Interesting! I have no experience with techno, but my genre of specialty (metal) is also subject to the loudness war. Generally I’ve found that clipping effects (the free gclip vst is great for this) is good for reducing the imperceptible attack on drums, and some side chain compression to duck the bass when the kick hits are most of what’s necessary to be able to apply heavy compression and volume increasing without sacrificing too much quality.
Interesting! I have no experience with techno, but my genre of specialty (metal) is also subject to the loudness war. Generally I’ve found that clipping effects (the free gclip vst is great for this) is good for reducing the imperceptible attack on drums, and some side chain compression to duck the bass when the kick hits are most of what’s necessary to be able to apply heavy compression and volume increasing without sacrificing too much quality.