Actually the title should say ‘How to make a beat that can be used in a progressive trance’ because the drum beat by itself doesn’t necessarily determine the genre. This kind of beat could very well be used in a uplifting trance or house music as well. Anyway, in this tutorial I will show you how I make a beat which you can typically hear in those modern progressive trance songs.
Here’s the beat:
Article Assets
Downloads the 2 FLP projects below for FREE and follow along with this tutorial!
I’m going kinda in-depth with all the eq and volume settings – keep in mind that they will work with the sample material I’m using, but not probably staright with the samples you’re using. However, I hope this tutorial will give you an the direction to make your own progressive trance beats.
Alrighty. First of all, creating a nice sounding trance beat (or ANY beat in that matter) starts from choosing a right combination of a good quality samples.
Choosing The Drum Samples
In electronic dance music, well produced drum beat is like 70-80% of the whole song and to be able to create such a beat, it’s ESSENTIAL to select a good samples. And I don’t just mean that they’re good in terms of bitrates and such, but also that they fit together.
So, I start by finding a nice and punchy kick. Some people like to layer two kickdrums together, but this requires some filtering in order to make them to work together. I usually don’t layer kickdrums. I have a wide range of kicks in my sample collection and 99% of cases I can find a one that works as is.
(If you’re interested on layering kicks here’s a quick guide: choose a kick with a nice top end ‘click’ and kick with a good low end ‘oomph’ and use high pass filter to cut the low end out of the ‘clicky’ kick and low pass filter to cut the high end out of the ‘oomph’ kick and mix the two together).
Trance beat needs a clap as well. With claps I do occasionally use layering so I’ll pick two different kind of claps (I’m also going to show you a little trick what you can do with claps) and a snare. All of these are going to be layered together for fuller sounding clap/snare combination.
Hihats are also essential for a good beat so I’ll choose a bunch of them as well. Closed hihats.
Choosing the right drum samples is really the key here. Finding a working combination is a bit of a trial & error, but after that, it’s mostly just fine tuning with volume levels and equalizers.
Okay. After listening a bunch of samples I found few good ones and first thing I do is I drop each sample to an empty Sampler channels in the Step Sequencer, rename the channels to keep things organized and assign each to it’s own free Mixer track.
Now, to the groove makin’!
Building The Beat
In progressive trance the tempo is usually around 130-135bpm so I’ll set the project tempo to 130bpm.
Next, I’ll extend the current pattern to 8 beats per bar. This is just because one of the samples will be used only once per bar and using standard 4 beats per bar pattern it would’ve been a bit too repetitive so I’ll just make it 8. Using longer patterns allows to create more complex sequences per pattern without the need to add new pattern for each variation.
Extending the pattern length is done by using that little box at the top left corner of the Step Sequencer: place the mouse cursor on that box, hold the left button and drag. I also rename the pattern to ‘Drums’ to keep things organized.
Now, I’ll just draw a steady four on the floor rhythm with the kick. That means a kick on steps 1, 5, 9, 13, 17, 21, 25 & 29.
As for kick mixer settings, I’ll leave it’s volume level to 0.0dB. That’s what I usually do – leaving the kick loudest and then mixing the other instrument so that they support the kick and wont compete with it. In dance music, kick should really stand out and therefore “Give power to the kick!” is a good rule of thumb when making beats.
Okay. Back to Step Sequencer and I’ll place the clap (‘Punchy clap’ ) to steps 5,13,21 & 29.
This particular clap sound requires to drop it’s volume level to -2.0dB – otherwise it would’ve been too dominant compared to kick. Also, I drop a Fruity Parametric EQ 2 (PEQ2) to it’s mixer track and using the high shelf filter I boost the 4.7kHz area and above about 2.2dB to give it a little clarity.
Next, I’m going to lay another clap with the ‘Punchy clap’. I call it the ‘Loose clap’ because it sounds loose and not so tight.
Now here’s the trick I mentioned: instead of using Step Sequencer for creating a sequence for the ‘Loose clap’, I go to it’s Piano Roll view and draw a short notes of C5 on spots 1:05:000, 1:13:000, 1:21:000 & 1:29:000. Then, I select all the notes, hold the ALT key to bypass the snapping and drag the notes a bit to left so that they start SLIGHTLY BEFORE the exact spot. So the first note starts at 1:04:018, second note 1:12:018, third note 1:20:018 and fourth note at 1:28:018. This makes the clap slightly out of sync with the kick and will make the claps section sound ‘fatter’. Neat little trick which usually works best with tiny or ‘loose’ claps.
I also drop the Mixer track volume level of the ‘Loose clap’ to -1.0dB.
I’m going to layer one more sound with the two claps: snare.
First, in the Step Sequencer I place it to steps 5, 13, 21 & 29.
Also, my ears tell me that I need to drop it’s volume level a bit so I’ll head to Mixer and bring its volume down to -2.3dB. The snare also requires equalization as it has too much life around the 150Hz area so I’ll drop a PEQ2 to it’s mixer track and using high pass filter and a steep curve I roll off everything below 180Hz. I also boost the 3kHz area by 1.8dB with a bandwidth of 40% using peaking filter to make it more audible through the layering.
