Ok my current favorite trance "act" is Cosmic Gate and I think their new releases own... Also im a big Andy Moor and Garreth emery fan... I think they all are keeping it fresh. Tritonal also rules if you haven't heard them yet...
My favorite "old" trance is Ayla aka DJ Tandu
For all the people that think new trance sucks so bad, what old trance am I missing out on that shadows new stuff in specific?
Subtle
quote:
Originally posted by SYSTEM-J
It's all overproduced, it all sounds the same, most of it is cheesy, it's an echo chamber of superstar DJs and record labels all sucking off each other for mutual benefit, meaning everyone can make money without trying very hard...
Maybe you should try and AVOID the big labels and the big superstar DJs ?
Just because Armin plays ty music doesnt mean thats all the trance there is.
owien
we need some producers who will not care about todays trance and make an impact and create a new wave of thinking in dance.
at the moment tho its the likes of trifonic and bt who are leading the way.
Originally posted by Subtle
Maybe you should try and AVOID the big labels and the big superstar DJs ?
Just because Armin plays ty music doesnt mean thats all the trance there is.
I do avoid them. That makes no difference to the answer.
MrJiveBoJingles
It sounds very standardized, at least to me. In today's mainstream trance you have three basic track templates:
1. The 1999 - 2000 epic supersaw lead with the lead's filter opening up as a soft pad plays in the extended breakdown. This seems less popular today than it was five to seven years ago.
2. The "techy" tracks with very digital sounding leads with noise in them and usually a bitcrushing effect applied to the lead.
3. The "Deadmau5" straight eighth-note fiesta, the sound being some variation on his original lead.
Some tracks mix and match these styles, but as far as I can tell most stick to them pretty closely. A lot of them have airy female vocalists on them that sound basically interchangeable to me, no uniqueness to the vocal timbre whatsoever, EQed and reverbed out the wazoo. I guess a few still have vaguely 80s-sounding male vocalists. Most of the percussion sounds quite similar as well, insubstantial hi hats and the same friggin' crunchy clap in most tracks, the second clap in the measure prefaced by a little reverse clap thing. The pad sounds are pretty much all the same as well, the same detuned saw dealies that have been popular since the late 1990s. The tension of the tracks basically always centers around simply maxing out all the sounds, opening up all the filters and often adding pure white noise in, to create a physiological tension (ooh, high frequencies exciting my nervous system!) as much as a "musical" one.
What you generally don't have are things like: polyphony, i.e. multiple sounds and melodies playing off of one another rather than one sound and melody drowning out everything else; genuine multi-part track composition where the producer takes a track through different themes or moods; lead sounds much different from the ones mentioned above; vocalists that sound unique; diversity in emotional quality of the music, usually you get either "uplifting" or a generic "dark" with the techy tracks. There is definitely some creativity and skill in the use of effects in modern mainstream trance, although even that is now becoming stereotyped around reverse reverb, delay tricks, and stuttery vocals or leads. Make no mistake, the mixing and technical side of the tracks are quite often excellent, although many are too compressed for my taste. What bothers me the most is the cookie-cutter quality, and the apparent unwillingness of producers to break away from trends even a bit.
This is all separate from the whole "DJ cult" thing that has been discussed to death on this board. Since you asked about the purely musical aspects, I won't get into the "social" side of things unless you want to.
Chimney
Listen to "The MFS Trip" mixed by Paul van Dyk from 1993 and you'll see what most of the people mean.
To say today's trance is trance is like saying a hippo is a cow, since the new trance lacks all of the elements that the word "trance" were intended to fulfill. Hypnotic, dark, fast, well-produced, well balanced music.
Oh look over there! It's Daniel Kandi with another 5 minutes breakdown!
tacoflavoredXTC
quote:
Originally posted by MrJiveBoJingles
It sounds very standardized, at least to me. In today's mainstream trance you have three basic track templates:
1. The 1999 - 2000 epic supersaw lead with the lead's filter opening up as a soft pad plays in the extended breakdown. This seems less popular today than it was five to seven years ago.
2. The "techy" tracks with very digital sounding leads with noise in them and usually a bitcrushing effect applied to the lead.
3. The "Deadmau5" straight eighth-note fiesta, the sound being some variation on his original lead.
Some tracks mix and match these styles, but as far as I can tell most stick to them pretty closely. A lot of them have airy female vocalists on them that sound basically interchangeable to me, no uniqueness to the vocal timbre whatsoever, EQed and reverbed out the wazoo. I guess a few still have vaguely 80s-sounding male vocalists. Most of the percussion sounds quite similar as well, insubstantial hi hats and the same friggin' crunchy clap in most tracks, the second clap in the measure prefaced by a little reverse clap thing. The pad sounds are pretty much all the same as well, the same detuned saw dealies that have been popular since the late 1990s. The tension of the tracks basically always centers around simply maxing out all the sounds, opening up all the filters and often adding pure white noise in, to create a physiological tension (ooh, high frequencies exciting my nervous system!) as much as a "musical" one.
