Best products from r/trance

DAW

So basically there's gonna be a few things you're gonna need. First and foremost is your DAW. I use and I highly recommend Ableton Live 8. It's powerful and versatile and works both in Mac and Windows. And once you learn the interface, it's pretty easy to get ideas down on the page. Plus it comes with a great set of built-in plugins.


SPEAKERS

The next thing you'll need is a good pair of studio monitor speakers. This is really important because you're gonna need to listen to the full audio frequency spectrum to get the mixdown of the parts of your track just right. You want studio speakers because they have a flat frequency response, unlike say most crappy desktop speakers. A good starting point is M-Audio. Check out their BX8a or BX5a Deluxe studio monitor lines.


SOUND CARD

To go along with that, you're probably gonna need a decent audio interface (sound card). I recommend getting a good external firewire or usb card. The company I like and card that I use is from FocusRite. Check out their Saffire 6 USB Audio Interface. You're gonna want a card that has outputs that will work with your studio monitor speakers. Most of them are balanced 1/4" or XLR connections. I recommend getting something with balanced outputs, as this will minimize any noise that might otherwise be created, and will assure you get the best sound out of your speakers.


SYNTHESIZERS

Next you're gonna want to invest in some decent synthesizers. As a starving college student, I don't have a lot of money to throw around myself, so I only have software synths, but there are some really excellent ones out there. These days, software synths are becoming more and more powerful and give hardware a real run for their money. Most of the soft synths made out there are in either the VST or AU format; these formats are pretty much the standard that basically all modern DAWs like Ableton will be fully compatible with. A couple of the ones I really like are:

Native Instruments Massive

Lennar Digital Sylenth1

U-He Zebra 2.5

U-He ACE

reFx Nexus

reFx Vanguard

FAW Circle

Spectrasonics Omnisphere

Spectrasonics Trilian

Arturia Minimoog V

GForce Software Minimonsta

FXpansion - DCAM: Synth Squad

Rob Papen's Virtual Instruments

One thing to realize is that most of these plugins won't run by themselves. You must run them in a host application, like Ableton to work. I find that this confuses beginners sometimes. You just have to make sure you setup whatever DAW you decide to go with, to look at a specific plugin directory, and then make sure you install all your plugins to that folder so your DAW can see them and they can be ready for you to use (not just your soft synths but other plugin units like fx for example).

As you can see, there's a lot of great synths out there, based on different types of synthesis. And for me this is a really fun aspect of trying to make music. I am still learning myself, as there is so much to learn, but I suggest you try some of those synths out, get to know them, and learn synthesis.

Synthesis is a whole monster onto itself, so I also suggest going online and searching for tutorials on youtube to help with that endeavor.

OTHER PLUGINS

As I briefly mentioned above, synths aren't the only types of plugins you will need in music production. There's other plugins that you will need to use like compressors, filters, equalizers, vocoders, distortion unit, gaters, chorus, and delays and reverb to name a few crucial ones.

There's a whole world out there of these type of plugins, with many great people/companies making some AWESOME plugins. In fact, there are WAY-TOO-MANY to mention here. But alas, to give you an idea of what I'm talking about, I will list a few, in no particular order, that you can check out:

Audio Damage

PSP Audioware

FabFilter

Togu Audio Line

u-he's Uhbik

2CAudio

Studio Devil

WAVES

Camel Audio

Sugar Bytes

SYNTHESIS

Most synths will come with presets. Again, the fun for me is trying to come up with my own patches and sounds, but at first, some of those synths will look like spaceship control consoles. But I promise, once you learn some of the basics of synthesis, most of those synths will have the same basic functions that you will immediately recognize. So when you first start out, go into those presets, and instead of just simply using them in the parts you write, go into the synth, pick some presets that you like, and try to figure out how those patches were made. Play around with the settings and knobs and see how the sound changes. This will help you translate sounds that you might come up in your head, and then translate them "to the page". I could go on forever about synthesis but I've just hit the tip of the iceberg.

MUSIC THEORY

So do you have to have a degree in music to make electronic music? While it certainly helps, you don't need to know music theory to start making electronic music. Honestly you just need to have a good ear. Also, you will need patience, and dedication, because it's not going to come overnight. There's a lot of established electronic music producers out there that started out with basically little background in music theory. You just have to stick to it, and learn on the way!

