This is awesome. Seriously, don't be concerned about the length of the video. This is the only comprehensive and very clear tutorial I've seen anywhere on the internet for producing this style of electronic music using modern instrumentation and tools. Really good, and well paced, clearly explained. Keep up the good work, really did enjoyed this, several times ! Looking forward to the next episode about mechanical techniques and soundstage :-)
Good grief! This is the best video I've seen on this subject. I've been looking for a tutorial like this for over 4 years and am very glad to have found it. By the way, no apologies necessary, this was the perfect length for your careful and precise treatment of this subject. Thank you!
This is an excellent video thank you - I am obsessed with Klaus Schulze and Tangerine Dream and after playing guitar and bass in bands for many years I treated myself to a Jupiter X with the express intention of making kosmische musik
41 minutes after editing was probably long for you, but for me it was such a joy to watch your explanations that time flew by! Thank you for giving me inspiration to try all of this.
Thank you so much for this. It's really quite simple when you explain it in this way. You're very good at teaching, and the video was edited excellently.
That's I was looking for for a long time! Being a huge fan of Tangerine Dream, Harmony, Alan Parsons, Jean-Michel Jarre (not exactly a Berlin) and JS Bach :) I always wanted to record Berlin Old School. I have a huge selection of analogue synths, sequencers, effects but my tracks are always ambient and generative rather than Berlin. Thanks God I found you!
@@synthseeker I am a Dry Sabre here because I am making a living as a fencing coach, and I teach sabre. When I was an athlete myself, we didn't have electronic scoring devices, and we fenced "dry" (similar to dry sound))
Excellent! Such a well-done tutorial and exactly what I was looking for. Thanks for making this, and for posting. Looking forward to putting what I learned into practice, and to checking out your other videos. Cheers!
Thank you for these videos, I've been trying to wrap my head around Berlin school production for like 20 years (i come from a more ebm/industrial background) and you really did explain it in a way that made me go "why didn't I realize that sooner?"
Some things cannot be summarized as concisely as I'd like...so it's a bit long. I've included indexes in the description if it helps. I suppose you could watch it at 1.25 speed. :P
What a great berlin school sequence tutorial! Congratulations for your video! What I am also aware is that the good berlin school also has good chords running on the back! Thx
@@synthseeker Hi Synth Seeker. Well, I want to let you know how far I've come to the stage of setting up a 'rig' of berlin school clips. That is on an iMAC on Ableton 11. I've upgraded from PC to MAC via second-hand iMac for £400 plus an Ableton upgrade from 9 Live to 11 suite. The cost of the upgrade was £85 for three months and PayPal. WoW, is an investment that is actually quite expensive. Yet, very good kit. The iMAC is a quad-core with 24GB of RAM. Large screen! The rig (as I will call it, ) is for a gig in July. The JoFest and I've been invited to play as 'Driverless Bus.' My PC is studio-bound. So, I've learned so much from you. Also, I discovered an old song (in my head), I wrote on the piano when I was 10 years old. The key of A sharp in the scale of Mixolydian. The song I had stored in my head, as each of the keys in Mixolydian scale. So, I tested the melody and I found it to be melodic and good (for me), in Berlin School, C G C. That was very rewarding and took me home, to Herne Bay, in kent in the 1960s. So, am now going to load the clips and create a 45 min episode or journey for the 'younger' ones who are also, at the JoFest. Techno is the genre of choice. So, I feel Berlin School, will be good where the rest of the performers are DJs from the UK and Germany. I do have a question? The space Horn? can you help me and others develop the 'Space Horn', sound?. Thank You, Synth Horn
@@clivecarter2833 - Hiya Clive - I did a video long ago that included a section on using a saw to make a "space horn" it's here: ua-cam.com/video/jDbQrze2Znc/v-deo.html
Hi Synth Seeker. I have the first stage or 'bit', of the work done for the JoFest, getting ready. So, what is the best vehicle to send to you for you to hear? mp3 or WAV but where? What else in the way of internet presence do you have, Synth Seeker. Thank you for everything.
