Hey guys, it’s an arcade.
And I’m back with another tutorial.
And in this one, I show you how to make Progressive House step by step start to finish from nothing at all to a nice Progressive House drop.
So this is a great tutorial for beginners and intermediate users, but mainly for beginners, because I’m going to go over everything you need to know to make this track.
And I’m going to explain everything in detail.
Also, this video is brought to you by melodics.
I’m going to talk a little bit more about them later in the video.
But for now, let’s get started with the track.
And let’s get started with the drums.
So just to clarify, in this how to make Progressive House tutorial, we’re going to sort of make this new Progressive House what people call Progressive House these days, which is sort of like electro house or big room house, sort of a mix of all of them, some of the tracks like Kashmir makes or Martin
So that is the type of progressive house we are going to make today.
As you can hear in the preview.
So yeah, let’s get to it.
So first, I’m going to start with the drums.
For that, I’m going to use the playlist.
So first, I want to choose a cake.
And I like to use cashmere sample bags.
I know not everybody has them.
But they are actually really affordable. You can just go to supplies and get them.
So I would definitely recommend everyone to get this one.
Any of the cashmere specs were great.
They are great for beginners and advanced users as well.
So I’m going to use a bunch of cakes from this pack.
I like this one.
So let’s use it.
Actually, let’s drag it straight into the playlist and set the BPM to 128, which is the classic Progressive House BPM.
And as you can see, the cake is right on the line on the grid.
So you don’t need to adjust that.
So we can just hold Ctrl selected and Ctrl V to duplicate it.
Repeat it like four times.
And we can preview it now.
Just allowed kick, let’s lower the volume of it.
And what I like to use in Progressive House is some drop clubs and rights along with a kick.
So let’s get to that.
So let’s get back to the sample pick and go to symbols rights.
And we can preview some of them.
Let’s go to Kashmir volume free and check the rides there.
Yeah, I like this one is sort of like white noise see a little bit as well.
So that’s going to help fill out the drop later.
So let’s just make it shorter, and go closer to holding the Alt key.
So you can move around and not snap to the grid.
But make sure it is actually at the end of the grid.
So we can just duplicate it easily.
And it doesn’t get a beat because if it was like off grid like this, and you duplicate it, it would be offbeat and no one would sound good at all.
So yeah, make sure it ends on the grid.
That way, you can duplicate it easily, and it will always stay in the rhythm.
So let’s just duplicate it throughout the whole thing is loop and let’s make it lower in the volume.
Okay, now we are getting somewhere with the drumbeats.
I also want to add some drop clubs.
So in this back, you have this loop, but you could really use any clap. What you can do is put some reverb on it.
So it’s longer, but you could just use regular claps as well, like so.
You know, just take a club, repeat it.
But here’s this little loop. We can lower the volume as well.
So that’s the drum beat for now. One thing we can do to have this ride sort of end properly, because now it’s cut off pretty much and the next one comes in, we can keep it that way.
But what I like to do is double click it, choose smooth bleeding, and then hold CTRL and hover over your track.
That way, you select all the items in the track, all the sounds and then hold the Alt key.
And let’s move it back a little bit.
So we have these proper ends to the right.
It’s a bit shorter now, but it nicely fades out.
And maybe we can make it a little bit longer.
Like so.
So yeah, that’s our drumbeat for now. We can also add the club now.
So I’m going to use this dirty clap and the pre shifted club.
I always like to use pre-shifted clubs.
They just sort of make everything more squishy or whatever.
And it sounds good.
So yeah, brush shifted means that there is a slight delay between when the club actually hits and there’s this reverse club before it’s sort of sweat when it’s pre shifted. Make sure you hold the Alt key and set it up, right, we can also preview it with
It sounds about right now. I’m holding Shift and duplicating it.
So I’m going to duplicate it all the way through, and this club as well. Let’s see.
But let’s make this one quieter.
And yeah, sounds about right. Let’s maybe make the strip clubs louder, and the right a little bit quieter.