Okay. The kick + claps section sounds pretty nice so far, but I will add a little ‘twist’ to the groove: I clone the snare, reverse it and create a reverse snare sequence that ‘leads’ to every second and fourth claps.
Cloning is done by right clicking on the snare channel (in the Step Sequencer) and choosing ‘Clone’. I’ll rename it to ‘Snare reverse’ and also assign it to a separate free mixer track because it may require a bit different volume settings than the original snare.
Next, I’ll reverse it. Reversing is done by opening the Channel settings and clicking ‘Reverse’ under the ‘Precomputed effects’.
Then I head to the Mixer and copy the PEQ2 settings used in the original snare mixer track to the ‘Snare reverse’ track. This is easily done by clicking the ‘FX slot options’ (in the original snare mixer track) and from the menu click-holding and dragging the ‘Save preset as…’ to the ‘Snare reverse’ mixer track. I also drop the ‘Snare reverse’ volume to -1.6dB.
Alright. Now, back to the Step Sequencer and I just place the ‘Snare reverse’ on steps 11 and 27. This’ll create a nice ‘lead-in’ -effect to every second clap and makes the rhythm sound more interesting.
Ok. Then I move on to hihats.
I’ll start by placing the first closed hihat on steps 3, 11, 19 & 27.
This is otherwise a nice hihat sample, but somehow it has low end frequencies in it so I need to use eq. Again, I’ll add the PEQ2 and using high pass filter with quite gentle curve, I roll off stuff below 450Hz. Also, I’ll drop the volume level to -1.5dB.
Now, the second closed hihat: it goes to steps 7, 15, 23 & 31.
This hihat requires some tweaking as well as to my ears there’s just too much of high end in it so again with the PEQ2 and this time using low pass filter with a steep curve I’ll cut everything from 13kHz and above. Also, while listening it with the kick, claps and the first closed hihat, it sounded like it needed a boost on some frequency area to shine better through the mix so I experimented by boosting the 1.3kHz area about 3.3dB with a bandwidth of 30-40% and it sounded better. I’ll also drop it’s volume level to -2.0dB and now it sounds perfect.
Next the third closed hihat. I drop it on steps 4, 8, 12, 16, 20, 24, 28 & 32.
This hihat won’t require any equalizing. I’ll just drop its volume level to -2.0dB and it’s done.
One more hihat. I’ll place it on step 31.
This one requires eq’ing so by using PEQ2 I’ll cut everything below 400Hz using high pass filter with a steep curve. I also boost the 4kHz area by 2.6dB using peaking filter with a bandwidth of 24% and the 11.3kHz area and above by 10.4dB using high shelf filter. Also, I drop volume level to -9.5dB and it sits nicely in the mix.
This is how the whole drum pattern sounds like:
Drums are complete and we are ready to move on to the bass!
The Bassline
For the bass, I will use 3xOsc so first thing to do is to load it, rename the channel to ‘Bass’ and assign it to a free mixer track.
Now to programming right kind of bass sound.
I want a short and percussive, ‘rubber’ type of saw bass sound so I’ll start by choosing a saw wave as the oscillator shape for each three oscillators. I’ll set the coarse tune to -24 semitones on each oscillators.
Next some envelope tweaking. Under the INS -tab and VOL -sub-tab I’ll enable the volume envelope. I set the attack to 0 (all the way to left), hold to 1/4 (I dont know the value in milliseconds) , decay to halfway, sustain level to 0 (all the way to left), and release to 0 (all the way to left).
I need filter envelope as well so I head to the CUT -sub-tab and enable the filter envelope. The filter envelope is what I use to control the cutoff frequency and this allows me to make the bass sound percussive and rubber’ish.
So, I’ll start by setting the attack to near 1/4, hold a little bit above 1/4, decay to 0 (all the way to left), sustain all the way to right and release 1/4. Modulation amount I set to 1/4. And final touch: under the ‘Filter’ I turn the filter cutoff frequency (MODX -knob) to a position that is almost to it’s fullest, but not entirely (hard to explain in words so just check the pic).
Okay. Now some effects to give it more ‘beef’: I’ll drop a Soundgoodizer with ‘semi-extreme’ settings to the fx slot and also a PEQ2 and using peaking filter I’ll boost the 60Hz area by 3.2dB with 25% bandwidth and using high shelf filter I tame the frequencies of 2.7kHz and above by -4.7dB to make it sit better with the drums. Volume I drop to -1.5dB.
The bass sound is ready and now I’ll create the bass sequence.
I’ll start by creating a new pattern to the Playlist (keyboard shortcut is F4), renaming it to ‘Bass’ and opening the Piano Roll -view I’ll create a very simple bassline sequence shown in the pic below:
Ok. The sequence of the Bass sounds pretty good however it’s causing a bit of a problem by overlapping with the kick as they are pretty much on the same frequency range so I’ll use sidechain compression to make it work better with the kick and to add a neat pumping effect to the groove. So, I start by going to Mixer and clicking on Kick mixer track and then right click that little up-arrow icon on the Bass mixer track and choose ‘Sidechain to this track’.
