Industrial Techno

The distorted kick: layered, clipped, transient preserved

Two layers: a sine-based body for the low end and a mid-heavy saturated layer for the "crunch". Both go through clipping, but the transient of the body is protected with parallel processing so the kick still punches through the rumble.

1. Operator: Osc A sine with a sharp pitch envelope (Initial +40 st, Decay 30–40 ms) for the click-thump; Osc B Square at −12 dB adding odd harmonics; amp env A 0, D 220–300 ms, S 0. Play E1/F1.
2. Saturator (12.1): Hard Curve or Digital Clip, Drive 8–12 dB, Soft Clip off. This is the first stage of flattening.
3. Roar in Serial routing: stage 1 Soft Sine 8 dB, stage 2 Hard 6 dB, post-filter LP 3 kHz. Tone darker. Add Roar's Feedback section at 5–10% for a hint of ringing if you want the "machine".
4. Drum Buss: Transients +20–30% to pull the attack back out, Crunch 30% for upper-mid grit, Boom 10% tuned to the fundamental.
5. EQ Eight: HP 35 Hz, +2 dB at 90 Hz, −3 dB around 500 Hz (clipped kicks pile up there). Utility Mono.

Feedback rumble: the kick's distorted shadow

Louder and dirtier than the deep-techno rumble: a reverb+distortion return of the kick, with Roar's Feedback section used to create a tuned, growling resonance between the kicks.

1. Return track; send the kick pre-fader at −3 dB. Hybrid Reverb Dark Hall, decay 1–1.5 s, 100% wet, low shelf boosted if the algorithm offers it.
2. Roar in Feedback routing: shaper Diode or Fold, Drive 15–20 dB, Feedback amount 30–40%, feedback pitch tuned to the kick root (set the frequency so it rings at the fundamental or fifth). Post LP 250 Hz. This gives the "engine idling" growl.
3. EQ HP 45 Hz, LP 220 Hz 24 dB. Compressor keyed from kick: 8:1, attack 0.3 ms, release 60–80 ms (faster than deep techno; the tempo is higher and the groove more aggressive), 12–18 dB GR.
4. Saturator Analog Clip 3–5 dB after the compressor to re-harden what the ducking softened. Utility Mono, about −6 dB under the kick.

Variations: replace Hybrid Reverb with Echo at 1/16, feedback 70% for a rhythmic rumble; use Resonators (tuned to root + fifth, decay long) before Roar for a more pitched, "tunnel" rumble.

Broken snare / clap: noise, resonance, crush

Industrial snares are mid-heavy, short, and sound like sheet metal. Synthesise from noise plus a resonant band-pass, or crush a 909 clap into something unrecognisable.

1. Operator: Osc A Noise (amp env D 120 ms), Osc B sine at fixed 180 Hz for body (D 60 ms). Filter band-pass ~1.4 kHz, resonance 50–65%, filter env +30% decay 80 ms so it "yelps".
2. Redux: bit depth 8, downsample 3–5 for aliasing grit.
3. Roar Fold shaper 8–12 dB: folding on noise produces the inharmonic "clank".
4. Corpus (Plate or Membrane) 20–30% wet for a short metallic tail; Gate after it to chop the tail abruptly at 40–80 ms.
5. Program on 2 and 4, plus a ghost on the "a" of 3 every other bar.

Variations: Drum Sampler on a 909 clap with Bitcrush effect 40% and the Ring effect at a dissonant interval; Simpler on a recording of hitting a filing cabinet, One-Shot, filter BP with drive.

Metallic percussion: Corpus and Collision clangs

Pipes, chains, struck steel — the signature percussion. Collision's physical model (Beam/Plate with inharmonic ratios) is the fastest route; Corpus on any transient works for found sound.

1. Collision: exciter Noise, 3–8 ms. Resonator 1 Plate, Material 0.6, Ratio inharmonic (1.41 or 2.27), decay 0.3–0.6 s, Brightness high. Resonator 2 Beam, slightly detuned, in Parallel at −6 dB.
2. MIDI Random before it: ±3 st at 40% chance, so every hit is a different piece of metal. A Velocity MIDI tool with Random 20% adds dynamics.
3. Roar Rectify 8–12 dB: rectification doubles the pitch content and adds an aggressive edge; Erosion Wide Noise for sizzle.
4. Pattern: Euclidean 7/16 or 5/12 rotated; or Seed generator with high density, then Quantize to 16ths with 30% strength so hits sit slightly off-grid.

