I agree with you entirely! But are we talking about the quality of music, about good old times.. or are we giving the OP a (possible) answer? I was partying HARD in those years. And when a good ol' trance tune was banging in the club it was like on a spacecraft. And when I was driving through the night with a trance tune on my car radio it was like flying..

Though, was trying to give the OP a cold, down to earth answer. The facts are:
- the "trance" as genre is going up as far as sales are concerned (It doesn't matter how it sounds to any of us)
- the new armin track is labeled as (pure) trance - I checked, like I always do
- how the trance sounds these days is up to big guys. think, the "consumers" raving to the today's trance were wearing diapers in 2003
- can we agree that today's "trance" sounds different compared to early 2000 one? I still think this is the fact the OP should consider! OP's music sounds more like "original" trance - that may be considered "outdated" by the label. Or as somebody already mentioned, might be a polite way to say - this sucks.

To be perfectly clear: to me, what today is labeled as "trance", sounds closer to "twinkle twinkle little star" than anything else. I have nostalgia and so on... But who cares about what I think?! If you want to sell, adjust. If not, you will be doing music for yourself or a really small audience.. Very OK if you have lots of money to buy gear, pay bills,.. of course then you can say fuck you, I'll do it my way!

There is also a third option. If you do everything right, invest in branding, build a brand and have lots of luck to be in the right place at the right time.. you can start changing music. But good luck with that - you'll need it..

 

Well said ArticStorm! A classic is just that...a classic. It transcend generations and survives ANY social changes and musical developments. "Situation" by Yazoo, 'Blue Monday" by New Order, "Planet Rock" by AB and SSF, "I feel love" by Giorgio Moroder feat. Donna Summer are just good examples of classics sounding as good today as they did 20 and 30 years ago.

 

It's simply too much to write. I gave above how me and other producers approach this issue, the logic behind it. If you need to produce a certain genre, just listen for a week or so and take notes and the rest will come. Good luck!

 

Yeah. Old.

 

Jayflax, just listening to a genre for a week and taking notes is not going to make anyone a "producer". If you dont have it within you for that genre you become an imitator not a producer.There are genres that I do not personally like, for example C & W. If I were to produce C & W I would have to imitate whatever another producer has done. I would not be "producing" I would be copying someone else's interpretation of that genre. This runs contrary to what the creator of this thread stands for. He DOES love trance. He is not attempting to produce any other genre but the one he "feels" and has the "vibes" for it. THAT should be the starting point for anybody who wants to become a producer and succeed at it.

 

@jayxflash
I've read a lot of comments you posted, because I always do before getting in to a debate /w somebody. At first I had the impression that you are over-criticizing most of the stuff.. now I realized, you were mostly giving people the cruel facts by which the music industry turns around. (disclaimer ;) I don't agree 100% /w everything you say, but that's absolutely normal..) Though when people ask a question, they don't want the painful truth - they want an answer that would confirm what they already have in mind. So there is no point explaining.. I see you figured it out yourself though.

Which trance?? 1993? 2004? 2017..? The label guys didn't say "We do not want TRANCE", they said: "This TRANCE is outdated"

EDIT: corrected the post (Fudsey Plange notice)

So.. just leaving this thread... peace <3

 

Last edited: Jun 28, 2017

Simple MInds is the original (1982) and USURA is the mashup.

And the point is the times they always are a changing.

 

did you even read the rest of his sentence lol

BTW "trance" doesn't exist anymore, it's way too much combined with pop elements, house, club, etc. early 90s 'till start of 2000 is trance. then we got the trance with huge breakdowns, with even vocals (crazy right, what are vocals!?), etc. go listen to Alcatraz by Peyote (which fun fact, it was supposed to be called Happy birthday), some goa trance, the Age of Love, Blue Alphabet's Cybertrance, Oasis and Paraglide by Olivier Lieb (Paragliders)... just check Bonzai's stuff from the 90s I'd say for a good start on trance/harder trance, there's so much stuff, sometimes I'm surprised people don't even know these tracks.

@virusg !! very nice track, reminded me a bit of nolita and super8 ft tab

to the OP: well the question you have to ask yourself is: are you trying to make money? if so, then abandon all the ideas you have and adapt, do as the others have said above, great answers, there's so much to learn from the people in here. if you liked your track and you don't give a damn if it sounds outdated, well why do you care? i made some tracks specifically trying to make them sound outdated. anyway yeah, the point is: you want to sign up/get paid? make modern stuff and follow the sheeps (which in itself is not a bad thing, as jay said, you gotta pay the bills no?); you want to make music? make what you feel and what you like

@Matt777 is right: most of the time mistakes and incomprehension are made because of WORDS. first, make sure you are talking about the same thing... "trance", just like "EDM" and other terms, mean nothing now.

cheers

 

Apologize, I was wrong - was listening to fast and will correct accordingly.

But also you are not completely right (just for the record). A mashup in music means (at least) two separate tracks, songs,.. mixed (blended) together. USURA's Open your mind can be a version, mixup, (re)mix, remake even cover to an extent but not a mashup

I get what you mean, though.. so again sorry, my mistake.

