Balazs Ita Of Wavescape Studios On A Trance Tour-De-Force

This week we are continuing our Trance journey among our friend producers. Last week we talked to Dino Psaras on the occasion of his first sample library release. This time we got Balazs Ita of Wavescape Studios to share his insights; aspiring Trance producers should definitely pay heed to his words, this man is frank.

You produce Trance Music and loops. What got you into this style of music? Who are your inspirations?

I consider myself being part of the "Star Wars-generation" (born in the 70's) and lots of people like us are keen on the mix of sci-fi and retro era.  Electronic music has been always the expression of the sci-fi feeling for me: initial works of JMJ later evolved into the love of EBM and goa music. I liked especially the latter works of Front 242 (Tyranny for You, F**k Up Evil, Evil Off) and FLA (Flavour of the Weak, Millenium, Hard Wired, Fallout), their multi-layered sound was especially modern and unusual in the mid 90's.

I remember the excitment when I have first heard Carte Blanche (FC aka Veracocha), Communication (Armin), Pulverturm (Niel Van Gogh) Saltwater, Halcyon (Chicane) and some of the projects of Thomas Detert (Noémi) - memorable moments of my life that motivated me to start producing songs! Today trance genre has several junctions with other styles, but many songwriters still can create that "airy" and "floating" atmosphere generating the original "sci-fi mood". Few of my current inspirations: Oceanlab and A&B, Aly & Fila, Sean Tyas, Alex Morph, Mike Koglin and Rhys Fulber of Conjure One.

Trance music is one of the earliest club genres. How would you define it in terms of sound?

The genre has heavily changed in the last few years. I followed this stlye from the beginning of the millenium. I remember it was the typical overused Virus arpeggio sound, be it the phasered or the monumentally big reverbed version of some of those notorius presets :). Tracks were getting very similar sounding, but some of them performed in a very energetic and uplifting way, like e.g. Alphazone. The JP 8000 supersaw and its mutations were also a milestone of the modern trance genre giving us deep pads and still very contemporary lead sounds. Today trance is completely different in terms of sound - producers use lots of software stuff, the sound is much more versatile and unique.

We all know that overcoming borders is very important for styles of music to move forward. However, for a producer of Trance music, what would you say are the essential elements of the "Trance Sound"?

A general recipe: depending on your trance style, a possible bassline comprises four or more layered basslines with different clean and sometimes similar timbres, spread them evenly accross the frequency spectrum (sub, mid-low, mid-high, high, etc.) each playing off-beat rhythm structures, and sidechained to a kick-like element. Sometimes it is worth to use a sampled bassline to avoid phasing problems at the bass section. Fragile, bright, mild pitch-modulated leads playing very simple pentatonic melodies are quite trendy, sometimes playing these staccato rhythms of contemporary electro. Couterpoint layer of arps is  still part of the tracks as auxiliary elements, they are not hooks anymore, but still great for adding more excitment to your song. Look at the duration of notes, even a small contrast can make a big difference in feeling, especially in the bass and arp section. Filtered and gated/sidechained pad layers are usually part of the breakdown section, completing it with the upward and downward pitched transition effects as fill-ins at breakdowns, not just simple noise whooosh but more organic ones you can make with a decent handy recorder for yorself.

Drum section is the most important of all, not just the sound of the kick but also the right "tick-level micro-placement" of the claps to get the groove. Making the right kick that really works takes some time and practice, you may quickly browse through different attack and body sounds in a software sampler, applying some bus-compression and eq to the mix of these elements, whereas maintaining integrity with the basseline using careful tuning. In addition if you can add some grooves to spice up the track, better leave then nearly unnoticable.

I like the "airy, floating" character of a trance track as it expresses the genre and what it usually communicates - the high tone of living joy. This is achieved by careful compression, applying multiple compressors on insert ports, careful usage of reverbs with different size - short, medium and long delays, lots of modulation effects and synced filters that gently moves elements in a mix.

I think Trance as a genre is very technical as it is usually dense and lush with lots of tracks. Maintaining the distinctness of the main elements requires some practice in instrumentation and mixing to get "that" feeling. Do know your tools, so understanding the tools and technology are definitely a winning approach for trance producers.

And what about the structure of a Trance track?