Absolutely an amazing tutorialand presentation on the subject! Thank you for sharing this. I aslo subscribed and am looking forward to diving into your other videos.
I'm gonna sound like a repeating sequence here, but that was really great. You explained that so well. Def earned a subscription and like - Gotta try this technique on my Deluge and some external synths
Thank you for sharing your passion, and, you have a new subscriber ;) I'm a classically trained pianist, but got into electronical music composing only a few months ago, and this is a great resource. A little tip: you have the ability to show flats in Ableton now, as just sharps can be confusing in certain keys, or rather when speaking about keys ;) ---- Concerning whole/hole: it's ironic how a 'whole' can be a complete entity, while a 'hole' is simply the absence of something, but, in a musical setting a hole can be the hole that completes the whole.
@@synthseeker But, SynthSeeker, what a wonderfully chaotic masterpiece of content you've crafted! The scattered nature of your videos must surely be a deliberate artistic choice, and your rambling opinions are like hidden gems waiting to be uncovered by the lucky viewers who stumble upon them. It's clear that your joy shines through in every frame, creating a unique and unforgettable viewing experience :)
whats interesting is that your "bed" or first 2 clips you are using are just outlining a cmin7 chord. So its not just the scale thats being adhered to but a chord, and it sort of creates a pad because of all the delays but with the added polyrithm. I think if you add the Pitch Midi Effect on each track and do +7 for a fifth up, and keep it disabled but have a button on your midi controller toggle the enable/disable on this effect on each track, or even have 2 Pitch effects on each track one to get the fifth up and one the fourth (or even 3 with a sixth), you can then basically transition between them as chord changes. I think a few tangerine dream pieces work in a similar way.
hello nice berlin school i usally use beat re[eat in ableton to get a ratchating effect. settings - Interval: 1 Bar - Offset: 5/16 - Grid: 1/16 - No Trpl: On - Variation: 0 - Variation Mode: Trigger - Filter: Off - Repeat: Off - Chance: 100% - Gate: 3/16 - Pitch: 0 st - Pitch Decay: 0 % - Output Mode: Mix - Volume: 0 dB -Decay: 0.00% in ableton 11 you can set the numbers of measures you play so you can use random triggering of the midiclips
Awesome. Brilliant ratio music theory and technical, genre specific knowledge. I’m new to your channel and I hope we can get you to a thousand subscribers so that you can start monetising this great content.
Well, I’m glad you think so! It’s sort of the point of my entire channel. I mix Berlin school and Prog rock and a little bit of film music. I share how things are built in my approach but you can use it for anything. Doesn’t have to be Berlin school! Welcome.
I skew a little more synth-pop, new wave, dark wave (I was raised on early Depeche Mode), but a lot of great sounds and tips here, so thanks! In fact I just ordered myself a Launchpad Pro, because I like the idea of breaking myself away from the keyboard once in a while.@@synthseeker
Fantastic ! What was the sampler/groovebox for the lead sounds that you used ? Going to start with the c g c three note sequence and see where that takes me - i'm dawless btw.
That control surface is an Ableton Push. :) but if you are dawless and want something similar a Novation Launchpad Pro Mk3 is very similar and would work.
@@synthseeker this is my second visit to the video. I've got a lot to learn here, WoW. If I could play this after working my way through!? That would be amazing.
Hi Luke, I've watched some of your vídeos on Berlin School and I realized you don't use effect sends, you prefer to put the effects directly on the instrument track. Do you make all your tracks like that, or just the examples?