If indeed you know little music theory and you're just starting out, a great book that I suggest you pick up RIGHT NOW if you're at all serious about starting production is Music Theory for Computer Musicians. It's ~$20 on Amazon. FTW!

MIDI CONTROLLER

Now, the next thing that really helps to have around in your studio, is a good midi controller keyboard. Now with most DAW's you'll be able to write midi parts out just by the click of your mouse, but trust me, this isn't really fun. Having a midi keyboard makes your life, a whole lot easier, it's more fun, and you can get parts down faster onto your DAW. You won't need anything too fancy. I suggest looking at the M-Audio Axiom line of keyboard midi controllers. The 49 key ones are nice ;)

SAMPLES

Now, some people like to create their own percussion elements. Whether by recording their own sounds, or tweaking the shit out of existing samples they might already have. This can be time consuming, and when you're just starting out, you just want to get ideas down. Since you're starting out, and you said yourself you just wnat to start making the beats you hear in your head, I'd suggest looking into getting some solid percussion sample packs. You're not gonna be at the level of making your own, so you're gonna need a little help when you start out. And many established producers use percussion sample packs which will have many single shot drum samples of kicks, hats, snares, claps, fx. Some packs will have loops, but I generally stay away from them. I suggest using the single shot sounds, and try and create your own loops from scratch. The place I like to go to get some solid packs are

Loopmasters

Vengeance Sample Packs

OTHER RESOURCES

Another good resource is COMPUTER MUSIC Magazine. It comes out every month, from the UK, so go to your nearest chain bookstore, because they're bound to have it. CM has great articles and tips, and reviews on the latest software and hardware that's coming out. They also have great interviews, and it also comes with a CD that comes with a lot of good free and trial software that you'll find useful. There's also usually a video interview from a top DJ/Producer/Electronic Artist which are always really insightful and great resource as you can see the perspectives of music making straight from other artists themselves. For these interviews, they'll usually go explain and show you how they made one of their tracks; like I said, an awesome resource from which you'll get some great tips.


IN CONCLUSION

I hope that what I've written you will find useful, and will be a good starting point. If I think of something else, I might yet add it here. And of course like it's been said, you just gotta go in your DAW and FUCK AROUND; that's the only way to get better - through PRACTICE. And go to places like YouTube and search for production videos. You'll find some good tutorials from which you'll learn some good tips, synthesis, and production techniques.

If you stick to it, dedicate yourself, you'll get there in no time. You're gonna find yourself making those beats you hear at night in your head, and turning them into reality.

EDIT: Added Music Theory and Other Plugins section :)

Fun second half. Turns out I have thoughts about mantras.

• Beginning didn't really do it for me, but felt like it picked up about halfway through.
  
• I really really like the mantra/chanting theme that carries the second half. Strong concept. It was a couple of minutes from the mantra-explanation sample to when anything of the sort showed up; I think I would have preferred that gap to be much smaller. Would have helped drive home the intentionality of the whole thing.
  
• The alien-code / deciphering sample later on kind of kills the theme, despite there being some chanting after that.
  
• The mantra-explanation sample makes pretty explicit this weird exoticism that psy has sometimes. (Ooh, capital E-Eastern religions, how mystical! etc.) Not sure if the tracks would have allowed for it, but I would have really enjoyed heading straight into ... I dunno, like, Gregorian chant after that. Play with it a bit.
  
• Okay, whatever, I'm losing the thread on the bullet points here, but I don't care. A long time ago on the beach in San Diego some Hare Krishnas gave me this book. (I have not even thought about this book in probably 10 years.) One part of the book suggests that chanting "coca cola" is intrinsically less satisfying than chanting the Hare Krishna mantra. I don't really buy that there's anything spiritually significant to that, but there's definitely something that could be done with ad slogans as consumerist pseudo-mantra something something.
  
• tl;dr I found the concept engaging and I wish this song could have fit in somehow.

Because you didn't mention a budget I'll just mention one of the GOAT headphones you can buy:

Sennheiser! (note: get a good amp to max out the potential of these babies)

I'm a big Sennheiser fan and you can generally look through their catalog to find something more your budget but their stuff is all generally very well made and worth the money. The HD650's are also a good recommendation for trance music

More realistically speaking; these puppies are a very common recommendation due to being overall a fantastic set of cans for the price.

Also Denon (D2000's and D5000's) and Sony's MDR-XB500 should deliver more of a bass kick (especially the Sony's) if that's what you're into.


