In common with most forms of techno, or electronic dance music, the most prominent ingredient of Goa Trance is the kick drum. In Goa trance however, the kick tends to be quite dominant, often processed through an effects unit independently of the rest of the track.The thick, 'beefy' bass drum sounds associated with this style are often, if not exclusively, based on those of the Roland TR909 drum machine. This machine, manufactured circa 1984, was the last of the Roland drum machines to incorporate analogue synthesised drum sounds, as opposed to sampled waveforms. This meant that it was possible to shape the sound using rotary knobs on the front of the machine to adjust parameters such as decay, attack, timbre etc. As these machines are now hard to acquire, most Goa trance artists use samples of the TR909 or similar vintage drum machines in their work. However, as the TR909 is capable of many hundreds of different timbres, a large amount of variation through multiple sampling is still possible. The basic kick sounds are often augmented by adding in a low tom, or sometimes even a sampled synth bass timbre, to give extra punch and definition.
The Roland TB303, the 'bassline' or '303' in common parlance, has been extensively used in house and commercial club dance music over the years, and is responsible for many of the acid bleeps, squelches, squishes and whooshes found in traditional psychedelic trance. Goa trance artists tend to look for more original ways of expressing high frequency chaos, mostly using sampled sources manipulated using the filter section of the sampler (e.g. Kurzweil K2500, Roland S760, Akai S3000 series). However, the influence of the TB303 sound can still be heard in many Goa trance tracks.
The hi-hats are used as propulsive glue, with subtle rhythmic emphases and variations providing a contrast to the insistent kick drum and bass synth repetition. Commonly the half closed hihat is used on the 8th note offbeat as the track builds [eg. "Nothing like a good friend" - Inscape, TIP Blue Compilation 1995]. As well as the basic kick drum pulse there are overlaid sounds, sometimes indicating changes in sections of the arrangement and sometimes to add textural focus. For example, "Megallenic Cloud" by Green Nuns of the Revolution [Trancentral 4 - A Trip to Goa 1996] starts with a theremin-like overlay that lasts almost 8 bars. Synthesised high frequency swirling sounds act like fills to signify the start of new sections or changes of instrumentation.
A feature of Goa trance tracks is the inclusion of sampled voice snippets of texts taken mostly from old movies. These are usually employed in the breakdowns , but are also sometimes used as overlays. As stated at the beginning of the musical style section, they serve to provide a marked contrast to the insistent driving pulse of the kick and 16th note rhythmic drive of the bass and other levels of the texture. For the dancer in a trance state they are intended to stimulate the imagination before being grounded again by the return of the driving kick drum rhythm. Examples of these quotations are "Got a hot date with a 3 stage rocket!" [eg. "Wow" - The Infinity Project, TIP Blue Compilation 1995] and "Now .... To prayer ...... It is time to charge the spiritual battery" [eg. "U.R. The Alien" - Brainman, TIP Blue Compilation 1995]. The sampling of fragments of traditional instrumental or vocal music is a technique used to make references to world music cultures which are regarded as appropriate to the aesthetic of Goa trance. Some of the cultural areas commonly targeted are Australian Aboriginal (e.g. the didjeridoo), Japanese (e.g. koto, biwa), Indian (e.g. tambura, sitar, tabla, voice) and Arab (voice).
Goa trance tracks nearly always have a 16th note single pitch repetition, using a sharply defined upper harmonic filter swept synth timbre with the oscillator close to the point of resonance. The filter cut-off point is often achieved graphically using tools found in the most popular computer sequencing packages such as Steinberg Cubase or E-Magic Logic. This enables a simple 16th note single pitched repeated note to become a rhythmic entity in its own right, as the audible component of the sound fades in and out of the human hearing range. It can also take on melodic qualities as the resonance control on the filter approaches higher values.
The form of Goa trance tracks follow a fairly rigid framework, based on 8 or 16 bar building blocks. The changes in texture invariably coincide with the 8 bar divisions, although sometimes an additional part will fade in through an 8 bar cycle. Often a high frequency swirling fill will signal the beginning of a new block. This track construction process is influenced by computer sequencer design, encouraging a building block approach to composition. There is a process of layer interchange between subsequent blocks, where one or two layers of the texture are added or removed, often using material rhythmically or melodically related to previous sections.
Sometimes long sustained sounds or samples, often incorporating slow harmonic filter sweeps are subjected to 16th or 32nd note gating in a rhythmic pattern. Heavy distortion is often employed on the synth and kick sounds. Oscillator cross modulation and hard oscillator sync produce wild, chaotic harmonic shifts. Constant filter sweeps on all parts except the kick produce a continually changing frequency balance. Different parts are often given different reverbs, to place each layer in a different acoustic space. Delay is used as a compositional device, with the delay time synched to the tempo of the track, either in 16th , 8th note, or some dotted note division. Repetition of single notes within the melodic fragments is used to accentuate the trance like qualities of the multiple delay effects found in the majority of Goa Trance tracks.
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