How we listen to Trance

[GagaISM]

That's true. I still wonder if there is any hardware that set Goa apart from the rest of Techno. Just like the Alpha Juno 2 "hoover" in Hardcore. The extensive use of the Nord Lead maybe...

[radi6404]

I think but that is jsut a guess, the SH 101 synthessizer.

[Veracohr]

SH-101 is very widely used in pretty much every electronic genre. From Vintage Synth Explorer:

 

 

It is used by Orbital, Future Sound of London, Überzone, The Prodigy, 808 State, The Grid, Cirrus, Eat Static, Jimmy Edgar, Apollo 440, Devo, Union Jack, Luke Vibert, Dirty Vegas, Josh Wink, the Crystal Method, Aphex Twin, Astral Projection, Les Rythmes Digitales, Sense Datum, Squarepusher, Sascha Konietzko of KMFDM/MDFMK, Freddy Fresh, Lab-4, Nitzer Ebb, the Chemical Brothers, Boards of Canada and many more.

 

[BraneFreeze]

The more I've learnt about production the more I've learnt how to recognize talent. That extra little thing that separates the greats from the not so greats. It might have changed my perception of a few artist in a negative way, but I've come to appreciate others so much more.

 

So which artists have you come to appreciate more? Which production masters deserve greater recognition?

[GagaISM]

Koxbox for sure. I used to appreciate their sound and compositions as a whole, but now I can just zone in on each individual part and be in total awe. There's so much going on and yet they've managed to retain such a sense of space. I've on the other hand also begun to notice how a lot of modern releases tend to sound impressive at first, but once I pick through the layers I end up finding each of them very dull on their own. That's one of the main problems with software. It lacks the fat analog textures. Everything ends up sounding thin and lifeless, so people create a ton of layers in an attempt to hide it/make it sound good. Just try and have kick running in Ableton and you'll instantly notice how it's the same sample being played over and over again. A real drum machine will create tiny variations on every hit, and will thus have a natural groove to it. It's just a few small examples, but it makes a world of difference to me. Both as a listener and a producer.

[franki]

I'm aware of the TB 303 & 808/909s (who isn't that has ever had a passing interest in dance music!), there were two guys I new in my school days who had SH101 synths (but they were brand new then!), but other than that I don't really know much about producing electronic music or have any ambitions to start making any.

It doesn't interest me that much what equipment or software is used. I think it only really becomes a fascination if you begin producing yourself. (I'm interested in and know much more about guitars and CDJs for example, because I do mix and play six string a little...)

 

I think having a little knowledge on a subject does make you very critical though. Once you start to learn how to DJ, you spot every mistake someone makes and it's difficult sometimes to just listen to a DJ mix and enjoy it for what it is, without listening harder to the mixes between tracks themselves than the music. I imagine it's similar listening to other producers - without judging their work, if you make electronic music yourself.

[CoLoUr DoTZ]

Now that we're talking about the 303, does anyone know who was the first to use it in Goa/Psy Trance?

The natural answer to that would be "Acidhouse". The TB303 was already part of goatrance even before goatrance ever existed.....

[GagaISM]

Of course, but there was a lot of Techno artist that abandoned the 303 around 1990 to separate themselves from Acidhouse. So one shouldn't take the use of any machine for granted. There's a lot of hardware that never made it into the "Goa sound".

 

Does anyone know if the hardware used on old Astral Projection and Juno Reactor releases has been listed anywhere?

 

[CoLoUr DoTZ]

 

Astral Projections old setup:

 

Pentium PC, 550 Mhz, 256Mb RAM

30Gb hard drive, Creamware pulsar soundcard

 

 

Access Virus B

Amek 9098 EQ

ARP Odyssey

Behringer tube compressor

Bellari RP583 compressor

Clavia Nord Lead

Clavia Nord Modular

dbx 163 compressor (x2)

dbx 166a compressor

Digitech effects

EMS AKS synth (x2)

E-mu e6400 Ultra sampler

E-mu EMAX II sampler

E-mu Morpheus sound module

E-mu Proteus sound module

Focusrite Red compressor

Genelec 1032 AP monitors

Kenton Pro 4

Kenton Pro 2000

Korg DRV3000 effects

Korg MS10 synth

Korg MS20 synth

Korg PolySix analogue synth

Korg SDD3300 effects

Lexicon MPX1 effects

Lexicon PCM70 effects

Lexicon PCM80 effects

Lexicon Super Prime Time delay

MAM resonator

MAM vocoder

Manley Massive Passive EQ

Manley Avri Mu compressor

Moog Prodigy

Oberheim Matrix 6R sound module

Oberheim Xpander

Roland CMU-810 CompuSynth

Roland DEP-5

Roland JD-800 Classic synth

Roland JX-3P synth

Roland Juno 60 synth

Roland Juno 106 synth

Roland MC-202 synth

Roland MKS-50 synth (x2)

Roland MKS-70 synth

Roland MKS-80 synth

Roland SH-101 synth

Roland TB-303 Bassline

Roland TR-606 drum machine

Roland TR-909 drum machine

Roland U-220 synth

Sundtracs Solitaire 40-channel mixer

Studio Electronics SE1 synth

 

Also, if you go to Vintage synth explorer you will see astral listed in every synth there...... Go and figure what they used the most.....

 

 

Referring to acid house, I named it because it had a big influenced in many of the trance artists of the time. Both the scene and the music.

 

Quote from Ott in the Twisted DVD: 'There's my 303...I sold the first one I had in 1986 for forty quid to by some hash, I couldn't really think of anything useful to do with it...about three months later I heard my first acid house record. Oops.'

[GagaISM]

Sure. Thanks a lot!

 

Did they ever go 100% digital?

[CoLoUr DoTZ]

 

I can still see some analog gear there.... And someone playing the keyboard for them....

[GagaISM]

And someone playing the keyboard for them....

Life of a star-producer