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A step filter makes syncing filtered effects to your tune a cinch

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8. Don't Overuse delay effects. The problem with a l lot of Trance we hear these days is that delays are used on too many elements, and this, combined with all of those cycling arpeggios, means repetition overload. Calm it down for a greater impact.

9. Change the key. It's a cliche of the highest order, but by God, it still works. Just after you've inflicted a few minutes of builds, falls, swirls and rises, raise or lower your repeated riff by, say, three or five semitones (and the rest of your melodic elements, obviously) and congratulate yourself on knowing what semitones actually are. It won't always work, but if it does, it's a new direction and journey for your blessed blissed-out chums to follow you on.

10. Kick, kick, kick, kick... You know the score by now. The kick is the lifeblood of trance. At one time it was weak, at another it was washed away by synths, but now it's hard, doubled up, often with a short slap delay, yet always high up in the mix and with a pinch of overdrive to make it as ballsy as you like.

11. Need more kick help? Well, compression (separate from the snare) is also a must, and the use of a derivative of the 909 kick is highly recommended (but please experiment, we implore you). Then there's the big, 'reverbed' kick - it's not used so much now, and it can overpower a mix, but there's always the occasional place for it - perhaps try it in a breakdown, where there's less going on anyway.

12. One last bit of kick advice: reducing the decay time will give you a much tighter beat, but be careful not to turn your kick into a blip or you'll lose that pounding effect. Also, as you reduce the decay, try adding the aforementioned slap delay to fill out the space - this trick is currently a hot favourite for a bit of added kick drama.

The arrangement

13. Did we say don't follow the rules? Well, there is one overriding principle of trance and that is that you can't fail with repetition. The genre relies on it - a trancelike state is induced by drugs (or so we hear) and repetition, simple as that. Crowds of tranced-up kids want repeated melodies, repeated arrangements and every tune needs a breakdown (see tip 16). However, like we said earlier, drop in a big surprise at the middle of the repetition and you'll have a rush-induced hit on your hands.

14. Repetition means looping, so you can probably blame trance for helping to create so many loop-based pieces of software. Looping is the very thing that, to fans of the genre, makes trance, but is precisely what the non-believers hate. We'll assume you're a fan if you're reading this, so work in blocks of 16 bars, layer everything up, experiment with dropping sections in and out, and your arrangement will eventually come together...

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