How to Produce Trance Music
skyclaw441
Regular
I wrote this guide (exactly a year ago today, I just discovered) for Zoklet.net, and I thought I'd bring it here because I read it over and I thought it halfway decent. It's not the best in the world, but I thought the place could use it.
So maybe you've been inspired by the tracks on YouTube, or the songs in AMVs, or the songs you heard at a recent event. Or maybe you're looking to switch up your repitore as a musician with a little variety and spice. Or perhaps you just want to create something you can feel about. Then maybe producing trance music is for you. I will go over with you in this article the basics of a good trance track, and how to get the most out of your capablities in the process.
Things you'll need
-A DAW (digital audio workstation: examples: FL Studio, Cubase, Reason, Albeton Live, etc.)
-Some VST synthesizers
-A decent pair of headphones and speakers (bass will be important)
-Basic mixer and enhancement knowledge
-Basic knowledge of how to work a synth
-Basic knowledge of music theory
-Vocal or SFX samples
-The internet
-Access to other trance tracks
Alright, first let's hit the basic theory of a trance track, the history of trance, and common features in a trance track. Trance evolved out of many different types of music, the history is not so cut and dry. Wikipedia notes several different stylistic origins, including acid house, post-disco, hi-NRG, techno, house, and many others. However, trance became it's own distinct sound in the '90s, and it has been evolving and changing up to this day. It has evolved into several different genres of trance, and each has a defining feature about them. Take a listen to each of these genres, type 'em in on YouTube and you'll get many tunes of these genres.
Goa trance- This has a very psychedelic and organic sound about it, it's very unique. It sounds "trippy" to an extent.
Acid trance- This has an acidic element to it, take a listen to acid house and you'll see what I mean. The TB-303 is a squelching here and is modulating and changing all over the place, creating an "acidic" feel.
Minimalist trance- This may only have the beat with three different drums and a single synth going on, it's well, minimal. There may not be a whole lot going on, but you can find beauty in the simplicity. "Minimal in the Sky" by Kusanagi is my favorite of these, go check that out.
Psytrance- Similar to goa trance, this one is slightly more futuristic and well, stereotypically synthy than goa trance.
Progressive trance- This kind of trance has a distinct build-up and break-down, where it will often start out with a single synth, add the beat, add more, and then a few minutes in the tune will reach it's peak, and then "build down" to where it started from. This break up and build down is important in many kinds of trance
Hardstyle- This trance is edging on hardcore electronic. It's got banging drums and harsh synths. One word to describe it- spastic. It has a powerful beat (kick bass), stabbing synths, etc.
Ambient trance- This is a slower, easier, more ambient kind of trance. It has a very atmospheric sound for easy listening, and is not as emotionally hyper as the others
Vocal trance- This kind of trance features a vocalist, often female as can be heard in other tracks. It's common for a pop singer to have their tracks remixed into this kind of trance.
Melodic trance - This kind of trance has well, a definite melody and hook that will be repeated. It's also got a sort of chord progression going on, often like something out of progressive trance
Tech trance- This is a hard kind of trance, which borders on hardcore techno music (which is different from trance, that needs to be clarified). It's tougher, and even a bit industrial.
So now you know a few different kinds of trance, there are of course many more, give them all a listen, and analyze them. Listen to them carefully like you would a symphony. Listen to what each instrument is doing. Dissect it to the smallest bits, notice what comes in where, where the transitions are, the melodies, the drum lines, and what kind of synths it'll be using.
Now, let's go over some common features of generic trance and basic theory. Trance music is meant to channel emotion and bliss, thus repetition is used. Trance is very repetetive, often using a single hook or line and manipulating it several times to produce harmony. And one thing that is repeated to carry the emotion is the 4-to-the-floor kick, on a 4/4 beat. One-two-three-four, the bass/kick drum will generally thump, moving anywhere from 120 BPM (ambient trance) to 160 BPM (tech trance). There is often an open hi hat in between, and sometimes a snare line. Feel free to experiment with that one. The bass will also stab in between the 4/4 beats so you'd have kick bass kick bass kick bass kick bass. This is the base for the deliverence of the emotion of the track.