And yeah, this is our drum loop ready to go.
So it’s sort of a lot, and it will create a lot of noise in the drop, which is a good thing sometimes.
But we don’t have to use this whole thing at once.
One more trick I like to use is, let’s duplicate one of the rights by holding Shift and dragging it, and then click on the icon on the right, make it unique, and reverse it.
Now, let’s just sort of adjust it.
And every fourth bar, we’re just gon na have this reverse right here.
Like that, to make it more interesting.
So this is our full drum loop. Let’s just duplicate the whole thing.
In the actual drop, we can actually just have the kick at the beginning.
And then we slowly start to add up the other sounds.
So we’re gon na see how it goes.
But basically, you don’t have to use the whole loop into drop, you can just have the cake.
Or we can just have the cake and the rice or just like the claps.
So it’s going to be based on how we mix it all together.
And then we’re going to decide what drums we actually want in there.
So yeah, so now that we have the drums ready, we can actually move on to the melodies.
Now let’s talk a little bit about our sponsor today, which is melodics.
And I’m really glad they sponsored this video, because I think this is a helpful app for every producer out there.
So melodics is an app which can teach you how to play the piano.
But not only that, it can help you make better melodies and improve in music theory.
And the best thing about it is you can try it out for free.
And it’s perfect even for complete beginners.
So you got your courses here, lessons, exercises, and I was checking out these courses on building course, which will teach you how to play the chords on your piano, but it will also help any producer understand how chords work.
So you can use your keyboard, or you can use your computer keyboard. I’m going to show you an example of this lesson using my keyboard, which it recognized right away. Let’s check out his course.
So basically, you fill out the notes in the app.
And once you play them, right, you pass the lesson and you can move on to the next one.
So the lessons start off really easy, and then they get progressively harder.
So check it out to try it out for free link below in the description.
And if you do get the subscription, it starts as low as 1250 a month.
Now let’s get back to the video.
Let’s get started with the composition.
And I’m going to use a piano sound.
So I’m using Nexus and I know a lot of beginners don’t have this plugin, but I would use flex as an alternative, which is right here.
Which isn’t, which is an FL Studio plugin.
And it’s a great one.
So if you don’t have Nexus, just use flex.
But if you do have Nexus, I definitely recommend it. There are a lot of great sounds in there as well.
But we are not really going to talk about making the sounds.
So the plugin doesn’t really matter.
You can choose your own sounds, but I’m going to make sure in the next video, I’m going to do FL Studio plugins only, but in this one I will stay with the plugins that I use and that I’m used to using.
So right now I’m just gon na have any piano. It can be any sound and I’m just going to use it to create this composition.
So the way I do it, you start with the bass notes usually.
And you can also use the helpers scale. I think automatic that will actually show you the key of your song and which nose you can use while making this melody.
So let’s test it out.
So right now I’m just gon na lay out some bass notes.
So essentially, you have to imagine the chord progression or the melody in your head before even making this.
So I’m hearing the pianos, but in my head, I can already hear the chords and how they will sound in the actual song. This comes with experience.
But if you do this enough, you will also be able to hear this.
And I’m gon na do this finger at the end.
Just for fun.
And as you can see, we laid out these bass notes, and it shows that the key is a minor. It shows it in the left corner of your FL Studio.
And now it shows which nose we can use to add the melodies or chords.
So I don’t like to use helpers. They are not always reliable, but they can help beginners.
So now that I have the bass notes, I’m going to add the chords.
So the way I do it, it’s pretty simple.
So this is the C node. Let’s put another c node octave up.
Or literally, we can just hold Ctrl, select the keys, and hold shift and add them to develop.
So this is C, and it will be a C chord.
And the way you create the course, is you put in the first note, which is C, you skip free notes.
And you put in the fourth note, then you skip two notes.
And you put in the third note, and this is a C major chord.
If you want to make it minor, you just put the middle node one down.
And that’s essentially how I create courses. You can sometimes change it up and move some notes randomly.
But this is the basic chord.
And it always follows the same pattern where just give free and then two.
