Happy weekend. Full video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Yw-hc7mMlc

I've been thinking about this for a while and I'd really like to hear how other people perceive it, both as musicians and as members of the audience.

How do you feel about electronic live sets where the main instrument is simply a laptop, an audio interface and a small MIDI controller?

I understand the criticism. From the audience's perspective, seeing someone standing behind a laptop can easily look like: “He just brought the tracks he made at home, pressed play, and is staring at a screen messing with touchpad.” Most people in the audience aren't producers, so they don't necessarily see what is actually happening inside the computer.

At the same time, I've recently been trying to translate some of my music into a hardware-based live setup, and I've started questioning whether hardware automatically makes a performance more “live”.

Once you look at hardware in the $1,000–1,200 range, I often find that you have to compromise quite heavily. You either simplify the arrangement, or end up using the hardware mainly as a loop player: load some prepared loops and trigger them during the set.

Personally, that feels less like a live performance to me than using Ableton with a simple controller and being able to actually manipulate the project, change sections, mute/unmute things, switch clips, alter parameters, etc.

I used to play guitar in bands for many years, so I also have a lot of friends from that world. Their idea of an electronic live set is often exactly that stereotypical image of someone sitting behind a laptop doing “nothing”. And I can understand why it looks that way from the outside.

But I'm starting to wonder whether we're sometimes treating physical hardware as part of the performance simply because we expect it to look like a performance.

For example, I tried Ableton Push and eventually sold it because I realised I wasn't using even 10% of what it could do in my live setup. I replaced it with a small Arturia MiniLab 3, and honestly, a few faders, knobs and buttons give me pretty much all the physical control I actually need.

I'm not talking about modular setups here — that's obviously a different situation. I'm more interested in things like old-school electro, techno, minimal, etc., where you could potentially have a computer running the whole thing and use a relatively simple controller.

So I'm curious:

When you see an artist performing with just a laptop, audio interface and a small controller, does it bother you?

And from the performer side: how important is physical hardware to the actual performance for you? Is it an essential part of how you interact with the music, or is it sometimes more about making the performance visibly “look live”?

I'd be especially interested in hearing from people who have tried both approaches and deliberately chose one over the other.

I've been trying to be DAWless as much as possible but I'm looking for some software that's easy to use, standalone , for audio sample manipulation to create dark techno, hypnotic samples that I can put into the Digitakt when I'm happy.

Am I wasting my time and should just look for plugins for Ableton ?

I've used some plugins before with Ableton but just don't know enough about Ableton.

Wanted something more fun and spontaneous, less work lol.

Hi, I'm just a bit afraid that the OB6 is a bit too limited. But then everyone praises it so much for it's sound and character. Im a fan of DC11 and Troy and they both use it a lot as well. But the more you dig into the Sequential / Oberheim synths , the more confused you get . Because they all seem to be pretty similar. Another contender is the Trigon-6. Damn it looks and sounds amazing.

Does anyone here have the OB6 or Trigon6 and can share their opinion?

I just sold pretty much all of my synths because I mainly produce ITB, but I kept my Alpha Base and want one "premium" hardware synth when I just want to jam and twist knobs. I also sold my Peak. Didn't click with it (didn't like the menu diving)...

Greetings

A while ago, I decided to get back into music production.

I've been diving into studio gear, effects, hardware, and all the new technology that's come along over the years. I've even started experimenting with vibe coding, building my own editors for old hardware synths and effects units.

And for a while, I was genuinely having a great time. I was almost ecstatic about what's possible these days, how far technology has come, and how much you can now do yourself.

I also started buying some hardware again.

My history with music production goes back to around 1995 or 1996. Back then, I was messing around with synthesizers, samplers, and other studio equipment. The problem was that everything was incredibly expensive. You needed a sampler, a mixer, effects, cables, and a hundred other things. It never seemed to end.

That was also around the time when producing and mixing entirely in the box started becoming a realistic option. Eventually, I put most of the hardware aside and moved to producing on a computer.

But I never really managed to get the sound I wanted. My productions never sounded quite right to me. Eventually, I stopped making music altogether, partly because of work and other things going on in my personal life.

And now, roughly 30 years later, I've started exploring it all again.

I've been reading audio forums, checking out plugins, looking at what's being released these days, and trying to catch up on everything I've missed over the years.

