i have this vinyl!
love old trance and hate new edm!
maybe i'm just getting a bit too old :/

 

i wasn't even aware he published anything pre-2001
at the time i was living in amsterdam and it was taken for granted he was just a young radio DJ.

he probably hooked up with some bedroom producer and gave him some rough ideas and signed the vinyl with his name to push it on radios, which was very common in the 90s.

i've never ever heard of van buuren playing a keyboard or setting foot in a studio or using a daw unless it's a video made for youtube, i was a regular in all the music stores and music-gear stores, if van buuren was really a producer it must have been a very well kept secret ! on the other side everyone knew that tiesto used ghost producers but this was never a mistery, ghost producing was common already in the 70s and nobody gave a shit.

 

just go to a music store and try some real hardware, sure lots of software that is really good but there's a reason why in most producer's studios there are shit loads of synths

 

yepp definitely worth to subscribe to the channel of Aiyn Zahev

 

Trance as a popular dance music genre died comercially mid - late 00s and all the trance producers switched to melodic electro house (trance 2.0).
It's funny to see how people rage about how the new trance is shit when they are not even talking about the "same genre.

Ground bass + repeating motives on the different scale steps + relentless pulse = trance.
But why did trance die - it became a cheesy formula and most of the producers have 0 % talent and fresh ideas.
(You can still find decent trance tracks in the hybrid Zimmer inspired soundtrack music).

 

You are wrong man, it is not in the weed it is in the pills.Them pills.

 

When I was younger I was a DJ. My main genre was funky breaks, but had a few select trance records as well.
What I remember from my limited trance collection was this. Tiesto and Oakenfold, just from listening to my records (ghost producer or not) Tiesto's tracks sounded like a DJ made them. Oakenfold's sounded like a producer/musician made them. IMO
Oakenfold's trance was deeper, but I will be the first to admit that I am far from an expert on the subject

 

A barrel of MDMA, outside of that - if you actually understand what you are doing, doesn't matter what you use.

Outside of the MDMA, that pretty much goes for all music, the idea and being original (or original enough within a genre to differentiate yourself a bit) is what matters. You could use two trash cans, a kazzoo and a stock fx, if you can think of something fun to do with that then you are 1/2 way there.

Also, it should take longer than the time it takes you to finish a hamburger and a pack of chips.

 

Trance was initially considered "melodic techno" or "progressive techno", with Techno being was today could pass for Tech House, even Detroit Techno was just called "techno", all the early PLUS-8 records stuff came out as "techno" too, later evolving in more jumpy shit like Speedy-J which has nothing to do with the original concept of Techno.

i understand the anger, modern dance music in general is a disturbing mix of anything made in the past and now, there's a gazillion of stuff coming out every week, very hard to keep focus on all the trends.

in any case it's hard for a specific genre to keep going too long, how long can you stand the same shit over and over ? 3 years ? 5 years ? 10 years ?
Trance started taking shape in the mid 90s, it's quite a long time ! early Techno started in 87-88.

Trance probably died out of boredom.
of course there's a lack of fresh ideas, first of all the labels never feel safe trying to push weird ideas, and even wanting you're locked in the small perimeter of your genre, trance must be 4/4 beat, must be this and must be that, the bass must like this and not like that, with so many prerequisites there's little to no space for innovation and of course nobody is going to invest on it if the returns are pityful as the whole market is flooded by copycats on a daily basis and every other 13 years old with Ableton can make a copycat or a remix with little effort and no talent.

at this point there's hardly anything new to try on the dancefloor, everything has been done in any possible style and fashion, and now they go back to Nu Disco or even Synth-Pop out of desperation but i remember synth-pop in my youth and it died out of boredom too, you just can't push the same shit forever, there are lots of great trance tunes but imagine being forced to listen to the same exact format for the years to come, sooner or later you will snap up and stop going in disco altogether, as i did many times when it became unbearable being forced to listen crap at full volume pretty much anywhere including radios, there's so much stuff around try jazz or ambient electronic, give it a break for a while.

 

Just a question inbetween:

What's happening musically with the song at 1:19? From happy sounding it switches to a sadder sound, how so, chord changes?