Then I go to the Bass mixer track and drop a Fruity Limiter to it’s fx slot. I’ll set the ‘Target’ as Compressor, ‘Sidechain input number’ to 1, Threshold to -38.1dB, Ratio to 2.4:1, Attack to 0.30ms and Release to 88.0ms. Using these settings makes the bass volume drop when the kick triggers in and then rising back again little just before the next kick. This’ll make a nice ‘bouncing’ feel to the bassline and groove.
Bassline is done and it seems to work nicely together with the kick.
For a working EDM groove, it is REALLY important to make the kick and bass work together. To make it so, you need a right combination of kick sample, bass sound, bass sequence, sidechain compression and equalization. Not an easy task yeah, but very important for the whole song.
At this point I extend the beat & bass patterns in the Playlist and export the mix to MP3, copy it to USB stick and go and test it in my car stereos (I have a standard car stereo system – no subwoofers or anything fancy) and compare it to some commercial trance songs. It’s a good practice to test and compare the mix to commercial songs through a different speaker systems to hear what needs to be tweaked (if any). Having a subwoofer in studio is also not a bad idea.
Ok. The testing revealed that there’s too much low end in the bassline.
So, back to mixing desk and I add another instance of PEQ2 to the Bass mixer track and using low shelf filter I drop the 30Hz area by -18.0dB with a bandwidth of 76%.
Testing again in my car stereos and it sounds better so I let it be.
This is the end result:
Okay. Next, to the melody.
The Melody
I already have a rough idea for the kind of melody I’m planning to create: simple staccato chord melody so I need a certain type of lead sound for that.
For the sound, I’ll be using one of my favourite VST synths, the TAL-NoiseMaker (which is FREE). I just add an instance of NoiseMaker to the project and assign it to a free mixer track (renaming it as ‘Staccato chord’) and I’ll start searching the sound by browsing through the presets and the one called ‘LD Crystal Lead TAL’ is exactly what I’m looking for. I’ll just decrease the Filter Cutoff to make it sound a bit more ‘closed’ and I’m ready to go.
I’ll add a new pattern to the Playlist, rename it to ‘Staccato chord’ and open the NoiseMakers Piano Roll -view and start creating the melody. I’ll use the bassline as the basis for the staccato chords (that’s how I usually compose my melodies) so I simply use the A as the root note for the chords.
I create a simple 4 bar staccato chord loop.
This is a very typical element in modern trance. Yes, it’s nothing unique, but I’m just using it as a example.
Okay. The sound needs a bit tweaking so I’ll go to the ‘Staccato chord’ mixer track and add a Fruity Delay 2 and Fruity Reeverb 2 to the fx slot to add a bit of dense and etheric feel to the sound. I also widen the stereo image a bit using the ‘Stereo separation’ -knob by turning it to 58% separated.
Also, some equalizing is required so I’ll drop in a PEQ2 as well and using high pass filter and steep curve I cut everything below 120Hz just to make sure it isn’t messing with the bass. I also boost the high end to a add a little brightness so using high shelf filter I boost the 8.5kHz area and above by 7.6dB.
And finally, I drop the mixer track volume to -3.1dB and it seems to sit nicely with the beat & bass:
Okay. Next I’m going to create a simple tension build up with the staccato chord using filter cutoff automation.
Simple Tension Build Up
First I’ll just extend the beat, bass & staccato chord patterns all the way to bar 21 by using copy/paste.
Now, I’ll open the NoiseMaker, activate the ‘Multilink to controllers’ in the FL Studio Transport panel and move the Cutoff -knob under the ‘Filter’ section of the NoiseMaker. Then I just right click on the ‘Multilink to controllers’ -button and choose ‘Create automation clip’ from the menu. This’ll create automation clip for the filter cutoff parameter to the Playlist.
Alright. Back to the Playlist editing the automation clip. I’ll just draw a simple ‘rising’ envelope curve (shown below) for building up the tension:
And this is how it sounds:
Works!
Filter cutoff sweep is one of the most basic yet effective ways to build up tension.
To make it even more effective I’m going to add in a white noise sweep.
White Noise Sweep For Boosting The Tension Build Up
I’ll add a new instance 3xOsc to the project, rename it as ‘Sweep in’ and choose noise as the oscillator shape for each three oscillators.
Now, I want to make the white noise sweep to sound fairly ‘thin’ which is common (at least in my opinion) in progressive trance so I’ll assign the ‘Sweep in’ to a free mixer track and drop a PEQ2 to it’s fx slot and using low shelf filter I roll off frequencies of 1.5kHz and below using -18.0dB cut with a pretty gentle curve and I also boost the high end a bit for more ‘hiss’ using high shelf filter and raising the 9.3kHz area and above by 2.0dB.
For the sweeping effect, I’ll add another instance of PEQ2 to ‘Sweep in’ mixer track. I’ll choose the low pass filter with a steep curve and bandwidth of 54%. I’ll set the frequency to 1.4kHz (that will be the starting frequency for the sweep) and right click on the frequency controller knob and choose ‘Create automation clip’ and new automation clip will be created to the Playlist.
