what makes the trance style? - Future Producers

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what makes the trance style?

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Lodger

727 posts, Registered User

hey, all,

I was just trying to compose a piece that uses threads of a genre that im not too familiar with writing for: trance. In a previous thread (i believe on this messageboard),someone asked a question pertaining to writing trance and someone responded that technically everythingance, ie melody etc, operates off of the same production strategies. what are these strategies, tempo, etc.?

Dj Lodger
~I am a Dj - I am what I play~
http://www.mp3.com/pcv9 <---hoy en día!

...a master at work
is a master at play...

01-06-2001

Devic

49 posts, Registered User

Lodger. Trance is melodic music. It usually has a 4/4 beat. The BPM is around 130-160. Mainstream trance has a simple bass line. Trance is definately melodious.
infact, trance consists of various styles, hard trance, ambient trance, trance, goa/psychedelic trance.
You inquiry is somewhat general and i am not sure what should i talk about?

One good way to start is that you try to listen to other trance songs. Listen carefully. Take note of the structure of the song. try to imagine how the author must have done those parts? this should be enlightening enough.
btw, i compose goa/psytrance.

hope this was of some help to you..

Devic
come out - freak out - chill out
http://devic.cjb.net

01-06-2001

mano 1

15,743 posts, Founder

By the way, as Ade mentionned before int he forum, ALL dance music is 4/4. When people say "oh this is 4/4" they mean that it sounds more "regular" than the other musics. But really everything is 4/4

TAC tac tac tac TAC tac tac tac TAC tac tac tac TAC tac tac tac

Unless you mean the waltz vinyl your parents listen to:

TAC tac tac TAC tac tac TAC tac tac TAC tac tac (this is NOT 4/4, but doesnt happen in DJ music)

Even jungle can be 4/4... Only difference is that the samples used are played in some special order (syncope). BUT you can always count the first TAC tac tac tac thing.

a bit off topic, but I wanted to make sure this was clear.

YES, trance has a very regular rhythm structure. ALSO, it has melodies of synthesizers, and a little bit of "new age" music to it sometimes (for the themes). But this also depends on which country you are talking about. Dif. trances for dif. countries. Trance used to be "core" in 1992-1993 when less "genres" were known.

PLEASE HELP FP BY CLICKING ON

THE

BUTTON

01-06-2001

Robban

236 posts, Registered User

Hello

good topic this. I want to produce deep/hard -trance.. But I don't know how to make any nice melodie-lines. The equipment I use is:

Rebirth
Logic Audio (Gold)
a Clavia Nord Rack 2
(+ some misc. stuff)

And, if you have some nice bass-lines -ideas.. please give them to me=)

Take care

/// - www.nocturnetus-records.net - \\\

01-29-2001

Vetch

121 posts, Registered User

Basically the easiest way to make melodies is to use either a software synth or an actual synth workstation and play the notes through the keyboard into a sequencer (to save the melodies you are making). The synth will generate the tones you hear in the melody via the keyboard.

You could also use a pattern sequencer instead of a keyboard or make melodies using various other methods but most electronica you hear just uses synths to make the melodies (among other parts of the songs like basslines, etc.). The best thing to do is just get your keyboard hooked up to a synth and start playing with the dials till you understand what each of them does and you can create your own "formulas" to get the sounds you are looking for.

Also, if you listen to alot of electronica out there most of the basslines are rather simple, basically going from a low sound to a note higher pitch halfway through the loop.

Hope this helps...

/.v

[Edited by Vetch on 01-29-2001 at 11:54 AM]

01-29-2001

XlacX

5 posts, Registered User

to make trance you need a synth or pc sequencer with an appregiator. Almost every trance song you have ever heard has layered appregiators, on top of the melody. A pc appregiator is not as stable one already built into a synth. Once you get the hang of an appregiator, you will want one that you can program. Now, this is if you want to make the NORM for trance. You DONT need one, its just the standard. Break out on your own and create something new.
By the way an appregiator is a device in the keyboard that will play the note you are holding in a continious pattern that is pre programmed. Or you can program a pattern.

Good luck

01-30-2001

hypnotik2000 hypnotik2000 is offline

17 posts, Registered User

hey there lodger,
trance is a form of dance music that came from germany in the early 90's. it is a form of music that derived from house and techno. early trance was very genre specific. where d&b, and breaks relied heavily on their rhythms, early trance relied on its uplifting melodies; and its simple 4-on-the-floor beats were used to create a dance/dj friendly repetetive beat that... well, put people in a trance.

as trance started evolving, new sub-genres of the style started to come about such as: tribal, dark, dream, goa/psy, progressive, hard, trance/breaks, etc. however, these sub-genres of trance seem to have a few things in common: a simple house/techno rhythm, a repetetive/grooving bassline, the presence of acid derived 303's, progression (where simple intros evolve until layers upon layers of melodies and or rhythms are added on top of eachother) and a ton of ethereal effects (echos, reverbs and the like).

trance today is breaking (or at least bending all of the rules of early trance), because the nature of this genre is always moving, always evolving. however, there seems to be three dominant schools of REAL trance categories that most tracks fall in to, they are the: dark/experimental school led by sasha & digweed, the uplifting/hard dutch school led by tiesto and corsten, the (darker than dutch, but lighter than sasha, groundbreaker) school of club led by PVD and oakenfold, and the goa/psy school that was championed by astral projection.

in my opinion, there are no rules in electronica, but there are rules in trance. there's nothing wrong with breaking these rules, but then you stray further and further away from what trance really is. just like if you stray further away from the methods of jazz, the product is still music, but no longer true jazz.

hope this helped, and sorry this post was so long...
peace,
hypnotik
http://www.mp3.com/hypnotik

01-30-2001