Trance Producers who made all their tracks on their own...

Magdelayna

Elite Member
Jul 13, 2020
1,490 Posts
1,217 Thanked
West Yorkshire,England
Website
soundcloud.com
We had the recent discovery that Tiesto never made any of his tracks - it was a 'team' of ghost producers over various eras - ive also heard mentions that PvD always used a ghost,and now im wondering whether Armin always had Benno in the studio with him - one of his 1999 remixes had the same exact drum loop as Rank 1 - Airwave.

My question is which producers you KNOW made everything by themselves? e.g. no other ghost or engineer in the studio....The main ones for me would be Airwave,Ferry and Mike - this is why i respect these guys higher than most..
 

dmgtz96

Elite Member
Jul 13, 2020
2,640 Posts
1,499 Thanked
We had the recent discovery that Tiesto never made any of his tracks - it was a 'team' of ghost producers over various eras - ive also heard mentions that PvD always used a ghost,and now im wondering whether Armin always had Benno in the studio with him - one of his 1999 remixes had the same exact drum loop as Rank 1 - Airwave.

My question is which producers you KNOW made everything by themselves? e.g. no other ghost or engineer in the studio....The main ones for me would be Airwave,Ferry and Mike - this is why i respect these guys higher than most..
Re: Tiesto, is that recent info though? Surely there were rumors floating around for the past 15 years or so?
 
  • Thanks
Reactions: Magdelayna

Magdelayna

Elite Member
Jul 13, 2020
1,490 Posts
1,217 Thanked
West Yorkshire,England
Website
soundcloud.com
Benno got involved in 2008, not before, as far as I know.

Yeah id like to think Armin made all his early stuff on his own - there is definatly videos of him working on DAWs in the studio,so he knows what hes doing - whereas there never been any studio videos of Paul van Dyk,and thats something i didnt realise until the last few years - i always thought he made all his own stuff,but someone told me hes always had a ghost which was kind of really disappointing for me. Still not confirmed i suppose!
 

Hot Tuna

Senior Member
Aug 24, 2020
417 Posts
383 Thanked
142 Paul van Dyk Avenue
Yeah id like to think Armin made all his early stuff on his own - there is definatly videos of him working on DAWs in the studio,so he knows what hes doing - whereas there never been any studio videos of Paul van Dyk,and thats something i didnt realise until the last few years - i always thought he made all his own stuff,but someone told me hes always had a ghost which was kind of really disappointing for me. Still not confirmed i suppose!

If you check Paul van Dyk's first two albums (on the MFS label) then a combination of Johnny Klimek, VOOV and Jens Wojnar are credited as co-producers on all tracks. After the fall-out with MFS which resulted in his abandoned 'Avenue Of Stars' album (detailed in a Reddit post here: click) he set up Vandit and immediately began working regularly with BT. I am sure PvD is more than capable of producing tracks on his own, but this is just how things tend to work with big DJ/producers like this.

While M.I.K.E. and Airwave certainly have excellent producer credentials, they both started out using the Bonzai records studio in the back of a record store, so I'm sure a resident producer/engineer was there to show them the ropes and get things sounding right in the early days.

Armin has mentioned that he produced Blue Fear and other early tracks in the bedroom of his parents' house, so while his schedule now demands the use of co-producers I'm sure he's also very capable himself.
 

Magdelayna

Elite Member
Jul 13, 2020
1,490 Posts
1,217 Thanked
West Yorkshire,England
Website
soundcloud.com
If you check Paul van Dyk's first two albums (on the MFS label) then a combination of Johnny Klimek, VOOV and Jens Wojnar are credited as co-producers on all tracks. After the fall-out with MFS which resulted in his abandoned 'Avenue Of Stars' album (detailed in a Reddit post here: click) he set up Vandit and immediately began working regularly with BT. I am sure PvD is more than capable of producing tracks on his own, but this is just how things tend to work with big DJ/producers like this.

While M.I.K.E. and Airwave certainly have excellent producer credentials, they both started out using the Bonzai records studio in the back of a record store, so I'm sure a resident producer/engineer was there to show them the ropes and get things sounding right in the early days.