I think a simple "radio version" of trance track does not really differ from the usual pop structure, like 4 or 8 bars of intro-verse-bridge-chorus-more chorus-verse, etc. ... The rough structure of a club version (mix-in-verse-chorus-breakdown-main theme-mix-out) is different in terms of instrumentation and duration, when it comes to the structure of a song you are not supposed to reinvent the wheel, as listeners expect certain passages in a song. If e.g. the climax of the song does not happen at the expected point, he/she says goodbye to our track. If you want to get some acceptance toward your track, you should follow the basic rules of structure. If structure deviates significantly it can be still a great track, but surely will not get widespread acknowledgement.

How do you as a producer approach composing a Trance track? What software/hardware is the most important in your workflow?

There are some rules I have developed on my own, but if you plan to stick to deadlines you need to find your own method of working. There are methods of long standing and I tried some of those but I believe in the era of highly computerized music making you are free to develop you own style of production. I noticed sketching something fast usually works better, so speed is an essential element, details could be carried out later. My own Cubase templates allow me to progress much faster. Prefer to work a lot on MIDI sequences, but things mixed with audio also yield great things. I usually start with melody lines and chord progressions and tweak the right preset for that from a synth or sampler. Bassline, drum tracks and fx come afterwards. I really like working with fully automated instruments that run precisely in timing, so automation is a gift these days.

About the software/hardware and the workflow:
I used to be a big fan of hardware, and it does have a special vibe when used wisely. I really liked and used all those Swedish gadgets (old Nord Modular, Nord Lead 3), they have a special uncomparable "razorsharp" sound, especially the Nord Lead 2x. The Virus synthesizer is definetely the most flexible electronic instrument offering the broadest spectrum you can get from hardware stuff. Very musical, still the best hardware instrument for the genre.

However I think the emphasis has shifted from HW to SW and changed the way of music production over the years. Hardware still might sound... would not say better?... I'd say more characteristic for certain sounds. You can find that in many cases it is easier to create cool sounds in software, and in some cases even using softwares exclusively. Thus software samplers are crucial part of my production, they are still a bit esoteric for many producers beyond loading just a preset. Layering possibilities of samplers give extreme sound design results in trance, piece out completely different samples can really help to develop your own sound.

I like the way you can work these days with DAW systems: latest Cubase is a very powerful and reliable application, I really like its customization features and also I am a die-hard macro fan, I think it is worth the time-investment and makes it extremly fast to use.

These days I'd still love the smooth sound and the very powerful engine of Virus, omitting its overused sounds and creating new ones from scratch. As I prefer the VSTi format, I kept even the Virus in the TC Powercore VSTi format - very flexible and easy to use while getting the same sound I'd get from its hardware counterpart. Cakewalk z3ta+ is a great all-around instrument, also each NI instrument is a bit complex but wonderful toy in itself. I use the HALion3 sampler... its core folder-based structure is the best and easiest to use, still prefer it to all other softsamplers. Also some 3rd party compressors and eq from Flux are a great joy to use!

So, a powerful laptop/desktop computer with the right selection of software, a decent monitor setup and a few years of technical and some music experience is more than enough to write great songs. The latter is the most important, it is something you can not leech from torrent :). I use only a few tools, but know them inside-out, or at least I try to...

Would you say that today, in 2009, Trance is declining, steady or gworing in popularity? What is its future?

These days everyone can own a label together with a mobile studio and can produce records at home. You might have noticed that you have to browse through quite some stuff in Beatport's bidding to find a track that is a real joy to listen to in any genre; quantity overwhelmes quality. It is always an "inside battle" between "artistic originality" and making something mainstream serving the common agreement of taste. I think you have to make a choice or create both (or more) at different names. Jumping on the bandwagon of actual trends may certainly be good for financial reasons, but an artist should **add more and new** to the civilization not just repeat the same old patterns. It is a very fine edge of balance to play with.

I think state of music always represents the state of our civilization. Actual state of world is somewhat daunting, and it is somewhat reflected in the category of electronic music styles as well. Trance might never develop into  a mainstream style. Although some of today's mainstream genres can be considered strange, to say the least. However we humans are still very different and unique, I feel objective measures still exist in any artistic forms, like music. So trance is not very popular these days, but as it usually happens with every genre, I am sure it will come back in years time and might become popular again, or give birth to a new style.