This week we welcome Falcon for an interview. Falcon has been making moves recently in the trance scene after playing at EDC, and having some very successful releases. His latest collaboration with Suncatcher made it into Beatport’s Trance Top 10.

Hi Falcon! Thanks for doing an interview with us, it’s great to have you.

Likewise! Thanks for inviting me!

I’m also a huge fan of trance myself. What exactly attracted you to producing trance compared to other genres? The melodies? The speed?

I think the atmosphere in trance is what sets it apart from other genres for me. I love spacey synths and slow build ups, along with that relaxed feeling you get during the breakdown and the energy rush when the climax kicks in.

You recently produced a track in collaboration with Suncatcher named ‘Hashtable’ which is currently sitting in the Beatport Trance top 10. How do you find the collaborative workflow? And also, do you have any tips for producers wanting to collaborate?

Hashtable kind of happened on the spur of the moment. I sent Bogdan the melody and asked what he thought of it. He said he loved it, and asked to collaborate on it with me. We then discussed what each of us was going to do as far as work in order to make the most of the collab.

I think the biggest tip as far as collaborating goes is discuss beforehand what each one of you is going to bring to the table. The whole point of a collaboration is to get both of your styles fused together in a track. In my collaboration with Bodgan, you hear my bassline, kick drums, and acid/pluck sounds, while you hear Bodgan’s traditional warm pads, lush vandit pluck, and smooth transitions. I’d say it was a pure 50/50 split as far as workload went.

I really enjoy collaborating, it’s a good way to broaden your sound and possibly learn a few tricks.

Let’s talk basslines. Yours are incredibly clean and powerful. Any tips for the trance producers reading?

EQ everything, and I mean everything. There is nothing in the sub range but the sub bass and the kick in my uplifting tracks. Also, take a less is more approach to basslines. I generally use 3 layers; a sub, a mid retrigger pluck, and a crunchy hi layer. The mid and the hi layers play the same notes, while the bass either plays a stuttered pattern or rolls along with the mids.

From what I’ve seen, your studio is quite ‘minimal’, it just goes to show that you don’t need masses of expensive gear in order to achieve a good sound. What techniques have you used to achieve a clean, professional sounding mix?

I believe it is important to learn with what you already have in order to train your ear. You don’t need to shell out big bucks on nice studio speakers as long as you know how your setup translates to other systems. The quickest way would be to compare your music to professional sounding music and try to mix your music accordingly. I definitely recommend studio headphones which give you the best results for your money. I’ve had my Sennheiser 280’s for 5 years now and they are still going strong!

If you had to use two plugins for the rest of your life, what would they be? And why?

Since I pretty much only use these two plugins, it would be Sylenth1 and Massive. Both have outstanding synthesis capabilities.

We ask everyone this question, so finally, if you had to listen to one artist on repeat for 24 hours – who would it be?

Definitely Hiroyuki Oda. He’s one of my favorite artists. That or Smith & Pledger. Both make outstanding trance.

Thanks Falcon! Whereabouts can we find you online?

Anytime! You can catch me below via these links:

https://www.facebook.com/FalconTranceMusic

https://soundcloud.com/falcontrancemusic

https://twitter.com/falcon_trance