I also drop the track volume to -5.0dB.
Okay. Now I head to the Playlist, add a new pattern, rename it to ‘Sweep in’ and open the Piano Roll -view and draw a 9 bars long C5 note.
In the Playlist, I place the ‘sweep pattern’ so that it ends to the same point where the staccato chord filter build up ends and edit the PEQ2 automation envelope so that it ‘opens’ the filter fully to the point where also the ‘Staccato chord’ build up ends. Check the pic:
I’m not done yet. What’s common in modern trance sound is that the white noise sweep ‘ducks’ in sync with the kick drum so I just sidechain compress the ‘Sweep in’ with the kick and pretty much use the same compression settings as I did when I sidechained the Bass.
Okay. This is how the tension build up sounds with the white noise sweep:
Not bad.
However, I wan’t the final drum pattern bar before the tension drops to have the kick muted while keeping the sidechain pumping active in the white noise sweep and bassline.
So, I’ll go to the Mixer, click on the ‘Kick’ mixer track to make it active and right click on that little ‘To Master’ -volume knob that is on about halfway of the Master mixer track and choose ‘Create automation clip’ from the menu. This way we can use automation to drop the kick drums volume send to master track to zero. This’ll mute the kick even though it’s still triggering which’ll keep the sidechain compression alive.
So now, I’ll head to the Playlist and edit the ‘To Master’ -autiomation envelope so that there’s a sharp drop during the last bar before the tension drops. Check the pic below and listen the audio:
Yep. Just what I wanted. Kick is muted, but the sidechain is active.
Okay. One last element is adding a sidechained white noise downlifter after the tension drops.
I’ll just add one more instance of 3xOsc, rename it to ‘Sweep out’ and again choose white noise as oscillator shape for each three oscillators. I’ll assign it to a free mixer track and copy the two instances of PEQ2 from the ‘Sweep in’ -track, but I’ll use slightly different settings with both of PEQ2’s. With the first PEQ2 I’ll cut frequencies of 2.6kHz and below using low shelf filter (this’ll make the noise even more thinner) and boost 16.7kHz area by 2.0dB using high shelf filter.
Then, opening the second instance of PEQ2, I use low pass filter with a quite gentle curve (curve order 2), set the starting frequency to 20khz and then create automation clip for the low pass filter controller.
I also drop a Fruity Limiter to the fx slot for sidechain compression with the kick drum, and finally, drop the volume to -6.0dB.
Now I head to the Playlist, add a new pattern, open the Piano Roll -view of ‘Sweep out’ and create 9 bars long C5 note.
Then I head back to the Playlist and place the pattern to start at the point where the ‘Sweep in’ ends and edit the low pass filter automation envelope to look like this:
And we are ready! Now listen to the whole beat (I normalized the WAV):
That’s about it. I hope this tutorial gave you some ideas on how to make your own trance beats 🙂
Check the video version below:
I’m also sharing FL Studio project files for the beat. I have put up two versions: one which requires the TAL-NoiseMaker and the other where I have replaced the NoiseMaker with one of the FL Studio native plugins, WaspXT so no need to dl NoiseMaker.
160 Comments
Yea, it is great tutorial. Really good work. Thanks 🙂
Np! 🙂
Great post, really helpful, thanks!
thanks for checking it out!
Thank you very much for showing your musical knowledge Petri. Not many producers are willing to help this much, so I would like to show my gratitude!
I’m pleased to hear that, Ryden – thanks a lot! 🙂
I love your turtorial.
This sound worse than anything I have ever heard.
I would work with him any day. Why you gotta be so mean.
Kill Urself!! Jealous!
Big thanks from Russia Petri, very helpful! simple and plain.
Hey Timur! glad you found the tute useful!
I’m from Russia too, same as Timur. Thank you Petri for your great tutorials! Now a have learned, how to get from synth sound, that plays in my head. Thank you very much!
Thanks to Polish! Petri, you are good! Greetings!
Hello to Poland and thanks for checking the tut 8)
Thank you! Love your attention to details!
Thanks David!
THANK YOU SO MUCH PETRI!!!!
np, glad you’re enjoying it! 😀
Great tutorial
Another very good and comprehensive tutorial. Thanks (again!)
I’m working my way through them all, so forgive if I’ve missed it, but anything on vocoding?
Vocoding tutorial is actually somewhere in my to-do list 😉
THIS IS BETTER THAN GOLD THANK UUUU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
hehe, thanks Jose! 😀
wow man thanks! thanks to you i know now how to master songs a bit and now this, THIS is my inspiration, now working on new track one of my best so far (im only learning itermediate things now) this tutorial got me inspired, thanks again you dont even realize how greatful i am for showing this to world for FREE.
P.S. i live in small poor country and hell knows maybe one day i will be BIG i know i said it many times but thanks again Petri! 🙂
So glad to hear that 🙂 Good luck to your productions!