 

Last edited: Jun 28, 2017

it's nothing of that, it's a new song that samples parts of New Gold Dream achieving a very good result i must say ;)

 

Hey no worries Bro.

 

LOL, I have no problem admitting when I'm wrong. This place is chaos most of the time and I'm just a human.. @Backtired yeah, I would say - do NOT touch Simple Minds if you don't have something really good up your sleeve. And USURA (you probably right - sampling them would be the closest..) did a pretty good job..
But now, this is really a sign I must leave the thread.. brain-tired...

 

This is how you build a start: know your genre and, why not, competition.

"having it in you" equals "I like the genre, I don't know objectively how is made, I just do it by instinct and when the genre gets obsolete I will get obsolete because I have no idea how to develop further" this is no real producer

Only if one is a very good producer can be an imitator. But when one is a good producer, it usually have the skills and mindset to improve the imitation, producing an iteration aka exactly how electronic music develops (through small iterations). Only a less skilled producer will imitate (and usually) old trends and will never succeed anyway.

See the answer above + I highly doubt that if you are a skilled producer you will stop at imitating. Best, you'll get a lousy copy of said genre. If you are a good producer there's no way you'll stop at copying without developing furher or introducing your own twists.

Speaking of genres, this is how it works: the client comes in with an acapella + a guitar song and says "I want this to sound like a dancy tropical house" - and you as a producer, you make that song as a dancy tropical. Then 2 weeks later the client sends you an email "hey, the song has enough success so I want a club track, maybe a piano house to keep the summery style" and you do a totally new production in terms of instruments and textures to dress that acapella into a house track clothes. Do you understand what production really is? It's the step between composer and mastering.

And how well the "feeling" and "desire" worked for him? He feels a style of trance which was popular nearly 20 years ago, he just let us know that the very trance labels are rejecting his "feelings" and "desires" and you see no problem with that? And I'm the problem for pointing out the music industry is an industry (d'oh) and if you want to make it there are rules to follow? And I'm giving bad advice for pointing out that when doing a song too much innovation puts the soung out of genre's current boundaries and no innovation makes the song obsolete?

I've said it before: feel free to play by your own rules, "feelings", "desires" whatever, but expect to rather win the lottery than succeeding in the music market. I don't say is good, I'm merely poitning out how the things work.

Sadly.

I'm an idealist Apparently there are people that only read the threads that are receptive to reality, so why not trying to explain some basic and obvious things?

It's funny, people that talk about "feelings" and "passion" are obviously still in the listener side of things. No serious producer will say this (unless on social media or interviews to look on the same side with the fans). These people don't produce on a regular basis, they don't realise is a 9 to 5 job. They don't get that it requires a shit load of self discipline (mainly helped by deadlines, to be totally honest). And they surely don't get that in 3 days, in day one from 9 to 3 pm you brainstorm for a melody, bass, counter-melody & chord progressions, then by the end of the day a basic arrangement is done, then in day two you finish the arrangement and most of the mixing and day 3 is finshing the song because the client wants it. They see these tutorials when a producers tells how he spends 3 days on a kick alone and they imagine one track a month is the maximum one can get. They don't ask themselves how that same producer made an album while touring.

But whatever, at this point I'm used to be "corrected" by people that have no idea how music production works in the big industry circuit but they have their own idea how music production should work.

"we should put more feelings into it". How about more sweat? How about (and this is perfectly reasonable for many top songs) making 5 songs a week ? Now that's passion for music making.

 

Jayflax, nobody is trying to correct you. Im just expressing my own opinion based on personal and professional experience. And i do so without getting into details as to whom am I and what I have been able to accomplish after 37 years in the biz. As a DJ, a producer, recording studio and record label owner. One thing I learned, nobody is the best at everything. Therefore, whenever a client needs something done which is NOT within my expertise I am humble and smart enough to "delegate' that to someone who will better serve the client as the client deserves. Finally, I do disagree with you 100% when you claim that music is NOT about feelings and passion.

 

Once is gets outdated enough, it's then considered trendy again. Even simmonds synth drums survive Round and round and round we go.

 

I agree on this. I'd also add that 100% of the time clients ask for trendy stuff, be it towards underground sounds, be it mainstream so almost never happen to be asked for "exotic stuff" that needs redirection because we have to know new shit anyway.

My claim is that being stuck into a genre is not about feelings and passion. Making music must be about at least one of them otherwise no financial rewards would equate the struggle in a domain where a product is never really finished and you permanently make compromise so the satisfaction of job done often lacks. And before interpreting "compromise" I'm talking about technical issues like changing bass notes or sometimes go as far as changint the key (and perhaps the melody) because the bass is not hitting the "best notes" in the subs and other similar stuff.

 

@Peter Krav Thanks for sharing. I thoroughly enjoyed that track.

 

@Nana Banana i think that you are too old to listen trance music! Don't you?
Cheers!!!