First of all, what is the difference?! I know the kick on every beat, but a lot of trance does that. So, what is the difference?

Next, what do you prefer? House or trance?

I like both

Imagine the boundary between trance and house to be a gradient, rather than a solid line. The line is beyond blurry.

However, to make a few generalizations...


1. Trance tends to be mixed in an "orchestral" space. Think about the difference between a recording of an orchestra and a jazz band, in terms of "size" and "space." Trance instruments typically sound more like they've been "recorded" in an orchestral hall, rather than mic'ed up-close. This distinction doesn't really apply to a lot of recent progressive house, though.

2. Following the previous point, trance music conventions tend to be  inspired by classical music (and rock power ballads, to be honest), whereas house tends to draw from jazz and funk roots. This is where the line really gets fuzzy, because there's a lot of "classical-sounding" house and "jazzy-sounding" trance. Especially recently.

3. In house, the bassline typically holds more musical focus. There are strong basslines in trance, but it usually sets up more melodic, high-register instruments to make the track what it is.

And now watch as everyone immediately disagrees with me.  ;)

No i take your point  :)

although trance take many guises remember, think of some of the first trance tunes like the early Hearthouse/ Rising high recordings or even Ecstasy Club - Jesus Loves The Acid from 1988, that was a trance tune in my opinion

Ehhhhh....I don't know...The genres really aren't distinguished as much by sound as they are structure.

House---120-130 bpm typically.  Kicks on 1 & 3,  Claps on 2 & 4 ALWAYS. (NOTE:  House has kicks on 2 & 4 as well,  but the claps are the focus on those beats.)

Trance--135-145 bpm typically.  Kicks have an offbeat hat attached. 

Talk about blurred lines. I blur the lines between house and trance all the time. I tend to use them interchangably as long as they have a similar vibe. I sort of disagree on the bpm rule that Kevin has presented. While it is technically true, I know of plenty of house tracks that are in the 135+ range.

The only house I've ever heard over 135 is hard house.

exactly.

And I'm not too sure about the trance having off kicks, and house being on 1 & 2... Most of the trance I hear is on 1 through 4, same with house.

Nooooo...Trance has an OFFBEAT HIHAT,  not an offbeat kick

Oops :P I meant off beat hihat.

Whenever I listen to some house though, it just sounds... boring. It has these lame melodies that are really really slow...

This is a ridiculous thread, it makes no difference what is on the off beat!

The lines in dance music are constantly being blurred because that's hopefully what keeps the music moving forward. If we all made music by numbers then it would get boring pretty quickly.

Yeah,  it does matter.  And it's not music by numbers as much as it is following a basic structure.  If you don';t believe me,  just go listen to several tracks each of different genres.  You'll discover that each genre pretty much follows a similar structure in each track.

Yeah different styles follow a formula but what I’m saying is it's not set in stone, have a listen to my track 'string of hearts' on my myspace site, what category  does that fall into?

I'd say String of Hearts is definitely techno.  No claps,  no hats.  No organic sounds.  Definitely followed a typical Techno structure. 

Check out BTU's stuff on AudioJelly.com and let me know what you think about our stuff..  Just go to Audiojelly.com and search btu recordings

Im a trance kiddy house bores me

it's all techno to me.  :smiley23:

Spend some time on this site then...
http://www.di.fm/edmguide/edmguide.html

I've been trying to find this for a friend, thanks.

a good way to check the difference is to go to places like beatport and listen to the clips in each genre.  though if you go to any of the house genre's and subgenre's a lot of them sound like dirty electro, at least the stuff in the various charts anyway... 

Shes teasing you guys. She always tells me that too.  :smiley8:

lol, Terrence Parker is listed in the disco house tab

most simple definition i can think of:

TRANCE is about the melodies

HOUSE is about the groove

I swear it's a production formula...Like I stated earlier

i have a hard time agreeing with you on that one.

but house is deffo about the groove, no doubt about it... i think ishkur said it best when describing funky house... when is house not funky?

Oh I won't argue that House is more groove oriented whereas Trance is more melody oriented...But my OCD organizational mind won't allow me to think like that...Oh the torment!

its obviously a more complicated subject and i won't disagree that structure is a big part but i've found if i have to explain genres to someone who is not a dance fanatic, then telling them that house is about the groove makes more sense to them.

Hehehe....You rock,  Joel!