Everyone has it's own taste about trance music
You have different genres in the scene
What I'd like to know

Wich genre of trance do you love most, and can you give me a reason why and youre favourite song in that genre

My personal favourite is 'uplifting trance'
And therefore, my favourite producer is Jezper Söderlund known from Airbase, The Scarab and Ozone

The synths and sound is the reason why I love it
The abbility to use classic influents is awesome, it gives a beautiful mix to the song
I can listen to it the whole day from the moment I wake up
Mayby this isn't a decent reason why but I don't know how to tell it why

-My all-time favourite @ the moment is : Rank 1 - Aiwave (Original Mix)
-And my 2003 Favourite is : Riley & Durrant - Candesco (Original Vocal Mix)

So what do you think is youre favourite trance-style??
And what is youre favourite song and producer
Hard-,Goa-,Psy-,Uplifting-,Vocal- and many more ??

The one with nice melodies

Anything that's good

Normally melodic, uplifting stuff, but over the last 3 or 4 yrs i've been developing quite a taste for progressive.

Still don't like hard trance other than dumonde.

I prefer banging uplifting trance. It's not enough that a track has a good melody, but it also needs to have a good drive imo. My favourites are therefore definitely Signum.
I also really like techtrance nowadays, DJ Danjo & Rob Styles, Mark Norman, Katana etc.
And I'm getting tired of all the Above & Beyond look-a-likes popping up everywhere (although A & B still rule).

UK trance

Mines gotta be emotional melodic, the stuff that really stirrs you...

i like melodic, uplifing trance the most, usually with high energy
some psytrance like astral projection can be good
some harder trance with techno beats can be good like dumonde
i generally dont like progressive...yet

Been a big fan of melodic trance for years. I usually like swiss and dutch trance, swiss being more energetic and upbeat, while dutch/uk is more progressive and uplifting now these days. But Trance is just going so many ways now, G & D is going towards alternative/progressive style, Oakey is going breakbeat, Ferry going electro trance, Tiesto going techno/progressive and theres Armin of course, sticking with uplifing/progressive.

I like the uplifing melodic style of Armin But I can also enjoy the new style of Ferry. But Armins style is really my style

i prefer uplifting trance: nu nrg, system f, airbase. the track must going straight forward with a nice melo, this is very important
and melo trance with armin and the others

Anything that is unique. Hard Bass, Good Key melodies and massive buildups of 99 - 2000 era of trance.

yeah, banging is just great, my favourite too.

to give an example, though not really trance perhaps:

tiesto vs junkie xl - obsession

first off, any trance is good. i prefer the euphoric, uplifting trance
of armin van buuren. does not have 2 be hard, just heavy.
yet beautifully melodic, a little progression, and, of course,
the soft sound of a female voice.
van buuren is taking trance to a new level with his style.
he uses a little bit of all these qualities to give the BEST sound.
and many more people will become fans of his.

he WILL become the world's #1 dj.
and stay there for awhile since he's so young.

Now it is PROGRESSIVE, but still remember the Classix (simply call it Trance)

I have to agree with most of you...the uplifting style of AVB is the best representation of my favorite trance, vocals are not really my fave I rather listen to a good dub mix with clean synths and a euforic bassline. Cheers!

I like Armin and FerrY's style.

uplifting with great vocals...

It has to be melodic with or without vocals and have a good build up. Tiesto - Obsession being a very good example.

If i had to name a good track in this style it would be Armin - Song for the Ocean version without the vocals. That just sends shivers down my spine every time.

Agreed....
something like "Nu-NRG - Dreamland" "Aalto - Rush (Super8 Vs. Orkidea Mix)"
or "Matt Hardwick - Day One (Above & Beyond Mix)"

IMO - PVD & Anjunabeats OWN!

Gotta be uplifiting...with a slight touch of vocals occasionally as well. Anjunabeats for me

for me I like Melodic & Hard Trance but I like it instrumental

Sometimes a vocal is good for a song but sometimes it's just bad

Example : The Mystery - Devotion
Good without vocals but very very bad with vocals

do you find that some progressive trance is really house?
i.e. slower bpm, more emphasis on beats than synths and melody?
i realize that there is no real classification and its all semantics...