What you generally don't have are things like: polyphony, i.e. multiple sounds and melodies playing off of one another rather than one sound and melody drowning out everything else; genuine multi-part track composition where the producer takes a track through different themes or moods; lead sounds much different from the ones mentioned above; vocalists that sound unique; diversity in emotional quality of the music, usually you get either "uplifting" or a generic "dark" with the techy tracks. There is definitely some creativity and skill in the use of effects in modern mainstream trance, although even that is now becoming stereotyped around reverse reverb, delay tricks, and stuttery vocals or leads. Make no mistake, the mixing and technical side of the tracks are quite often excellent, although many are too compressed for my taste. What bothers me the most is the cookie-cutter quality, and the apparent unwillingness of producers to break away from trends even a bit.
This is all separate from the whole "DJ cult" thing that has been discussed to death on this board. Since you asked about the purely musical aspects, I won't get into the "social" side of things unless you want to.
Im socially retarded, please do :crazy:
Sand Leaper
quote:
Originally posted by Chimney
Listen to "The MFS Trip" mixed by Paul van Dyk from 1993 and you'll see what most of the people mean.
Tbh, that's not necessarily the best example. The mixing is not very good, and it contains some typically underproduced and crude tracks that sound woefully dated in 2009.
I keep saying this, but one of the best and most timeless documents of trance music at its best was and still is Behind The Eye vol. 1. You don't need anything else as far as an introduction to trance is concerned.
Chimney
quote:
Originally posted by Sand Leaper
Tbh, that's not necessarily the best example. The mixing is not very good, and it contains some typically underproduced and crude tracks that sound woefully dated in 2009.
I keep saying this, but one of the best and most timeless documents of trance music at its best was and still is Behind The Eye vol. 1. You don't need anything else as far as an introduction to trance is concerned.
I'll look into it.
MrJiveBoJingles
quote:
Originally posted by tacoflavoredXTC
Im socially retarded, please do
It has to do with the DJ being the center of attention. The rise of filesharing allowed dance music trends to go global more easily, and trance was the first to really make it big through that route. So you have the "superstar DJ" phenomenon, where the person playing the records gets at least as much attention as the records themselves. And you have the grandstanding enabled by the longer breakdowns in new tracks, during which everyone stops dancing for a few minutes and raises their hands in the air and looks adoringly at the DJ as he makes a face or does a pose. I guess some people like this, but it feels pretty silly to me.
iTranscendence
quote:
Originally posted by owien
we need some producers who will not care about todays trance and make an impact and create a new wave of thinking in dance.
at the moment tho its the likes of trifonic and bt who are leading the way.
When in the last 18 years has BT not lead the way.
iTranscendence
quote:
Originally posted by MrJiveBoJingles
It sounds very standardized, at least to me. In today's mainstream trance you have three basic track templates:
1. The 1999 - 2000 epic supersaw lead with the lead's filter opening up as a soft pad plays in the extended breakdown. This seems less popular today than it was five to seven years ago.
2. The "techy" tracks with very digital sounding leads with noise in them and usually a bitcrushing effect applied to the lead.
3. The "Deadmau5" straight eighth-note fiesta, the sound being some variation on his original lead.
Some tracks mix and match these styles, but as far as I can tell most stick to them pretty closely. A lot of them have airy female vocalists on them that sound basically interchangeable to me, no uniqueness to the vocal timbre whatsoever, EQed and reverbed out the wazoo. I guess a few still have vaguely 80s-sounding male vocalists. Most of the percussion sounds quite similar as well, insubstantial hi hats and the same friggin' crunchy clap in most tracks, the second clap in the measure prefaced by a little reverse clap thing. The pad sounds are pretty much all the same as well, the same detuned saw dealies that have been popular since the late 1990s. The tension of the tracks basically always centers around simply maxing out all the sounds, opening up all the filters and often adding pure white noise in, to create a physiological tension (ooh, high frequencies exciting my nervous system!) as much as a "musical" one.
What you generally don't have are things like: polyphony, i.e. multiple sounds and melodies playing off of one another rather than one sound and melody drowning out everything else; genuine multi-part track composition where the producer takes a track through different themes or moods; lead sounds much different from the ones mentioned above; vocalists that sound unique; diversity in emotional quality of the music, usually you get either "uplifting" or a generic "dark" with the techy tracks. There is definitely some creativity and skill in the use of effects in modern mainstream trance, although even that is now becoming stereotyped around reverse reverb, delay tricks, and stuttery vocals or leads. Make no mistake, the mixing and technical side of the tracks are quite often excellent, although many are too compressed for my taste. What bothers me the most is the cookie-cutter quality, and the apparent unwillingness of producers to break away from trends even a bit.
This is all separate from the whole "DJ cult" thing that has been discussed to death on this board. Since you asked about the purely musical aspects, I won't get into the "social" side of things unless you want to.
