How to Create Trance Music
Trance music is one of the best known and influential branches of dance music in modern times, and has recently enjoyed a great deal of exposure on MTV and other music venues. Characterized by its repetitive beats, surprisingly melodic scoring and epic themes, trance music is quite distinct from house or techno music, and can be a challenge to create.
However, with basic instrumentation, loop-capable recording software and some friendly guidance, you can create your own psychedelic trance music--and join the movement.
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Things You'll Need
- Keyboard (multiple instrumentation sounds)
- Loop-capable recording software
Instructions
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Choose or compose a tune that is defined and can be repeated for the majority of a song without becoming tedious. You should decide on the track's musical melody before anything else, as trance music is heavily melody-oriented, and surprisingly complex in terms of the minor and major chords that intermingle to form the majority of the song. Creating the main melody will be the most difficult part of the creation process, but will also have the biggest impact on your song's overall success.
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Lay down your song's beat track as a four-bar loop in loop-capable recording software like AVS Music-Mix or Sound Forge, using your keyboard's percussion-themed sound effects list. Most trance music features thumping bass and snare accents, and sometimes staccato high-hat rhythms as well.
For climactic moments in the melody, the snare and/or bass traditionally moves from its regular syncopation into eighth notes, sixteenth notes, and even thirty-second notes, accompanying a crescendo in the music. These measures that differ from the basic beat can be added in post-production fairly simply. Record the measure separately and paste it into the song, overwriting an existing measure with the new one.
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Compose and record any sub-melodic tracks that your song calls for, such as bass guitar, harmonic strings, or other complementary instrumentation. As with the other sections of the song, these can be recorded on loops of four bars each, and repeated indefinitely to create a song of any length.
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Combine your melody, sub-melody and beat tracks together in the recording software, and listen to your creation in its raw form. Spot-check for inconsistent rhythms, incompatible harmonies, or other problems. Finish creating your song by adding in crescendo measures, percussive accent measures, or other sound effects by recording the measures separately and adding them one at a time.
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