Autechre’s ‘Eutow’ Drifting Synth

Today, we’re taking a look at Autechre’s ‘Eutow’. Learn how to make a mind-breaking synth patch using u-he's Diva, which you can try for free here. Despite not being nearly as German as their band name suggests, these two lads from Rochdale produced many of Warp Records’ finest albums, helping define what some labelled ‘Intelligent Dance Music’. Taken from their 1995 LP, Tri Repetae, ‘Eutow’ is a searing, synth-led masterpiece with pitchbends and breakbeats aplenty. And it’s that Juno-esque lead we’re playing with today. As we demonstrated in 2023, the patch itself is pretty simple. But Autechre are masters of sound design, and the raw sound is only part of the story, so let’s explore creative ways to make it sound cool as f*ck. All these tricks – some subtle, some in-your-face – offer cumulative ways to keep a looped synth riff evolving and interesting, before even altering a single note. First, a confession. I always found the IDM tag pretty dumb. Partly because it felt like a description by and for pretentious Americans clambering aboard the electronic music train long after it set off. Also, because ‘dance’ was a daft word for music that was often not meant for dancing. But mostly because ‘intelligent’ implied the dance music I made was stupid. A young hothead, I let this sour me against a lot of great tracks, but I’ve since come to appreciate ambient gems like Eutow. Consider this my karmic penance. And for a sneak preview, listen below to where we’re starting and where we’re gonna end up. Synth and breaks Synth and breaks with all the tricks Synth and breaks with all the tricks and pitchbend We’ve included MIDI files, Diva presets, and loops to help you get the best possible final result. We’ve also added the Ableton Live project in case you need any help. Don't have Ableton Live? Buy it here.Don't have Diva? Buy or try here. Download all the files here to follow along. Step 1 Autechre have mentioned the Juno 106 in their early setup on multiple occasions, so we’re using U-He’s Diva with Juno modules. Let’s skip the ‘Set parameter X to position Y’ business for today and get straight to the tricks. So first load the supplied WeOut Diva patch and WeOut MIDI file. Then add the loop Breakbeat.wav (130BPM). Step 2 Cool groove, right? Let’s see where that comes from. A look at the MIDI clip shows a little overlap between the notes. Try changing the length and position of some of them (their timing, in other words). See how even minor changes disrupt the vibe? Okay, put everything back exactly as it was and mute the break for now. Step 3 Play the synth and listen to the last note carefully. Then engage Chorus2 and listen again. Nice huh? The long release on the patch means the last note trails off… and this, combined with the pulsing of the chorus, creates the illusion of a delay. Try tweaking the Rate to adjust the timing of the pseudo delay. You can try this trick with any long-released patches – just don’t overcook the chorus Depth. Synth no chorus Synth with chorus Step 4 There’s something quite edgy and haunting about Eutow’s synth. And what that is becomes apparent the moment you try to copy the notes on your own synth – cos you can’t! It’s heavily detuned. So we’re going to fine-tune ours down by 26 cents (about a quarter of a semitone). Much better. It’s so much more characterful and haunting now. Synth detuned Synth tuned, then detuned Step 5 The original track sounds rich and layered – in fact, it sounds like more than just one synth layer. So duplicate the synth channel and set the tuning on the new one to -15 cents. And shorten the last note of the copy, so that the two layers tail off differently. Synths layered This also lets us try something else. Try transposing the first channel’s MIDI notes down an octave and the others’ up an octave. Naughty… Synths transposed Step 6 There’s some bright edge missing, so raise the high-pass cutoff on the copy to remove some bass… then raise the low-pass filter cutoff to add treble. Still on the copy, raise the Glide value to 14 and adjust the filter envelope (see image). This creates nice additional evolving interplay between the two layers, especially on that last note. Step 7 We need more sonic space, and there’s a resampling trick we’re gonna try, so combine the two synth layers into one group for EQing. Most 90s dance was mixed with semi-parametric EQs, so we’ll use a similar approach. Let’s go with 3.6dB bell cut at 3.2kHz, 2.7dB bell cut at 1.3kHz, 2.9dB shelf boost at 11.3kHz and 4dB bell boost at 301Hz. Massive difference, eh? Step 8 At the start of the original track, the last note of the loop gets brighter as it tails off. This can be done with a filter envelope, but it’ll be repetitive. A non-retriggering LFO could do it too… but that’s unpredictable. Instead, we’ll use filter-cutoff automation on the brighter synth copy to create tasty movement and variation. Step 9 Autechre probably used ADAT for ‘Eutow’. This tape-based system was the digital