Birmingham Techno

Mesca · Post by **Mesca** » Wed Mar 27, 2002 12:58 pm

hello all,

i'm new here. much thanks to those who start help threads for pulsar newbies - had pops, snaps, and inconsistent results w/ my pulsar2 for a month, then fortunately discovered this site (esp the win2k optimization and cubase integration threads) and finally had it stable in 2 days.

i love the blips/bleeps of idm, the layering/phase-shifting of ambient, and the technicality in dnb. but i'm really into dark, hard, minimal, dirty techno - especially the sounds coming out of birmingham, uk - the downwards camp, at the forefront imho. if you haven't heard of any of the artists on this label, here's a sample.

any pulsar users out there on the same wavelength?

any ideas on how such sounds would be generated in the pulsar environment? been experimenting w/ pulsar synths/effects (just got the propack, so i have a lot to learn), but am not getting the presence and rawness that i would like to have. any tips on production techniques towards the creation of this type of sound (this is emphasis on the individual sounds, rather than track structure)? any creative uses of vsti's (esp the ni stuff) w/ pulsar tools, in the same vein? favorite pulsar modules and project configurations for this?

thanks in advance.

remixme · Post by **remixme** » Wed Mar 27, 2002 1:13 pm

Where are you from? I am from BHAM uk. Just wondered.

Mesca · Post by **Mesca** » Wed Mar 27, 2002 2:47 pm

new york city. i was actually turned on to this style of techno by a former roommate who happened to be Surgeon's girlfriend. i met him once, but only briefly - very cool, laid-back guy, somewhat the opposite of what i expected, after listening to a couple of his early downwards tracks (pet2000, for instance).

would you happen to know any of the producers in this scene? and i take it you've been to HOG?

algorhythm · Post by **algorhythm** » Wed Mar 27, 2002 3:51 pm

I make some IDM stuff sometimes - check it out. its in the sig.

I use the STS sampler a lot to playback / manipulate tweaked stuff I make. For synths - check out the blue synth hummel mod, defex's transplanet (actually anything from http://www.neutron7.com is good!).

also, destroyFX stuff (VST) is good and GRM tools - they work great in conjunction with pulsar stuff. and check out hummel's new drum synth!!!!

good luck

_________________
[ { ( - algorhythm - ) } ] /

[ This Message was edited by: algorhythm on 2002-03-27 15:52 ]

at0m · Post by **at0m** » Wed Mar 27, 2002 5:12 pm

Hi peoplez! Finally some minimal talk on z

I didn't know they were in Birmingham lately

I'm a big fan of ol' school Detroit minimal techno too. I'm from Belgium, I think Delta and Sabena made good $ on the dj's going back and forth between Detroit and Belgium.
A whole generation that followed Jeff Mills (not so friendly but great artist), The Advent, Claude Young, Adam Beyer, Stacey Pullen, Ian Pooley. Although more housy but still techno, Kenny Larkin was a good laugh too! Remember these times he put on some Madonna or Prince during the set, leaving the audience in disbelief and making a quick picture of the room

Was impressed too by Luke Slater, CJ Boland (more bigbeat) live set a while ago. Do so much when using so little sounds. On the contrary, Laurent Garnier (my favorite live) has like 45 orchestra's in his mixer. He found fast, best and coolest soundscapes. Not minimal anymore of course, but a mastertweaker for sure.

I did an attempt to praise for minimal here. Let me know there how you'd like to integrate minimal into Pulsar.

If you do a search, you'll find a topic that mentions:
DubSub2, MiniScope MKII, Hummel's Inferno, Saturn, Dist+Taste modular, http://www.neutron7.com synths and fx for sure for original sounds...

Favorite DSP effects:
Neutron 7 (rhino, defilter, anti-coder, dubaduck), Spacef filter mods, delays and sidechain gaters or dubaduck, SSB Phaser ( quick preset changes;), Celmo BluesMan, LesliQ, ringmodulators

Favorite VST fx:
Northpole, TranceFormer, Metalizer, GRM.

Do not forget to tweak your knobs. Now w minimal the trick is to know everything and use almost nothing. Only that special knob movement might be very important to change accents, feel etc.

I like it hard, yes I think 130bpm is slow.