So, let's see what we've covered that the trance genres have in common. 4/4 beat, stabbing bass in between the kicks, a repetetive hook or line, manipulation of the melody, the build up and break down, and the 120-160 BPM tempo. Now, I'm going to discuss a couple more things you'll need. The first is your key the song is in. You should have a general knowledge of music theory heading into composing any song (keys, major and minor, some chord structure, the pitches of various keys, knowledge of 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 1/16 notes are, measures, etc.). The key of your song could be any one in the book, but I prefer ones with a twist and plenty of emotion like F minor or E-flat minor. C Major and G Major can get rather boring, and the occasional accidental comes in handy, too. The last thing is the idea of transitions and samples. Often a trance song will have a sample from a movie, or a female vocalist to serve for a chorus or breakdown, or it will use a sound effect or technique to transition between different parts of the song. One of the most common is the drum roll, a 1/16 roll of the snare or bass over one or two measures, often altering the pan (placement left or right), velocity ("how hard" the drum or note is sounded), and pitch. Don't use the drum roll too much, I must forwarn you. Also, samples can be used at the beginning to set the mood of a track.
OK, so now you know the theory, and the basic sound a trance track will have. Now you need the tools to write your song. The first thing you'll need is a computer with hopefully decent specs to run some serious software (don't come into this game running Win ME with 512 MB of RAM). Get at least 700 MB of RAM (what I run XP on, though I get overloaded a lot), Win XP (as of early 2010), a decent processor (not one with 1 GHz, I run 1.6 GHz just fine), and a sound card (how are you gonna make a track without sound!?). Now, to make trance, you could have a keyboard/analogue synth and a sampler if you wanted to do it the hard way, but this is how most do it. They download a DAW, a digital audio workstation. This will allow you to sequence notes on a piano roll (and if you have a fancy DAW, sheet music notation), host synthesizers, allow MIDI inputs from a keyboard, mix your tracks, and get a nice, crispy output. There are many DAWs to choose from, ranging from Free to $1,000 (Albeton Live). I myself use the Fruity Loops edition of FL Studio, which is $99 and provides a mixer, a piano roll, includes drum samples, hosts VST synths, and is overall very easy to use. There is a free demo, it just won't let you save the project and come back later (I used to put my computer on standby with FL Studio running for weeks and do an audio output at the end). Download that demo, you won't be dissapointed, and it's a good starter VST. You can move on into other, more advanced DAWs later, do your net research on them to decide what is best for you. Next, you'll also need to know how to run a synthesizer.
Synthesizers are electronic instruments that create sound through the creation of sound waves, often in different forms, like noise, sine, sawtooth, etc, and the part of the synth that produces this is the oscillator. Some synths have one, others can have up to 3-4 waves being produced at once for complex sounds. Attack, decay, release, and sustain all have an effect on how the sound comes on, holds on, and fades away. I can't explain it briefly here, but there's something called Google for that. Also know about host tempo division, cutoff, portamento, and the almighty arpeggio. So after you've done research on this and downloaded your DAW, you'll need to get some synths. They come in a number of file formats like standalone units, .dxi, etc. But the industry standard continues to be VST, Virtual Studio Technology, developed and licensed by Steinberg, the developers of the Cubase DAW (and the piano roll that almost all DAWs on the market use), also known as VSTi. These are .dll files that are used by your DAW to create sounds, and they often come with present patches and sounds that you can modify. Most DAWs don't provide adequate synths for t3h trancemaking, and so we'll discuss a few goodies. But buyer beware: the DAW that doesn't accept VSTs other than what it's parent company manufatures is Reason made by Propellerheads. It does not play nice with others, hence why I do not use it.
There are many VSTis geared toward trance production on the market, and it's no wonder, it's an immensely popular genre, and prices range from the thousands of dollars to free. Because you're just starting out, I'm assuming, I'm going to give you the hookups to a few free goodies. If you've downloaded FL Studio, one of the best synths out there is 3xOSC. It simply gives you the waves in three oscillators, and it leaves you to create your own sounds. Many use it for leads, I like it for basses, it can even create percussion. Look on YouTube for tutorials and explore the synth. Another good one is SUPERWAVE P8. This comes with quite a few good leads and interesting basses and pads. However, the best of the free synths is Synth1. The download page is in Japanese, it may be a bit difficult to locate the download, but boy is it ever worth it. It doesn't come with any instruments at first, people instead create sound banks, and you can store ten of them in the synth and have many more that are not linked to the synth. There are hundreds of banks out there, I recommend Gold Bank and Green Bank, but you can do a Google Search to find more. If you're not opposed to torrenting, illegal downloads, or spending a bit of money, you can go with Nexus or Vanguard, both by reFX. Nexus is like the industry gold standard (I call Synth1 "the poor man's Nexus"), and Vanguard is good, too. You need to pay extra for banks from reFX, though, so this can be VERY pricey. Another good choice is +z3tA by Roland, which is $99 and can make some unique sounds from what I've heard. All in all, you can do a good ol' Google Search to find more pay-for synths. Synths for goa trance and others will need you to create your own sounds (hence "organic"), try Alieno for that one, or GTG's synths.