I always classify things into these categories:

Funky House
House
Prog House
Prog Trance
Trance
Hard Trance
Hardhouse
Techno

i love melodic trance, stuff like push, darren tate etc, anuthing that makes me feel good, but i also like some proggy stuff, usually music that has some soul into it like some recent G&D stuff.

music into classifications is tough, im not quite sure what prog trance is, maybe u could give me some examples!!

I like HardTrance and Upplift trance. But now days my favorite is absolutly Armin van Buuren.

Favorit 2003: Andain (featuring Mavia Marcos) Beatyful Things (Gabriel & Dresden Unpluged Mix)

Old favorit: Age of Love - Age of Love (Orginal Mix)


-In TRANCE we trust-

Funky House - Lee Cabrera, Junior Jack etc
House - Joey Negro, Roger Sanchez
Prog House - Lexicon Avenue, Echomen, Satoshi Tomiie
Breakbeat - Hybrid, Burufunk, Digital Witchcraft, Grayarea
Prog Trance - Steve Porter, Nathan Fake, Roland Klinkenberg
Trance - Lange, Signum, Armin
Hard Trance - Dumonde etc
Hardhouse - Od404, Sentience
Techno - Guy McAffer, Dave the Drummer, Chris Liberator

Alot of prog house and prog trance DJs have been producing prog breaks recently like Luke Chable etc, so it depends on the tune where you categories them.

Cheers for the stretchy, that kinda clears it up
What do you reckon g&d come under, there are kinda proggy with trance elements?? so im reckoning prog trance?

I'll try and give clarification on genre for each song i share so it helps give some sort of clarity.

G&D are one of those producers who could fall into either prog trance or trance, they are sort of bridging the gap. But it depends on each production because it has different elements.

i have the same music preference as you Stretchy.
depending on my mood i prefer melodic/uplifting trance or progressive.
im not into hardtrance or hardhouse, but i do like dumonde.

Progressive & Melodic!

yeah dont really like too much hard trance stuff, apart from dumonde's, their's is quite melodic, just a little harder. cheers for the classifications stretchy, i still enjoy the vast majority of your downloads. keep up the good work and your impeccable taste!!

i would agree on most of stretchy's classification.. except for prog house and prog trance..

i think that steve porter and klinkenberg belong in the house category, whereas prog trance would belong to james holden and max graham (incl all the stuff he spins on transport 4).. maybe sander klienberg and early blackwatch too..

i just wanted to mention that, cause prog trace a la max graham is my favourite style of trance..

i think dutch trance has to be the best

Klinkenberg could possibly be prog house, but most of his productions are about 133bpm which is basically prog trance. But steve porter has to be prog trance, because i've never heard a Porter production with a bpm lower than 133, some like his remix of Kola was 140bpm, way too fast to be classed as prog house.

I'd agree Max Graham rocks big time, he's superb. But current Blackwatch productions other than Loveless have been around the 128-130 mark so would be prog house.

stretchy: i think thats an excellent way to classify things

where would you put eurodance? for me a vast majority of it is cheese. but there are some good tunes. many stem from trance tunes with vocal overlays (vocal trance).

there might also be a psy-trance category, like astral projection, some yahel.

i know this is all mental masturbation; if its a good tune, its a good tune.

hey rksm: isn't max graham canadian?

In the bin



If it was vocal trance than Euro-dance, then i'd class it with in the general 'trance' classification because it's trance with a vocal. If it was vocal euro-dance, it'd be located somewhere between prog trance & trance in terms of BPM.



That would probably be placed between prog trance & trance also because of normally what sounds like a 137 ish bpm.



Yes Canada's best DJ for me.

Hey nice topic!!

Well,my favorite would have to be (my 2 favorites) melodic and vocal trance.
Melodic cause i'm very mellow and full of love.
The melody of the syns and strings just make you want to dream.
Vocal trance (mannnnn) those female vocals after the reverbs and echos just sound amazing.The vocals really get to me.Some have made me cry.
Chicane's autumn tactics is one song that touched my heart real hard.

