10 TRANCE MAINSTAYS

01 SUPERSAW SYNTHS

At this point, the supersaw synth is probably the single most recognisable sound of trance, dominating everything from psytrance to EDM. The Roland JP-8000’s supersaw sound is the granddaddy of them all, essentially an attempt to replicate the fuzzy, thick sound of seven sawtooth oscillators detuned against each other. The sound quickly became a staple of dance music generally, but trance producers adopted it as a mainstay, using it for pads, leads and even bass. The original point of the supersaw was to achieve something that would be difficult on a true analogue synth (you’d need dozens of oscillators to play a