Hardcore and Gabber are growing in popularity again (finally!), lots of new folk flock to the scene, yet life out there can be hard for a newcomer, alright? So here is an introduction to some basic sounds and concepts of Hardcore Techno, with a certain focus on the Early Hardcore period of the 90s, of course!
Aimed at those who are fresh behind the ears and want information.
And maybe some of the old dogs can learn a few new tricks here, too?
Note: No AI has been used in writing this text
The basic Gabber cookbook:
- The distorted 909
Hell yeah! If there is one thing that screams Hardcore, it's the 909 kick. The 909 is a vintage drum machine designed and produced by the Roland company, that, for example, also created the iconic 808 which was / is important for acid, house, and rap music.
This drum machine was actually an initial flop for the company. Only few musicians used it in their songs (for example, Phil Collins and Genesis. It was discontinued and discarded. But then the Techno folk came around and appropriated it for their own purposes. And the Gabbers added that extra spike to it, by distorting the hell out of it.
read more here: Everyone Likes a Big Bass - A Look at the Lower Ends of the Frequency Spectrum
and you can watch a short tutorial on these kicks here: How to create an Oldschool Gabber 909 Bassdrum in the most simple way
Example tracks with a 909 sound:
2. The Hoover
Yes, this is the second thing that screams Hardcore, especially "early Hardcore". I'd say around 90% of 90s Gabber tracks had a hoover. The origin is the "Dominator" track by Human Resource. Its intro has a howling, screeching synthesizer sound, very detuned, with plenty of processing. This sound came from a Juno synth, but later artists often just used a sampler with it.
It already has a powerful sound at home / headphones, but on loud speakers at a gabber party, this synth tears the whole place apart, I tell you!
Unlike synthesizer use in other 90s genres like Trance, Ambient... this one is rarely used for melodies or harmonies.
It is almost employed like a guitar: either with doing fast synth-riff, creating a hookline, or generating some type of "noise bomb" (maybe similar to a heavy metal power chord)
riff type: The Stunned Guys - Beats Time
hookline: Nasty Django & DJ Cirillo - Deal Wit' Beats
power hoovers: Asylum - Mescalum
3. The T99
Yes yes, the T99 sound. It is named after the track T99 by Anasthasia, which was the first, or one of the first, to use it. I would put it into the "sampled orchestra hit" category of sounds that became popular in 80s pop music (for example, The Pet Shop Boys). But it's more "harsh", enigmatic, special.
When used in a melodic way, with lots of reverb or echo delay, it can sound extremely epic, so it's no wonder that many tracks that became "Hardcore Anthems" have this sound.
It also has a "secondary weapon" ability: to create very fast paced and frantic rave-riffs that feel extremely energetic.
melodic use: Marshall Masters - Stereo Murder
Rotterdam Terror Corps - You're Dealing With
riff use:
Wasteland - First Time On This Planet
4. The "Rave Signal"
Has a long history... a klaxon / sonar / bleep type sound. Adds that additional outer space feel to a track, and / or a sense of high panic evacuation efforts going on. First use was in the earliest Techno tracks (again), later the sound became almost entirely confined to the Hardcore genre.
Unlike all other "synth" sounds mentioned here, it is almost never used in any melodic or harmonic way. Purely as a riff, or rather: like a hardcore techno morse code sent from Pluto.
example:
Read more here: Tracing the Bleep: The History of the "Rave Signal" in Techno music
5. The Mentasm
The kid sibling of the hoover, in a sense. In fact, often the terms hoover and mentasm are confused, or used interchangeably. It is a sound that appears in a track by Joey Beltram with the title... well, can you guess it - "Mentasm" !
Once again a juno sound, and it gets torn and twisted around this time.
Often used in a speed-up or distorted way.
S.V.E.N. II • Cranium Acceleration
6. The Isoprophlex drum
This one is a sound that was used in the Aphex Twin track "Isoprophoplex". Actually an aphex twin track that sounds very hardcore already, but has a broken rhythm, so maybe it is more like early breakcore? Either way, Gabber producers sampled this sound and used it in a lot of their own productions. I would say in the classic gabber era, this was the second most popular hardcore kick sound, only topped by the 909 itself.
Examples:
7. The Quoth drum
Again a sample from an Aphex Twin track, and its name is... well?... "Quoth". ( ) This is by far not as popular as the other sounds in this list. But it has been used frequently, and is recognizable to hardcore trainspotters. Also, there were not many widely-used drum sounds in 90s hardcore techno, so it makes sense to focus on each specifically. And I'd argue this one was the 3rd or 4th "most popular" for tracks.
Example: Wavelan - It Will Stand
8. Breakbeats
60s soul records used to have what was called "a funky break": the vocalists, guitar men, and everyone else did suddenly "shut up", and now the drummers had all the time in the world to "swing it" and go off like a lunatic on a mental trip - before the actual song commenced again. ( ) these wicked beats later got sampled + used in the uk rave and hardcore scenes, and began to pop up in mainland productions, too. labels like ruffneck records were infamous for focusing on breakbeats in gabber tracks, or even put a whole "drumnbass / breakbeat" track on an otherwise gabber vinyl record.
Examples for breakbeat use in gabber:
Wedlock - Ruffneck (Sound Of The Drum & The Bass)
9. Claps and other percussion
Early Hardcore used a lot of percussion. In the majority of Techno and House genres, percussion is used in a funky-sweet, chilly-groovy way. But not in Gabber! The percussion gets heavily processed, distorted, and essentially just hammers on like death mental drummers during temper tantrums.
Because of this, the "percussion" is often barely recognizable anymore, and formerly harmless "handclaps" now sound like hand grenades going off in a techno bunker.
Example tracks with processed percussion:
Stickhead & Don Demon - Demonhead
Program 1 - World's Hardest MF
Oh, and yes, most of the percussion comes out of the 909 drum machine - again!
Some of these sounds do not have widespread terms, so we used our own makeshift ones. In these cases, we put the term in quotes.
Do you know more of these basic hardcore sounds? or do you have additional questions?
Let me know!
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