I tend to make all my tracks that way…which is very inefficient but it lets me tailor my processing with a finer fidelity. I also use mostly hardware in my regular music production and so my cpu is almost entirely used for processing external synths rather than driving vsts. Let me know if you want to discuss further. ;)
@@synthseeker Yes, I'd like to understand better the "using sends" versus "effect directly in the track" question. The way I see, using sends could make the track sound as everything is happening in just one room, or in just one big stage. The effect directly in the track is nice to set the distance from the listener, thanks to the dry/wet ratio. Maybe this is matter for a new vídeo...
@@fabiovsroque I actually tend to stack reverbs, using a small room reverb as an insert to move the instrument forward and back in the soundstage then apply a large reverb for ambience. I’ll try to talk about it in an upcoming video.
@@synthseeker didn't realise you'd replied! Back 11 months later to report that I was using a Roland MC-101. But that now I'm on Ableton and it's so much easier to fake ratcheting by just making clip variations ☺️
Thanks for the tutorial. I just made a little track with the use of your midi-files. Hope this is ok. Here is the link to it: ua-cam.com/video/p1wmFjswocM/v-deo.html
This is awesome. Seriously, don't be concerned about the length of the video. This is the only comprehensive and very clear tutorial I've seen anywhere on the internet for producing this style of electronic music using modern instrumentation and tools. Really good, and well paced, clearly explained.
Keep up the good work, really did enjoyed this, several times ! Looking forward to the next episode about mechanical techniques and soundstage :-)
The little Crocket and Tubbs window inset was well-played.
I always wonder if the reference is lost, thanks!!
How much time we got?
Good grief! This is the best video I've seen on this subject. I've been looking for a tutorial like this for over 4 years and am very glad to have found it. By the way, no apologies necessary, this was the perfect length for your careful and precise treatment of this subject. Thank you!
Thanks for the kind feedback Rod, I hope you have fun and that it helps you get to where you want to be musically. :)
One of the best tutorials I have seen on that topic. Brilliant
This is an excellent video thank you - I am obsessed with Klaus Schulze and Tangerine Dream and after playing guitar and bass in bands for many years I treated myself to a Jupiter X with the express intention of making kosmische musik
Well welcome to the club and I look forward to hearing what you make! Have fun!
This was SUPER helpful. Thanks. I am going to try it. Newbie to berlin style music here. Listening to Tangerine Dream on loop. Thanks so much!
One of the best tutorial. Berlin school is fundamental music , very impressive, using just what is neccessry to have a good result.
Thanks Christophe!
Simple, clear and understandable all your lessons. You inspired me to start writing music again after many years of inactivity. A big thank you!
Thank you for the compliment! I hope you share the music you make back to us? :)
@@synthseeker of course you will be my mentor :)
41 minutes after editing was probably long for you, but for me it was such a joy to watch your explanations that time flew by!
Thank you for giving me inspiration to try all of this.
I look forward to hearing what you crest!
Thank you so much for this. It's really quite simple when you explain it in this way. You're very good at teaching, and the video was edited excellently.
Thanks! I'm glad it helped and you should share what music you create and let us know how it worked for you!
That's I was looking for for a long time! Being a huge fan of Tangerine Dream, Harmony, Alan Parsons, Jean-Michel Jarre (not exactly a Berlin) and JS Bach :) I always wanted to record Berlin Old School. I have a huge selection of analogue synths, sequencers, effects but my tracks are always ambient and generative rather than Berlin. Thanks God I found you!
Lol - we’ll have fun and I look forward to hearing what you create!
@@synthseeker seems like YT doesn't allow links to SoundCloud:(
Are you Dry Sabre on SC?
@@synthseeker no. Flamma Secutor
@@synthseeker I am a Dry Sabre here because I am making a living as a fencing coach, and I teach sabre. When I was an athlete myself, we didn't have electronic scoring devices, and we fenced "dry" (similar to dry sound))
Excellent! Such a well-done tutorial and exactly what I was looking for. Thanks for making this, and for posting. Looking forward to putting what I learned into practice, and to checking out your other videos. Cheers!