So let’s just do that for all the chords.
And sometimes you can try a minor chord or major chord and it doesn’t work, just switch it to the other type of chords.
Always just switch the middle node and you will be good.
Okay, now I’m going to select all the middle nodes by holding Ctrl and Shift at the same time and selecting them with my mouse.
And then I’m going to press Ctrl and arrow up to put them octave up.
This is still the same court, but the notes are in a different order.
But that’s still the same chord essentially.
And I don’t really like this chord right here.
So I’m going to try to, so I’m going to try to adjust it.
So yeah, I just moved this middle node down.
And I don’t really know the proper music theory explanation, but I like the way this chord sounds now rather than how it sounded before.
So I’m going to keep it that way.
And as you can see, it shows a minor as our key.
So now all the nodes that are sort of grayed out with the lighter color are the nodes that we can use and stay in the key of E minor.
So if you’ve gone this far, now you can make the melody and just follow the grayed out notes in any order.
So let’s try it out.
Let’s create a melody.
I already have one in my head.
So let’s do it.
And while you’re making this, imagine this on your full track with all the sounds and stuff like that.
I know it’s just a piano, but you can sort of imagine it playing like at a festival.
Let’s put it octave up.
Let’s actually put everything octave down, hold Ctrl arrow down.
Okay, that’s our melody from the beginning.
And as you can hear, always, when making a melody, it has to have some sort of conclusion, when you start off saying something, and at the end, like finish it off with the conclusion.
So this is the beginning of the melody.
This is the conclusion, then it can repeat seamlessly.
When making a melody, make sure the end nodes, the nose, with which the melody is ending, fit well with the nose with which the melody is beginning.
Because that’s the transition.
And that has to be on point.
So always check that if your melody ends, and begins, seamlessly, sort of.
And now we can duplicate the whole thing by holding CTRL, selecting with the mouse, holding Shift, duplicate it.
And let’s change the second repetition of the melody to make it more interesting.
And then here’s where I’m going to go off the grid that is recommended to me.
And as a beginner, you don’t need to do that.
But I already had this melody planned out.
And I sort of like how it sounds. When it’s not in the right key, I guess it still sounds good.
It’s just a different scale.
And I really liked the effect that it has on the melody.
So sometimes you can go over the recommended grid by FL Studio.
And that’s why I’m going to turn off the helpers for now.
I prefer to work without them.
But if you’re just starting out, it helps a lot.
And as you can see, I didn’t change that much in the second repetition.
I just put some of the nose higher.
And then it goes back to the same conclusion, as it did before.
So yeah, that’s our melody right here.
Let’s preview it.
Sounds nice enough.
If you want to learn more about making melodies and compositions, check out melodics, the sponsor of today’s video.
But now let’s actually get to the fun part, which is selecting the sounds. Actually making the melodies is the fun part as well.
Choosing the sounds and hearing how it sounds all together is fun as well.
So yeah, let’s get to that.
Now we have the composition ready, it is going to be easier.
So yeah, obviously, we are not going to just put that on the piano and have that as the song.
However, let’s start with selecting some sounds.
And in Progressive House.
Oftentimes, you can use the same sounds over and over. It is like rock music and rock. You have the drums, you have the guitar, you have the bass guitar.
In Progressive House, you have the gritty bass, you have the bass, you have some hyper so chords and the leads. There’s nothing wrong with using the same sounds, but having different melodies or different variations of the sounds.
But essentially, you always want to have a similar basis for a song.
Let’s start by putting Nexus here.
And yes, I’m going to use Nexus again.
And I’m going to go to Kashmir spec, go to base.
And I’m going to use this secret base.
So that’s the greedy base I’m going to use. You could use any other really. I’m going to give you an example.
Go to serum, go to base, do fast base.
You can use that as well.
Kashmir actually recommended that one time.
So yeah, you can use any sound, just make sure it has similar qualities as this greedy bass.
But it doesn’t have to be this exact sound.
