Hey friends,
For a very long time, I played melodic techno live sets built on finished songs: each one had its own seven scenes in Ableton, played one after another. When I started my ambient live sets, I chose a different approach: exploration. No setlist, just the setup and wherever it takes me.
And then, somewhere in those explorations, techno came back. Honestly, it wasn’t something I had planned. It just happened.
It all started with a kick
During my ambient jams I started adding kicks and percussive sounds, just for fun. In Melodic Minute episode 17 that turned into an ambient techno jam. And I thought: why not explore this further and turn it into its own setup?
So before building anything in Ableton, I wrote down a first draft of the system. Since then I’ve reworked it a couple of times, and the version you see in this week’s Melodic Minute is a lot more fleshed out.
A different philosophy
The hardware is almost the same as in my ambient setup: the Ableton Push 3, the Neuzeit Drop and the Moog Mother-32. But the thinking behind it is pretty different. In ambient, I run everything through my performance FX. In techno, you don’t want reverb on your kick and bass, so the mix now lives on Ableton’s return channels.
And the biggest change: the whole jam is just one scene. One song used to need seven scenes. Now seven scenes could be a full live set.
Follow the side quests (remember?)
The things you try just for fun don’t have to stay side notes. Sometimes they turn into something completely new. You don’t need a plan for that, just enough curiosity to follow where it goes. I hope you can take something away for yourself!
There is so much more to share about this setup, and we’ll explore it further over the coming weeks of Season 3.
Stay creative,
Milan (KVNDRA)
P.S.: If you want to support Melodic Minute and help keep the series going, you can find me on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/kvndra