Thanks from New Zealand! I really enjoyed it and ended up making something similar, sounds really classy. Feel free to make more 🙂
Good to hear that thank you, I’ll try to put up some more pretty soon 😉
Hi, Petri!
Please accept my personal THX for this amazing FREE tutorial!
I’ve been studying FL Studio for about 2 years but besides knowledge of “how to use FL Studio” I had no idea how to get started with a right workflow!
Now it seems that I’ve got some basic knowledge of “how to make a good mix of all that sounds in my track” 🙂
Time to remake my cocktail of beats, basses, pads & synths!
P.S. Question to the current tutorial – what is a difference between creating of Automation Clip in usual way (right-clicking of a knob / fader) and creating of Automation Clip via right-clicking of “Multilink to Controllers” switch? Maybe the real thing is that NoiseMaker doesn’t have context menu for his knobs? But in this way I’m using “Last tweaked parameters” options in Tools menu.
THX for reply & best regards from Ukraine!
Hello Max, I’m happy to hear you’re diggin the tutorial, thanks alot!
To your question: It’s like you said – In third party plugins like NoiseMaker there’s no context menu for creating the automation clips straight by right clicking the parameter so the ‘Multilink to controllers’ switch can be used for that as well as the ‘Last tweaked parameters’ via the Tools menu. Both will do the same. I like to use the ‘Multilink to controllers’ as it’s a bit faster for creating automation clips than going to Tools menu. But there’s other usages for the ‘Multilink to controllers’ switch as well if you’re using MIDI keyboard and such (refer to the FL Studio manual for more details).
Anyway, good luck to your productions! 🙂
Petri, Hi again!
It’s great to get from you a fast & direct reply!!
Just wanted to say that you was absolutely right when have guessed that I’m using MIDI keyboard 🙂
I have M-AUDIO Axiom 49 & actually use quite a lot this amazing function ‘Multilink to controllers’ in case if I want to make a fast midi mapping of FL Studio’s ‘virtual’ Mixer faders to ‘real’ faders on my keyboard!
And yes, you’re right – ‘Multilink’ is more easy & faster than ‘Last Tweaked Parameters’ option!
P.S. Just’ve gotten info that FL Studio won a ‘Music Radar best DAW Poll contest’ – this means that I made right choice with favourite DAW 2 years ago! 😉 See you in Twitter, man! & THX again!
ok im having troubles getting your project files into FL studio i have it downloaded and everything but i just dont know how to transfer it to FL studio please help
doesn’t work here either – on older FL. Access violations – crash.
Hi, what FL Studio version are you using?
9.1
ah.. that’s the problem.. the project file is made with FLS 10…
Okay.. I’ll try to create a version with FLS 9.. hold on.
i have FLS 10 and i just don’t know how to get it in there like iv extracted everything and stuff but ‘were i’m stuck
😉
oookay.. I just installed FL 9.1 and it doesnt load as is.. first thing I would suggest you to do is to upgrade your FL to the latest version (10.0.8)… if that isn’t possible, I’ll check if I can re-work the project file to work with 9.1
Cheers!
well, don’t worry about redoing the project for my sake.
8)
Ohh… Thanks for tut!!
Nice staff)
Hey i have FL studio 10 but cant seem to make it work :/ what do yo udo after you download it?
Hey Christian, it’s .exe file and you need to install it first.
hi,i have a problem with the tal-makenoise,i downloaded it from the site you mentionned but when i put it in the folder generators,it didin’t work with fls,i got the following message “sorry but this plugin couldn’t be found or opened ” what i got to do?
Hi, make sure that you download the Windows version and not the OSX version. Also, try downloading the 32-bit version.
I have a question is this how you normally mix before you master? or are you mastering while you mix? do you do additional mastering after you render?
This is just the mixing of all the elements, the mastering will take place after the mix is rendered.
Great Tutorial Petri 🙂
Thanks Dean!
Yeah, I think the usual method is to master after rendering and that’s what I do as well.
Hey i cant do this tutorial because i have fruity loops 9, i have 10 but i dont want to do a fresh isntall. i have native instruments omnisphear. HUGE plugins that i really dont want to install all over again. is there anyway to upgrade overlapping 9?
Great! thanks for sharing your talents with us 🙂
np! 8)
my sidechains wont work on fruity loops 10
when i sidechain it makes my KICKS go SILENT
Hey Bryan, when you sidechain your kick mixer track to another track, remember to choose ‘Sidechain to this track‘ instead of ‘Sidechain to this track only’. Le me know if it helped.
No , if you want a good sidechain clone the kick/kicks [In the clone kick you put the same stuff like in the frist one ] , assign the cloned kick in mixer and sidechain it with the bassline etc . I hope it help 🙂
thx for tutorial and for samples 🙂 however i always have trouble doing bassline and master a track and i wanted to ask u if u have any tutorial about how to master a track . Thx and grettings from Sibiu , Romania
Hey there!