Now, you've downloaded your VST synths, and you've imported them into your DAW, it's time to get to work. But wait, first you'll need something decent to hear it out of. Buy a nice speaker system or nice stereophones, NEVER do tracks with earbuds. I have, and it is a VERY bad idea. OK, now that that's clear, let's get to work. Now, don't restrict yourself to strict rules, but do remember the 4/4 kick. THUMP THUMP THUMP THUMP! Add the hi-hats, snares, whatever you'd like, so long as it retains the 4/4. Now, put in your synth and write using a lead (often uses sawtooths, these will become immediately distinct once you get an idea of merely five or so of them) a hook. Now put that over the beat. Does it blend? Try some variances with the hook, screw with it harmonically. Move it up a step, move it down, switch up the ending, add a harmony to make a diad or triad, do whatever. Now add the bass stabs in harmonics with the backing tracks, and voila! You have a basic track. Now add effects like reverbs, filters, distortion, flangers, etc. in the mixer. Now, expand your melody outward, go places with it, build it up, break it down. It's your track, do whatever. Transition, switch it up, fade, it's all up to you. And now that you're finally done, mix the instruments so that the volumes are all in balance (though a bit of kick drum punch is always good), and then master it. Mastering will alter certain frequencies in your output so that you can get a fuller track. A good mastering will take a professional and thus $$$, but for the amatuer wearing the many hats of composer, arranger, mixer, and masterer, T-SLEDGE is a great free program with several presets that you can try out and tweak.
Now that you're finally done with your track, listen to it. Nitpick it. Go back, tweak your synths, tweak the mastering. Make a whole new song, or even try a different style. Practice makes perfect. That's the only way you can work your way up to pro. Once you feel that your music is good enough, you can promote it using spots on mixtapes, MySpace music, digital downloads on Amazon.com, iTunes, or Napster; you can make your own album and distribute it physically or digitally, it's all up to you.
I hope that this article clarified the production of a basic trance track somewhat and got you pointed in the right direction. Trance music is easily the most fun genre you can produce and write, it just takes practice like every other genre of music. So go out there and have fun with it! Get out there and show the world your talent! Thanks for reading the guide, have a nice day.
-skyclaw441
So maybe you've been inspired by the tracks on YouTube, or the songs in AMVs, or the songs you heard at a recent event. Or maybe you're looking to switch up your repitore as a musician with a little variety and spice. Or perhaps you just want to create something you can feel about. Then maybe producing trance music is for you. I will go over with you in this article the basics of a good trance track, and how to get the most out of your capablities in the process.
Things you'll need
-A DAW (digital audio workstation: examples: FL Studio, Cubase, Reason, Albeton Live, etc.)
-Some VST synthesizers
-A decent pair of headphones and speakers (bass will be important)
-Basic mixer and enhancement knowledge
-Basic knowledge of how to work a synth
-Basic knowledge of music theory
-Vocal or SFX samples
-The internet
-Access to other trance tracks
Alright, first let's hit the basic theory of a trance track, the history of trance, and common features in a trance track. Trance evolved out of many different types of music, the history is not so cut and dry. Wikipedia notes several different stylistic origins, including acid house, post-disco, hi-NRG, techno, house, and many others. However, trance became it's own distinct sound in the '90s, and it has been evolving and changing up to this day. It has evolved into several different genres of trance, and each has a defining feature about them. Take a listen to each of these genres, type 'em in on YouTube and you'll get many tunes of these genres.
Goa trance- This has a very psychedelic and organic sound about it, it's very unique. It sounds "trippy" to an extent.
Acid trance- This has an acidic element to it, take a listen to acid house and you'll see what I mean. The TB-303 is a squelching here and is modulating and changing all over the place, creating an "acidic" feel.
Minimalist trance- This may only have the beat with three different drums and a single synth going on, it's well, minimal. There may not be a whole lot going on, but you can find beauty in the simplicity. "Minimal in the Sky" by Kusanagi is my favorite of these, go check that out.
Psytrance- Similar to goa trance, this one is slightly more futuristic and well, stereotypically synthy than goa trance.
Progressive trance- This kind of trance has a distinct build-up and break-down, where it will often start out with a single synth, add the beat, add more, and then a few minutes in the tune will reach it's peak, and then "build down" to where it started from. This break up and build down is important in many kinds of trance
Hardstyle- This trance is edging on hardcore electronic. It's got banging drums and harsh synths. One word to describe it- spastic. It has a powerful beat (kick bass), stabbing synths, etc.
