DampeS8N: To me good and bad trance is obvious, but also it comes down to taste. For example, I'm not really into wailing women on my trance, or rapping blokes, I want it pure instrumental. Anything pre-1990 was a little too basic, all that acid stuff, some was just primative. Then it started to get really good. I was into pretty hard trance/techno stuff for a long time, but as I've got older I appreciate more melodic pieces, some stuff that I fully admit is cheesy I like a lot. To be honest I prefer minor pieces, although the odd major piece can work if the melody is uplifting.
There are also different beats, normally you've got the regular four four stomp, but there used to be lots of breakbeats and stuff before that turned into jungle and drum 'n' bass. A really decent drum track with good samples, and small rhytmic intricacies and changes helps a trance track a lot, but it still needs to maintain that fundamental constant beat, as it's for dancing after all.
Some of the techno stuf used to use chord progessions similar to heavy metal riffs, including tritone etc. Also I used to (and still do) really like analogue sounds, both bass, and lead. Quite of lot of trance has a nice reverb on it too to make it sound like sound/light cutting through the dark or something (hard to explain). Lots of trance has very recogniseable "riffs" that you can get into, but some is just more a blending of sounds that build up and down. It's all about making the mind and feeling go up and down without too much thought on the listener's part. Of course a big part of trance music for lots of people is drugs. I don't mean alcohol, as you can't really appreciate anything when drunk, but people do LSD and mushrooms to experience synaesthesia when listening to trance. Other people do more dance/movement oriented drugs like speed (ampetamine) or ecstacy. Whatever, I just like listening to it when coding as it makes me think I'm in some kind of sci-fi movie about this guy making a really cool game or something, sounds lame maybe, but it helps me to work fast.
Oh yeah, regarding skill. When I first started making modules on my amiga, I did that for a couple of years before making my first "rave" stuff when I was 15/16. I wasn't very good. Then I worked on beats, basslines, lead etc for years making tons of modules until when I was 19ish I was making my best stuff that got played at parties etc. I've only really pottered around with making modules since then due to my job getting in the way. A decent 5min module used to take 6 hours plus to write, and it was best done in a continuous block, so I used to make these often in the middle of the night to avoid interruptions. If I'd continued making them, maybe I should have tried to get them published, but I never did. Anyway what I'm trying to say is that it still takes a lot of skill to write one, and if you understand music theory a bit, it also helps to make more interesting tracks.
Sorry if I've rambled, maybe I've help you a bit.
There are also different beats, normally you've got the regular four four stomp, but there used to be lots of breakbeats and stuff before that turned into jungle and drum 'n' bass. A really decent drum track with good samples, and small rhytmic intricacies and changes helps a trance track a lot, but it still needs to maintain that fundamental constant beat, as it's for dancing after all.
Some of the techno stuf used to use chord progessions similar to heavy metal riffs, including tritone etc. Also I used to (and still do) really like analogue sounds, both bass, and lead. Quite of lot of trance has a nice reverb on it too to make it sound like sound/light cutting through the dark or something (hard to explain). Lots of trance has very recogniseable "riffs" that you can get into, but some is just more a blending of sounds that build up and down. It's all about making the mind and feeling go up and down without too much thought on the listener's part. Of course a big part of trance music for lots of people is drugs. I don't mean alcohol, as you can't really appreciate anything when drunk, but people do LSD and mushrooms to experience synaesthesia when listening to trance. Other people do more dance/movement oriented drugs like speed (ampetamine) or ecstacy. Whatever, I just like listening to it when coding as it makes me think I'm in some kind of sci-fi movie about this guy making a really cool game or something, sounds lame maybe, but it helps me to work fast.
Oh yeah, regarding skill. When I first started making modules on my amiga, I did that for a couple of years before making my first "rave" stuff when I was 15/16. I wasn't very good. Then I worked on beats, basslines, lead etc for years making tons of modules until when I was 19ish I was making my best stuff that got played at parties etc. I've only really pottered around with making modules since then due to my job getting in the way. A decent 5min module used to take 6 hours plus to write, and it was best done in a continuous block, so I used to make these often in the middle of the night to avoid interruptions. If I'd continued making them, maybe I should have tried to get them published, but I never did. Anyway what I'm trying to say is that it still takes a lot of skill to write one, and if you understand music theory a bit, it also helps to make more interesting tracks.
Sorry if I've rambled, maybe I've help you a bit.