Have you checked my tutorial on How To Master A Song In FL Studio ? It might help you to get started.
ok i will check thx again 🙂
Hey, man, awesome tutorial! I’ve read through and used it a few times, trying to memorize the processes you use. I had to figure out how some of the steps would be done with Ableton Live, but you explain everything so clearly that for the most part, it works across DAWs. Now I just need to get some better drum samples haha. Anyway, I just wanted to thank you for the info!
Super! Thank you very much!
Gr8 thanx to Mr petri,i hav learned a lot 4rm ur tutorial b4 i thought i could never create an automation clip using VST’s that i had installed e.g TAL NOISE MAKER and others,i felt like u were here with me live while i was reading and doing ur instruction by the way a using Fl 9.0…thank u God bless!!!
Vince, I truly appreciate that, thank you! 🙂
I see you know the language of the FL Studio.
Great job, and thak you for sharing.
I tried to reproduce this beat but I could not because my samples from FL souds very different from yours.
It`s someone who know where I could enrich my samples collections ? (for free :)) )
Np, Alex!
Thank u 4 guiding teaching us to knw more abt trance music and may God bless u
thx!
Many Thanks I’ve been looking for this for a long time. Are you on face book?
no problem !
I dont have a personal profile on facebook, but I do have a page for this website.
Cheers !
This is a great tutorial. Trying to recreate this in cubase 5 studio (I don’t have FL) really forced me to dig deep and learn some new things.
Thanks!
Thanks for checking it and I’m glad to hear you’re applying the tips! 8)
Pretty Good?
hello! after i have watched this video version and also read through this article, i feel that iam a step further into music. thank you so much for putting this video online.it has much more information than i guess was needed.. once again thnx so much. is there any link to where i can download the insturments (kick,hats.clap and sanres used in this)??
Brilliant, thank you! 8)
If you check the bottom of the article, there’s download links for the FL Studio project files and they include the samples.
Cheers!
Please.. can you say me how to draw simple ‘rising’ envelope curve (shown below) for building up the tension: … i can’t do it.. and i don’t understand how… it doesn’t do how i shown in application… :((
oh.. now i understood… Just needed to off step and slide and make Hold.. 😀
I have done. This tutorial is the greatest of all i have seen. Many thanks to you for the great advice. It’s cool.
Hey Tomas, glad you got it sorted out! Also, thanks for checking the tutorial. Stay tuned for more 🙂
Hey Petri,
I tried recreating my own version of this exactly following your steps; however at measure 17 or whenever the “drop” comes after the 8 measures of buildup, the beat 1 on measure 17 does not happen, and it sounds awkward without any bass drum. It’s like the building up works then there is no beat 1 of the next measure. Have you gotten this problem? Or is it just me?
Kevin
Hey Kevin, I’ve noticed that sometimes when I mute a sound and then quickly bring it back again (using automation of course), the first beat (or step) may remain muted if that is exactly on the same position where the muting should go off. If this happens, I’ll edit the envelope so that the muting stops slightly before (step or two) the actual position.
Le me know if it worked.
Cheers!
Hello Petri!
I’v got a quick question. With the sidechaining stuff, say I have a melody that I want to sidechain to the bassdrum, but I don’t it sidechaining the whole time, so is it possible to automate sidechains? If possible, how?
Hey Ethan,
You can do that yeah. There’s couple of ways, but I think the simplest one is to (assuming you’re using FL Studio) cretae automation clip for the Mute -button (in the Mixer) of that effect slot where you have the Fruity Limiter. Then just edit the automation envelope to mute it on the position where you want the sidechain to go off.
Works like a charm! Thanks a lot Petri 🙂
Thanks for this tutorial Petri, especially for mentioning that trick with the claps. 🙂
No problem Edward, thanks for checking it!
Thanks alot Petri alot!!!
Hey Sinless,
Keep on producing… 8)
Hey man I really have been having trouble downloading your products?!!?
can you help me out with some help on what i need to do to make the files download into the program i just got a bunch of your files without being able to install anything, Please Help!! I cant wait!!!
Hey Shanyne,
If you downloaded the “Progressive Trance Beat FL Studio Project File (no NoiseMaker required)” there’s no installation required. Just create an empty folder somwehere in your HD, unpack the files to that folder and double click the .flp file included and it should open.
Let me know if it worked!
You’re a GOD.
Hehe, not even close, but thanks anyways!
Hey Thanks man REALLY great tutorial. it was very useful to me and i think to many others out here.
i hope we can see more of your fine work sir. greetings 🙂
One of the best tutorials I have ever followed. Top Class. Thanks!
awesome. Could you make another trance style drums beat? Thanks you for this Tut.
Wooow. This tutorial is the best tutorial I have ever followed in my life!
I completed the whole thing, well of course made my own sounds and stuff. 🙂
But hey, great… Respect for writing this and explaining this. 🙂
Thank you!
Rein S.
I RESPECT YOU . REALLY I DO 🙂
Amazing tutorial Petri.
I was trying to work around FLS studio after I fell in love with Psychedelic Trance.. in Goa!
And THIS…. is what I needed to get me past my virginity in creating Progressive Trance, Baby Steps Done!
Again, thanks a ton, take a bow for this really commendable and elaborate effort.
