What synthesizers was used in the Dream Trance, House, Dance music?

[hinson]

Dream trance-house-dance was a short period in club dance music style that occurred between 1995 and 1997.
The most famous artist of this kind of music was Robert Miles with his biggest hits Children and Fable.
But Dream Trance, house, dance is not only Robert Miles, but many other artists created music in this style.
It's also DJ Dado, Zhi-Vago, Nomansland, B.B.E, Imperio (especially the second incarnation) or Roland Brant and many others.
I wonder what equipment they was using during the production of these tracks, especially the piano parts, but not only, the synths also are cool.
The only thing that comes to my mind is Korg M1 because it was famous and have very good piano sound samples, but there were certainly other lesser known synthesizers that also offered great piano sounds in the in the mid-90s.

Most people know the the tracks of Robert Miles so I will give other examples.

DJ Dado - X-Files
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYwRXqjiAZ8

Zhi-Vago - Celebrate The Love
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6MlAa1a0hB0

Nomansland - Seven Seconds
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IL_fMZjGGpA

Imperio - Atlantis
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4giqPGykiEY

BBE - 7 days and one week
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpkLcfbOra4

Sarah - Lovin' you
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmIBArwLfos

Roland Brant - Moon's Waterfalls
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZL-efXc4EM

[BertKoor]

I wonder what equipment they was using during the production of these tracks, especially the piano parts, but not only, the synths also are cool.

The answer is (as always) : musicians use whatever they can get their hands on, what by accident was in the music store and fits their budget, or what sits in the studio they hired.

A piano is a piano. Some are bright, others are dull or detuned. In the end, a piano is a piano. Subtle differences in panios does not make the difference between a chart hit or flop.

Ultimately it's the musician that makes the music, not his synths.

[claudedefaren]

...

[chk071]

I'd assume that the Roland JP-8000 also got a lot of use around that time.

[recursive one]

I think it was mostly Korg or Roland romplers/digital synths, maybe Korg Trinity or Roland JD-800

An example of dream trance made with Roland Fanthom, it was manufactured in early 00s but the example sounds quite authentic, i think Fanthom might have some parts of its engine inherited from earlier digital Rolands
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGx7fHX ... e=youtu.be

I don't think JP-8000 was that important specifically in dream trance, though it had The Supersaw and played a big role in early trance in general.

I have some very fond memories associated with this subgenre

[tehlord]

I'd assume that the Roland JP-8000 also got a lot of use around that time.

Unlikely, it came out the same year most of these tracks were released.

In terms of what was used, it would have been all sorts of gear including -

Older analogue synths, Juno, Alpha Juno....anything
M1
D50
JV1080
W30
Akai/Samplers
Emu/Romplers
Ensoniq synths/samplers
Nord Lead
Quasimidi

And loads more. There's no one answer.

[excuse me please]

https://www.musictech.net/guides/essent ... nce-music/

[dark_virus]

Bert, respectfully, your answer is not helpful in this situation. You are not wrong, but your point is not relevant or helpful. In genres of dance music from this era, certain synths dominated, such as the Korg M1 you can clearly hear in the first song. Hinson is simply asking which ones were popular for this particular genre. He did not ask which piano sample will make his chart a hit. I too am interested in his question.

I was about to mention the Korg M1 piano.

I normally tend to disagree with that "use whatever you want" statement. Each EDM genre has its synth cliches. Even in VSTi form.

[cryophonik]

Older analogue synths, Juno, Alpha Juno....anything
M1
D50
JV1080
W30
Akai/Samplers
Emu/Romplers
Ensoniq synths/samplers
Nord Lead
Quasimidi

And loads more. There's no one answer.

Good list. Kurzweil K2000 also seemed to be everywhere in the 90s and I'm pretty sure it got a lot of use in these genres. Also, Waldorf Microwave and Pulse???

[BertKoor]

There y'all go, listing the inventory of the keyboard department of a big music shop 25 years ago.
So what have you actually learned from that, what can you put into practice?

Maybe the take-away is this. 25 years ago any spotty guy could make nice music in their bedsit using only a toy computer with 512k RAM and a rompler holding only 4mb of samples.

Today's spotty guys still sit at their bedsits hoarding terabytes of Kontakt libraries. But their produce has not improved much.

tl;dr: OK Boomer! Just get off my lawn!

[discoDSP]

Older analogue synths, Juno, Alpha Juno....anything
M1
D50
JV1080
W30
Akai/Samplers
Emu/Romplers
Ensoniq synths/samplers
Nord Lead
Quasimidi

And loads more. There's no one answer.

/thread Also, Access Virus

[Music Bird]

Yeah, no one answer. Though the M1 Piano was big in those genres. Usually Juno or JX8P synths for the analog bits and the Emax was a big sampler in those days.

[kritikon]

Dream trance? I was around in the clubs, dropping dodgy pills and listening to all those tracks, and never heard of the phrase dream trance. BBE, Robert Miles etc...TBH this was a time before every second record had to have some kind of sub genre label.

Classic pianos those days were M1 (lots and lots) and U20 and U220. Even the D10 and D110 had some useable pianos all done on the cheap. Someone mentioned older analogue synths...yeah they were very popular, but for pianos? Yer 'avin a larff surely? Nobody in their right mind used any kind of Juno for a piano...hoovers maybe.

[kritikon]

Oh yeah, Korg O1 thingies were around then - decent Romplers and some pianos, though rubbish synths.

[AnX]

think of a synth around that time


thats what they used