One synth to rule them all?

[TweakHead]

Yes, I tend to agree with all that you've said here. But among all the sub genres of trance, there's more things in common then differences. The structure and basic grooves are more a less the same. And the effect it has on listeners is similar as well. There's also very emotional and melodic psychedelic trance out there. Actually, there's tons of sub genres which is kind of natural since this all started in the early 90s and it's still developing these days. There's room for a lot of different variations, but "building up for a release" is something that's shared across most electronic music in general - and even some pop tunes, that's recurring more and more to EDM vocabulary.

But yes, you'll rarely find a supersaw lead on psychedelic trance, whereas on other genres of trance there's a lot of that going on, and more warm pads and stuff like that. The squelchy, acid sounds is more a characteristic of psychedelic music - and playing with generously applied effects is also a big factor. That is one of the reasons a synthesizer like the Virus which integrates the fx section so well - having its parameters available as destinations - is very popular for these genres.

Probably for anthem trance, people lust after the Roland sound, like the Juno JP8080, right? Not that I wouldn't love to have one. BTW, see them going for fairly reasonable prices in my country in mint condition. Has anyone here tried one? I think that's a very nice machine with the unmistakable Roland sound - and the original supersaw waves of course.

Also, don't know how the hypersaw on the Virus can live up to replace that, since I have the C. There's tons of plug-ins that can do it fairly well nowadays. Lush 101 is one of the best, Zeta +1 is another, but there's plenty more, like Zebra can make that kind of Lead very well, no?