Vocal Trance
Trance · 1997 · 132 to 140 BPM
Vocal trance is trance turned into song: a female voice floats over the arpeggios, the breakdown carries the verse, and the drop stands in for the chorus. From the anthems of 1998 to 2004, running from Delerium to Above & Beyond, all the way to the online radio stations that play almost nothing else, this is the genre's most mainstream face and its greatest vehicle for nostalgia. It softens trance's harder mechanics into pop songcraft, built around a singer rather than a build, and it remains the version of trance most people outside the scene actually remember and still return to.
14 reference tracks
- Three 'n One Present Serial Diva: Pearl River (1997)
- Qattara: Come With Me (Qattara Vocal mix) (1997)
- Alice Deejay: Better Off Alone (1998)
- iiO: Rapture (2001)
- Luminary: Amsterdam (2004)
- Armin van Buuren feat. Bonnie McKee: Lonely For You (2019)
- Gareth Emery & Annabel: You'll Be OK (2020)
- Above & Beyond & Justine Suissa: Almost Home (2019)
- Armin van Buuren: In and Out of Love
- ATB: Ecstasy
- ATB: You're Not Alone
- Armin van Buuren: Not Giving Up on Love
- Dash Berlin: Till The Sky Falls Down
- Armin van Buuren: Shivers
At a glance
- Tempo: 132 to 140 BPM
- First appeared: around 1997
- Machines: Roland JP-8000, Access Virus, LennarDigital Sylenth1, Steinberg Cubase
- The sound: Voix féminine lead, Supersaw en accords, Pianos de breakdown, Production radio
- Labels: Anjunabeats, Armind, Nettwerk, Amsterdam Trance Records
- Key artists: Above & Beyond, Delerium, Oceanlab, Emma Hewitt, Dash Berlin
Producing Vocal Trance
Sit between 132 and 138 BPM, a touch under uplifting trance so the vocal has room to breathe, on a straight grid, with the vocal's natural tempo deciding the track's. Arrangement follows song structure, verse, pre chorus and chorus, rather than plain 16 bar blocks; during the verse drums drop back to little more than kick and hat so the voice can lead, a clean 909 kick, clap and snare on two and four, open hat on the offbeats returning in full for the chorus. The offbeat bass follows the song's chord changes, sawtooth filtered around 400 Hz with a fast sidechain, simplifying to sub whole notes in the verse and disappearing on the breakdown for the piano. The lead vocal, doubled with harmonies, sits over two stage compression with a dotted eighth delay and plate reverb.
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 Vocal Trance?
Vocal trance is trance turned into song: a female voice floats over the arpeggios, the breakdown carries the verse, and the drop stands in for the chorus. From the anthems of 1998 to 2004, running from Delerium to Above & Beyond, all the way to the online radio stations that play almost nothing…
What tempo is Vocal Trance played at?
Between 132 and 140 BPM.
Who are the key Vocal Trance artists?
Above & Beyond, Delerium, Oceanlab, Emma Hewitt, Dash Berlin.
In the same family
- Trance
- Acid Trance
- Balearic Trance
- Dream Trance
- Ibiza Trance
- Progressive Trance
- Tech Trance
- Uplifting Trance
- Euro Trance
- Anthem Trance
- Orchestral Trance
- German Trance
Listen to Vocal Trance in the atlas · Cette page en français