Would love to know the answer to this!

 

Dude, that's a comment from somebody who has no ideia how Trance scene is, ur's still stuck at 2003/4 (when trance was actually dying), and u'r still looking at the scene from outside...
Wake up dude, u got...
Uplifting side: Subculture (BHR), FSOE, Who's Afraid of 138, Amsterdam Trance, VANDIT, In Trance We Trust (BHR), Monster, ...
Tech-Trance side: Kearnage Recordings, Outburst Records, Mental Asylum Records, Damaged Records, Universal Nation, ...
Melodic side: High Contrast Recordings, Flashover, AVA (BHR), ...
Progressive side: Statement!, Pure Trance Progressive, Freegrant Music, ...
Psy/Goa side: Iboga Records, Blue Tunes Records, X7M Records, ...

...to name only a few...

And i don't even had to mention Anjunabeats, Enhanced or Armada's main labels, so u can't say "It's not Trance", ...That in fact it is trance, there's still a middle breakdown, long phrases, characteristic melodies and longer transitions... That unlike house music, u can still point out some unique features on Trance...

 

Well, all I can tell you is that Armin produces his own music and that's absolutely true. There's a documentary where you can see his old studio in his parents house and the gear he used. Funny detail: he also used a mirror to see when someone entered the room.

Anyway, there are many video's and interviews that show not only his studio/gear in Leiden but also his knowledge. This man knows what he's talking about and knows how to use his hardware and software. That's why I have more respect for him in comparison with artists that sell a brand with a whole team (which isn't a bad thing if you do it in a honest way).

Benno (also Rank1) is his companion yes but that's not a shame because Armin released so many tracks during his career, doing that all by yourself is almost not done when you're travelling around the globe for gigs and doing lots of other stuff (radio, label, events, promotion etc.). Besides, you can also divide the work in producing and mixing. Did you know for example that they both work with 2 studio's/DAW systems that are connected with each other? Now that's workflow improvement if you ask me.

The story about Tiesto is well known indeed. His contribution is mainly telling the producer next to him how he wants it because his talent is knowing what works on the dancefloor and what not. That's also a way. Another funny ghost producer detail is btw Johan Gielen. Some of his tracks were made by Tha Playah, which is a big hardcore name in NL. And Klubbheads made almost everything from dj Jean. Maarten Vorwerk is well known (for Dimitri iPad & Buy Likes + others) and last week KSHMR came in the news, seems he did some tracks for Borgeous. The list goes on and on I guess.

 

Do we all agree America played a huge part on making electronic music ridiculous?

 

my favorite one

 

it goes much deeper than that, a true ghost producer isn't even credited in the track, same happens for many young producers who send demos around and the track is published with somebody else name, they get some money but no credit, and then you have some label where the owner is always credited first no matter what, all he did is publishing the track but has not played a single note.

nobody can really know 100% who's the true author of a track, who got the idea behind a track, who did nothing but got all the credit ...
and these things go on for years and years.

now, DJs will claim they go in a studio with a pile of vinyls and samples and bring "fresh ideas" to steal or "take inspiration", so to deserve the credit on the track but at best this mean co-author, instead their names are flashed everywhere in big bold letters, or the whole track is sold as is for 20-30K euro.

i admit i wasn't aware VanBuuren could play but still his tracks were never on par with Benno.
Vorwerk and Benno are probably the top dutch trance producers ever but their brand is almost unknown to the clowns who wave flags at the festivals.

it's not even DJing anymore, it's all brand, smoke, mirrors, and performing.
such is life, but behind this circus there are serious producers, one day they will be recognized.

 

Saw really interesting posts, thanks everyone. I really enjoy how electronic music evolves and I really like that new sound. Call it electro house or whatever, im just happy with it and I like the ideas and the buildups are just awesome. But guys, u cant compare it to something released 10 years ago, really. It's like comparing Slick Rick - Children's Story & Drake - Hotline Bling - awful. I discovered trance with this video ->

I remember how I was watching this till the end and I was just blown away.
Main idea why I posted this was to learn more about how they achieve that sound. And I can't thank you enough for all the info I've got.
<3