How to Make Deep Melodic Breakbeats | Anjunadeep & Purified | Live Electronic Music Tutorial #348

How to Make Deep Melodic Breakbeats in Logic Pro — A Real-Time Production Walkthrough

In episode 348 of our live electronic music tutorials, Mikas returns from a break to build a deep melodic breakbeat track from scratch, in real time. Inspired by the lush, Anjunadeep- and Purified-style soundscapes, the idea is to take the warmth of deep, progressive, melodic house but swap the steady four-on-the-floor for a broken, swung breakbeat groove. Everything is built live in Logic Pro — synths, bass, drums, pads and leads — so you can follow the same workflow in your own DAW.

What you’ll learn

• How to start a deep melodic breakbeat from a single synth idea instead of chasing perfection
• Building a breakbeat groove with Drum Machine Designer and editing patterns by hand
• Recording and refining deep bass keys with Alchemy, then layering for more dimension
• Using a big-room reverb and sends to give synths space and atmosphere
• Sculpting parts with high-pass filtering so each layer sits in its own frequency range
• Adding pads, a brassy lead and percussion to create movement and an evolving arrangement

1. Start with a single synth and a starting point

Mikas opens a channel with a synth patch and shares a core piece of coaching advice: you need a starting point. Chasing perfection from the first note will stop you finishing tracks — music is about inspiration and ideas, and most imperfect music feels better than something sterile and over-corrected. He plays with the pad and pitch settings and lets a rough idea get him moving rather than waiting for the perfect one.

2. Give the synth space with a big-room reverb

To set the mood, he routes the synth to a send bus and reaches for Silver Verb, one of his favourite reverbs, with a large-room preset and a long decay. The goal is to feel like he’s working in a gigantic room — it gives the sound air and space to breathe from the very first idea.

3. Record deep bass keys with Alchemy

Next he opens a fresh Alchemy channel for the bass, browsing presets almost at random until one feels right, then playing in a bass sequence that follows the flow of the track. He keeps an eye on timing, nudging notes that land in the wrong place. Rather than overthink the part, he commits to a sequence he likes and moves on, knowing he can refine it later.

4. Enhance and re-tweak the bass for more dimension

To add richness, Mikas duplicates the bass and experiments. His strategy is to keep the original intact — the idea is good — while tweaking a duplicate channel to try to beat it. One buzzier preset wins out, and he plays with the filter attack to open the sound up. He also layers a brassy sound behind the bass to add variation and make it feel fuller.

5. Program the breakbeat in Drum Machine Designer

With the harmonic ideas down, he loads Drum Machine Designer and picks a breakbeat- or techno-leaning kit (he often reaches for a 909-style kit). He makes the beat half-time to change the feel, and after the quantize doesn’t do what he wants, he programs the pattern by hand — placing the kick, dropping it to the root key, and tucking a snare underneath purely as support rather than a backbeat. A few seconds of broken drums completely transforms the track.

6. Build the groove with percussion and hi-hats

To drive the track forward he adds hats over the broken kick and snare: an open hat for momentum plus quick, sharp closed hats rolling in the background to create a swirly, swinging groove. He fills most of the space around the open hat, then brings the snare back in. The aim is a groove that feels alive and pushes the track, even before the mix is dialled in.

7. Add chords, evolving pads and a brassy lead

Mikas doubles his keys into a quick chord and browses pad presets, settling on a trippy, Juno-style deep pad. He stretches the chord regions into longer progressions so the pads have time to open and evolve, then high-passes them to cut the lows and keep them airy at the top. Over that he records a brassy lead, cutting the low end so it shines through, and uses Delay Designer for an advanced delay treatment that gives it character.

8. Layer textures, toms and an intro bass variation

To finish, he adds texture layers and bonus melodic parts, programs toms and tambourines on the root key for depth, and builds a stripped-back intro — retriggering a single bass note each beat with a touch of reverb for a chunky, low-key opener. He then shows how the arrangement progresses by muting and combining parts: bass and drums alone, then pads, brass and the filtered top melody layered back in — a rich, evolving breakbeat built one decision at a time.

Want to build it yourself? Mikas makes full templates for Logic Pro, Ableton Live and FL Studio from every episode. Download the template →