Techno production lessons in Ableton Live
Techno looks simple on paper: a kick, a bassline, a few loops, a lot of repetition. That's exactly why it's hard. With so few elements, every one of them has to be right, and the difference between hypnotic and boring is a hundred small decisions you can't see in a YouTube tutorial.
I've taught Ableton Live one to one since 2012, starting in Manchester, and underground techno is my home turf: the stuff built for dark rooms and long sets, not festival main stages. These lessons are live, online, and built around the techno you actually want to make, whether that's dub-heavy and hypnotic, raw and warehouse-ready, or 140 BPM and pounding.
What we work on
- The kick and the rumble. Designing, layering and tuning kicks so they hit on a club system, and building a rumble that sits under the kick instead of turning the low end to mud.
- Kick and bass together. Tuning the bassline to the kick, carving space with EQ and sidechain, and checking it in mono.
- Hypnotic loops. Percussion with movement: polyrhythms, swing from the Groove Pool, clip envelopes and modulation, so a loop can run for 64 bars without going stale.
- Sound design for techno. Operator, Wavetable and Drift for stabs, drones and acid lines, with Roar, Echo and Hybrid Reverb for grit and space.
- Sampling and resampling. Turning field recordings, vinyl and your own jams into textures nobody else has.
- Arrangement. Building a track by subtraction and automation, not by adding more parts. Jamming in Session View, recording it into Arrangement View, then editing like a DJ would play it.
- Mixing as you go, so the track already sounds right before you get to the end.
The problems I hear most in techno tracks
“It's just a loop that never goes anywhere.”
Usually the loop is fine; the arrangement is missing tension. We map energy across the track and use filters, sends and muting to build and release it.
“My low end is a mess.”
Nine times out of ten the kick, rumble and bass are all fighting in the same 40 to 100 Hz band. Tuning and sidechain fix most of it.
“It sounds thin next to the records I play.”
Usually that's headroom and saturation, not loudness. We look at where your track is losing weight and why.
“I've got 40 loops and no finished tracks.”
The most common problem of all. We pick one and finish it, and you learn the process that gets the next one done faster.
Techno students
I've watched a lot of students go from loops to releases. A few of them:
Josh Reeves released on Manchester's GUI Records, then had his remix of 'M19' picked by Mark Broom and signed to his Beard Man label.
Read more: his first EP, signed to GUI his remix of Mark Broom's 'M19' Mark Broom remixes Josh, then Ben Sims plays it the techno release for Honduras hurricane relief his 2022 EP
Tom Healey started the Ableton Live Masterclass just before the 2020 lockdowns, carried on when lessons moved online, and has kept releasing techno since.
Amanda Mussi, the Brazilian-Paraguayan DJ who has played HÖR and The Lot Radio, made her production debut in 2025 with two raw techno tracks, 'Diligence' and 'Vigilance', on Unterwegs Records.
CUB (Jacob Jeney) has had two releases in under a year on Melbourne's Proponent Records, most recently 'Forgiveness' on the Pulse EP in March 2026.
Shanda, a Berlin-based techno DJ who has played RSO, Renate and Clockenflap, made her first production release, 'Just A Little More' with vocalist Fraen, on Bipolar Disorder Rec.'s Various Artists Vol. 003.
Plus many more. Catch up on the latest student releases in the news.
How lessons work
Every lesson is fully bespoke and one to one with me, live over Zoom, usually 90 minutes. No two people learn the same way, so I adapt to how you learn, what inspires you and where you want to go. I hear your Ableton session exactly as you do, and we work on your music, not a generic project.
- Five Sessions, £360: for a specific problem or a track you want to finish.
- Beginner Course, 12 sessions, £799: from opening Ableton for the first time to finished tracks.
- Ableton Live Masterclass, 32 sessions, £1,999: the full path, genre-focused, for going all the way.
Rather do it in person? With the Ableton Live Intensive I travel to you, from £550 a day.
Students on my structured courses can also get a discount on a new Ableton Live Suite licence. Ask me about it in your free session.
The first 30 minutes are free, with no obligation.
Techno production FAQs
What BPM is techno?
Most techno sits between about 125 and 135 BPM. Harder styles push 140 to 150 and beyond, and dub and hypnotic techno often sits lower. We'll work at whatever tempo suits the music you love.
Is Ableton Live good for making techno?
It's the standard for a reason. Session View lets you jam loops for hours and record the best bits, which is basically how a lot of techno gets written, and its warping, resampling and modulation tools are ideal for evolving loops.
Do I need hardware to make techno?
No. Everything can be done inside Ableton. If you do have a drum machine or synth, we'll bring it into your sessions and set up a workflow around it.
Can you help me get my techno signed?
I can't promise a label deal, and anyone who does is selling something. What I can do is get your tracks finished, your mixdowns club-ready and your arrangements DJ-friendly, which is what labels actually listen for.
I'm a DJ who wants to start producing. Where do I start?
DJs usually have great ears and taste, and no idea where to start in a DAW. Start with the Beginner Course. Your knowledge of how records are built and how they work on a floor gives you a head start.
Book a free 30 minute session
Bring a track, a loop or just a reference record, and we'll work out where you are and what to work on first.
All Ableton lessons and prices
Also teaching: HouseMinimalTech house and deep tech