How to tell house, techno and drum and bass apart
Tempo gets you part of the way, but house and techno overlap. To tell them apart, listen to three things: the drums, the low end and how the track builds.
| Style | Typical tempo | Drums | Low end |
|---|---|---|---|
| House | 115 to 130 BPM | A kick on every beat, hats between the kicks | A restrained bass that shares the space with the kick |
| Techno | 120 to 140 BPM | A kick on every beat, longer and heavier, with busy metallic hats | Carried mostly by the kick |
| Drum and bass | 160 to 180 BPM | Broken breakbeats, with the snare on 2 and 4 | Heavy sub-bass, often the loudest idea in the track |
Tempos are Ableton's typical ranges. The notes on drums and low end follow Beat Kitchen's genre guide.
House
Most house sits close to 124 or 125 BPM. A kick lands on every beat, hats fall between the kicks, and a clap or snare marks beats 2 and 4. The bass stays restrained. Tracks change slowly, adding or removing a part every 8 or 16 bars.
Techno
Techno also has a kick on every beat, so it can pass for house at first. Listen to the kick itself. It's longer and heavier, and it often carries the low end with no separate bassline. The hats are metallic and busy. Tracks build over long arcs, one element at a time.
Most techno sits in the low 130s, though some styles run slower and hard techno runs well past 140.
Drum and bass
This is the easiest of the three. It's much faster, and the kick doesn't land on every beat. The drums are broken and syncopated, with the snare on 2 and 4 and fast hats over the top. The bass is heavy, often a deep sub with a growling layer above it called a reese.
Nearly every track sits at 174 or 175 BPM. Tempo tools sometimes report it at half that.
A quick test
- Does the kick land on every beat? If it doesn't and the track is fast, it's drum and bass.
- Is there a bassline apart from the kick? If there is, lean toward house.
- Is the kick the low end, with metallic hats on top? Lean toward techno.
These are habits, not rules. Plenty of tracks sit between styles.
Auden starts a jam in any of these three styles, and you steer it from there. It isn't out yet, but you can hear a drum and bass loop now.