A Techno Music Programming Masterclass With The Black Dog

Atmosphere and structure

A simple techno structure has an intro, a middle section and an outro. You could start with some synth sounds.

Then the drums come in.

Create tension with layers of atmospheric samples. Use random numbers generated by randf to introduce variation. For example here we set the sample rate randomly between 0.1 and 1.5.

Layer more tracks to create the middle section, then take one away at a time to create the outro.

Expert tips from The Black Dog

We often control synth parameters over a long period to gradually build up tension.