trance drums layering and mixing

[BorderPatrol101]

hello all.
I'm usually into trance and stuff, just wanted to ask out for some tips about layering it down wisely and mixing it as well. I usually got some hihats, claps, simple drumloops, percs, etc.
thanks for the help.

[DJ Warmonger]

Well, now I just start with standard 808 4/4 straight from Battery 4 to get things right, and have the basic groove going. Then, for arrangement, add at least 2 percussion layers that can be pretty much anything - highpassed loops from any genre, vocoded drums, tribal drums, glitch sequences, polyrhythms or other generative sequences.

While kicks from Battery packs are just always right, other drums require EQ to flatten spectrum, remove nasty resonances and low mud. As typically fast open hats in trance can be irritating, I mix subtle phaser into them.
Secret weapon - Erosion from Ableton Live to add extra spicy noise.

If amplitude spikes get too high, kill them with saturator.

After all processing, it's important to restore dynamics - Ableton Drum Bus comes in handy, but recently it's mostly NI Transient Master.

As to clap / snare, especially in uplifting, it needs to be long and flat. Completely redesign its dynamics with ADSR, compression, distortion and any available tools, even reverb. Don't hesitate to completely destroy it, it's a modulated noise anyway.

[Proxima4]

I am in no way an aficionado on trance music.

But I recently realised how helpful it is to trim the initial attack from the kick a bit to keep the body and weight of it in focus, though I guess that’s largely based on the style of the track or components you want to remain as the hook.

Also maybe experiment with some psychoacoustic properties by layer a reversed kick just before or just after at very low volume.

That is literally my ground breaking advice

But It’s just some salt and pepper worth sharing I guess.

[legendCNCD]

Also maybe experiment with some psychoacoustic properties by layer a reversed kick just before or just after at very low volume.

Are you me?!? Some 15 years ago during a very sleepy night I started messing with reversing samples and mixing them together... voila, the sucktion bassdrum was born for me

It IS a very good advice and works wonders if done correctly. Actually try doing two, one with, one without and then use the suction one in quiet parts and normal in high energy parts - or vice versa, which ever suits.