Are you ready to take your music production skills to the next level and create spacey progressive house music? Look no further than this Live Electronic Music Tutorial! Join the expert musician as he walks you through his process for producing a captivating spacey progressive house track from start to finish.
In this tutorial, you'll learn how to lay down a solid foundation with basic drums and a driving bassline. Discover how to design and mix the perfect bass sound using Logic Pro Alchemy synth, and make it hit hard! Then, add accent synths to enhance the spacey vibe and use Send FX to keep the theme consistent.
As the track builds, you'll learn how to compose, design, and mix a pad layer, adding depth and texture to the sound. Explore how to add dimension with a vocal sample and create a simple chord progression with a hit sequence.
But that's not all - experiment with different sounds and patterns, and record a main top lead to bring the track to new heights. Finally, learn how to arrange the lead keys and add the finishing touches to your spacey progressive house masterpiece.
So, whether you're a beginner or a seasoned music producer, this tutorial is perfect for anyone looking to elevate their skills and produce some out-of-this-world spacey progressive house music. May the sounds be with you!
Chapters
0:00 Blast off into the world of spacey progressive house as we introduce you to the unique process behind our tutorial.
1:55 Get ready to groove to the beat as we give you an overview of the basic drums that will lay the foundation for our track.
2:52 We're taking it up a notch with a driving and unforgettable progressive house bassline that will make your listeners want to get up and dance.
4:00 Step into the studio and learn how to design and mix the perfect bass sound using the powerful Logic Pro Alchemy synth. Get ready, because the final bass hits HARD!
6:22 The party isn't complete without some killer accent synths. Learn how to create them and keep the spacey prog house vibe going strong.
9:45 Take your music to another dimension as we explore how to use Send FX to create a consistent and captivating sound that will transport your listeners to another world.
12:25 It's time to get creative and start composing, designing, and mixing a pad layer that will add depth and texture to your track.
18:02 Add a unique touch to your music by experimenting with vocal samples and learn how to create a sound that will take your music to the next level.
20:27 Build up the energy and excitement with a simple chord progression and a hit sequence that will keep your listeners engaged and on the edge of their seats.
23:35 We're not done experimenting yet! Discover how to create different sounds with the same pattern, and keep your track fresh and exciting.
27:08 Take center stage as we teach you how to record a main top lead that will elevate your music to new heights and have your listeners begging for more.
28:23 You've got the lead, now learn how to arrange your keys and add the finishing touches that will make your track unforgettable.
31:25 Our journey has come to an end, but not before we share some final thoughts and tips on how to keep the spacey progressive house vibe going strong.
How to Make Spacey Progressive House Like Guy J & Hernán Cattaneo in Logic Pro
In this Live Electronic Music Tutorial (Episode #323), Mikas builds a spacey progressive house track from scratch in real time inside Logic Pro — no pre-made presets, just composition, sound design and engineering happening live. The goal is a deep, evolving, slightly aerial prog house track in the spirit of the Global Underground era, and every element becomes a downloadable project template you can open and study yourself.
What you’ll learn
- Programming a driving progressive house bassline and tightening it with quantization
- Designing a bass patch in Logic’s Alchemy using oscillator shapes, the filter envelope and cutoff
- Sidechain-compressing elements to the kick so the groove stays forward
- Building a shared reverb send — including sidechaining and EQing the reverb return
- Layering accent synths, pads, vocal textures and chords across octaves
- Recording a main top lead and roughing out a full three-minute arrangement
1. Lay the foundation with drums and reference monitoring
Mikas starts with percussion he sketched just before the session — a MIDI kick, snare, hi-hats and open hats, all written around C sharp so the whole episode lives in a sharp (black-key) mode. He also monitors through Sonarworks SoundID Reference, with separate calibration profiles for headphones and speakers, and disables the “safe headroom” option because he prefers to manage his own headroom.
2. Program a driving progressive house bassline
Next comes the bass, which Mikas calls the most important element of the track. He plays in a pattern he’d been working out in his head, then quantizes it to lock it to the grid and get the tight, classic prog-house feel he’s after. The idea is rhythmic and propulsive rather than melodic — the engine that carries everything above it.
3. Design the bass sound in Alchemy
The bass runs through a basic Alchemy patch that Mikas reshapes by hand. He decides the reverb on it isn’t helping, then dials the filter envelope and cutoff — noting that no filter movement at all is “a bit boring.” Blending the saw, square and sine oscillator shapes, he settles on a fuller, square-leaning tone with more character, and adds a touch of delay for groove.
4. Sidechain to the kick for groove
To keep the rhythm driving forward, Mikas drops a compressor on the bass and sidechains it to the kick. His reasoning: electronic music is rhythmic, so you want the kick to dominate slightly and the other elements to breathe around it. Without the sidechain the track feels flat; with it, the groove gains noticeably more impact and movement.
5. Build accent synths across octaves
He duplicates the channel and pushes it up an octave to work in a higher register, lengthening notes in case there’s usable material, and auditions a brass-style sound. Jumping up another octave, he alternates between two articulations to create call-and-response accents that suit the spacey theme — small hits and stabs that add interest without crowding the mix.
6. Set up a shared reverb send
Mikas creates an empty bus channel and loads a big reverb (a Silververb-style plate set to a grandiose, full setting) so multiple sounds can share one consistent space. His key trick is sidechaining the reverb return: he cranks the compressor ratio to around 6 so the tail ducks under the music, then EQs out the lows around 200 Hz so residual big-room reverb doesn’t muddy the track. He sends the accent sound and a basic Alchemy motion pad into it.
7. Compose pads, vocals and a chord progression
Working composition first, then sound design, then engineering, Mikas writes a pad part using a deliberately basic patch — his point being that making simple sounds work well beats relying on fancy presets. He adds unison movement and his compressor, experiments with spacey vocal samples and effects (keeping the ones that feel suitably atmospheric), then writes a simple chord progression and a hit sequence, cutting the lows around 200 Hz to remove excess body.
8. Record the main lead and rough the arrangement
To explore further without losing his first idea, he duplicates the part and tries an alternate version, keeping whichever wins. He extends the secondary ruler out to roughly three minutes — the length the finished template will be — and records a main top lead. Even a simple lead, he notes, transforms the track. After a quick live mishap where his MIDI keyboard dropped out, he reconnects, adds pan motion, stereo width, a little more reverb and volume, and closes out the session with a complete idea ready to be refined into the final template.
Get the project file: Practice everything from this episode by downloading the full project for Logic Pro, Ableton Live and FL Studio, plus the sample pack. Download the template →
