I've found trance grooves harder to develop than I
thought it would be. It's easy to get a standard beat
going, the groove part is harder. I'm suprised Dj
Tiesto is on your list of drum-groove influences,
toomas - I like his selections fine, but the drums in
the tracks he chooses don't always have that much
groove (just standard 4 on the floor stuff, really),
just alot of arrangement to make up for it. That's only
my opinion...
I've had good results with sampled hihats, especially
little hihat trills and so forth that are difficult to
sequence myself. Alot of trance seems to use the sound
of an open hihat closing, which is difficult to
generate using most drum machines (except maybe the
Nova DrumStation), so samples are useful for these.
Also, a good assortment of claps (and reverse claps)
are helpful, because they add alot of atmosphere to the
drums.
Break beats are getting more popular in trance now, and
it's easy to see why: They really add some movement and
groove to the melodic break downs where it's not so
dynamic to just run the hihats or any other 4/4 beat.
I've also had some good results running a standard 4/4
progression over a breakbeat, which really adds groove
to the track. A friend of mine said that in jungle,
melodies are used to give the listener a break from the
beat, but in trance, beats are used to give the
listener a break from the melody.
Good luck. The added groove is th