Style Guide: Techno - Part 1: History and Sound Design 

love that saying, "house is a feeling, techno is a landscape"

i wish this was a ten part series...ye should do a documentary with this dude as presenter and researcher,about the birth and early stages of electronic music and the early genres that gave way to the electronic music scene we have today.and go into some of the production techniques of these early genres would probably be the best documentary of its type!!!

I love watching James' videos so much. He's the best of both worlds. He respects the sounds and hardware of the past but never comes off as elitist about the tools of today like so many purists do. I love his drive to just create something unique for your tracks and make it your own, regardless of where those sounds come from. Inspiring stuff.

Gold bless the algorithm gods for making stumble upon this

Gotta say as a HipHop teenager and AcidHouse n beyond devotee of late 80s to present day I LOVE your videos.. (Energy Flash in a 20k attendance 91 rave was POWERFUL AF!!!!). Keep up the good work!! ✊

Thank You Mr. James Wiltshire, another excellent educational piece.

This guy is a true producer on all levels and I do not say that lightly!

I've delved in various styles of music and I'm now in the process of making my first techno trax - this is by far the best vid on the subject that I've seen so far!

Perfect explanation of the fundamentals of techno. Thanks for passing on your knowledge.

Brilliant! Can't wait for pt 2.

This guy is a true Hero.

perfect video, it arrived exactly at the time that I am studying the creation of techno music, the world must know the power of techno music

What and utterly amazing explanation and insight to the origins of techno. Thank you!

This guy's really good at presenting! It should be on tele not buried on the internet

Great teacher. Thank you!

Absolutely loved this video/lesson. Refreshing approach to music/sound design

Oh wtf, everything he touched in the end was just perfect! Really inspiring! Great history lesson as well

Genius!!! I'm ready for Part 2! Please release soon!!!!

Subbed. Great description of the origins of Techno. REALLY looking forward to pt 2.

Joey Beltram - energy flash has to be one of my favourite tracks & I was born in 1997 haha!, good old R&S records

Not sure if anyone else has brought this up - but for my dissertation - Musique Concrete predates the eighties by thirty or forty years... Great vid - thanks for the info.

Super Juicy stuff, James just keeps getting better and better and more inspirational as a teacher.. Much appreciated..

One of the best! Thank you so much!

James W makes amazing music and videos! Thanks for featuring him again!

raddest thing from Point Black so far; they really take care to nail the history of these genres and the shots are nice, information is on point; the host is great how about DnB next? ;)

If you want to dig deeper, I suggest »Techno Rebels: The Renegades of Electronic Funk« by Dan Sicko - Great book, with lots of insights and its culture influences. Best book on Techno I've read.

Just yesterday after I watched his House videos I was wishing James had also done a video series about techno. Now here it is. I think you guys read my mind.

Love these videos!

Great video, loved Techno since the early days, now trying to create myself, thanks

Head here to watch Part 2: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-0Q6yR4s4syA.html

James is a legend. Very grateful.

Love this!

Fantastic and so nostalgic! Thanx!

so knowledgable i love this guy

These are great

love this videos!

Beautiful approach! Just beautiful!!! Abstract thinking, analysis, decomposition of the concepts and ideas beneath (with respect to the history/genesis, without which it's pointless to analyze), and recomposition of those in a practical way. God I wish there were more people approaching things they explain from this angle, whatever the topic... can't express my gratitude enough. A couple of questions though, if you ever get to see this. 1. Why Ableton? It's so popular even Jarre uses it, but I still don't get what's the magic in it... compared to standard horizontal sequencers such as Cubase or an all the more popular Reaper... for example what is it about Ableton you're willing to sacrifice mouse-wheel zoom for? 2. Why that chair? Does it keep you focused?

yeeeeesss please keep these style guides coming. incredible series so far!

Can't wait to hear what he is going to be crafting out of this!

Sound surfing! I love it gonna tell people when I am doing sound design from now imp going surfing from now on.

Gold!

greatest video on music production I've ever seen

This is so inspiring, though i'm not even really into electronic music. Style guide series is awesome, wish it had more parts. Thanks!

this is wonderful

In a word, Awesome! Thanks,

Woah. Fascinating.

Wonderful explanations

This man is so knowledgable!

Love this video!

Content like these help me break the writer's block. i give it 5 stars *****

Excellent video - I am looking forward to the next part! :-D Best, Shan

brilliant, thanks a lot !

awesome vid thank you

As awesome as every tutorial by James is

Nice one! Some interesting history and some useful insights. Also, sweet stool!

Really helpful thanks a lot

Interesting video. Appreciating that he's using budget friendly stuff for sound sources.

Great video! Ty alot!

The idea of just playing around making sounds and recording them is so simple yet completely mind-blowing to me. I've always felt stuck working in the Arrangement view, clicking notes and dragging automations, and quite frankly it's tedious and boring. Only recently did I learn that many producers from the 90s used the computer as an arranger for prerecorded materials. Some things that seem natural and intuitive in an analog environment, have to be taught to a digital generation

THIS IS AMAZING.

Wow would had never have expected that Radio Rodhad reference but hes damn right. Has that 90s 'energy flash' intensity

Shared, Liked, Subscribed, Bell rung, hmm... What else can I do? ;D I love how Techno is part of modern history and can be studied in detail!

Great video, can't wait for part 2 :D

Keep coming back to the this video. James inject a bit of AKAI S series workflow in here. As Atari ST/ Sampler combo was the workstation for electronic producers of the 90ies I can see why he does what he does. Solid workflow, very good idea to focus on source material first (sample sources)

Awesome.

Terrific! More more more ...

Great video guys!

thanks!!!

This video helped me to test my behringer 2600, really great to have everything in one machine, delay and reverb and then the whole box to do these same processes in ableton live. You can't go wrong with a 2600. 😊👍

Thank you. You know why.

Excellent

so freeking great , the fact we can learn anything at the click of a button is just mind blowing , we can learn anything

So nice to hear an experience musician who is actually well read! So many musicians get to speak like they know shit because they've made a few hits, then people repeat that shit and live by it.

Good job guys, very interesting story

Finally someone knows what they're talking about!

This is SO GOOD, I've just been watching James Wiltshire teach electronic music history and production for several hours now. Incredibly good teacher!!!

This guy knows his stuff and communicates it well.

Awesome

brilhante ..

please hurry and post part 2!

7:58 I had never heard this track before; it's awesome!

awesome

your track is great

I first discovered Kraftwerk from the Movie Breakin.' Song is Tour de France. Such an Awesome Dreamy Electronic Song.

Great video! Although I lold when he talked about “unique studio sounds” and then brought out a Jupiter 🤣

James is the fuggin man! so sick

THIS GUYS GETS IT

very interesting and well informed doc....didn't know energy flash started life on transmit I thought it was an R and S track....thanks..

omg yussss I love the history of electrionic music give me mOARRRR

Awesome video ...I never knew that Derrick May played a huge role in the evolution and breakout of Techno.

James you a bad man !!!

Legend

I'm hoping in Part 2 they talk about the dub mix technique and Rick Smith/Underworld...

Monotron Delay, my first and most loved Delay ever :-)

thanks so much man :)

Can't wait for part 2, is it going to be uploaded here on youtube too?

A big influence on techno was a class at Belleville high school called futuristics, that Juan Atkins took in 1979. I should know because I was also in that class. It's strange, I was playing around with a moog prodigy and computer music back then. I went on to be a biochemist. I gave up on music because I found the tech wasn't ready. During covid lockdown I begin making techno on my laptop.

Great content! I subscribed!

Love rodhad!

Energy flash is a classic.