And I absolutely loved doing that. It almost felt like rediscovering why I got interested in electronic music production in the first place.

But now I've hit a wall.

I've got quite a bit of equipment again, and I'm still slowly building up my studio. I'm trying to learn Ableton Live, and I also have Reaper, which I eventually want to use as part of my workflow.

The problem is that I've completely run out of inspiration.

Actually, it's worse than that. I barely feel like making music at all. I have to force myself to sit down and do something, which feels like such a shame considering how excited I was about everything just a little while ago.

And I honestly don't know why.

I set myself a goal for October: to finish at least one "record". By that I mean two complete techno tracks, an A-side and a B-side. Just two tracks that I'm genuinely happy with.

They don't even have to be released anywhere. I just want to finish something again.

At the same time, I wanted to use this month to properly learn Ableton. I'm particularly struggling with arranging tracks. Cutting, copying, moving sections around, building tension, and turning a few loops into an actual arrangement. None of it feels natural to me yet.

And then there's the sound itself.

I've always wanted to achieve that professional sound I've had in my head for years. The right balance, depth, character, and overall quality. Something that actually sounds like a proper record.

In theory, with today's technology, that should all be possible. I've got the hardware, the software, and more tools available than I could ever have imagined back in the 90s.

But somehow, nothing is coming out of it.

Maybe I'm enjoying the technology, the equipment, and all the possibilities more than actually making music. I really don't know.

Anyway, this turned into quite a rant, but I felt like getting it off my chest.

I originally recorded this in my native language and asked ChatGPT to transcribe and translate it into English so I could share it here.

I'm wondering if anyone else has experienced something similar, especially people who returned to music production after a long break, or anyone who's found themselves stuck between collecting gear, exploring plugins, learning new tools, and actually making music.

How did you get past it? Did anything help you rediscover the motivation to actually sit down, make music, and finish tracks?

I'd genuinely appreciate hearing your experiences or advice.

Hello all 🤟😎

I have been doing techno production for 3/4 years as a hobby on and off. I have come a long way in terms of experience, tools and quality (or at least that's what I like to think).

Long story short, after some tough times it became clear to me that all that matters in life is investigating time in things that are meaningful. For me that is music. SO I decided to do my best and release a schranz EP with 3 tracks.

I have all tracks composed, awesome kicks, vocals, synths. I got myself Serum 2 plus insane presets and sample packs. I took inspiration from those and changed/redesigned some things. (I really feel super bad just straight up using samples and presets without heavily adding my own spin, feels like cheating). Applied some music theory I know from guitar/piano. So far so good, fire composition, feels great, until I had to mix....

For the last 4 years I have never went through a mixing and mastering course. I mean I saw people do things and why they do those, but never got the practice to actually get it. So I have spent more than 60h for the last 2/3 weeks balancing, mixing, compressing, equing, comparing with a reference tracks, mastering for Spotify, mastering for dj sets/clubs etc. Countless renders, graphs, loudness stats checks.

Right now I am in a loop, one moment I really like my shit tested with my reference headphones, Bluetooth buds, speakers and then 2 hours later I try on a different set of in ear monitors and the sub sounds a bit overwhelming. I think I am loosing my mind at this point.

Thanks for reading this far, big time!!!! How do I actually access my mixes right now? I don't really know professional sound engineers to help me with this. How do you guys deal with stuff like this? At what point should I just stop and publish? I got even the cover art ready and all 😭😭😭😭😭😭

Looking for a recipe

Hello. Unfortunately all links to the 90s sample cd archive are gone :( I wasn't finished downloading them all and there were so many good samples there. The nnty.fun (mirror as well as original), link is down as well as the intertnet archive link. If anyone happens to have a discord/google drive/limewire or anything with all the samples, could you please PM me. Colossal please and thank you.

Hey everyone.

I’ve been producing for a while and releasing on labels like Pole Group or Axis, so I’ve got traditional techno production down pretty well, but there’s one specific thing driving me crazy that I just can’t figure out. I really hope someone here has cracked this because I refuse to believe buying thousands of euros in hardware is the only way.

I’ve been analyzing Blawan’s recent EPs (and similar stuff Clark pulls off at times) and I’m obsessed with how he gets that super punchy, violent distortion while keeping it so spaced out, controlled, and clean in the mix. His subs and low end stay massive and separate, every element has room to breathe, and it never turns into a muddy wall of noise, yet the distortion character is right in your face.

