At the risk of starting up an opinion bun fight here but this question seems relevant when considering a Production career and when you have both the techniques and liking of multiple styles. My primary passions are Progressive House and Trance, but I also enjoy a bit of Tribal and Tech House and I also adore Deep house (when its not too minimal!). Techno, Dub Step, Electro etc are not my bag at all.
Reading a few posts here there seems to be a general view that styles like Trance are more difficult technically than say minimal Techno or Deep House. I’m left wondering whether I should consider pushing my Deep House output first and build my capabilities.
Would be interested to hear opinons on this - and please no style bun fights! I respect all styles of Dance Music…except for Techno which is of course rubbish! Just kidding Techno Heads 
The style of music you are trying to make seems harder than styles that you don’t want to make.
I’ll think you would find its only one trance fascist who thinks techno is not hard to make :D:P;)
But to answer your question - why take the easy root - make music that you enjoy, it will give you more satisfaction in the long run plus you will be able to sell it with passion.
Plus I think its easy for labels (of any creed) to spot someone who is just knocking tracks out to get signed
The Guru has spoken 
Whats harder to make: Sh!t or Diamonds?
Apply that to any genre.
I think its more an overall production ability, than genre.
Sure, you are gonna get “Idea’s Vs. Technique”, somewhere down the line in this Thread, but in reality - its a combination of both.
I dont even know the difference between all these genres or subgenres… Its all Dance music to me… I guess im getting old…
Some interesting thoughts. I’m not really sure how its actually possible to define “difficulty” in this context - is it all or any of the following -
Number of Discrete Channels or Effects
Phrase Frequency
Chord Complexity
etc
All the above are certainly different for each style (or rather, the style defines these and other parameters). The latest “mega” Peak Time Trance tutorial here would tend to suggest that this genre is “more” difficult to create a diamond than others just because the style needs more time / craft in pulling together all the different elements so its not clashing.
With all due respect, I think your missing the point as each genre or style has it difficulties even Gabba - there is no such thing as an easy fix - you need to learn what you’ve gotta learn only then things will get easier
But any true artist worth their salt is always wanting to improve
In answer to the original post question: no.
In answer to the original post question: yes.
Fundamentally its very important that you believe in what yur doing & your soul
totally agrees with it… this will no doubt come across in your productions…
On the other hand, If you in the race to become the next Deadmou or similar (financial success wise) well then you need to do some technique production research marketing… then you’ll have to globe trot like a maniac sporting a elephants head or something similar. Could call yourself ‘live elephant’
*your in the right place if you need to brush up on your production skills…
I like what ICN & slender said…
“make music that you enjoy, it will give you more satisfaction in the long run plus you will be able to sell it with passion.”
Peace
yah I was gunna stay away from this thread…
but i got suckered in here… sooooo
to say your not interested in dubstep + electro is 1 thing. not gunna argue taste…
but to jump to the conclusion that trance is the hardest genre is another entirely…
I think all of this hard versus easy talk goes to “what are you good at”… For me I can say that I am good at playing instruments, so I have an easier time at coming up with a melody. Compared to a guy like howie, I am a novice when it comes to synthesis. But I can still make a lot of the sounds that I want, yet I have to spend much more time on getting my sounds to gel than coming up with the riffs. To me getting cool sounds playing together without sounding like crap is the hardest thing to do.
IF you have that mindset… then certain styles like Dubstep or Electro are more difficult then say trance or progressive house. By far in my opinion Dubstep + Electro are the hardest of all the genres to do properly. Trance usually has big long riffs/melodies that usually arrive in 4, 8, 16 and 32 bar riffs and the riffs usually stay the same almost the whole track. Same with Prog House. It’s easier to arrange a track out in say 4 bar measures then to say write a track on a 1/4 or 1/8 note beat grid. When you are making an electro track or dubstep track that requires you to zone in on 2 quarter notes in each 1 bar loop and 1/16 note and 1/8th note in each 1 bar loop you will find yourself spending countless hours trying to perfect sounds within a very very small time span.
Also compare this to the # of sounds a dubstep or electro track might have. I’m working on a trance track thats about 75% done right now and it has about 40 audio/midi track channels. I’m also working on an electro track thats about 80% done and has over 100 audio/midi track channels. This is obviously not 100% for everybody, but I can definitely get 30 sounds done before I can get 100 sounds done…
In the end all of this goes back to what ICN said…
“Whats harder to make: Sh!t or Diamonds?”
I could make a **** track for any genre in 12 hours. Most of the guys on this forum could as well.
Or I could spend 100-300 hours producing a track and get a much more quality track.
Musically id say trance/main room house are the hardest, simple because your dealing with keys scales, arpeggios, chordproggressions etc not just random bleeps over a 4/4 beat…
I think its been said that psytrance is the hardest edm style to make engineering wise
[quote]Darthbrooklyn (22/03/2011)[hr]I dont even know the difference between all these genres or subgenres… Its all Dance music to me… I guess im getting old…[/quote]
OMG!! there’s a huge difference!! you see…
techno is not so good!!!
trance is great!! jus kiddin!!!:P:D
[quote]jjdejong0 (22/03/2011)[hr]Musically id say trance/main room house are the hardest, simple because your dealing with keys scales, arpeggios, chordproggressions etc not just random bleeps over a 4/4 beat…
I think its been said that psytrance is the hardest edm style to make engineering wise[/quote]
the fact that you describe any other style of music besides house & trance to be random bleeps over a 4/4 beat makes me think that you probably are not the best person to listen 2.
you deal with ALL music theory in ALL genres.
otherwise your basically saying music theory doesn’t apply to music except house & trance.
i know 4 a fact that is definitely not the case.
PS. what do you know about PsyTrance when you told me you never heard of Infected Mushroom?
Psytrance might have USED to be the hardest 2 make. Dubstep has taken over that award.
Well when I think of psytrance I think of people like John 00 Fleming, Digital Blonde etc. Im not saying only trance and house is musical just saying theres alot of edm out there that really is just random often very unmusical bleeps over a kick. Trance is based on CHORD PROGRESSIONS ie music. Also I have heard of Infected Mushroom I was just trying to make a point.
Please dont ever try to doubt my musical knowledge because I really have heard alot, all styles not just electronic. Willdaniel also makes a very valid point…
Just to prove this point lets look at some SA tutorials, take a look at the mainroom house series and the techno series. For the main room house Phil goes through alot pf **** just getting a chord progression down and eventually has to get a musician in to tidy it up, for the techno tutorial he throws keys into a pan and records it… You tell me which is more difficult…
music is a very personal thing and anyone of us would defend our opinions to the death.
what takes one person 100 hours to produce may take someone else 10
what one persons considers crap someone else may consider gold
IMO I’m not sure why you would produce a genre you don’t like or listen to
does it take longer to produce country music or happy hardcore? I don’t know cause I ***** hate both and don’t listen to them so I would never produce them even if it turned me into a billionaire globe trotter DJ/producer.
I don’t think it matters if your brushing your teeth or making the next big room killer OF COURSE SOMETHINGS ARE EASIER THEN OTHERS and I know some people who have a hard time brushing their teeth