I have been clubbing for 14 years and love all different types of music, but over the last few years there seems to be far more time spent on segregating it into catagories and sub catagories, genres and sub genres.

I know alot of A-List DJs who are frustrated with not being able to play certain tracks in their sets if they don't fit into the exact catagory that we expect them to be playing and in a way this holds back the evolution of dance music and the djs individuality.

Music is a mood enhancer and the one thing that crosses every language barrier - if it makes you dance or feel good or feel the way that you want to feel at that exact moment in time, just enjoy it.

well mostly i like vocals but only in the quiet parts or in the build ups but after it breaks there is no room for vocals so when you put vocals on an energetic instrumental part it becomes bad...but rarly the dub is better than the vocal version.
i really like when AVB uses vocals in his tracks because he knows how to put the vocals in their perfect place and how to combine everything to create another classic tune.
i really like almost everything,but mostly i like the uplifting and melodic,hard trance/tech-trance and all kinds of dance alike tracks with beautiful vocals that get a little house beat to it like in mike rizzo's remixes.
lately i started to hear a lot of progressive with good vocals ,especially in G&D
remixes.these guys are geniouses!they became my favorite remixers in a short time after listening to the wonders they can make to a simple vocalized song.

You're right about the first part and I think that really most dj's are blocking their creativity because they where classified in some gender and are afraid about what others may say if they turn to other directions.

I guess the only one who tries to breaks these rules is tiesto,and you can hear it in his sets or even in his remixes.
let's say that artists like AVB have a permament sound(which by the way sound great) and you usually can tell whether the track that you hear is his or not,but tiesto has different sound almost in every remix and that's the thing that makes him so appreciated all over the world.
i'm not saying that every remix that he makes is good but a least he tries to create different sound all the time and many times it even sound good(like the remix for skin's faithfulness which was outstanding).
I think I can mention also ferry as one who tries to change because of 'rock your body'.I believe it was quite a successful change.

About the second part you wrote(about what music is about); i couldn't say it any better.agree with every word

I agree with you that Tiesto often varies his style and variation in effects on his remix and isn't limited by 1 set melody.

But you'll find alot of DJs aren't, they just evolve their style in less obvious manners and produce tunes which they find most appreciable. No Producer is set by the boundaries of the catagories, they are only limited by their imagination and creativity.

You'll find alot of progressive DJs experiement with breaks, and different elements in their production and don't feel limited to stick to straight progressive and it's the same with trance.

No producer will ever be restricted in their productive process by catagorising releases, it's their own nature to create what they want and that's how it'll continue. They naturally evolve their style with their take on the industry.

What you said about Armin being the same all the time in what he produces i would say is very untrue because his productions vary drastically if you listen to recent stuff over the last few years. But he does use a different alias for each different style. In his sets the type of tunes he plays varies more than any other trance DJ i can think of, because he plays anywhere from breaks to melodic trance which is some variation.

People like Svenson & gielen i agree do tend to stick with one set style, but it works and if it does then all the better.

Categorising is only required for us and other Djs to know where to associate a certain tune.

i like the style of armin van buuren
for example astronauts, slipstream, burned with desire ...

Best Type of Trance....

Trance that is very hard, and very dark, and preferable over 150bpm....

My favourite style is uplifting trance.
With nice synths and vocals.

Uplifting all the way, but I've been focusing on hypnotic trance lately and placing aside most of the hard stuff. Am I getting old or what? hehehe

Favourite tune ever:

Transa-Supernova or maybe Vengaboys-Kiss (Airscape)

Favourite this year:

Early to say but my vote goes for Ozone-Rock although I really enjoy listening to Reyshan Khan-Shiatsu (2Players)

Harder side of trance:

Cosmic gate
Dumonde
Scot Project
Kai Tracid
etc
etc

But also quality trance from Armin, Airwave, MIKE, Corsten, Above&Beyond, G&D etc

Uplifting and Progressive, definitly not commercial

uplifting with some epic breakdowns or just melodic chilly stuff

I like listening to anything that's catchy and sounds good. I can't stand albums that aren't mixed well.
I typically enjoy listening to Tiesto, Armin, and Ferry