Techno Tutorial | The Origins and Basics for Beginners

Teacher

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All Items, Full course, Hardware, Music History, Techno

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Occult delivers a crash course Techno tutorial on the origins and basics of Techno music. Starting with the history, Occult explains the circumstances and motives behind Techno music. Artists like Juan Atkins, kevin Saunderson and Derrick May were inspired by futurism and technology, each had grown up around Soul, Funk and Gospel music but later became fans of early German Techno group, Kraftwerk. Techno music centred around drum machines and synthesizers. Techno began spreading to parts of europe and quickly created a club scene in newly freed Germany.

Occult moves onto demonstrate in this Techno tutorial, the workings of a classic drum machine, explaining step sequencing and the limited nature of such machines. some well known electronic drum kits used at the time are the Roland 808 and 909. next an analog synthesizer, restricted to monophonic sequences, 4 oscillators, one filter and one LFO. Occult creates a typical 80s Techno loop using techniques like randomisation. He then mixes the loop on an analog mixing console in keeping with technology of the era. Whilst this course demonstrates how early techno may have been created, the tools used are not essential to contributing to the Techno genre. The essence of Techno music is experimentation with whatever available and breaking the rules in new ways to craft your own sound.

Below are some links to some of the artists that Occult refers to in part 1 of this course along with a few other resources for you to take a look at.

Model 500 – No UFO’s

Rhythm is Rhythm – Strings Of Life

Kevin Saunderson – The Groove That Won’t Stop

16BIT (Sven Vath) – Where Are you

Kraftwerk Live in 1970

Techno City Documentary

Berlin Techno Scene Documentary

And don’t forget; if you would like to see more video tutorials from our Education & Bass tutors then head over to Education & Bass Youtube channel where you can watch 500+ videos covering various aspects of music production, business, theory and wellbeing.

Course Features

Lectures 4
Quizzes 0
Duration Lifetime access
Skill level All levels
Students 5
Assessments Yes

Occult

I loved listening closely to music as a child, thanks to my families diverse taste. I became interested in making music when i learned that it could be composed inside a computer. At age 14 I was using Cakewalk, Rebirth and rudimentary home recordings to make very experimental music. I first released dubstep music commercially in 2009.
At 19 I was studying a Higher national Diploma in Electronic music. I had gained popularity and began to DJ around the UK. I ran a radio show on RoodFM with Jot Maxi.
I have worked in recording studios with all kinds of bands, The most memorable was a live 24-piece big band, in one room. I have gathered plenty of experience using DAWs like Logic, Ableton, FL studio and ProTools.
I studied Creative Music Production at Brighton University. My dissertation was on sound system culture and the human desire for sound in its physical form. I was a resident DJ at The Mine at Volks, Brighton.
I have worked on commercial sound design for the BBC, L’officiel magazine, Toms shoes and Baltman and some experimental sound design for smaller brands and artistic projects. I have gathered a library of my own sounds over a 10 year period and built a knowledge of effects processing and mixing/mastering.
I have composed and performed my own music as a solo artist for the past decade, I have performed at festivals and venues in many countries and developed a fan base worldwide. The music I make centres around texture and sound design. My primary focus now is working on ways to perform my music live. I have been co running and assisting both the Macabre Unit Digital & Faded Tapes labels for a number of years.