But if you REALLY want to get the best sound of out of a pair of cans, you can do no better than Beats by THE Dr. Dre (kidding kidding, if you wanted to spend in that range I would ABSOLUTELY recommend the Sennheisers. Or shit, get 2 pairs of Audio Technica's if you want). Just... don't actually buy Beats

Everyone is saying Audio Technica ATH-M50s, but I honestly wasn't impressed by them.

These, however, blow me away.

The value is unreal. I actually prefer the sound of them over a pair of $400 Ultrasone Pro900s I used to own. These have a great soundstage, punchy bass, forward and smooth mids (which are essential for trance), and terrific highs. They also isolate better than any non noise-canceling phones I've used and they're ridiculously comfortable. Hook 'em up to a headphone amp and bass boost them if you want. They'll take anything you can throw at them.

If you buy the M50s, you'll be spending more for less, in my opinion.

I don't know if this is interesting, but what the hell. I was mainly into hip-hop (everything from Do or Die to Master P) in my teens. I really didn't branch out from the genera except for the occasional R&B album (112, Keith Sweat, stuff like that).

I ran into some old racer buddies of mine (yes, those annoying Hondas with the exhaust systems, you know the kind) and one of them had just had his first experience with MDMA not too long before we met up again. He went on about how moving the experience was, the pure bliss he felt, etc. So me, not really giving a shit and looking for a good time said, "what the hell, I'll give it a go."

Jump about a week later. My buddy gets a hold of some pills from this chick in Boulder. They were called white elephants and according to the source, fucking good. We'd planned on chilling at his house and just listening to music when taking them, nothing too crazy. I didn't know what to expect. I had taken a few pills at some random raves about a year before (this was in 2001) but didn't really feel anything at those events. I had no clue that this night would change me as a person forever.

We took our first pill around 8pm and bullshitted, talking trash, having a good time. About an 30 minutes later, I get this funny feeling my stomach. Like my body was nervous and anticipating something. I can only compare it to the feeling you get right before you ask a girl for her number. Then this overwhelming sense of unity with everything took over. Like a tidal wave of warmth. Soon after I started feeling my pill's effects, my buddy asked me if I'd ever heard of George Acosta. "No", I said. I didn't even know what trance was at that time.

He put Release: PM edition in his CD changer. Now, he had this MB Quart speaker system set up in his grandmothers basement, and this thing SHOOK the house. It was one of the best home entertainment systems I'd ever heard at the time. The opening song nearly took my breath away. It was like I was on this beautiful, epic journey that seemed to unfold right there, in my head. I could literally feel the deep longing in the melody; the feeling of triumph at the end of the breakdowns. Every song there after took me to another chapter on this journey. I never knew music could paint such a complete, emotive picture.

Well, suffice it to say: I never looked back. I had to listen to trance whenever I could. And I still feel this way, almost 10 years later.

TL;DR: Took a bunch of pills one night, never looked back.

Oh wow - thank you for the gold!

I think Amazon JP might be a good starting point. If Google Translate isn't enough to use lemme know I'll see if I can help.

Also LOLLL, feel free to get lost in detours in your search though HAHA, just think of those as bonuses :P

http://www.amazon.com/Logitech-Speaker-System-Z523-Subwoofer/dp/B002FU5QMK/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&rps=1&ie=UTF8&qid=1342545729&sr=1-1&keywords=logitech+z523+with+subwoofer

Probably the best bet under $100. If you were willing to spend more, I would definitely have different recommendations for you! :) Hope this helps, let me know if you don't like those or want something different.

EDIT: Link with Prime; added some more links.


Also, these (for a little bit more money) would be MUCH more solid.

http://www.amazon.com/Klipsch-ProMedia-Certified-Computer-Speaker/dp/B000062VUO/ref=sr_1_1_m?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1342545791&sr=1-1&keywords=klipsch+2.1


And if you want a 5.1 under $100 (I prefer 2.1 for PC speakers)... here is the best one.

http://www.amazon.com/Logitech-Surround-Sound-Speakers-980-000430/dp/B003VAK1FA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1342545925&sr=8-1&keywords=logitech+z506

A State of Trance 500 - Official Armada Website / Amazon / Spotify / Discogs

Probably one of my favorite compilations ever, and definitely my favorite of the ASOT compilation series. It's also notable for being a collaboration between 5 different DJs, Armin, Paul Oakenfold, Markus Schulz, Cosmic Gate and Andy Moor. I really like the combination of old classics and newer tunes that are still memorable. It was also one of the first compilations I bought when I started exploring Trance about 5 years ago.

