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todays trance chord progressions

is it me or does todays trance have a different style of chord progression, mainly uplifting trance. Ive been listening to etn.fm lately and to me it seems really different from say 01 or 02 stuff. Its more "airy" if thats a word,

Anyway, is it just me or maybe its the synths they use nowadays.. I dont know Im lost, can anyone clear this up for me?
Thanks =]

Not really sure, if there has been a change in the chord progression, but if I was to guess on a change in synths, I would definately bet that the JP8080/JP8000 was one of the most use synths back in 00 whereas the Virus probably is the leader today. And these synths definately have a different character. I would call the JP8000 more "warm" and the Virus more "airy", so this might explain something...

Regards

the notation hasn't changed much at all honestly... but synths & ESPECIALLY fx, have just become amazing in the last 24mos...

hmm, thats does make sense

It's probably become more airy because of the modern obsession with completely filling out the frequency spectrum, resulting in a lot of white noise, supersaws, and other top-heavy sounds being used. That literally creates an "airy" sound - white noise is often used to simulate a "wind" effect. When the sound is drenched in reverb, as it usually is, that adds to the effect.

I wouldn't say that chord progressions have significantly changed since 2001. If you go back to 95-96 you'll definitely see a huge difference; somewhere in mid-99 was the turning point and trance hasn't changed much since then, except for the higher spectral saturation.

Well, that and the vast amount of ASOT ersatz trance made by legions of lazy amateurs, which shot up around 2003-2004 because of cookie-cutter tools and lower barrier to entry (easier to produce without expensive hardware). Those all tend to follow the same lame I-IV-V-I or I-V-I progression, so maybe that's what you mean?

Can you explain that progression your talking about? Progression/arrangement is hardest part for me might be helpfull..

quote:

Originally posted by mysticalninja Can you explain that progression your talking about? Progression/arrangement is hardest part for me might be helpfull..

It is a common progression.

On this page you can find the chords spelled out:

http://www.haitisurf.com/spelledoutchords.shtml

So the example of I-IV-V-I would in the key of C be:

CEG, FAC, GBD, CEG.

You can play the same progression in different keys by using the table on the page.

Regards

Oh, for making melody progressions. That part is cake for me. nm.

yeah i see what you mean, it almost seems drowned out in white noise. is it me or has trance just switched to perfection over melody?

thats an interesting one RivalMan

EDIT: RivalMan, what trance are you talking about, because Im listening to the sets from ETN.fm and their chords are all over the place. Maybe thats hight quality trance ....

quote:

Originally posted by erq is it me or has trance just switched to perfection over melody?

Happened a long ago.

quote:

Originally posted by erq . is it me or has trance just switched to perfection over melody?

Yes and I for one would like to see it switch back again.

quote:

Originally posted by Jason_R Yes and I for one would like to see it switch back again.

mee too =]

I am slightly confused about something here.

Let's say I use a I-IV-V-I progression in C.

CEG, FAC, GBD, CEG.

Is this only for major scales? What about minor scales?

Obviously for minor scales the actual notes will be adjusted to fit the signature of that scale. But the I-IV-V-I progression is still used (and in fact, the majority of trance uses a minor scale).

When you write a chord progression in the roman numeral format (ie I II III) I dont think you can express minor/ major. its a pretty vague format to use. The chord progression I'm really into at the moment is the one in Smith and pledgers "White". got it on Anjuna volume 4, maybe thats not cool, I know there are some anjuna haters round here, but I LOVE IT!
Overall I think a lot of trance these days isn't actually written, people just sit down at a computer and start inputing notes, I prefer to write on a piano or guitar, coz I think its easier to write real music, as opposed to something which just sounds like music. At the end of the day theres a lot of poor, unoriginal trance out there, with poor unoriginal progressions, but there always has been I think.

quote:

Originally posted by kitphillips I prefer to write on a piano or guitar, coz I think its easier to write real music, as opposed to something which just sounds like music.

I prefer to press record and let the sequencer record my playing.

About the "real music" part, I don't know what you're talking about. Dare to explain?

quote:

At the end of the day theres a lot of poor, unoriginal trance out there, with poor unoriginal progressions, but there always has been I think.

