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Re: For those who produced or have production knowledge prior to 1999
| quote: | Originally posted by Stephen Wiley
How were productions generally done? (ie. Today we have DAW's, etc. What was the majority production medium back then? SSL boards? Neve boards? Renting out studios? ....etc)
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Most of it was hardware based, obviously. You had a bunch of synths, usually output into a mixing console (Mackies were very popular), and everything was run via MIDI straight from the synths. We would bounce some parts to audio, but its not like there was a "bounce" function. You just recorded the audio live. Most of the early dance music was not run through high end, it was very sort of DIY. Most producers back then really didn't have the cash to rent out high end studios, and you can hear it in those productions.
| quote: | Originally posted by Stephen Wiley
What was the average track count? I've heard around 10, with tracks today using 20,30, and even 40. Obviously the track count had to be lower because of limitations due to hardware, but about what was the average? I feel this limitation of only being able to use so many tracks fueled a lot of the creativity we see from music back then. (but also involved a lot of time consuming bouncing)
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I mean track counts were not really all that different from today. if you are talking about really old stuff like DJAX Upbeats and early techno, some of those tracks were just a drum machine and a 303, maybe 5 or 6 tracks tops. But the tracks themselves were also very simple. Even early trance was really simple and didn't deviate from this all that much. back in those days you had to do it al in one shot. You didnt really have the luxury of saving everything as much as you had today. I mean you could save your patches, but you had to save it individually. Each synth, each effects processor, and god forbid your cat jumped on top of the mixer and pushed down some of the faders or change the position of a knob.
Many tracks were produced in a couple of days, or maybe even in one night.
Certain producers like BT did have more tracks, but their productions were not as dense as they are today, nor were they as squashed dynamically. Basically if you wanted more tracks, you had to record each part, because you didnt have the amount of synths to do it all live nor the amount of channels available on your hardware mixer.
| quote: | Originally posted by Stephen Wiley
What were the average synths and romplers used? I'm going to guess Virus, JP8000, Roland JV's and JD's, 303, etc. Anything else in there that seems to be forgotten about?
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Roland JV series was popular. The Korg M1 was featured on countless house tracks, and you can hear that M1 piano patch in loads of tracks from the era. The JP-8000 really didnt come into vogue until the supersaw era of tracks, around 1997. There were a lot of samplers used back then as well, obviously the AKAI series samplers were standards in most producers studios. And there was still a fair amount of vintage synths in use as well.
| quote: | Originally posted by Stephen Wiley
Finally, what are the main differences YOU see from Trance production back then and Trance production now, and what words of wisdom would you give to someone trying to fuse classic and modern day Trance.
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Dymanics for sure. Things were not as squashed and there was less obsession with loudness and filling up every inch of the spectrum. Tracks were also simpler and a lot dirtier. The "cleanness" of today's sound was not present, and you can clearly hear this if you put a modern track up against one from back then. They sound "dull" and not as polished. Some of that was due to mastering for vinyl, bot some of it was also using "cheap" equipment.
Thats one of the main problems you are going to have if you are trying to produce 90's style stuff in a modern production environment, because the DAW era produces very "clean" sounds, and you have to work to inject some of that "dirt" that you got from running synths with (by todays standards) crappy conversion and running them through cheap mixers (like the Mackie series). Thats one of the reasons that people want the vintage hardware, because it naturally injects some of that "dirt" into your productions.
Without getting into a genre debate, what you call "trance" today was not trance back then, not until the late 90's. So I feel its unfair to compare the two eras in this way because it doesnt make sense.
Listen to Lost Tribe - Gamemaster: Its just a pad, two synth lines, a bass and some drums. No sweeps (well one tiny one), no noise uplifters, no "supporting" elements, just pure, straightforward and in your face. Thats how things were done back then and somewhere along the way things started getting more "refined". Part of that was due to the maturing of the music, but another part of the availability of better quality equipment at cheaper prices put that level of technology into the hands of the average bedroom producer.
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Thank you a bunch in advance. I ask these questions because I'm trying to fuse 90's Trance with modern day music. 
