understand trance music

J

Joseph Sea

New member
Someone could tell what is the lead , puck and pad in trance music please ? and in what circunstance to use them .

thanks
 
Think a lead as your main instrument, the one wich has that epic melody wich spins in your head all the time till you get tired. The pluck, imagine a percussive lead, with a more rythmical melody than the lead, but still catchy. The pad is where your pluck and lead will sit, it is slow and big (so long attack and release in your synth).

Dont think "da l33dz, da pl00k and da pÁdz" as individual sounds as you will limit yourself a lot ;)
 
If you want to get a rough idea, open some synth and browse through the presets. Most synths would have categories including "leads", "plucks" and "pads". I think just a few minutes through the library would be enough (you can even find a preset called "trance pluck", "trance/euphoric lead", many synths have these). If you have a synth dedicated to trance, even better, you can use this amazing freeware trance VSTi: Mastrcode MusicT-Force Alpha Plus and it features those archetypal lead/pad/pluck sounds.

After you get the idea, go listen to your favourite trance songs and identify those elements in them, pay attention where and how they are used. Fortunately, many trance tunes follow very similar structure :)
 
DMTian said:
After you get the idea, go listen to your favourite trance songs and identify those elements in them, pay attention where and how they are used. Fortunately, many trance tunes follow very similar structure :)
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Great advice about the synths and presets! But I kinda disagree with this second part of your post. Trance is a huge umbrella for many sub-genres, each one with it's own characteristics. You can't compare a GOA trance music with a dark psytrance one, even though they have their base and element from the same genre.
 
Look for some pluck, pad and lead 'trancy' library with midi files too, so you can have ideas a bit more clearer.
 
SimonT said:
Is there any pluck sounds in this trance track. If so, at what point? so I can get a clearer understanding of what you mean. Reason doesn't have pluck sounds in it's synth categories. Not in my version 6.5 anyway. Thanks!

Terk Dawn - Barent Blue (Original Mix) - YouTube
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I'm pretty sure there are pluck sounds inside reason, even not knowing how to use it. Pluck sounds are present in too many electronic (and not only) genres to be left out inside the preset bank.
 
i made this all question becuz one video " trance tuturial sketch - mirror - part 1 - drums " if you see this track have all elements .

A just started to make a trance track and know i´m in the intro , i have bassline a ad drums in ich 8 bares along the playlist but know i feel that track needs something more
 
A pluck sound is just like any other lead used a lot in trance music, but it has a snappier nature due to the withdrawn envelope compared to a usually quite opened up lead sound.

Just take a sound that you consider being a trance sound for melodies, and use a fast attack, short decay and a little little bit of release to give it some substance. You'd want to use a filter envelope with these settings too. Pull down the frequency cutoff on the filter and use the envelope to shape the filter so you can hear that it starts to pluck.
 
i'm gonna be blunt but if you don't know those terms i wouldn't necessarily be looking to produce trance, try an easier/simpler genre to start.
 
ego killer said:
i'm gonna be blunt but if you don't know those terms i wouldn't necessarily be looking to produce trance, try an easier/simpler genre to start.
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When I first started making music, I didn't even know that I was sitting in front of a music making program at all. When I finally figured that out, i didn't have any clue what so ever what any terms were called, and even less what they do. And I started fiddling my way through it, only making trance music.

I see no reason why he shouldn't do what he would like to do
 
Trance isn't any harder than any other genre, once you´ve figured out the elements. Thats what you will have to do regardless of genre.
Seems like you are at the start of you journey here, where your ears and production skills does not yet allow you to hear what is going on in an arrangement and pick it apart/remake it.
That is what you have to practice; remakes of your fav trance songs.
In fact remakes is what everyone should start with in music production. imo
 
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The second track I ever made was an attempt to blend dubstep and classical music, neither of which I had seriously written before.

It was a total failure, but I learnt a lot. Often jumping in at the deep end can teach you a lot quickly.

As long as you don't get into bad habits, learn any way you want to. Otherwise you'll end up getting bored and giving up...
 
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