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How to Make a PSY Trance

Psychedelic trance (or "psytrance," for short) is a sub-genre of trance, emphasizing high-tempo, hypnotic melodies with multiple layers of electronic instrumentation. Popularized by artists like Alien Project, Infected Mushroom and Hallucinogen, psytrance is most commonly heard in night clubs and at raves. If you want to record your own psytrance beats at home, you can get started on a very modest budget. You just need to understand the fundamental conventions of the genre.

Things You'll Need

  • MIDI keyboard
  • MIDI USB adapter
  • Digital recording software
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Instructions

    • 1

      Install a music recording program on your PC. Since psytrance relies heavily on layered melodies, you must use a multi-tracking program like GarageBand, Logic, Cubase or Pro Tools. If you cannot afford a fully equipped program, you can get by with a free, open-source multi-tracking program like QTractor, Rosegarden or Linux Multimedia Studio.

    • 2

      Connect a MIDI keyboard to your PC, thus allowing you to program music notes using your chosen software. Music supply stores sell MIDI USB keyboards that you can connect directly to your PC, and also MIDI USB adapters that you can use to connect traditional MIDI keyboards to your PC. You can use either approach.

    • 3

      Open your program and create a new project. When first creating your project, the software should require you to select a "tempo," or speed, for your song. Psytrance is a high-tempo, upbeat genre, so select a tempo between 135 and 145 beats per minute. If the software does not automatically request that you select a tempo, just look for the tempo indicator (sometimes indicated by the letters "BPM") on the project window.

    • 4

      Create a track for your first layer of music. In multi-tracking, each track contains a piece of the recording, such as bass, percussion or keyboards. Select "New Track" or "Create Track" from the menu bar, then select "MIDI Track" or "Software Track" from the track options. Your new track immediately appears on the project window, resembling a horizontal bar.

    • 5

      Record a kick drum beat for your first track. You can find your digital instrument list among your track options (sometimes on a separate "Mixer" window), so select an electronic drum or synth drum from the list. Click "Record" and follow the ticks of a metronome to record the drum sound using your MIDI keyboard (in a fully-equipped drum kit, the kick drum usually corresponds to C2 on a MIDI keyboard). For this high-tempo genre, you should use one kick drum sound for every one to two beats of the metronome.

    • 6

      Create a second track and assign it an electronic bass instrument using your MIDI instruments list. Most common, a psytrance beat uses repetitive bass patterns, such as C-C-C-C-F-F-F-F, rather than alternating between notes or using a walking bass approach. Record your own bass line accordingly, using Track 2 on your project window.

    • 7

      Create additional tracks for melody. For your melody sequences, you can exercise creativity. But for the most part, you want to stick with common electronic instrument sounds like synth leads, synth pads, square waves, digital bells and other bouncy keyboard notes. Get creative with your melody lines, and layer at least three or four different sequences on top of one another to generate the type of hypnotic, multifaceted feel commonly found in psytrance songs.

Digital Music

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