Hey friends,
The Neuzeit Instruments Drop keeps moving more and more into the center of my setup. And honestly, I don't think the new melodic techno set I'm working on right now would even exist without it. I had a melodic techno setup that worked, but the possibilities the Drop gave me showed me how I could break out of that setup a little and bring more playfulness into it.
The band approach
Before, I approached my melodic techno shows the same way I used to approach concerts with my band. I made a setlist and planned pretty precisely in which order I'd play the songs. Of course I had a lot of freedom within and between the songs: how long I play certain parts, how I shape the transitions, how long I stay in them and play two songs on top of each other. A bit like a DJ might plan a set. And that worked really well, until I got to a point where I noticed it was limiting me a little and I wanted more freedom in how I express myself.
The ambient setup
So I started working on my ambient setup, and that was the complete opposite. Nothing in it is prepared. Everything that happens, happens in the moment. That works great for me, because in ambient you can create so much atmosphere with very little, and sometimes one instrument is enough to build a whole atmospheric frame.
That got me thinking: how can I bring all of that into my melodic techno setup? And the more I played with the Drop, the clearer it became that it's the key element. I simply never had a MIDI controller with faders where I can play my channels, play my performance effects flexibly and, most of all, get so much more playfulness in through the snapshots. I'm now at the point where I can play a complete ten-minute jam from one scene in Ableton Live that sounds like a finished song, just with performance effects and by fading channels in and out.
Keep digging
That got me so excited that I told myself I have to follow this thought, go deeper and keep digging until I find the essence of this setup. That's exactly where I am right now, which is why the timing of the new Motion feature is so perfect: it unlocks a new layer for the way I perform with the Drop and makes the whole setup even more flexible.
Stay creative,
Milan (KVNDRA)
P.S.: Videos like this tutorial are made possible through my Patreon. If you want to support my creative work, it gives you early access to videos, Ableton templates and a lot more: https://www.patreon.com/kvndra