So I’ve downloaded this quite a few times. I extracted (well, attempted to) the document into the vstplugin folder under “Program Files 86x” and every time I do this I get an error message saying “Access Denied”
I’m completely lost.
eyvaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaal damet garm yani
thank yoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooou very much
Hi, how is it that fl studio say the name of the chord plays? I checked the “hint bar” but still not the name of the chords. example 17:12.
Thank you
THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
That was awesome the way you filtered out the low noise using two instances of EQ 2. Learned a lot from this tutorial, thank you for sharing.
Also your post is finally the one where I got ducking down. I think I can effectively duck a track now with no more help from the internet, awesome!
You know, I’ve read a bunch of tutorials, learned a few things here an there, and I was kind of lazy to write a comment, but you have provided the one tutorial I have been expecting to find for my whole life, this is exactly the kind of beat I need to make and EQ and you have brought me much closer to it than I was with my trial and error tactics. I want to thank you for the amazing amounts of effort you put into this blog and ask that you please keep going because after watching and reading and buying many tutorials from many people, nobody breaks it down and explains it like you do brother. I mean, the step by step with audio file for every step makes it so comfortable to follow and impossible to give up half way. From now on you have gained one more loyal follower and I will recommend this to my fellow producer friends.
Can I add you on Facebook? You seem like a dude that I could actually enjoy having a conversation with. Thanks brother!!!
-Fernie.
Hi there. Why don’t u make some ableton tutorials? I’d love to see one from such talented person. That’s a shame that you rely on FLS.
great tutorial!
I was just wondering,
what are you doing around 2:00 in your master?
Thank You so much for this tutorial. I’ve recently gotten myself into learning bedroom production after a few years of DJ’ing. And I think this tutorial is one of the best that I’ve come across so far. Hope to make some nice tunes somewhere down the line and share with you for a review. 😀
Good vibes from India!!
Cheers!
Petri Thank You so much for your tutorials. You truly have a gift for teaching I cannot say enough positive things about your tutorials. Thank You for your talent. Many Blessings
Hey Petri. thank you for your tutorials and i have one question: why samples that i download from your website sound different from yours that on video in youtube. even this plugin noisemaker sounds different. Your sounds much better. What i should do? and thanks again
Awesomeness at its finest. Thank you, Petri.
Thanking you all the way from Australia! Really appreciate your tutorials man, wish more people were like you. You have probably taught me more in 1 week than what would take a month or more to learn from other sources!
I’m glad to hear that, Luke – thanks!
Hey you are the man, I just read some of your tutorials and those are very helpfull, many thanks for take your time to create such great material.
I have a question, Im working in a trance song and Im trying to mute the kick but keep active the sidechain (as you did in this tutorial) the issue is that I created the automation envelope to the master (selecting the kick track then right click in the volume knob, etc) and make averything as this image show https://howtomakeelectronicmusic.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Kick-Volume-To-Master-Envelope-Curve.jpg but volume never drop, do you have any idea why it dont drop? many thanks in advance.
Regards,
Misrain
Hey Misrain,
Are you sure you haven’t routed the kick to another mixer track?
Hi Petri,
I just double checked and Kick is routed to mixer track 1, which I joined with the mater volume knob.
I just made some test and kick turn off only if all knob of the sidechain of the other mixer tracks are torn off too and I dont know why, any idea?
Here are the knobs that I means: https://web.archive.org/web/20131008004412/http://img228.imageshack.us/img228/1184/sinttulojn.jpg
Many thanks for your help.
Regards,
Misrain,
Can you send me the .flp file so I can have a look? You can email me here:
howtomakeelectronicmusic at gmail.com
Cheers!
Good job!
Tthank you!
I got a tutrial FL file.
Thanks Petri for the great tutorial as always!
Please do check couple of my tracks that I made inspired by this bassline
Would love the hear your feedback!
Thank you once again man!
Cheers!
this is what iv been looking for!! awesome job. .. thanks for sharing your skills! Thats what the musical industry is all about 😉
this is my inspiration!!!!!!thank you!!!
The photo for the staccato loop can’t be loaded 🙁 Can you reupload it? thanks!
Dude, i’ve been running around the web trying to get a decent tutorial on how to do something more than a simple thing – i got so much from this tutorial! Thanx for making it!
As this is still a hobby of mine, i also wanna keep learning. This website helped me soooo much, i can’t even describe. I worked my way through this track and made a complete track of it. .Not done yet, still fiddling around with it. But is’t comin’out really nicely !
Thank you sooo much from the netherlands !
Havew downloaded the video becuase I have to go over it again and again just following what you do.
I’m using Ableton but i think i can sort of get the same effect.
The one question I’ve got is what are the samples of kicks, hihats etc are you using? I can’t find any that sound quite like what you’ve got especially the claps…..mine are all quite long.
Can you please let me know what samples you use in this tutorial? Many thanks
scroll UP!!!! dowload is there just before comments
scroll UP!!!! dowload is there just before comments. ja kiitos petri
T ableton käyttäjä
Thank you for the HELP! you sir are awesome!!!