The easier it is to start making music, the more unoriginal work there is. So the amount of unoriginal work among electronic music has grown exponentially from the 80's.

quote:

The easier it is to start making music, the more unoriginal work there is. So the amount of unoriginal work among electronic music has grown exponentially from the 80's.

Yah, that's one way to look at it, but imho that�s no true. Easier and cheaper production should lead to more musicians and ultimately to a broader verity of EDM-genres, songs and sounds.

I blame everything on the fact that most EDM-lables out there are not ready or willing to give the verity a chance, they only sign what sells. And what sells seems to be the same sound that we�ve heard for a long time now, so really, it might be our fault for buying it�

Just some thoughts, cheers!

quote:

Originally posted by oFFbalaNce Yah, that's one way to look at it, but imho that�s no true. Easier and cheaper production should lead to more musicians and ultimately to a broader verity of EDM-genres, songs and sounds. I blame everything on the fact that most EDM-lables out there are not ready or willing to give the verity a chance, they only sign what sells. And what sells seems to be the same sound that we�ve heard for a long time now, so really, it might be our fault for buying it� Just some thoughts, cheers!

+1 but I can see chrono's point too...

In response to your question Chronosis;

Bob moog once said something about how its really easy to make something that sounds like music these days, but its just as hard as ever to make true music. That's sort of what I mean. I think a lot of stuff goes out these days without any real soul. I suspect it comes from the fact that you can get a damn slick sound really easily, and that can mask the lack of soul until you've listened to a track for a week, by which time the next new thing's come along. The artists themselves can't really tell what's real because their too involved with it.
Of course theres still stacks of people who whack stuff straight into a sequencer and have it released in a month who make great music, as good as anything I could ever create on any instrument, but there ae others who, lacking that safety net of transposing onto different instruments, playing live (real live, not turntables/ableton/cdj sorry), in different time sigs, etc just wind up creating really nice sounding noise. Hope that clarifies, coz my hands cramping!

quote:

Originally posted by oFFbalaNce I blame everything on the fact that most EDM-lables out there are not ready or willing to give the verity a chance, they only sign what sells.

You have a strong point there. Sad that it's the reason for many amateurs to keep making certain sounding tracks.

quote:

Originally posted by kitphillips In response to your question Chronosis;

Thanks for the response. Though I must say, you seem to have quite a limited view of sequencers. You can record your playing live into a sequencer, and in different time signatures if you want. It doesn't have to be mouse work.

quote:

is it me or does todays trance have a different style of chord progression, mainly uplifting trance

Maybe tsthe Artists your lsitening to ,try listen to tiesto or paul oakenfold or bruno magli im sure they sound the same.

most modern trance melodies take of the following pattern:

A, B, A, B, Left, Right, Left, Right, Select, Start

quote:

Originally posted by kitphillips When you write a chord progression in the roman numeral format (ie I II III) I dont think you can express minor/ major. its a pretty vague format to use.

The format doesn't need to express major/minor. You already know that from the key. If you're in a major key, I is a major chord. If you're in a minor key, it's a minor chord. V in either one is major. IV depends on whether it's the harmonic or melodic minor, but again, this is something you already know.

Incidentally, there *is* roman numeral notation for that if one is using chords that aren't normal to the key signature or scale. The 3rd is defined by the case - lowercase is minor, uppercase is major. And the 5th is assumed to be perfect unless given a � (diminished) or + (augmented). Of course the 7th can be in there too, but that makes things a little more complicated and trance music hardly ever uses it anyway.

The notation is anything but "vague" - it's been used for several hundred years and hasn't caused any problems so far.

You guys bring up some really good points.
One thing that really discourages me is that, Im an amateur producer (Im so bad that I wouldnt even call myself a producer) and for a while I was making trance remnant of the 99' 00 era. But trance is changing so fast and I want to keep up with the times, you know. It gets frustrating to learn to produce and at the same time learn the new techniques and software/hardware.

Simply put, I get confused as to what I should make my music sound like, modern trance with its fx and all that crap, or learn from the classics?.

the question is do artists make music at least partially to convey emotion or entirely to make money?

quote:

Originally posted by deceptikon the question is do artists make music at least partially to convey emotion or entirely to make money?

to me money doesnt matter in this buisness, i just wanna improve, and I make my music straight from the heart, no matter how bad it is... Maybe thats why people complement my melodies as opposed to the tech side such as mastering

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