Tech-Trance

tech-trance is a sub-genre within electronic dance music that draws upon the techno and trance genres as the name suggests. tech-trance focuses more on the techno elements, incorporates traditional elements of techno, with its repet-tive nature and strong 4/4 beat, while deriving the melodic elements from trance. tech-trance compositions tend to have a tempo of around 135-150 beats per minute. tech-trance tends to utilize a more driving sound while commonly using distortion as an effect on the melodies. commonly, the melody containing strings and pads will begin once the beat has completely stopped, playing by itself much like a trance breakdown. this melody will suddenly stop, leaving the drums and a completely different synth to begin, whereas trance songs would generally continue with the same melody. the synths are short, repet-tive and contain less note changes than trance, often having the same note played in an interesting sequence. for an example, see sam sharp’s “deep”.

while breakdowns and builds within a song are important elements of many electronic genres, they are less prevalent in tech-trance. as a result, more abrupt stops and starts are used to increase the effect of sudden changes within the music. vocals are also quite rare within the tech-trance genre, with only short phrases or single words normally incorporated. tech-trance is currently quite an underground genre, but is growing in popularity due to its hard-edged nature and growing list of producers.
mark sherry produces tech-trance under his outburst alias