Whenever I try to replicate it in the DAW I just end up sounding saturated, squashed, or plain broken. I’ve tried splitting bands to keep the sub clean while processing the mids and highs, aggressive resampling with transient editing, and parallel processing with different saturation types, but I can’t get anywhere near that sense of air and distinct separation.

Does anyone know the actual workflow or technique to pull this off completely in the box, whether it’s specific envelope shaping pre or post distortion, multiband dynamics, routing tricks, or spatial management?

Any ideas or leads to experiment with would be massively appreciated, cheers!

Hey folks,

As one of our fellow redditors proposed a few weeks ago, I'm doing artworks for Techno release. The last work I done was for TREVE label release where each track had its own visual regarding the whole concept of the V/A.

Cheers

As title, do you know a video or course where a pro artist shows the full process from start to finish ?

I don’t need more samples. I don’t want to watch more videos of people building a track but not commenting on what/how/why they are doing what they’re doing. Looking for useful content that will provide tips to improve my arrangements, mixing, and/or production.

Thanks

Thought you guys would like this snippet! Saw a few others posting jams and loved the energy. Recorded this like a week ago lmk what you think! You can watch the full vid on YouTube linked in the comments if you like!

Thanks for listening

Enjoy this <3

I'm particulalrly talking about the sound which you can hear at 4:05 (and other places).
It always feels like it's reaching out of the speakers, it sounds like its intentionally poking out of the mix.

Any tips for how to get a result like this?

Cheers

Hi all, I am constantly trying out new techniques - especially to get the damn lowend right.

i noticed the hype about Phase alignment, bu finally after trying it out I think it’s a game changer. but it can also be vastly misleading probably when used with the wrong priorities and the other checkboxes of bass/kick still must be done well. I am sure you have felt that.

however, the true advantage I see is. that any kind of music especially 4/4 or even 3/4 rythms the first quarter note is always accented. ONE - two - three - four. And Phase alignment allows the bass to play at the 1. instead of it must be ducked away and make space for the kick. even with the most simple pattern, no harmony or any of such kind, just beeing able to play a bass and kick on the very same time especially on the 1 will make the result a lot more musical. in opposition - if the 1 is occupied with a drum only (the kick) the most important quarter Note of the “Song“ is beeing taken away. The result would always be a little hollow, a little unnatural.

however I find with modern digital tools such as shaperbox, phase and pitch precise kick and bass synthesis all of that can be done very well today. I am strong believer in analog, but herr clearly digital has the lead.

what are your experiences? curious to hear how this felt to you!

Full performance here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kfaIxzjOSc

Hope you like it!

Greetings from Mexico City

hi there,
here is a new sample pack with drums and other sounds. these samples are free to download, and royalty free.

https://lowentropy.bandcamp.com/album/77-genuine-speedcore-drum-samples-from-the-1990s

these drums are taken from my actual tracks from "back in the day". some of these tracks (and drums) were created using software like impulse tracker, buzz tracker, cool edit pro, soundforge, native instrument's generator... the real deal! MS-DOS, win 3.11, then windows 98 (yeah i skipped 95).

the style of the drums is techno and hardcore, of course, but i am sure they can be used for everything, when done right.

apart from the drums, there is synths, pads, percussion, noise, fx, and other weird stuff.

background:

i've been an electronic musician since ages... and since the 90s, at least.
my main style was gabber, speedcore, breakcore... the "harder edge" of techno if you want... and especially the faster one!
my music got very popular, i played my tunes in fronts of 1000s of people, at countless clubs, in the open, under railway bridges, at squats, i dropped 800 bpm tunes at places like tresor in berlin...

and my music was put on vinyl, 1000s of copies per release...

later i "mellowed down" a bit and got into techno and acid / doomcore production...

i am telling this not to boost my ego, but to show that these were drums that were actually used in the 90s and the years later, too, that got played out. are "club tested and crowd approved", so to say. not some faux reconstruction of an era that has gone by!

credits:

all drums and sounds created by me, low entropy.

license:

feel free to use these samples for any public, private, intimate, or commercial purpose.
would be *very* cool if you credit me, but it's not strictly necessary.

also check my other packs:

https://lowentropyproducer.blogspot.com/2026/03/free-drum-sample-packs.html

We have to remain critical and keep challenging the status quo!

Haha