Ambient trance- This is a slower, easier, more ambient kind of trance. It has a very atmospheric sound for easy listening, and is not as emotionally hyper as the others
Vocal trance- This kind of trance features a vocalist, often female as can be heard in other tracks. It's common for a pop singer to have their tracks remixed into this kind of trance.
Melodic trance - This kind of trance has well, a definite melody and hook that will be repeated. It's also got a sort of chord progression going on, often like something out of progressive trance
Tech trance- This is a hard kind of trance, which borders on hardcore techno music (which is different from trance, that needs to be clarified). It's tougher, and even a bit industrial.
So now you know a few different kinds of trance, there are of course many more, give them all a listen, and analyze them. Listen to them carefully like you would a symphony. Listen to what each instrument is doing. Dissect it to the smallest bits, notice what comes in where, where the transitions are, the melodies, the drum lines, and what kind of synths it'll be using.
Now, let's go over some common features of generic trance and basic theory. Trance music is meant to channel emotion and bliss, thus repetition is used. Trance is very repetetive, often using a single hook or line and manipulating it several times to produce harmony. And one thing that is repeated to carry the emotion is the 4-to-the-floor kick, on a 4/4 beat. One-two-three-four, the bass/kick drum will generally thump, moving anywhere from 120 BPM (ambient trance) to 160 BPM (tech trance). There is often an open hi hat in between, and sometimes a snare line. Feel free to experiment with that one. The bass will also stab in between the 4/4 beats so you'd have kick bass kick bass kick bass kick bass. This is the base for the deliverence of the emotion of the track.
So, let's see what we've covered that the trance genres have in common. 4/4 beat, stabbing bass in between the kicks, a repetetive hook or line, manipulation of the melody, the build up and break down, and the 120-160 BPM tempo. Now, I'm going to discuss a couple more things you'll need. The first is your key the song is in. You should have a general knowledge of music theory heading into composing any song (keys, major and minor, some chord structure, the pitches of various keys, knowledge of 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 1/16 notes are, measures, etc.). The key of your song could be any one in the book, but I prefer ones with a twist and plenty of emotion like F minor or E-flat minor. C Major and G Major can get rather boring, and the occasional accidental comes in handy, too. The last thing is the idea of transitions and samples. Often a trance song will have a sample from a movie, or a female vocalist to serve for a chorus or breakdown, or it will use a sound effect or technique to transition between different parts of the song. One of the most common is the drum roll, a 1/16 roll of the snare or bass over one or two measures, often altering the pan (placement left or right), velocity ("how hard" the drum or note is sounded), and pitch. Don't use the drum roll too much, I must forwarn you. Also, samples can be used at the beginning to set the mood of a track.
OK, so now you know the theory, and the basic sound a trance track will have. Now you need the tools to write your song. The first thing you'll need is a computer with hopefully decent specs to run some serious software (don't come into this game running Win ME with 512 MB of RAM). Get at least 700 MB of RAM (what I run XP on, though I get overloaded a lot), Win XP (as of early 2010), a decent processor (not one with 1 GHz, I run 1.6 GHz just fine), and a sound card (how are you gonna make a track without sound!?). Now, to make trance, you could have a keyboard/analogue synth and a sampler if you wanted to do it the hard way, but this is how most do it. They download a DAW, a digital audio workstation. This will allow you to sequence notes on a piano roll (and if you have a fancy DAW, sheet music notation), host synthesizers, allow MIDI inputs from a keyboard, mix your tracks, and get a nice, crispy output. There are many DAWs to choose from, ranging from Free to $1,000 (Albeton Live). I myself use the Fruity Loops edition of FL Studio, which is $99 and provides a mixer, a piano roll, includes drum samples, hosts VST synths, and is overall very easy to use. There is a free demo, it just won't let you save the project and come back later (I used to put my computer on standby with FL Studio running for weeks and do an audio output at the end). Download that demo, you won't be dissapointed, and it's a good starter VST. You can move on into other, more advanced DAWs later, do your net research on them to decide what is best for you. Next, you'll also need to know how to run a synthesizer.
