It's all about the 'ghost notes' in drum patterns that fill in the gaps for funk. Also, the way the Bassline works with the beats is key. I've studied dance beats for around 12 years and always wondered how a certain track was swinging so much. To begin with I thought the Hats must be off the beat but after many years gradually realised that you can make a track funky by adding just a simple little shaker or closed hat to a kick and bass line. It's amazing how such small details in a mix can produce grooves whereas if you were to take them out a track could sound very bland indeed.
As for Trance, one of the main reasons it doesn't often swing so much is to do with Tempo in my opinion. Trance in the main comes in at around 135-140 bpm. The slower the track, the more space there is to play with in the mix so the ear naturally has time to pick up on the ghost notes etc. Production is also key, getting those levels and compression right also affects the groove. Trance is generally very bright and at times over produced which detracts from the underlying grove. Bergz. "Brendan Nelson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> on 11/12/2002 10:34:27 To: "fabrice Lig" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, <313@hyperreal.org> cc: Subject: RE: (313) Los hermanos/trancey/Detroit techno... | -----Original Message----- | From: fabrice Lig [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] | Sent: 10 December 2002 22:31 | | I know what is trance music...It was huge here. | Could we try to find a list of differences... | On the paper, finaly there is common points... | Melodies, chords, ... | But in the reality... | I give you the first difference ;-) | 1)Detroit music is funky. That's definitely true - I can't remember if it was Eddie Fowlkes or Kevin Saunderson who said "the hardness in techno comes from funk", but I've always seen funk as the main differentiator between Detroit techno and the trance sound. What makes trance unfunky? I think that a large amount of it comes down to the drum programming. Trance producers, I can imagine, must glue over the "shuffle" button on their drum machines so that it can never be turned on. Also, you can imagine that if a trance producer does anything with the hi-hats other than "open hi-hat between each kick drum, closed hi-hat on the beat", he/she would get arrested by the Trance Police for heresy! But even when Detroit records use those most basic of drum patterns, there is still a funk there that you don't find in trance. Why? Brendan
