German Trance
Trance · 1992 · 140 to 150 BPM · also known as Hard Acid Trance
German trance is the historic heart of the genre, made in Frankfurt and Berlin between 1992 and 1996 when trance was still an exploratory music. Labels like Eye Q and MFS released long, hypnotic, cosmic tracks that were direct heirs to Tangerine Dream and to techno. It is the source that every revival invokes, the age before trance had settled into a formula.
7 reference tracks
- Komakino: Dark Zone (1992)
- Voov: It's Anything You Want It To Be, And It's A Gas (1992)
- Komakino: Outface (G60 mix) (1993)
- Cosmic Baby: Loops Of Infinity (1993)
- Oliver Lieb: Subraum (1994)
- Paul van Dyk & Sue McLaren: Guiding Light (2020)
- Cosmic Gate & Diana Miro: Blame (2021)
At a glance
- Tempo: 140 to 150 BPM
- First appeared: around 1992
- Machines: Roland TR-909, Roland TB-303, Access Virus, Korg M1
- The sound: Arpèges analogiques, Nappes évolutives longues, Structures sans refrain
- Labels: MFS, Eye Q Records, Superstition, Harthouse, Suck Me Plasma
- Key artists: Sven Väth, Cosmic Baby, Humate, Oliver Lieb, Paul van Dyk (débuts)
Producing German Trance
German trance sits between 130 and 140 BPM with an exploratory feel, straight pulse and no swing, tracks running eight to twelve minutes and counted in blocks of 32 and 64 bars, where a change can take a full minute. A 909 acts almost as an erased backdrop, kick on every beat with a clap or rimshot on two and four, an eighth note ride and an open hat on the offbeat, barely changing across ten minutes. The bass is often a sequence, a closed 303 or analog synth alternating the tonic and its octave in sixteenths with a short filter envelope, moving slowly with an accent shift every sixteen bars. Long, evolving analog arpeggios and pads, detuned oscillators with slow modulation, carry the real motion, filters automated to open gradually and sweep harder at the end of each block.
The full production course, in French: tempo, drums, bass, sounds, arrangement, mix, plugins and machines, and a step by step start.
Frequently asked
What is German Trance?
German trance is the historic heart of the genre, made in Frankfurt and Berlin between 1992 and 1996 when trance was still an exploratory music. Labels like Eye Q and MFS released long, hypnotic, cosmic tracks that were direct heirs to Tangerine Dream and to techno. It is the source that every…
What tempo is German Trance played at?
Between 140 and 150 BPM.
Who are the key German Trance artists?
Sven Väth, Cosmic Baby, Humate, Oliver Lieb, Paul van Dyk (débuts).
In the same family
- Trance
- Acid Trance
- Balearic Trance
- Dream Trance
- Ibiza Trance
- Progressive Trance
- Tech Trance
- Uplifting Trance
- Vocal Trance
- Euro Trance
- Anthem Trance
- Orchestral Trance
Listen to German Trance in the atlas · Cette page en français