Petri let me thank you first for your gorgeous help,
as i see, you like a lot to help people, this is what we have in common.
You seem to me a very positive person and this is the main reason to make a good music.
Thank you very very much again.
If i dont disturb you, i have this problem, i followoed all your instructions and the beat came the same, except the volume. My project, at fl studio, seems to be very loud, compared with yours.
Could you tell me please where is the problem ?
Very thank you for the tutorial !!! This is Awesomeee!!
Awesome TUTORIAL, very helpfull. In my opinion you are professional, not hobbyist! I wait for more! Regards from Poland.
Dude, thx for the help.
But this is Progressvie house bassline, not Trance.
Hey man, really love your tutorial. Been working in FL all day. Still a newbie though, and I cant figure out how to get your kick/snare/clap etc into FL? I downloaded the wasp samples and got em into FL, but cant seem to find the kick etc… Can you help me out?
Hey Jeppe,
FL should locate the samples automatically when you open the .flp file I provided. But if you wan’t to use the samples in your own projects, you need to copy them to a folder (any folder) and add that as a Browser extra search folder
check here: https://www.image-line.com/support/flstudio_online_manual/html/envsettings_files.htm.
Let me know if it helped.
Hey man I love your tutorials and I want to ask you a question: may I use the same chords in one of my tracks thks man PS i am a 14 kid who loves and makes EDM
Hey Kevin,
You’re free to use the chords.
Cheers!
thanks man, can’t wait for a new tutorial 🙂
nice…….
very tnx
Hey bro, may i ask u if u can share ur drum set? cause mine sux….
and make more videos on progressive trance music mate, ur awsome.
I from vietnam ..
I love https://howtomakeelectronicmusic.com/
Petri:
First off thank you for your help, one question though, when I go to create my own sounds, I can never seem to get the sound I am looking for. I am quite knowledgeable on the in’s and out’s about terminology that goes hand and hand when figuring out a VST. Yet I find myself still having trouble in getting the correct sound I am shooting for. Can you give me a few tips?
-Thanks again Jasper
I think this tutorial is very interesting for begginers… Even though it does sound like nothing.
Well that’s good 😎
Petri:
Thank you for taking the time to make these tutorials. This particular tutorial has helped make a significant difference in my projects. EQ and mixing are very difficult but necessary to make one’s song sound less “robotic”. Still working through FL studio and I am glad I found your site.
Petri,
This tutorial is awesome. I just have one question though. When I create an automation clip to drop out the kick on the build up (to master envelope), it does not fully drop out the kick. I can still hear it, it’s just muted. Even if I go into the mixer and turn down the “to master” knob all the way down manually, I can still hear it. Is this supposed to happen, and is there a way I can totally turn off the kick while still pumping the bass and white noise?
Thanks
Sorry. I figured out what was wrong. I had the kick “to bass” knob on all the way. I guess I did it while side chaining the bass to kick.
Not really my style of music,…… but bloody good tutorial, quick and straight to the point. I’ll be back for more 🙂
You know wat man!? U rock! Why U no become a dj .. man ! Ur tutorials are awesum .. Jst luv dem!! … Actually i had prblm wid d bass. (3xosc) it doesnt sound groovy type in mine it sounds normal tick tick .. need help .. ! 🙁 . . N U rock!! Keep it Up man!
And can u make a tutorial for making mashup .. i mean mixing 4-5 songs .. along with beat …
hi petri im from indonesia..btw thx for your great tutorial.
if you dont override,would you chat with me coz i have so many question about making this kind of music..
hope you want 🙂
Nice tutorials. I wish i could hire you to teach me thing or two 😀 I am from finland but writing in english just for peoples sake. I just recently got my new software (cubase 7.5) and i am at loss here 😀 But, i guess you learn best by doing stuff =) Sounding bad, or good, everything you do you learn something new, or don’t 😀 The only thing you should keep in mind when doing music : There is no WRONG way of doing music. I mean, lot’s of people try to copy some famous sound and beats. Today when i llisten some trance tracks, if i did not know, i could think all the tracks are from same producer. That’s how similar many tracks today sound.
let me ask a question.How TO make Romainean house music.
I’m new into producing EDM and, from all the FL studio tutorials I saw on Youtube, yours is, by far, the best. It shows REALLY WELL how to create the parts of an EDM song and how to use the program. I was able to follow the video without any problems and learnt various things I had no idea about.
That’s the reason why you have some many comments, views and likes, because this tutorial is EXCELLENT. Keep the hard work,
Thank you!
ur stuff was cool and helped alot
No words can describe how much i love you right now.
Really. Thank you very much for this tutorial!
Glad you found it useful! 😎
Excellent work man. you are awesome.
Awesome guide…thank you so much!
plz snd me all projects
on my mail
plz
can you give me the download link for the drum kit that you used in this video please reply
hi my dear ur wonderful
i have a question
how i can make uplifting trance
i can’t finde at website
Petri. Thank you so much for taking the time out to share your knowledge and laying it out in a language I can actually understand (trust me I have a nasty learning disability). This site is the start of anyone’s music production journey. Great work !!