Noise sweeps and crushed hats

Hi-hats are often replaced by filtered noise bursts, and the arrangement is driven by long noise sweeps (8–32 bars) that take over the top end entirely.

1. Hats: Wavetable Osc 1 Noise category, Filter 1 BP at 7 kHz res 30%, amp env D 30 ms, played on 16ths with velocity randomised ±25. Redux 10 bit; Roar Bit Crush mild.
2. Auto Pan-Tremolo (12.3) in Tremolo mode synced to 1/16 at 60% depth, square-ish shape, for a "chopped" hat without programming each note.
3. Sweeps: same noise source, sustained note, Auto Filter HP sweeping from 200 Hz to 8 kHz over 16 bars via clip automation; resonance 30–50% so it screams toward the end. Widen to 160%.
4. Reverse sweep for the drop: resample it, reverse the clip, place ending on the downbeat.

EBM / sequenced bass: the 16th-note machine

Where the genre borrows from EBM and body music: a repetitive 16th-note bass sequence on one or two notes, square-ish, distorted, accented, sitting at 80–300 Hz.

1. Analog: Osc 1 Square (pulse width ~45%), Osc 2 Saw one octave down at −8 dB. Filter LP 12 dB, cutoff 500–700 Hz, resonance 25%, filter envelope +40%, decay 90 ms. Amp env D 110 ms, S 0.3. Mono, Glide 0.
2. Pattern: root 16ths with accents on 1, the "and" of 2, and 4; octave jump every 4th bar. Velocity to filter env amount for accents.
3. Overdrive 30–40%, then Roar Multiband with Hard clipping on the mid band only — keeps the sub band clean while the body distorts.
4. Sidechain 4:1 from kick; HP 60 Hz so the kick owns the bottom.

Feedback screams and resonant FX hits

The high, howling tones that sit over the top for a few bars — created by feeding a device back on itself and controlling it with a filter and a limiter.

1. Any short trigger (an Operator blip, a click) into Roar in Feedback routing: Hard shaper, Drive 18–22 dB, Feedback 50–70%, feedback pitch set to a dissonant interval (tritone, minor 9th). The loop sustains after the trigger stops.
2. Auto Filter BP, resonance 60–75%, frequency automated over 4–8 bars from 400 Hz to 5 kHz — this "steers" the scream.
3. Spectral Resonator at +12 st, 40–60% wet, for harmonic shimmer; Limiter at −8 dB ceiling before the reverb so levels stay sane.
4. Place for 4–8 bars at the end of a phrase; cut abruptly with a Gate or clip edit.

Variations: a true no-input loop (return track sending to itself with Roar and EQ Eight in the loop) — see no-input feedback and the feedback rack.

Shouted / processed vocal fragments

A barked word or phrase, distorted and pitched, used as a rhythmic stab every 2–4 bars. Intelligibility is optional; aggression is not.

1. Record a phrase (or stem-separate one in 12.3). Simpler in Slice mode, transients, so each word sits on a pad. Transpose −2 to −5 st.
2. Roar Serial: Digital Clip 12–16 dB then Fold 6 dB for megaphone grain. Auto Filter BP ~1.2 kHz makes it a telephone/PA.
3. Echo 1/8 with HP 500 Hz; short dark reverb. For extra abuse, put a second Saturator after the reverb so the tail distorts too.
4. Vocoder alternative: vocal as modulator, carrier = the noise sweep synth; you get a shouting noise storm.

Drone and tension pad: tritones and detuned saws

Under the chaos, a low sustained drone — root + tritone or root + minor 2nd, detuned saws through a slowly sweeping band-pass, light distortion. It is what makes the breakdown ominous.

1. Meld: Osc A Dual Saw with 15–25 cents detune on E1; Osc B Swarm Sine tuned +6 st (tritone), slight swarm spread. Per-osc filters LP ~500 Hz. LFO 1 very slow on both filter cutoffs. Amp env A 2 s, S 1, R 3 s.
2. Roar Single Soft Sine 5–8 dB with the modulation matrix: Noise → Drive 15% so the distortion crackles.
3. Auto Filter BP at 300–600 Hz with a 16-bar automation sweep; Hybrid Reverb large and dark.
4. Sidechain lightly; HP 90 Hz; level under the rumble.