Anyways, some of my personal favorite tunes are:

• Peter Martijn Wijnia presents Majesta vs DJ Shah feat. Adrina Thrope – Who Will Find Me In The End (Armin van Buuren Mash Up)
  
• L.S.G. – Netherworld (Oliver Prime Remix)
  
• Armin van Buuren presents Gaia – Status Excessu D (ASOT 500 Theme)
  
• Interstate – I Found You
  
• Paul Oakenfold – Tokyo
  
• Perry O’Neil – Wave Force
  
• Funabashi – Daylight
  
• Pulser – My Religion
  
• Cosmic Gate – Ultra Curve
  
• Super8 & Tab – Helsinki Scorchin’
  
• Niklas Harding presents Arcane – Ice Beach
  
  I especially like how each mix seems to have it's own character. I am most definitely reading to much into this, but each different DJ chose track corresponding more closely to his style. Personally I like CDs 1 and 5 the most but nevertheless it's a great compilation.

that's where i heard it, too! i'd love to be able to find some more trance like this... any suggestions? a friend of mine who had heard the song a while ago pointed out that there's a pretty good mix by DJ Irene available on Amazon (as well as other places) but... other than that, any suggestions?

I'd suggest looking at the Audio Technica M40X. It's currently going for $99, and is truly an awesome pair of study headphones. They will be more suited than the M50X, because the M50X features more unnecessary bass and treble, and the soundstage is also narrower. Comparatively, the M40X is more neutral and pleasant.

But, if you can splurge upto $145, just look no further than the Beyerdynamic DT770 Pro 250 Ohm Version currently going for $144, and is like miles ahead of what the M40X/50X can offer you.

Pair the DT770 Pro with an amp like the Fiio A1 currently for $28, and you get a long term solution. Basically for just $50 more ($144 + $28), you're getting a solution that's head & shoulders above your all expectations!

Your ears will thank you for this. I've tried several options for earplugs at this point, with the notable exception of the custom fitted route (though I will definitely be going that route eventually).

If you buy a $10-$20 dollar pair you may have to do some experimenting, because the way they fit in your ear is very important and varies from product to product. I've tried Dubs (as mentioned by /u/robinhoodexe) and Eytmotics (as mentioned by /u/kbreitli) which are both fine quality-wise, but they didn't fit my ears very well. The best fit for me that I've found so far are Downbeats.

I believe that the reasoning to remove the track because it doesn't sound like trance is subjective because websites such as Beatport and Amazon both classify this track as Trance, as I personally believe it is considered trance as well, but all in good fun. Just trying to share a good track with the community.

I didn't really start listening to Darren Tate often until recently. But the stuff he put out through DT8 Project is goddamn beautiful.

The album Perfect World is free streaming if you have an amazon prime subscription. Check it out! https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003VCYG2W/ref=dm_ws_sp_ps_dp

​

There used to be this trance.edu site, some researcher had a bunch of articles, some of it was pretty interesting, He wrote a couple books, here is one of them:

​

https://www.amazon.com/Trance-Technology-Dennis-R-Wier/dp/1888428384

​

He had some interesting ideas about music, said he found techno and DnB to be more trance inducing though.

HD 598s
+
FiiO DAC

This is the combo that fit my budget, I am not a audiophile though - and I also to Drum and Bass. If you are listening on a PC, the DAC is a must-have. Whatever audio board my Asus Sabertooth motherboard had did not do these headphones justice. It was a brand new listening experience with the DAC.

The HD598's are on a good sale now! 0.0
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0042A8CW2?pc_redir=1409137846&robot_redir=1
Definitely gonna consider this!
Thanks.

Listened to any of the Gatecrasher albums?

Personally recommend the Gatecrasher Anthems album.

It’s out of stock on Amazon but I’m sure you’ll find it elsewhere.

>Nu NRG - Freefall

https://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B0002L305Y/ref=tmm_acd_used_olp_sr?ie=UTF8&condition=used&qid=&sr=

You guys do know how to use google right? haha, /s

One of my favorite compilations:

Gatecrasher Anthems: Paul Van Dyk