Glad it helped! I hope to hear what you do with it. ;)
Errata - At 13:18 - "the fourth 16th note" should be "the fourth 8th note". :)
Thank you for these videos, I've been trying to wrap my head around Berlin school production for like 20 years (i come from a more ebm/industrial background) and you really did explain it in a way that made me go "why didn't I realize that sooner?"
I have a few more topics planned, hopefully useful ones...thanks for the feedback!
This is excellent. Clear, detailed, great recipe for anyone looking to make some Berlin School music. Thank you!
No problem. Have fun!
What a great video! I'm a beginner and this is exactly what I was looking for to start making some loops and sequences. Thanks!
Be sure to let us know what you make with it! Love to hear what people do.
Some things cannot be summarized as concisely as I'd like...so it's a bit long. I've included indexes in the description if it helps. I suppose you could watch it at 1.25 speed. :P
What a great berlin school sequence tutorial! Congratulations for your video! What I am also aware is that the good berlin school also has good chords running on the back! Thx
It's very flexible as far as additional parts.
I am blown away. But, will be back. Thank you so very much, Synth Seker.
Thanks Clive!
@@synthseeker Hi Synth Seeker. Well, I want to let you know how far I've come to the stage of setting up a 'rig' of berlin school clips. That is on an iMAC on Ableton 11. I've upgraded from PC to MAC via second-hand iMac for £400 plus an Ableton upgrade from 9 Live to 11 suite. The cost of the upgrade was £85 for three months and PayPal. WoW, is an investment that is actually quite expensive. Yet, very good kit. The iMAC is a quad-core with 24GB of RAM. Large screen! The rig (as I will call it, ) is for a gig in July. The JoFest and I've been invited to play as 'Driverless Bus.' My PC is studio-bound.
So, I've learned so much from you. Also, I discovered an old song (in my head), I wrote on the piano when I was 10 years old. The key of A sharp in the scale of Mixolydian. The song I had stored in my head, as each of the keys in Mixolydian scale. So, I tested the melody and I found it to be melodic and good (for me), in Berlin School, C G C. That was very rewarding and took me home, to Herne Bay, in kent in the 1960s.
So, am now going to load the clips and create a 45 min episode or journey for the 'younger' ones who are also, at the JoFest. Techno is the genre of choice. So, I feel Berlin School, will be good where the rest of the performers are DJs from the UK and Germany. I do have a question? The space Horn? can you help me and others develop the 'Space Horn', sound?. Thank You, Synth Horn
@@clivecarter2833 - Hiya Clive - I did a video long ago that included a section on using a saw to make a "space horn" it's here: ua-cam.com/video/jDbQrze2Znc/v-deo.html
@@synthseeker I hoped you had! Thank you.
Hi Synth Seeker. I have the first stage or 'bit', of the work done for the JoFest, getting ready. So, what is the best vehicle to send to you for you to hear? mp3 or WAV but where?
What else in the way of internet presence do you have, Synth Seeker. Thank you for everything.
Absolutely an amazing tutorialand presentation on the subject! Thank you for sharing this. I aslo subscribed and am looking forward to diving into your other videos.
Thanks! I look forward to hearing what you create! Be sure to share it back!
when i heard Risky Business ST in 83 i was hooked. to this day i still listen to Ricochet and Logos and more. Best album could be Thief ST. IMO.
Definitely!
Thank you so much for your lessons!
I was so inspired and made a track based on your techniques!
Be sure to share it! I'd love to hear what you made!
@@synthseeker Neither Berlin School, nor IDM... I worry to share, but anyway: soundcloud.com/s-fyodor/gas-0096
@@rodefs1 Followed!
I'm gonna sound like a repeating sequence here, but that was really great. You explained that so well. Def earned a subscription and like - Gotta try this technique on my Deluge and some external synths
Lol, I see what you did there! :) Thank you!
Great follow up to Part 1!
I googled Berlin School and this was about 5th down on the main page and 1st video.
