Get Your Dreamy Progressive Trance Logic Pro X Template:
How to Make Dreamy Progressive Trance in Logic Pro X — From Empty Project to Anjunabeats-Style Template
In Episode 360 of the Live Electronic Music Tutorials series, Mikas builds a dreamy progressive trance track from a completely empty Logic Pro X session, in real time. Inspired by labels like Anjunabeats, the goal isn’t a polished master — it’s capturing the creative flow: laying down ideas, picking sounds, and shaping a 130 BPM groove that sits between melodic techno and progressive trance. Everything is made with Logic’s internal instruments only, and the finished arrangement becomes a downloadable template.
What you’ll learn
- Programming a simple trance percussion foundation with Logic’s Drum Machine Designer
- Recording and quantizing MIDI chords in real time, then varying the pattern across sections
- Reusing your chord MIDI to build a rolling, floaty bassline
- Sidechain compressing the bass to the kick for that signature pumping action
- Using send effects — reverb and a stereo “circling” delay — to add space and movement
- Browsing and auditioning presets to land an atmospheric, dreamy mood for pads, arps and leads
1. Lay down the percussion foundation
Start at 130 BPM and build a basic kit in Drum Machine Designer — a simple kick, snare and hats — just enough to work over. Mikas auditions a couple of hi-hat samples before settling on one that fits his style, then nudges hits slightly off-grid and detunes a hat to add a little “zing” in the background. The point isn’t a perfect kit; it’s a foundation that lets the ideas flow.
2. Record MIDI chords in real time
With two-key chords, he plays in a few progressions live. After a slightly messy take (a ringing phone derails the timing), he re-records and keeps the parts that feel right — liking the first four hits of a pattern while dropping the last two. He copies the first phrase, then makes deliberate variations so the second and final sections aren’t identical, giving the loop a happy, summery vibe.
3. Quantize and arrange the chord patterns
Once the chords are recorded, he quantizes the MIDI to tighten timing, fixing notes that landed in the wrong place, and intentionally leaves the last section slightly different so the progression breathes rather than looping mechanically.
4. Build the bassline from the chord MIDI
Rather than starting fresh, Mikas reuses the chord patterns dropped down toward a bass register and makes them much more “rolly” — a fair number of hits to keep it floaty. He loads a melodic bass preset he built earlier in Alchemy, which opens with a nice riff pattern, and keeps that rolling motion as the backbone of the low end.
5. Sidechain the bass to the kick
To get the genre’s essential pump, he drops a compressor on the bass and sidechains it to the kick channel. When the kick hits, the bass ducks out of the way, creating the pumping action that’s so important in electronic music. He notes he’ll later shape the Alchemy bass and add sub low-end — something he can program but can’t fully mix on headphones alone.
6. Add stabs, delay and reverb sends for dimension
Going back to keys, he browses presets for stabby, plucky parts and shapes them with the filter cutoff. He sets up a stereo delay send for a circling effect and a reverb bus, then cuts the low frequencies on the delayed signal so it doesn’t muddy the mix. A practical tip: name your sends carefully, because reusing the same send makes it easy to lose track of which instance is which.
7. Record an arp for movement
To add motion, he records a short arpeggiated MIDI part, quantizes it, and trims it to just the notes he wants. He then re-browses presets — his habit of swapping a sound to see if something better turns up in a couple of minutes — and feeds the arp through the existing delay so it spins around the stereo field.
8. Create a pad, then track the lead (and watch the CPU)
Using the main chord keys, he builds a simple pad and adds a variation a few semitones up, auditioning synth presets until one layers nicely before rolling off its low end where it clashes. Finally he records the lead — the part he considers essential — editing the MIDI, fixing alignment and taming a slightly distorted, heavily detuned tone with a touch less reverb. By now his Mac is maxing out, with one heavy pad eating most of the CPU — a reminder that complex internal instruments demand real processing power.
Get the project file: Want to deconstruct this track and practice at your own pace? Grab the full Logic Pro X session — 130 BPM, key of F, 11 MIDI instrument channels, 7 drum channels, send FX busses and a mastering chain, all with no external plugins. Download the template →
