide Noise, 3–5 kHz, 20–40%) for a touch of grit that reads as "tape" rather than "digital".
5. Send 10–20% to an Echo return (1/8 dotted, feedback 35%, filter HP 800 Hz) — the delay is what makes the hat feel like it is in the room.

The filtered stab: one chord, one filter, a lot of delay

A minor 7th or sus2 voicing, played as short stabs on an off-grid pattern, low-passed so only the fundamental and first harmonics show, then thrown into a dub delay. This is the melodic content of the whole track; everything else is texture.

1. Analog: Osc 1 Saw, Osc 2 Saw, Osc 2 detune +6 cents and −12 semitones (octave below) for weight. Filter 1 LP 24 dB, cutoff ~420 Hz, resonance 20–30%, filter envelope amount +25% with decay 250 ms. Amp env: A 2 ms, D 300 ms, S 0, R 250 ms.
2. MIDI: single root note; Chord MIDI effect adds +7 (fifth), +10 (minor seventh), +14 (ninth). Or write the voicing. Keep it in the 150–400 Hz range for the fundamentals (root around F2–A2).
3. Pattern: stabs on the "and of 2" and "4a" style positions — see sequencer below. Two or three hits per bar, max.
4. Auto Filter after the synth with the Envelope section at 30% so louder hits open the filter slightly; this adds the "breathing" that a static cutoff lacks.
5. Send to a dub delay return (Echo, left 3/16 right 1/4, feedback 50–60%, Filter HP 300 Hz / LP 3 kHz, Modulation 10%, Reverb section 20%). Automate the send level: that is your arrangement.

Variations: Wavetable with Basics > Saw and Unison Classic ×3 for a glassier stab; Meld with Dual Saw + Chord engine (12.2) for a single-note stab that already carries the voicing; Electric for a Rhodes-like stab (classic Detroit-deep).

Noise bed and granular texture: the room tone

A quiet, constant, wide texture — field recording, synth noise, a smeared chord — that gives the track a "place". It should be nearly inaudible solo'd in the mix, but obvious when you mute it.

1. Granulator III on a 10–30 s field recording (rain, a tunnel, a running tap) or a long resampled chord. Grain Size 120–250 ms, Spray 30–50%, Scan slow (or an LFO on file position), Pitch 0 with ±3 cents random.
2. Auto Filter band-pass around 800 Hz–2 kHz, LFO very slow (0.03–0.08 Hz) with ±1 octave, so the texture migrates up and down over 20–30 seconds.
3. Chorus-Ensemble in Ensemble mode for width; Hybrid Reverb long decay, 50–60% wet.
4. Utility width 130–150%, level −15 to −20 dB. High-pass at 200 Hz: the texture never touches the low end.
5. Optional: sidechain the texture lightly from the kick (2:1, release 200 ms) so it breathes with the groove.

Metallic perc and toms: Collision and Corpus

Deep techno's extra percussion is mostly pitched metal — bells, pipes, struck bars — and low toms, used as syncopated counter-rhythms that appear every few bars.

1. Collision: Mallet excitation (Stiffness 60%, Noise 20%), Resonator 1 type Tube or Beam, decay 0.5–1 s, Material 0.3, Ratio inharmonic (e.g. 1.73) for a dull bell. Pitch random ±20 cents via a MIDI Random device for life.
2. Pattern: a 3-against-4 or Euclidean (Euclidean Sequencer pack: 5 pulses over 16 steps) hit pattern, played every 2 bars, velocity low.
3. Erosion adds subtle inharmonic sizzle; Echo 1/16 ping-pong at 20% wet gives it a tail that locks to the grid.
4. For low toms: Operator sine with pitch env −12 st 120 ms, amp decay 350 ms, tuned a fourth above the kick, played on one off-beat 16th every 4 bars.

Variations: any short sample → Corpus (Pipe or Membrane resonator) for the same effect on found sounds; Drum Sampler Ring effect on a clave for instant metal.

Low drone / pad: the fifth below everything

A sustained, barely-moving pad on the root and fifth, sitting 150–500 Hz, with a slow filter sweep. It is what makes 16 bars of the same loop feel like it is "going somewhere".

1. Wavetable: Osc 1 Vintage category (any analog-saw-ish table), position modulated by LFO 1 at 0.05 Hz ±10%. Osc 2 same table, −7 st (fifth below) at −6 dB. Unison Shimmer, 4 voices, amount 25%. Filter 1 LP (MS2), 600 Hz, Res 10%.
2. Amp env: A 1.5 s, D 0, S 1, R 2 s. One note held for 8–16 bars.
3. Auto Filter after: very slow LFO over ±2 octaves. Phaser-Flanger (Phaser mode, rate 0.1 Hz, 10% wet) adds internal motion.
4. Light sidechain from the kick; HP at 120 Hz in EQ Eight so it does not touch the rumble.

Vocal fragments and spoken FX (optional)

Where the genre uses voice it is a single word or breath, pitched down, drowned in delay, appearing once every 8–16 bars. Treat it as a texture with a human shape, not as a hook.

1. Simpler, One-Shot, a spoken word or breath, pitch −5 to −9 st in Complex Pro so formants stay semi-plausible.
2. Vocoder in Modulator = the Simpler, carrier = internal Noise; 12–16 bands, Release 300–500 ms. The result is a whispered, unintelligible version.
3. Grain Delay for a pitched-down echo smear; Hybrid Reverb long and wet. Place one hit at bar 7 of each 8.