I was wondering what other ways their is for creating layers for your trance compositions, like for eg. here is a few I know

Rolling Basslines
Of course there is the placing of a singular note after each kick (normlay the first note of a chord or what key your melody is in)
like this:

X=kick
0=bass note

X-o-X-o-X-o-X-0


There is also the other similar method like this

X=Kick
0=bass note

X-ooX-ooX-ooX-oo

which is basicy placing two bass notes within the normal time of one
and the first method is sometimes done as another form of a Trance lead using a very trancy patch


Staccato

There is many ways of doing this but a basic way is to take the first note of the chord and placing a very 'short/choppy note'
then doing it again only an octave higher, for eg

lower Octave Cmajor: -X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X


lower Octave CMajor:X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-

you can also place the first note of the a chord and then the second one after in the same way, going up the notes of the chord then down for eg;


a C major Chord it would be
C, E, G


--G---G---G---G
-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E
C---C---C---C---

Notes can be made shorter, longer more spread out,tighther, duplicated an octave higher etc.

Arpeggiator

Im sure this is used alot in Trance but I can never seem to get it to sound anything more shit

Basicly It takes the notes in the scale of the note a............actualy Im not sure how it does it but i does and Im sure its commonly used without sounding shit.

Lazy boy

hahah, Im only joking but this method is so common and easy, basicly you take your chord and play all the notes in small/medium staccato like places, for eg:


for a C major Chord it would be
C, E, G


G---G---G---G---
E---E---E---E---
C---C---C---C---

or you could have it so that near the end it pushes toward the next note (Pretty Green Eye's Style )
eg:

for a C major Chord it would be
C, E, G


G---G---G--G--G-
E---E---E--E--E-
C---C---C--C--C-

___________________________________________________________

And of course there is the method of placing similar patches playing the same set of notes, panned, eq'ed etc. to get a fuller sound.

And during build-ups a automated turn of the cut-off knob is always trendy.
-----Anyone know any more?

Last edited by Damie Mckeown on Nov-04-2003 at 19:43

Some reasonable tips, but they whiff of cheese to me

Not that that's always a bad thing, but you do need a bit more originality and variation IMO...

Well thats kinda why I made this thread

any other?

OH IM SORRY DOUBLE POST, NOT!

some more simple "tricks"

nu nrg style:

-F_-F_-F_-F_
D--D--D--D--

F_ stands for a long F. around 1 1/2 or almost 2. but i would but a short silence between the end of F and the start of D.

flutlicht arp:

F--F--F--F--F-F-
--D--D--D--D---D
-D--D--D--D--D--

and so on.. but be creative.. you should not simple use one lead note. try to change it like.

F--F--F--G--G-A-
--D--D--D--D---B
-D--D--D--D--D--

an other point is, that the sound of the synth is very important. some melodies are crap without the right sounding synth...

Just a slight enhancement to that:

I often like to (besides reverb), put on some echo to those stac's and apprege's, and mess around with different timing values. Echoes going every 2, 3, or 4 steps can make the line sound very different, especially when you're letting the appreg do some leading. Also the volume of the echos being far in the background of the original sound, but feedbacking for a long time, or even the echoes starting close to the original sound with short feedback... Also for fruity's delay2 you can change the cutoff for the echo.

Also with the LFO I like to slightly have it LFO'ing (just barely noticeable) for the entire time the appreg is being played (not just the buildups), for some flavor.

Really cool tips Thanks!

about the arp. you can always put one behind your melodie to fill it up some... work's great sometimes

but it's just to play around... i know that it's really easy to go by the basic tips, but just play around.

like with basses... just play around with the notes and see what you get... same with percussions and such.

it's just to play around.. just sit down and play around without doing anything speciall... i have got many thing's out of it