*at0mic name dropping*

borg · Post by **borg** » Wed Mar 27, 2002 5:17 pm

surgeon, space djz, advent, jb3,robert hood, dj rush... me thinks most people here don't like this kind of 'repetitive' mindtwisting totally flashing my brain kind of music, but some do

try out dubsub2... good for everything. i've made some techno, but with not much success (although repetitive, not easy to get it right) imho this music is drum machine/sampler based, and a sampler is something i have hardly used so far. it's time for a change...

algorhythm · Post by **algorhythm** » Thu Mar 28, 2002 7:21 am

130 is slow. i always laugh cuz Kensuguro says to "around 150 bpm" - I go to about 195! hehehe

Mesca · Post by **Mesca** » Thu Mar 28, 2002 9:51 am

thanks, and much respect to all you guys for your suggestions. it's very encouraging to get advice from pulsar veterans.

and glad to find some people with the same appreciation for this stuff. i think this flavor of techno has strengths in its subtlety. borg, i totally agree - to someone new, the first reaction is that it sounds "repetitive," - if they were really listening, rhythms are shifting, sounds are changing, sounds are being layered. a lot of people, i feel, don't pay enough attention to music - they want blatant hooks, blatant structure changes, comfortable sounds... well, that's pop music.

at0mic, i'm with you on the detroit influence. in addition, i really feel the stuff from guys like ben sims, marco corola, james ruskin, and the experimental sides of aphex twin, vladislav delay... and can't forget basic channel.

and thanks for all the module suggestions! good lord, there are so many - right now, i don't even have enough time to learn ni reaktor, alone. but i'm going to get to them all...in time. dubsub2 looks awesome - i'm trying out the free dubsub first. wavelength seems a powerhouse for scope. and definitely checking out the neutron7 stuff. not..enough..time..

btw, are you guys at the level that you can take a modular, picture a sound, and create it from scratch? i know some of you have already developed modules for scope. using reaktor, then, a piece of cake?

and yeah, 130 is pretty slow if you're aiming for the dancefloor. it better be at least 130 when you're at 0 pitch adjust on the decks...or you can play +8 like a madman all the time, like richie hawtin.

borg · Post by **borg** » Thu Mar 28, 2002 1:13 pm

hi,

just some remarks:
dubsub free device comes nowhere near the real stuff, but it's ok.
bpm: i've been told that 138 is the perfect, or average, heartbeat rate when dancing. lots of technorecords are near 138 bpm. i was wondering why i could keep on dancing all night long

i know a guy who does lots of booking, and knows surgeon quite well too. he has lots of surgeon stuff. unfortunately most of these records are white labels, nothing on them at all, except great, freakin' weird techno,nowhere to be found, and you surely must have some of them as well, you lucky b*d

lot's of "winks" on this page i must say
_________________
andy
 the lunatics are in the hall 

[ This Message was edited by: borg on 2002-03-28 13:17 ]

at0m · Post by **at0m** » Mon Apr 01, 2002 10:26 am

If this isn't Birmingham techno, it sure looks like a nice radio station I think

ps- I don't have Realplayer, could you tell me if this station makes it worth the install?

borg · Post by **borg** » Mon Apr 01, 2002 10:59 am

fantastic link

http://www.contour.net/netcast/index.html has some great live stuff too (vladislav delay, kid606, pansonic,... not techno, but better, imo)

remixme · Post by **remixme** » Mon Apr 01, 2002 1:40 pm

You know considering I live in birmingham, I didn't realise it had that much of a techno scene certainly not known abroad at any rate.
Old school is certainly having a revival here at the moment.
Trance with mostly dance also rules most of the clubs, about.
Lest we forget garage which although popular is actually quite short on any good talent lately.
Thats just my take on things.
Then again just because its made here doesn't mean its popular here.

King of Snake · Post by **King of Snake** » Tue Apr 02, 2002 3:49 am

Although it's not my main interest in music, I certainly enjoy this minimal techno a lot. Artists like Richie Hawtin, Cari Lekebush, Speedy J.
I've often tried to get something in that sound, especially beats-wise but never even came close. I just recently got NI Battery though and it's great for quickly layering lots of drums together sp it's perfect for this kind of music, which is mostly about rhythm and short loops.
Rhythm, bass, compression, those are the prime ingredients, a few gritty sound effects here and there and your off...
I've said it before and I'll say it again, the Sequential Pro-One is great for deep bass (better than those free synhts) and weird loops. Also take a look at http://www.technotoys.com and check out the Seq 303, a realy cool stepsequencer which you can use with any pulsar synths for easy loops. (until CW fix the stepsequencer module, I don't trust the Pro-One stepsequencer for timing at all).