Psytrance

Psychedelic trance, often referred to as psytrance, is a form of electronic music that developed from Goa trance in the early 1990s when it first began hitting the mainstream. In some psychedelic trance circles and online communities, ‘Psychedelic’ is the preferred name for the genre as it provides an umbrella term for the many divergent styles including Goa, melodic, dark, progressive and suomi. Referring to it as “psychedelic” also distinguishes the style from the ‘clubbier’ type of trance music and reinforces the roots of Goa trance in the psychedelic community. Psychedelic trance generally has a fast tempo, in the range 135 to 150 BPM but has developed into numerous different styles within the genre all with their own range of tempos. The emphasis in psychedelic trance is placed strongly on purely synthesized timbres in terms of programming and lead melodies. 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.

Psychedelic trance is most popular in Greece, UK, Israel, Portugal, Mexico, Germany, Switzerland, Japan, Australia, Brazil, South Africa, Belgium, Serbia, Republic of Macedonia, Netherlands, Croatia, the Nordic countries and India. The genre is not as well known outside its scene as uplifting or progressive is.