The next sound I’m going to use is this one from EDM. Five is this sub bass, maybe lower to cut off.
Yeah, and one more sound I’m going to use serum for this one is in Leeds. You don’t need any sample back is in the default sample back.
And it’s this hyper.
So these are the free sounds we’re going to use as the basis of the song and then we’re going to have the leads.
Now go back to your composition and select your bass notes, which are the lowest notes.
And I’m just going to select the first note of each.
Because I don’t actually want this rhythm social.
So the first note whenever it changes, and Ctrl C, create a new pattern for your base and Ctrl V.
Put an octave higher.
And now we can actually make this bass pattern.
Let’s just make them longer.
And actually, before we get to that, let me put sanctioning on this. sanctioning means every time Kick hits, the volume of the bass or any sound is lowered.
So, as you can see, I put the bass sound on track five just by clicking the track button.
And now it’s in the mixer.
And I’m going to use a low filter, a pretty low filter.
And I have a tutorial for this type of side chaining.
So if you want to check it out, the link will be in the description.
And I’m just going to use my preset gold classics to move a little bit smoother here.
Let’s hear it.
Yeah, excellent.
So now, as you can hear, there’s this ducking, and that will be every time this kick hits, there’s this dip in the volume.
So let’s make this pattern.
I’m just gon na make these notes longer.
First, sorry, demo Hold CTRL q.
So they sort of snap to the grits.
And let’s sometimes change the octave here and make this stuttery effect.
Just to make it more interesting for you.
Let me just remove this and duplicate the same pattern over here.
And here’s our base. I’m actually going to do some bends in the base right now.
So the way we do that is we go to Nexus.
And we need to set this up right here, modulation and make sure the range Max is 12.
And the minimum is 12 minus 12, as well.
And if you have any other plugin, it will be there somewhere and then set this range to 12.
Your FL Studio range.
And we’re going to automate the pitch.
So let me just select, hold Ctrl select on your timeline, go back to Nexus and right click on the pitch, create an automation clip and copy this value with which you begin just by hovering over the first point, right click Copy value, just so we have it because that’s the
And Alice tried to make some bends here.
So I’m right clicking here and just doing this sort of thing.
thing, it should be like this.
So every time at the end, make sure to paste the value.
So it ends on the correct pitch.
Otherwise, it ends in a weird pitch.
And then the whole base will be, for example, here.
See, that’s not the correct pitch.
So let’s make sure to paste the value at the end.
And we can just hear bands right here.
So yeah, nice little bend.
And we can do so again.
Right here, maybe the opposite way.
And then base the pitch again.
So just play around with it.
Maybe over here, we do like a low one.
And then just copy it over to it.
Let’s hear how it sounds right now with the bands and the bass.
I suppose we can do one here as well, like so.
Okay, that is how we’re really bass with some bands.
That will make it a bit more interesting.
Now let’s add the sub base.
We’re just going to click on the greater base. Hold Ctrl C to create a new pattern, click on the sub base, hold Ctrl V.
And since this one sort of has a click, I’m going to make sure it plays like this.
Since this has this decay on it, you want to make sure it repeats itself again again.
So it’s more pronounced in the mix.
So I’m just shortening the notes and then holding CTRL V to copy them.
So now we have the regular bass and the greedy bass.
And one thing I’m going to do to the greedy bass is remove the high frequencies from it. It’s on track number five. Let’s put it on try number seven. Go to our mixer, Grady bass, and this is the sidechain.
So this drag will only be used for sidechain Inc. It has a low filter on it.
So go to your gritty bass, click on it, and right click under a sidechain track and choose the route to this track only.
And then do the same for the sub base, which is the number six route to the district only.
So we routed the strikes to the sanction track.
So they will be affected by the sanctioning plugin on this track.
So you don’t have to put it on each one, you can just route them to this one. Let’s put some effects on the grid base.
I like to sound good user just a little bit to make it more compressed.