Thank you for sharing your passion, and, you have a new subscriber ;) I'm a classically trained pianist, but got into electronical music composing only a few months ago, and this is a great resource. A little tip: you have the ability to show flats in Ableton now, as just sharps can be confusing in certain keys, or rather when speaking about keys ;) ---- Concerning whole/hole: it's ironic how a 'whole' can be a complete entity, while a 'hole' is simply the absence of something, but, in a musical setting a hole can be the hole that completes the whole.
Welcome to the channel. My videos are scattered, opinionated, sometime rambling but made with joy. I hope it helps. :)
@@synthseeker But, SynthSeeker, what a wonderfully chaotic masterpiece of content you've crafted! The scattered nature of your videos must surely be a deliberate artistic choice, and your rambling opinions are like hidden gems waiting to be uncovered by the lucky viewers who stumble upon them. It's clear that your joy shines through in every frame, creating a unique and unforgettable viewing experience :)
In the immortal (misquoted) words of Douglas Adams: “he’s just this guy, y’know?” ;)
@@synthseeker Douglas Adams, who occupied this world in a joyful way, but left it far too soon...
whats interesting is that your "bed" or first 2 clips you are using are just outlining a cmin7 chord. So its not just the scale thats being adhered to but a chord, and it sort of creates a pad because of all the delays but with the added polyrithm.
I think if you add the Pitch Midi Effect on each track and do +7 for a fifth up, and keep it disabled but have a button on your midi controller toggle the enable/disable on this effect on each track, or even have 2 Pitch effects on each track one to get the fifth up and one the fourth (or even 3 with a sixth), you can then basically transition between them as chord changes.
I think a few tangerine dream pieces work in a similar way.
I’ll give it a shot! Thanks for the insight. :)
@@synthseeker Youre welcome, thanks for the cool vid!
hello
nice berlin school i usally use beat re[eat in ableton to get a ratchating effect.
settings
- Interval: 1 Bar
- Offset: 5/16
- Grid: 1/16
- No Trpl: On
- Variation: 0
- Variation Mode: Trigger
- Filter: Off
- Repeat: Off
- Chance: 100%
- Gate: 3/16
- Pitch: 0 st
- Pitch Decay: 0 %
- Output Mode: Mix
- Volume: 0 dB
-Decay: 0.00%
in ableton 11 you can set the numbers of measures you play so you can use random triggering of the midiclips
This video has helped so much!..I've been using Ableton and I've learned how better to use it and express myself. Many thanks! Warlin7
I'm happy it helped! Be sure to share your music back so I can hear what you make! :)
Awesome. Brilliant ratio music theory and technical, genre specific knowledge. I’m new to your channel and I hope we can get you to a thousand subscribers so that you can start monetising this great content.
That would be nice…everything comes in time. Thanks for the kind words!
Thank you very much for this lesson !
Greetings from France
You are welcome! Greetings from Massachusetts!
Very useful...thx a lot for sharing !
Very good lesson video. You doing fantastic dude thx and keep up the good work 👌
Thanks, I appreciate the feedback!
Thank you, this is very cool!
Glad it helped. Share what you create!
@@synthseeker ua-cam.com/video/EDY62fWplkA/v-deo.html
Comment added!
This is a very cool series
Well, I’m glad you think so! It’s sort of the point of my entire channel. I mix Berlin school and Prog rock and a little bit of film music. I share how things are built in my approach but you can use it for anything. Doesn’t have to be Berlin school! Welcome.
I skew a little more synth-pop, new wave, dark wave (I was raised on early Depeche Mode), but a lot of great sounds and tips here, so thanks! In fact I just ordered myself a Launchpad Pro, because I like the idea of breaking myself away from the keyboard once in a while.@@synthseeker
Hey great! Have fun with it!
Awesome Energy 💚
Fantastic ! What was the sampler/groovebox for the lead sounds that you used ? Going to start with the c g c three note sequence and see where that takes me - i'm dawless btw.
