We’re back with another deconstruction, this time with our Course Content Developer, Chris Martin, breaking down LFO’s classic techno track, ‘LFO’. If you’re new here and not familiar with what a deconstruction entails, it’s where we take a well-known track, break it down to its core elements and recreate it before your very eyes.
Released via Warp in 1990, LFO has gone on to garner classic status and even helped propel the Warp label to what it is known as today. Sitting comfortably in the techno/bleep techno genres, ‘LFO’ features rhythmic drum machine patterns, experimental glitches, cavernous sub-bases and more. What was supposed to be an underground track for raves and warehouse parties, ‘LFO’ received some mainstream success peaking at no. 12 in the UK Charts.
If you’d like to learn more about producing, mixing, mastering and releasing tracks just like this one, check out our selection of online courses. Plus, get 25% off selected London, online and LA courses before our offer ends on 12th July with the codes: LONDON25, ONLINE25 and LA25.
To kick off the deconstruction, Chris Martin drops some knowledge on the track itself, listing achievements and credits, as well as the vintage pieces of music tech that were used to create the song. Moving onto the breakdown, Chris fires up NILS’ Kawai K1V emulator in Ableton Live and shares some of the music theory behind the track, before recording the chord progressions and melody. Next up he moves onto the beefier parts of the track, using Roland Cloud’s TR-909 plugin for the drums and Ableton’s Operator for the catchy bassline. To finish off, Chris shows how you can create the 8-bit speak and spell voice the track is famous for.
These deconstructions are a tool we use frequently to teach elements of composition and arrangement but to get the full picture we recommend you study with us. The most comprehensive study we offer is our flagship degree programme, the BA (Hons) in Music Production and Sound Engineering (also available online).
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