Bizarre time signatures in trance

[Skylander]

Hi everyone! Hope you're doing fine!

As everyone know, trance tracks always follow 4/4 ts. What do you think if trance track would have some odd ts? 5/4, 6/4, 7/4, or even 27/16? They surely will sound unusual, but maybe that's the way to refresh the scene? Please write your thoughts on that!

 

[Jetflag]

Hi everyone! Hope you're doing fine!

As everyone know, trance tracks always follow 4/4 ts. What do you think if trance track would have some odd ts? 5/4, 6/4, 7/4, or even 27/16? They surely will sound unusual, but maybe that's the way to refresh the scene? Please write your thoughts on that!

Could be interesting to try.

I am however a bit sceptical on said rhythm still being trance. The reason a 4*4 “monotonous” beat works so well is because of its simple hypnotic quality..

that said hey ho why not give it a go

 

[Archon]

Didn't Rank1 do a 7/8 in their 7 Instead of 8 track?

 

[Uplifted]

Check this one out. This tune goes 4/4 and then from 2:16 to 5:10 it goes 3/4

Hallucinogen - Snakey Shaker

 

[Progrez]

I think Airwave had some weird time signature in his tracks as well.

 

[Skylander]

Check this one out. This tune goes 4/4 and then from 2:16 to 5:10 it goes 3/4

Hallucinogen - Snakey Shaker

Thank you for a reply! That's a decent track. Now I'm confident that Trance producers should experiment with time sigmature!

 

[Skylander]

Didn't Rank1 do a 7/8 in their 7 Instead of 8 track?

Idk. Send me examples pls

 

[Uplifted]

This one is a full-on/darkpsy tune with a bizarre time signature which goes from 4/4 to 6/8 and again to 4/4.

This album was an interesting journey.

Jikkenteki - Quietly Screaming

 

[allende]

As a huge fan of unusual time-signatures, I've found that the best way to utilize them in trance is either polyrhythms or quarternote signatures, so that the kick keeps pumping, but we get unusual and interesting patterns in composition and arrangement. In my opinnion they sound way more hypnotic and mesmerizing than traditional 4/4 time, which we've gotten so accustomed to, that we always know where we are and rarely get lost in the pattern. While I personally also like abrupt transitions and twitchy odd-time signatures, I've found that using signatures based on quarter notes and subtle polyrhythms are more easily digested and can sometimes even go unnoticed by casual listeners.

Few examples from my own stuff:
(from 5:24 or so onward)

(from 2:37 or so onward, and also 4:12)

 

[Archon]

Idk. Send me examples pls

Just Google Rank 1 - 7 Instead of 8.

 

[Skylander]

Just Google Rank 1 - 7 Instead of 8.

Thx! It looks more like 28/16 though (8/4+4/4+8/4+8/4)

 

[Skylander]

This is true 7/4. It's not trance, but it clearly shows the off-ness of a beat)

 

[Skylander]

As a huge fan of unusual time-signatures, I've found that the best way to utilize them in trance is either polyrhythms or quarternote signatures, so that the kick keeps pumping, but we get unusual and interesting patterns in composition and arrangement. In my opinnion they sound way more hypnotic and mesmerizing than traditional 4/4 time, which we've gotten so accustomed to, that we always know where we are and rarely get lost in the pattern. While I personally also like abrupt transitions and twitchy odd-time signatures, I've found that using signatures based on quarter notes and subtle polyrhythms are more easily digested and can sometimes even go unnoticed by casual listeners.

Few examples from my own stuff:
(from 5:24 or so onward)

(from 2:37 or so onward, and also 4:12)

The first song has 37/4, I guess? The song is good, but I expected to see more vivid off-keyness)

 

[Skylander]

This is true 7/4. It's not trance, but it clearly shows the off-ness of a beat)

The same song would sound awful in 4/4 ts

 

[Skylander]

This is true 7/4. It's not trance, but it clearly shows the off-ness of a beat)

This song would sound awful in 4/4 ts

 

[Skylander]

This song has 27/16 time signature




And what if this song had more rhythmic 3/4

 

[allende]

The first song has 37/4, I guess? The song is good, but I expected to see more vivid off-keyness)

The first one (Mosaic) the kick is in 9/4, and the pluck is playing dotted 8ths on top of it (the pluck cycle counts to 6, while the kick cycle counts to 9). The part really starts from 5:58, although the breakdown is already in that timesignature. I think what makes it sound pretty "normal" is that dotted 8th plucks are very common in trance and other edm genres, but they usually reset every bar or few bars. In this instance it just keeps rotating and everything else is built around it.

Second one (Midnight Train) is 6/4 at it's simplest, but the pluck polyrhythm counts to 8 inside two cycles, so I think it's just easier to count the whole part as 12/4. The later techno part I believe is just 4/4 with polyrhythmic arp on top of it.