Please help analyze techniques and appeal of one of my favorite ambient techno artists: Donato Dozzy

[dark water]

Hello everybody,

This might be a slightly weird thread, but hopefully it will be useful too (and any insightful comments about Donato Dozzy's techniques will be very helpful to my development as a musician thanks).

I like Donato Dozzy's music very much.
He is also a very kind fellow, as I know from speaking with him on Soundcloud.
More to the point, he is a highly successful and popular ambient/deep style techno producer who has been producing for many years.

To me, his trademarks are catchy grooves, an excellent balance of instruments, evolving subtle percussion and a great sense of space/depth with his delays and reverbs.

For instance, here are some of his most acclaimed tracks:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BdW6Hj1D5mk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9EbwJhye5yI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BtZUZ640R0U

And here is his excellent Voices From The Lake collaboration with fellow Italian artist, Neel:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CxzqEMo ... SFXLqFfIyy



On first glances, his musical arrangements might seem rather basic. Often they have a catchy but repetitive bass line, a couple of percussive counter-rhythms which evolve over time, some solid kick drum, sometimes a 'found sound or natural atmosphere', and the movement of those elements within reverb fields. Notably, there does not often seem to be changes of key or chordal elements.
Despite that, his work is very popular and he is seen as a key influence upon many ambient techno artists.

But when I try copying his arrangements, I find that I get bored of my own attempts at repetitive bass lines, for example, within about 90 seconds even when I have tried creating tension or excitement/energy by various well known techniques, such as filtering etc.

I would like to start producing more tracks similar to those by Donato Dozzy, so I was wondering for any of you who are familiar with his work, or for those of you with good ears and a willingness to listen to the Youtube tracks included above, what do you think allows his songs to retain interest over those few minutes despite the lack of any obvious major changes of arrangement (eg verse/chorus) etc?

Any comments much appreciated, as it will make me a better artist within this deep/ambient techno style.

Cheers,
DW

[Vortifex]

..

[dark water]

Excellent - many thanks Vortifex for that insightful and detailed analysis.

Tbh, I probably need to work longer and more patiently on developing a tight fitting groove from a couple of well chosen instruments, rather than just ditching an entire project (or alternatively making a half arsed attempt) if it's not quite there.
I don't know if you, or anyone else, find something similar to this: I can very easily create a groove when I'm with friends and playing a non-electronic instrument (for example when I'm with my djembe group), but I feel my attempts to create or sustain a groove are much poorer when staring at a DAW screen (or even with the monitor lid down) by mysel. Clearly something psychological

Many thanks again for your serious and considered response Vortifex.

[Vortifex]

..

[dark water]

How do you program your percussion? Do you paste notes into the piano roll? If so maybe try setting a metronome with your bass rolling and just kind of jam on the keyboard whilst recording until you come up with a pattern that gets your head nodding, and then you can cut that pattern and loop it.

I usually start with getting a kick going, often a snare or hi hat too, by pasting these into particular regular beats within a bar on the piano roll. After that, I often play more 'world' percussive instruments (eg woodblock) by hitting notes (repetitively in time) on my musical keyboard, and then quantizing/reshaping any overly-loose beats within the piano roll.
However, your suggestion is a good one and so, from now on, I'll jam a bit longer with the record function to get more variations and an increased chance of picking up a small section with a stronger groove.
Also, I'll try to experiment with swing a bit more rather having the kick and snare sounding too rigid. I'm aware of how good 909 swing patterns of around 10-20% swing sound, so I'll have a look at these again.

Or maybe set yourself a goal of creating a groove with just 4 samples/sounds. Listen to the following track, particularly the intro. With just 4 simple elements he's created something danceable straight from the beginning, utilising off-beat/syncopated percussion with some swing. When you find your head's nodding then you're probably on the right track.

Nice track by Four Tet. (His new album is excellent for its variety of sounds).
I like your idea of stripping elements down to 3 or 4, and thus concentrating on their worthfulness when creating a solid groove. Such a minimal approach will also allow me to hone in upon tighter fitting delays for these elements, as well as sidechained noises etc, around the rhythm, as you rightly noted that Donato Dozzy does.


Finally, whilst I might not have the processing skills or experience of Donato Dozzy (or possibly his access to some beautiful processing tools/studios), I can still focus upon developing my groove skills at any rate.


Many thanks again for your consideration and advice