That control surface is an Ableton Push. :) but if you are dawless and want something similar a Novation Launchpad Pro Mk3 is very similar and would work.
Great video Luke!
Make some bleeps. :)
Thanks again!
Great lesson.
Worth it for the music, if nothing else.
Lol I hope it’s useful for you!
@@synthseeker this is my second visit to the video. I've got a lot to learn here, WoW. If I could play this after working my way through!? That would be amazing.
nice one. Thank you very much … greetings from Berlin ;-)
Thank you! More videos are on the way. :)
Great tutorial.
Thank you!
VERY Helpful. Congrats!!
I hope to hear what you make with it!
Great tutorial! Thanks.
Be sure to let me know what you make. Love to hear it!
Superb video, thanks.
Thanks! I hope you create something you're proud of and share it back to us! Love to hear what you make!
Repetition and a bit of ramdomness? Sounds like probability quantizers :D
Thanks for the vid, hope to see more.
Yeah, I haven’t even begun to talk about the generative space and possible tooling. One day... ;)
great series! anybody using the arturia mini for this?
I haven’t checked out other people’s gear that much but from what I know of it, it should work just fine!
Thank you for this, i have learnt a lot!
You are welcome. ;)
Hi Luke, I've watched some of your vídeos on Berlin School and I realized you don't use effect sends, you prefer to put the effects directly on the instrument track. Do you make all your tracks like that, or just the examples?
I tend to make all my tracks that way…which is very inefficient but it lets me tailor my processing with a finer fidelity. I also use mostly hardware in my regular music production and so my cpu is almost entirely used for processing external synths rather than driving vsts. Let me know if you want to discuss further. ;)
@@synthseeker Yes, I'd like to understand better the "using sends" versus "effect directly in the track" question. The way I see, using sends could make the track sound as everything is happening in just one room, or in just one big stage. The effect directly in the track is nice to set the distance from the listener, thanks to the dry/wet ratio. Maybe this is matter for a new vídeo...
@@fabiovsroque I actually tend to stack reverbs, using a small room reverb as an insert to move the instrument forward and back in the soundstage then apply a large reverb for ambience. I’ll try to talk about it in an upcoming video.
@@synthseeker That is new to me, very interesting aproach, I'd to know more about it. Congrats, the Synth Seeker Channel is awesome!
Dang that sounds great ❤
Thank you!
Is that abeltons analog synth on the first channel?
No the first channel is external hardware synth…the Moog Minitaur. :)
Love Chris Squire (Yes)
Yuppers. :)
Subscribed
Great video - than you!!!!
Why thank you!
Do you have the project for this?
It’s long gone, but I break it down in the video pretty much. Are you having difficulties?
I'm currently wrestling with achieving a signature dotted 8th note ratchet sequence 🙄
What’s the setup and how’s it giving you trouble?
@@synthseeker didn't realise you'd replied! Back 11 months later to report that I was using a Roland MC-101. But that now I'm on Ableton and it's so much easier to fake ratcheting by just making clip variations ☺️
Carry on then!
Definitely not too long!
Thanks for the patience! :)
How many people got the "Escape from New York" reference? [Snake Plissken]
At least one! I make a lot of 80’s movie references. :) thanks for noticing!
7 notes too many? Use major pentatonic. It's so easy, windchimes use it!
All black keys man, just play the black keys!
@@synthseekerPlay F# Major Pentatonic?! Do I look like a Jazzbo to you?
I think you look like Sexy Gimmli, but my prescription may be off.
@@synthseeker By my axe, it's Gimli!
Thanks for the tutorial. I just made a little track with the use of your midi-files. Hope this is ok.
Here is the link to it:
ua-cam.com/video/p1wmFjswocM/v-deo.html
Heya Harald! thank you so much for making something awesome and sharing it back! It's great!