Hey everyone. It's been awhile since I posted here last, and for that I apologize. But I've been trying to get back into the groove of participating in the forums that I'm a member of, and this place is definitely on the list.

I have been thinking about this a lot lately... I've been trying to discover my style. By that, I mean the subgenre of trance that my work fits into, and the production methods I use to achieve that style.

Right now, my productions are very strongly reminiscent of melodic / pop trance. The best well-known example of this style I can give would have to be Antiloop:

Antiloop - Believe

I usually come up with a catchy melody or chord structure, and I bulid the track from there. The main caveat to this type of songwriting is that my songs usually average around four minutes in length. I have songs on my hard drive with intros that long! (Seriously, the Caspar Pound remix of Two Full Moons And A Trout by Union Jack is what, thirteen minutes long?!) I'd like to learn how to extend things a bit, but I'm sure that will come in time.

After a brief stint with Reason 4, I'm back to FL Studio. I can get my ideas into sounds very quickly with FL. I think that because my mind works in a series of loops and patterns, FL's piano roll makes it very easy for me to write music; sometimes, I will come up with a pattern, and then I will copy it and modify it in a rather mathematical fashion. Most of my life tends to revolve around sequences (I look for them in everything - thank my OCD), so it follows naturally that my songwriting should, too.

I'm really curious as to how tech trance and uplifting trance producers do their thing. I'd love to write some uplifting, but I always get stuck when I try.

So how do you all do it?

-Sortevik

My music could best be desribed as a combination of Trance, House, Electro, Punk Rock and Classical.

my influences include Tiesto, Ferry Corsten, The Chemical Brothers, Infected Mushroom, Disturbed, Slipknot, and Ayumi Hamasaki.

Common labels for my music are Electro Trance or Electro House.  Kinda like Ferry Corsten

well i did the same as you sorv, i take a min and revamped everything i was about in the studio and production wise, the type of vibe i wanted my fans and audience to hear when LIVE in the mix, and i started leaning more towards progressive trance and more or less like a housey trance vibe. maybe with some tech in the mix... but as of 8.12.08 12:49 CST im a Trance/Progressive Producer and DJ

and im LOVING it!!! my newest 3 tracks have a crazy style to them and they take you to unknown places.

My style aims to be emotional and uplifting, and my main point of focus on my track is the breakdown, as I think this is where I can really apply choirs and pads to make it sound really atmospheric. Piano also helps there.

Not overly hard stuff either, that's why my stuff sounds nothing like Turbulence.

Originally posted by reMedyz

well i did the same as you sorv, i take a min and revamped everything i was about in the studio and production wise, the type of vibe i wanted my fans and audience to hear when LIVE in the mix, and i started leaning more towards progressive trance and more or less like a housey trance vibe. maybe with some tech in the mix... but as of 8.12.08 12:49 CST im a Trance/Progressive Producer and DJ

and im LOVING it!!! my newest 3 tracks have a crazy style to them and they take you to unknown places.

Same here! I love producing and spinning prog house/trance. I love building up to trance to great an emotional feel in my mixes but have a nice groove building into it with house!

I really do not have any particular genre in mind, and I'd go as far as say that my solo project has become pop in a broad sense. It can be just piano and voice, or it could go as clubby as Together (one of my compositions). I do, however, tend to create some dance music, although I would not call it that because I am not focusing merely on making songs that are just made for dancing. You can call it 'Head Music' if you like (as a reference to the Suede album)

But I also make some remixes which might resemble trance. Ironically, even if I have been listening to trance music for quite some time now, I never really paid attention to what its sub-genres are called and what they sound like. If it's trance, then it's trance for me.

So as you can see my manner of production is not really with one genre in mind. I have this basic rule of just encouraging the song to grow as appropriate.

My focus is on combining darker bass tones with uplifting melody. I love to have drawn out and engaging build-ups, so I can constantly insert and remove sounds that have atmosphere and emotions as it progresses. My build ups usually alternate between "sad" and "happy" melodies. I love doing loops where I have 4 measures of sad, 4 measures if happy, loop them, then maybe tie the two together in the main lead. I'm still trying to get the hang of working a tight breakdown.

I love my uplifting trance (even though lately I've gone a bit of a darker, more epic route) but for me, I've got Grades 4 & 5 in Piano & Drums so that really helps me. I also did Tap dancing since I was about 5 years old and it might sound stupid, but that has helped the most. The rhythms my feet can bust out with can be really insane but being able to play drums and read music well enough, I can translate that sort of stuff into a drum editor etc.
I love making up great harmonical and melodic tunes. Usually I have too many ideas for one song and cut down on a few or else, the song just sounds like a wall of noise. But the main genre for me is uplifting. I've dabbled in electro, drum n bass and starting to lean towards uplifting progressive but I'll see how it goes ( no joke, I thought up an idea for a tune in the middle of my local supermarket and I kept singing it on the way home and then I finally created it on Reason super-quick! was kinda funny )

Originally posted by zakrush1

I also did Tap dancing since I was about 5 years old and it might sound stupid, but that has helped the most. The rhythms my feet can bust out with can be really insane but being able to play drums and read music well enough, I can translate that sort of stuff into a drum editor etc.

I'd love to see you tap dance, Zak. I think I would find you silly and charming at the same time.

Originally posted by zakrush1

( no joke, I thought up an idea for a tune in the middle of my local supermarket and I kept singing it on the way home and then I finally created it on Reason super-quick! was kinda funny )

Ha! I do this all the time. I'll be in the middle of a long class and have an idea for a tune and get excited to translate it when I get back, but I often either forget how it went or just can't make it work right.

Originally posted by Rover

Ha! I do this all the time. I'll be in the middle of a long class and have an idea for a tune and get excited to translate it when I get back, but I often either forget how it went or just can't make it work right.

I have sung out the notes and the rhythms onto the sound recorder of my phone in the middle of town so many times because i never remember but this one time, i was singing it all the way home so I just had to get it down. I'll put up a preview soon. "Supermarket Idea #1"

Mine is mostly in the dance/eurodance genre.  I have some influences from Paul Van Dyk and Benny Bennassi though.  I guess as I produce more, I may have a more defined genre.  :-)