Melodic techno keeps techno's driving four-on-the-floor beat but pushes moody minor-key melodies, arpeggios and lush pads to the front, so it is emotional and hypnotic rather than hard and industrial. It sits around 120 to 125 BPM and trades some of techno's edge for atmosphere and feeling, euphoric and melancholic at the same time. Here is what each part is and how they fit.
Works in any DAW, with any drum sounds and any synth, hardware or software. Nothing here needs a particular plugin.
Melodic techno is an emotional, hypnotic, atmospheric style of techno, usually around 120 to 125 BPM, that came to prominence in the 2010s. It keeps techno's driving four-on-the-floor kick and deep rolling bassline but puts moody minor-key melodies, arpeggios and lush evolving pads out front, so the mood is euphoric and melancholic rather than hard and industrial. Take the melody and the pads away and you have a driving techno groove; put them back and it reads as melodic techno.
It is easiest to place against its neighbours. Compared with straight techno it is more melodic and emotional and less industrial, leaning on harmony and feeling where techno leans on rhythm and texture. Compared with ambient techno it keeps a driving club beat rather than pulling the drums back, so it is still made to be danced to. If you want the harder, peak-time version first, the full guide to making techno covers the straight club sound this style warms up.
The style is often associated with the Afterlife label and artists such as Tale of Us and Stephan Bodzin, though the sound is broader than any one name.
The ingredients are fairly consistent from track to track, and most of them are the parts a straight techno track uses, tuned toward melody and mood:
| Part | Typical | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Tempo | 120 to 125 BPM | A steady, driving pulse, a little slower than hard techno |
| Kick | Four on the floor | One hit on every beat, the club anchor underneath |
| Bassline | Deep and rolling | A hypnotic low figure that rolls under the groove |
| Arps and melody | Minor key, moody | Arpeggiated sequences and short emotive lines out front |
| Pads | Lush and evolving | Warm chords that swell and change slowly for atmosphere |
| Builds | Long and patient | Slow rises and drops that carry the emotional arc |
| Mood | Euphoric yet melancholic | Lift and sadness held together, the point of the style |
Write a deep, rolling bassline that runs steady eighth or sixteenth notes locked to the kick, sitting in one low register so it stays hypnotic and never fights the kick. Melodic techno leans on this rolling low end for its momentum, so after the kick the bass is often the most important part of the groove.
One kick on every beat is the anchor, the same club engine straight techno uses. In melodic techno it usually wants to be clean and weighty but not too aggressive, so it drives the track without covering the melody. Keep it steady, let a sub sit under it for weight, and duck the bass slightly under each hit so the low end stays clear rather than turning to mud.
The bassline is where a lot of the hypnotic feel comes from. Write a short low figure, often just a few notes from the track's minor key, and let it roll in steady eighths or sixteenths under the groove so it pulls the track forward. Keep it in one register and lock it to the kick, placing the notes so the two interlock rather than collide. A common move is to give the bass a little movement in pitch, following the chords underneath, so it feels emotional and rolling rather than static, but keep that movement small so the low end stays solid.
Write in a minor key and build the melody from arpeggios, short repeating patterns of a chord's notes played one after another, plus a few longer, moody lead lines over the top. This melodic layer is what separates the style from straight techno, so it is worth most of your writing time.
An arpeggio takes the notes of a chord and plays them in sequence instead of all at once, and a fast, repeating arp is one of the signatures of melodic techno. Set an arp running on a synth, in a minor key, and let it lock to the tempo so it drives along with the beat. The full guide to making an arpeggio covers how to build one and the patterns to try. Layer two arps at different speeds or octaves and you get the busy, hypnotic movement the style is known for.
Over or beside the arp sits the lead: a short, emotive melody in the same minor key, often just a handful of notes with space around them. Keep it simple and let it repeat, changing it slightly over the track rather than writing a long tune. The emotion comes from the key and the intervals, so stay in one scale, lean on the notes that sound wistful in a minor key, and let a note hang for a while. Reverb and delay on the lead push it back into the atmosphere so it drifts rather than shouts.
The atmosphere comes from lush, evolving pads held under everything and long, patient builds that raise and release the energy over many bars. This is the layer that makes melodic techno feel euphoric and melancholic at once, so give it room and let it move slowly.
Hold warm pad chords under the arps and the beat, in the same minor key, and let them evolve slowly: opening a filter, swelling in volume, drifting in and out over many bars. A pad that changes chord every few bars gives the track its emotional movement, the sense of lifting and falling, without ever pulling focus off the groove. Keep the chords simple and let the slow change do the work.
Melodic techno arranges in long arcs. Rather than a quick verse and drop, it builds tension over many bars, adding layers, opening filters and raising the arp and the pads, then drops back to the kick and the rolling bass to reset. That patient rise and release is the emotional shape of the track, so automate it by hand, over sixteen or thirty-two bars, and let the payoff arrive slowly. A breakdown that strips to a pad and a lead, then brings the beat back, is the classic melodic techno moment.
Loop the kick, the rolling bass and one arp together and leave it playing for a minute. If those three already lock into a driving, hypnotic groove and you feel the pull, the track will work, and the pads, the lead and the long builds are what you layer on top. If it bores you before the minute is up, more reverb will not save it, and the fix is in the groove, the bass and the key of the arp.
Everything above is a set of decisions you can make by hand, and it is worth learning to make them. The slow part is the writing itself: finding a deep rolling bass figure and an arpeggiated riff that lock to your kick and sit in the right key, then getting them into the track as notes you can still edit.
REHEAT is a writing tool that generates the parts for you. It writes the deep, rolling bass note movement and the arpeggiated riffs melodic techno rides on, in your key and locked to your tempo. Find a pattern you like and you have two ways to use it: drag the MIDI straight onto a track in your DAW, or play it live through your own synth, so the sound is yours to choose. Either way the notes are yours to keep, to change the key, the sound or the timing later.
That is the point of writing the part rather than printing the audio. A bassline or an arp is worth more as notes than as a recording, because the notes survive every later decision about the sound and the arrangement.
Free to hear in the browser, no signup. It runs as an Audio Unit, a VST3 and an AAX. Everything above still works by hand in any DAW too, which is rather the point of writing it down.
We write these when there is something worth writing down. One email when a new one lands or a new Tunary instrument ships. No newsletter, no schedule.
Tunary