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Psychedelic trance

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Psychedelic trance
Stylistic originsGoa, Instrumental psychedelic rock, Industrial, Acid house
Cultural originsMid-1990s, UK, Israel, Goa, South Africa
Typical instrumentsVarious software synthesizers, Roland SH-101, Roland TB-303, Roland TR-909, Roland JP-8000, Access Virus, Clavia Nord Lead, Waldorf, Sequencer, Sampler, Filtered vocals
Subgenres
Dark – Melodic – Progressive
(complete list)
Fusion genres
Psychedelic ambient, Psychedelic techno
Regional scenes
India — Finland — South Africa — UK
Other topics
Notable artists and DJs — Psychedelia

Psychedelic trance or psytrance is a form of electronic music that evolved from Goa trance in the early 1990s when it first began hitting the mainstream.

The original Goa trance was often made with popular Modular synthesizers and hardware samplers, but the preference in Psychedelic trance has moved to sample manipulation and storage in VST and AU software sampler applications. The use of analog synthesizers for sound synthesis has given way to digital "virtual analog" instruments like the Nord Lead, Access Virus, Korg MS-2000, Roland JP-8000 and computer VST and AU plugins like Native Instruments Reaktor. These are usually controlled by MIDI sequencers within Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) applications.

Psytrance saw wide success in the Tel Aviv dance scene, and moved on to nearby places.

The name psychedelic provides an umbrella term for the many divergent styles this brand of trance has birthed, including Goa, melodic, dark, progressive and suomi. Referring to it as "psychedelic" also distinguishes the style from the 'clubbier' trance music and reinforces the roots of Goa trance in the psychedelic community.

Psychedelic trance generally has a fast tempo, in the range 140 to 150 BPM. The emphasis in psychedelic trance is placed strongly on purely synthesized timbres for programming and lead melodies.


Commercial success

In recent years, sales of psychedelic trance have been falling. The decline was : -2,8% in 2001, and -8,8% in 2002. A typical album usually sells around 2,000 copies, and selling more than 5,000 copies would be considered a success. There are only a handful of artists who sold more than 20,000 copies, including Hallucinogen, G.M.S., Infected Mushroom, Chakra, Transwave, Astrix, and Astral Projection. Hallucinogen's Twisted has had the most commercial success to date, selling around 85,000 copies.

The reasons for this decline in public interest include overproduction and lack of publicity. In fact, the market has not grown much, however the number of new labels and artists has increased greatly. Much of psychedelic trance is also channeled through illegal copying by sharing of music, particularly among students and streaming audio on the internet. Although this has opened up the market to newcomers, most of these fans do not have the ability to purchase music since it is not normally distributed in mainstream record stores (mostly internet shops).

It is worth noting that psytrance may not necessarily declining relative to underground dance music as a whole. The aforementioned trends do not apply exclusively to psytrance; the same commercial patterns are being noticed in many other forms of underground electronic music, such as drum and bass. Because ticket sales can continue to fare well despite falling record sales, a decline in the purchase of music does not necessarily imply the 'death' of a scene. This is compounded by the fact that many producers make a large proportion of their money through live performance, rather than relying solely on record sales. The reliance on live performances as the primary source of income is something also common in the band scene too, due to the record labels the bands are signed to often paying them very little.

See also

External links

General information

  • GOABASE, Most complete and current global resource of upcomping Psy events
  • Isratrance - Archive with information about most of Israel's Psychedelic Trance/Goa Trance artists.
  • MyTrance - Israeli Psychedelic Trance Community
  • Trippy Trance - Everything to do with psy trance around the globe.
  • Australiens - Australian Psytrance Portal
  • 3am - South African Psytrance Portal
  • Elektronika - Mexican Psytrance Portal
  • Psychedelic Mind Expander - extensive database of Goa and psychedelic trance artists, labels and releases.
  • Psynews - major online community and review database.
  • Chaishop - extensive emag and host of a weekly podcast.
  • Ektoplazm - extensive review database and free music source.
  • Bassline.gr - Psychedelic/Progressive Trance and Chillout web radio.
  • SMR Project - Russian Psychedelic/Progressive Trance project.
  • Bomelakiesie- South African Psytrance Community.
  • TR-ance - Turkish Trance Music Community.
  • Goasapiens.com - Serbian Psychedelic Trance Community.
  • Trancemuta- Mexican trance community.
  • Spacesheep- Romanian Psyrance/Psybient/Goa portal.

Active Communities / Party Organizers in the United States

Goa Videos

Links

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