How to Make Trance Like KI/KI
KI/KI played two solo shows at Amsterdam's Ziggo Dome during ADE. In this video I build a track in her style: a hard kick and bass at 148 BPM, a rolling acid line, a big trance lead and a breakdown with two separate build-ups. All the sounds come from Hyper, our hard house and trance pack.
The kick and bass at 148 BPM
A BPM between 140 and 160 is the range for hard trance. I put this project on 148, which gives it speed but still leaves room for some groove. The kick is Kick 18 from Hyper. It's a long kick, taking up more than half the beat, which only leaves room for the bass on the second half. There's an EQ on it that ducks the high end a little, so it's a touch less bright.
The bassline is a rolling trance bass that stays on the root note. It skips the first of four 16th notes and only plays the last three, though adding that first note back in gives it a bit more of a rolling feel. The sound is a Serum 2 patch called Bass Psychotic, a saw wavetable from the analog wavetables called Yet Another Saw. With a rolling bassline like this, random phase needs to be at zero, so every note starts at the same point in the wave and stays stable. The envelopes are very short, around 80 milliseconds, which gives it a plucky, tight feel. Tube distortion adds a little grit, and two OTT multiband compressors stack up to squash it hard so it cuts through the mix. Kickstart 2 ducks it with a tight shape to leave room for the kick, with just enough let through to keep that rolling feel.
Drums and percussion that keep it moving
On top of the kick and bass there's a top loop, a groovy hard house and trance loop with a tight clap, and a rave loop for an old-school, washy feel. A closed hat plays a 16th note rhythm with velocity modulation for some bounce. A tribal percussion loop is pitched up to match the key of the track, the kind of percussion you can hear in the background of some of KI/KI's own tracks. A second, quieter percussion loop sits underneath, and an open hat with reverb and a boosted top end finishes the drums, cutting through the mix against the bassline.
A second bass and a trance vocal stab
A top bass plays over the rolling bassline for extra groove. It's a preset called Bass Amigo, an FM psychedelic patch. An EQ cuts all the low end so it stays a high mid bass and leaves room for the main bass underneath. There's an OTT for compression, a delay that adds bounce and spreads it wider in stereo since the main bass is mono, a reverb to push it back a little, a Juno chorus for extra width, and a light Kickstart for sidechain.
On top of the basses sits that classic trance vocal stab, the kind of sound I think KI/KI uses in a lot of her tracks. It plays a simple pattern on the root note or the fifth, with the last note of every two bars held a little longer. An EQ brightens it so it cuts through the mix.
The lead: a super saw with an unstable edge
The lead is a Serum 2 preset from Hyper called Trans Gate Harder. Holding one note plays a pattern through Serum 2's arp function, set to a mix of 16th and 8th notes, a very typical old-school trance rhythm. It's a big super saw made from one heavily detuned saw with extra voices, with white noise added for brightness and an MG Low 18 filter that I like to automate. An OTT compresses it, a ping-pong delay and a big hall reverb make it huge, and a short Kickstart keeps its punch without taking too much off the top. In the second part of the drop the lead jumps up an octave, which adds tension without changing the pattern itself.
The acid line and the arrangement
The acid line uses a Serum patch called Bass Sour, a close remake of the Roland TB-303. It plays a simple pattern of short 16th notes on the root note, climbing an octave every two bars while the filter cutoff automates upward, which gives it that squelchy, opening acid sound. An EQ removes everything under 200 Hz so it stays out of the main bass's way, a light OTT at around 10% mix adds a touch of compression, and a tight Kickstart keeps the sidechain in time with the rest of the track. A second acid-style sound, called Acid Fill, runs through heavy delay, chorus and phaser, with overlapping notes that create a gliding, psychedelic feel. It mostly shows up in the intro and outro for atmosphere.
A quiet noise layer runs through the whole track for atmosphere. The intro starts with just the drums, bassline and top bass, before a crash and a fast snare fill bring in the lead, still filtered down. The breakdown drops back to the vocal stab and a filtered-down acid line, with a string pad added for height. I learned a trick from one of KI/KI's own tracks here: build up twice instead of once. The first build-up fakes out the drop, drops back to just the lead, and then builds again into the real one. The kick and the crash both speed up going into the drop, and the kick is turned down about 3dB in the build-up so the drop hits harder by contrast. The drop itself leans on a reversed uplifter with sidechain for the impact.
Frequently asked questions
Who is KI/KI?
KI/KI is a DJ and producer in hard house and trance. She played two solo shows at Amsterdam's Ziggo Dome during ADE.
What BPM is hard trance?
Hard trance tracks usually run between 140 and 160 BPM. This track sits at 148, fast enough for the style while leaving room for groove.
How do you make a rolling trance bassline?
Skip the first of four 16th notes so only the last three play, set the oscillator's random phase to zero for a stable sound, and sidechain it tightly with the kick so there's room for both.
How do you get a squelchy acid sound?
Automate the filter cutoff upward on a 303-style patch while the pattern climbs an octave every couple of bars. That combination gives acid its opening, squelchy character.
Related reading: hard house and trance are back, how to make trance like Pegassi, and hard house and trance sample packs.
