Adapted from another post where Richie V says that there is no bass in techno and I go 'waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaatttttt?!?!?!' :
i think the problem is that the way of listening to bass in trance is different than listening to bass in techno. much of the time in hard techno it's sub bass. i mean for me, this bass is so powerful. christ, we spend days programming sub bass lines and i can tell you by the end of a big session doing this my guts are feeling like they are coming out of my ass. there's also the one note style sub bass in techno that gives a slightly funkier feel. and this is just out and out groove. i love the way this type of bass works with drums. you have to look behind the kick drum for your bass in techno.
but the difference in trance (especially hard trance) is that it's a synth bass. so it stands out differently. it's in front of the kick drum. as an observer, you'd be justified in saying there's better 'bass' in trance. but there really isn't. trance basslines are often one note and offbeat and there's good reason for that - otherwise the whole track would be swamped by synth bass. mind you, i'm not saying trance bass isn't good - cause i've always really loved the hard trance (and now alot of the hardstlye too which is even more synth bass than ever before) and the way the off beat bass sits with the kick.
the beauty of techno is sub bass sits behind the kick drum. as a producer, you can do more with it. you can make more changes and varients and different things oscilllating different parameters. the sub bass note programming in techno is so much more complex than trance. yet the sound shaping is harder to do in trance.
my thoughts anyway. what the hell do i know. hehehehhe..