Synthesizers are electronic instruments that create sound through the creation of sound waves, often in different forms, like noise, sine, sawtooth, etc, and the part of the synth that produces this is the oscillator. Some synths have one, others can have up to 3-4 waves being produced at once for complex sounds. Attack, decay, release, and sustain all have an effect on how the sound comes on, holds on, and fades away. I can't explain it briefly here, but there's something called Google for that. Also know about host tempo division, cutoff, portamento, and the almighty arpeggio. So after you've done research on this and downloaded your DAW, you'll need to get some synths. They come in a number of file formats like standalone units, .dxi, etc. But the industry standard continues to be VST, Virtual Studio Technology, developed and licensed by Steinberg, the developers of the Cubase DAW (and the piano roll that almost all DAWs on the market use), also known as VSTi. These are .dll files that are used by your DAW to create sounds, and they often come with present patches and sounds that you can modify. Most DAWs don't provide adequate synths for t3h trancemaking, and so we'll discuss a few goodies. But buyer beware: the DAW that doesn't accept VSTs other than what it's parent company manufatures is Reason made by Propellerheads. It does not play nice with others, hence why I do not use it.
There are many VSTis geared toward trance production on the market, and it's no wonder, it's an immensely popular genre, and prices range from the thousands of dollars to free. Because you're just starting out, I'm assuming, I'm going to give you the hookups to a few free goodies. If you've downloaded FL Studio, one of the best synths out there is 3xOSC. It simply gives you the waves in three oscillators, and it leaves you to create your own sounds. Many use it for leads, I like it for basses, it can even create percussion. Look on YouTube for tutorials and explore the synth. Another good one is SUPERWAVE P8. This comes with quite a few good leads and interesting basses and pads. However, the best of the free synths is Synth1. The download page is in Japanese, it may be a bit difficult to locate the download, but boy is it ever worth it. It doesn't come with any instruments at first, people instead create sound banks, and you can store ten of them in the synth and have many more that are not linked to the synth. There are hundreds of banks out there, I recommend Gold Bank and Green Bank, but you can do a Google Search to find more. If you're not opposed to torrenting, illegal downloads, or spending a bit of money, you can go with Nexus or Vanguard, both by reFX. Nexus is like the industry gold standard (I call Synth1 "the poor man's Nexus"), and Vanguard is good, too. You need to pay extra for banks from reFX, though, so this can be VERY pricey. Another good choice is +z3tA by Roland, which is $99 and can make some unique sounds from what I've heard. All in all, you can do a good ol' Google Search to find more pay-for synths. Synths for goa trance and others will need you to create your own sounds (hence "organic"), try Alieno for that one, or GTG's synths.
Now, you've downloaded your VST synths, and you've imported them into your DAW, it's time to get to work. But wait, first you'll need something decent to hear it out of. Buy a nice speaker system or nice stereophones, NEVER do tracks with earbuds. I have, and it is a VERY bad idea. OK, now that that's clear, let's get to work. Now, don't restrict yourself to strict rules, but do remember the 4/4 kick. THUMP THUMP THUMP THUMP! Add the hi-hats, snares, whatever you'd like, so long as it retains the 4/4. Now, put in your synth and write using a lead (often uses sawtooths, these will become immediately distinct once you get an idea of merely five or so of them) a hook. Now put that over the beat. Does it blend? Try some variances with the hook, screw with it harmonically. Move it up a step, move it down, switch up the ending, add a harmony to make a diad or triad, do whatever. Now add the bass stabs in harmonics with the backing tracks, and voila! You have a basic track. Now add effects like reverbs, filters, distortion, flangers, etc. in the mixer. Now, expand your melody outward, go places with it, build it up, break it down. It's your track, do whatever. Transition, switch it up, fade, it's all up to you. And now that you're finally done, mix the instruments so that the volumes are all in balance (though a bit of kick drum punch is always good), and then master it. Mastering will alter certain frequencies in your output so that you can get a fuller track. A good mastering will take a professional and thus $$$, but for the amatuer wearing the many hats of composer, arranger, mixer, and masterer, T-SLEDGE is a great free program with several presets that you can try out and tweak.
Now that you're finally done with your track, listen to it. Nitpick it. Go back, tweak your synths, tweak the mastering. Make a whole new song, or even try a different style. Practice makes perfect. That's the only way you can work your way up to pro. Once you feel that your music is good enough, you can promote it using spots on mixtapes, MySpace music, digital downloads on Amazon.com, iTunes, or Napster; you can make your own album and distribute it physically or digitally, it's all up to you.
I hope that this article clarified the production of a basic trance track somewhat and got you pointed in the right direction. Trance music is easily the most fun genre you can produce and write, it just takes practice like every other genre of music. So go out there and have fun with it! Get out there and show the world your talent! Thanks for reading the guide, have a nice day.
-skyclaw441