Armin has mentioned that he produced Blue Fear and other early tracks in the bedroom of his parents' house, so while his schedule now demands the use of co-producers I'm sure he's also very capable himself.

PvD is a strange one because when someone said to me he always used a ghost i was revolted,as he was one of my favourite producers and just had one of the best unique styles ever - but when i thought about it,all his best work came in the late 90's and early 2000's culminating in one of the best artist albums ever,Out There And Back. But since the mid 2000's how much decent stuff has he actually made? There was the recent artist albums but they were strangely full of collabs with generic producers. Its like he left the guy he was working with originally a long time ago - or maybe just lost the passion for making productions?
 
  • Thanks
Reactions: dmgtz96

Magdelayna

Elite Member
Jul 13, 2020
1,490 Posts
1,217 Thanked
West Yorkshire,England
Website
soundcloud.com
Airwave actually helped a lot of other guys a lot, such as JOOF, DJ Fire etc.

Yeah as my original question applies,who were the producers who did everything themselves - Airwave is certainly one - and id also pick out Steve Helstrip and Solarstone. I think video evidence of these guys actually producing shows a lot of truth,and its the guys youve never seen in the studio that looks dodgy now - like PvD.
 

Recharge

Elite Member
Sep 26, 2020
1,004 Posts
544 Thanked
Age
38

Magdelayna

Elite Member
Jul 13, 2020
1,490 Posts
1,217 Thanked
West Yorkshire,England
Website
soundcloud.com
Darren Tate has a background in classic music and I think it shows a lot in his music. He is probably one of the most underrated producers in trance. And he has made some classic music and movie OSTs.

This is an unreleased remix he made, but even the original version has a ton of classical music influence: https://soundcloud.com/darrentate%2Fdt8-project-feat-carla-werner-pieces-dt8s-classical-rework

Definatly a good shout - yeah his background in classical resulted in some all time classics like Let The Light Shine In. He shouldve made a lot more classics imo - his recent stuff hasnt really been up to that standard. But yes - no ghost there!
 

Recharge

Elite Member
Sep 26, 2020
1,004 Posts
544 Thanked
Age
38
Definatly a good shout - yeah his background in classical resulted in some all time classics like Let The Light Shine In. He shouldve made a lot more classics imo - his recent stuff hasnt really been up to that standard. But yes - no ghost there!
I actually loved a couple of his deep progressive songs from last year. Even Silhouette was a good one, but those two. I find myself falling in love to what I'd like to call pure progressive (prog trance and house on the edge of each other/organic house/melodic house and techno/prog breaks) lately. So that might explain why I loved his switch to progressive last year.


 

SecondNature

Member
Oct 27, 2020
148 Posts
107 Thanked
USA
Website
soundcloud.com
PvD is a strange one because when someone said to me he always used a ghost i was revolted,as he was one of my favourite producers and just had one of the best unique styles ever - but when i thought about it,all his best work came in the late 90's and early 2000's culminating in one of the best artist albums ever,Out There And Back. But since the mid 2000's how much decent stuff has he actually made? There was the recent artist albums but they were strangely full of collabs with generic producers. Its like he left the guy he was working with originally a long time ago - or maybe just lost the passion for making productions?
Ooh, I hope not. He was definitely someone I looked up to in regards to style and substance and I'd be disappointed.

I haven't listened to a lot of recent PVD, but I thought his track "Duality" was cool. It gave me the feeling that he was going back to his old school style of trance, although somewhat modified to fit in with today's trance.
 

Hensmon

Admin
TranceFix Crew
Jun 27, 2020
3,109 Posts
2,606 Thanked
UK
John 00 Flemming. He is always talking and sharing videos of him in his studio cranking out tunes. Someone above mentioned he may have got help from Airwave in the past which is might be true, but I think some help from a mate is different from getting a ghost producer.
 

Archon

Gagi
TranceFix Crew
Jun 27, 2020
3,913 Posts
2,809 Thanked
John 00 Flemming. He is always talking and sharing videos of him in his studio cranking out tunes. Someone above mentioned he may have got help from Airwave in the past which is might be true, but I think some help from a mate is different from getting a ghost producer.
I think both have admitted that, and I think he said he needed his help anyways. If it's a good album (which it was!), I don't mind.