Point Blank’s Weekly Tutorial – ‘Kraftwerk – The Model’ Deconstructed

Welcome back to Point Blank’s weekly spot here on MusicTech, where this week we have a superb tutorial from Ski Oakenfull…

In this video my aim was to show how quickly you can record and arrange all the parts of this classic track by Kraftwerk using Push and Ableton Live 9. After using Push for a few months, it has become my central hub. The ability to jam down ideas quickly straight into Live and arrange them on the fly without the distraction of the computer screen is truly inspirational.

Push also made me get my act together when it came to organising my user library. Once you start categorising your presets using Ableton’s own folder names (i.e. Bass, Synth Lead etc) and place them in the appropriate device list, they will be easily accessible from the browser. I also found that adding a space character before the preset name forces them to the top of your list so you don’t have to trawl through Ableton’s factory presets.

For this deconstruction I prepared my sounds in advance. Most of them I programmed from scratch or adapted from existing presets (ie. the Operator Choir sound). The track itself is in A minor, but shifts between A Natural Minor and the Dorian for the two main sections. Because the bridge section ends on an E Major chord which contains a G#, I reverted back to the keyboard to play in the chord parts, but I could have also used Push in chromatic scale mode.

If that’s whetted your appetite, check out more on our Ableton courses here

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