How to Make Progressive Trance + Community Launch | Live Electronic Music Tutorial #365

How to Make Progressive Trance in Logic Pro X — A Real-Time Production Walkthrough

In episode 365 of the Live Electronic Music Tutorial series, the producer behind Progressive Grooves Records builds a complete progressive trance idea from scratch in real time using nothing but Logic Pro X’s own synths and stock plugins. The goal is a 130 BPM groove that sits right between progressive house and trance — melodic, techy and original. Here’s how the track comes together, layer by layer.

What you’ll learn

• How to lay down a pattern fast without obsessing over perfection
• Building a punchy, metallic bass from an Alchemy patch and octave-shifting it
• Using sidechain compression to lock the bass to the kick
• Enriching low end with Logic’s Subbass and Bass Booster, plus shaping with delay and decay
• Layering pads, bells, plucks and a lead to build a full arrangement
• A clever reverb trick: sidechaining the reverb return to the kick so the room never swallows the mix

1. Start with a simple beat and an honest first pattern

The session kicks off with a basic drum kit pattern just to set the groove. The key mindset: input the pattern without trying to make it perfect. The biggest mistake most producers make is chasing the final result immediately — even a composer of 40 years takes time to arrive at the finished idea. Get something down, then refine.

2. Lay down the bass and shift it down in octaves

The bass comes from a custom Alchemy synth patch with a metallic, edgy character. After playing in a pattern and tidying up the note velocities, a small click at the start is simply dropped. Then the whole part is selected (Ctrl+A) and shifted down an octave — then another, and another — until it sits deep and powerful in the background. The result is described as a bit like a Moog baseline but with more noise and grit.

3. Sidechain the bass to the kick

To make the bass and kick interact properly, a compressor is dropped on the bass with the kick set as the sidechain source at a 4:1 ratio. The compression isn’t pushed too hard — just enough to feel the pumping movement — with the mix dialed in until the bass breathes around the kick rather than fighting it.

4. Reinforce and refine the low end

To add weight, Logic’s Subbass plugin brings instant low-end body, and a Bass Booster adds extra edge to the metallic tone. Back inside Alchemy, the producer tames excess noise, keeps the delay wide but drier so it adds space without hiss, then increases the decay and drops the release to shape how the bass note rings out. The whole session stays on Logic stock plugins — fewer plugins, easier mixing.

5. Drop a pad to enrich the harmony

With the bass as the dominant element, a pad is added next to make things richer. A simple chord progression is recorded in, then high-pass filtered to cut most of the lows so it doesn’t muddy the bass while keeping some presence. The principle: one element should dominate — here the bass groove — and everything layered after it is there to decorate, not compete.

6. Get creative with the chords: bells, plucks and groove

Using the same chords from the pad, the producer builds an arpeggiated sequence and auditions sounds for it, landing on a bright mallet-style tone for swirling bells that become a main theme. A groovy plucked part is added next, quantized to lock it on beat, with some bass character borrowed into it to complement the bells and push the groove forward.

7. The reverb sidechain trick

A send bus feeds Logic’s Silver reverb set to a big, dense space. The clever move: a compressor on the reverb’s output is sidechained to the kick, so every time the kick hits, the reverb tail ducks. This stops the large room from swallowing the mix. A touch of the pad is sent in as well to add density.

8. Record the main lead

With the pad and bells tamed back, the lead goes on top with its own reverb plus a second bus running a simple stereo delay. The producer hunts for overlapping notes that create a nice slide between keys, adds a sidechain for dimension, and tries an inverted melody. Two favorite lead sounds are routed into a shared bus and glued with an intense compressor and a little distortion. Finally, filter automation opens the part up — with a reminder to switch off automation Touch mode so existing moves aren’t accidentally overwritten.

Get the project file: The full Logic Pro X progressive template used in this episode — built entirely with Logic’s own synths and plugins — is available to download. Download the template →