And then parametric EQ to right click on your first point, choose type highpass lodis until it’s for DOS is never supposed to be more than four dots, and then just move it so we delete all those sub frequencies, which are these ones. We don’t want them because we have
And we can maybe even make the higher frequencies a little bit higher.
Now the sub bass is playing the sub frequencies by itself.
So let’s preview it with the sub bass.
Okay, let’s lower the kick a little bit.
So now the next thing we’re going to add is the hyper so leads, and we’re going to go back to our composition that we created.
And let’s copy the course the whole thing pretty much except the melody.
And I’ll create a new pattern, go to our serum, where we have the hyper soul and paste it in here.
And make these longer by holding the Alt key and just extending them.
And, of course, we want to sell those short notes here and make them short again.
And we want to put the whole thing octave up by holding the CTRL arrow up.
And we also want to make sure it’s sanctioned as well.
So let’s put it on a free track and route it to the sanction track.
Let’s delete it now.
Sounds pretty good.
Let’s lower the volume a little bit.
And one thing I like to do is use a stereo shaper on these.
So select stereo shaper presets serialized and then EQ and remove the low frequencies as well.
So the low frequencies, we really want them just for the sub bass and the cakes and stuff like that, but we don’t need them for the leads or the greedy bass.
Otherwise, they would just clutter the mix, and it wouldn’t be useful.
So, to make sure all the frequencies are affected, put the stereo shaper below the EQ.
And let’s actually also use some reverb, just a little bit of reverb to make the hyper so chords a bit more spacious.
Let’s put them in the playlist and let’s hear how they sound with the drums and everything else.
Okay, so I’m going to lower these claps right now.
Because they are too loud, just by listening to them at the moment.
And really, I’m just gon na delete all of this because I’m sure that this is how I want it.
First, we’re just going to have the kick, then the kick and the rights and then in the second repetition of the drop, we’re going to have everything, but so far it sounds pretty good as a lot of drive.
And that’s those basic sounds really base, the sub base and the hyper so chords. You can use any other sounds but just make sure they have similar qualities as the sounds.
So you have the course and the bass nose and the drums.
So yeah.
Now what we are missing is the melody.
We already have the composition.
So now it’s all about finding the right sounds.
Let’s create a new pattern.
I’m going to use Nexus again.
I already selected some of the sounds beforehand, so the tutorial is easier to make.
So the sound I’m going to use is from Kashmir spec is going to be a lead called Neverland main was lowered the volume and removed the delay.
And let’s take our melody from the composition we made at the beginning, and just paste it in delete and make it an octave lower.
And again, I’m going to extend these notes.
But also, I’m going to sidechain delete as well.
So sometimes you don’t want to sanction some of the plucks.
But leads are usually good when they are side chains.
So I’m going to do that, rotate to the sidechain track.
I like this effect.
So yeah.
Because of the sanctioning, it sort of creates this offbeat effect, even though it’s not really offbeat, but I like how it sounds sort of groovy.
So yeah, that’s the first layer of the lease. We’re gon na have many more of them.
It’s like two layers.
So once we have that, let’s preview it.
Sounds pretty good already.
But we’re going to have to do some mixing, which is pretty hard in Progressive House, but we’re going to try, but first, let’s actually add more leads.
So this one is more powerful.
So let’s stack the layers.
Essentially, we’re gon na add more layers of the same melody, but different sounds, and it will make this whole lead more powerful.
So let’s clone it. We’re going to use this plaque to increase the economy.
So it’s sort of dirty.
Let’s add another layer of serum.
And I’m going to use these top books.
So when adding the layers, you hear the sound right.
And you think what frequencies are missing.
So I feel like it’s missing some of the mid frequencies, because it’s already like a high pitched sound.
And it has a lot of power at higher frequency.
So that’s why I’m gon na add some more layers that are more powerful in the mid frequency.
So, for example, this one, right, so let’s just copy it and maybe put it lower. That’s too long.
And make this layer way lower.
Even more naturally, put it on the chin line.
That’s sort of fills out some of the frequencies there.
And one thing I like to do is take free time also ledger and create this white noise.
So we’re just going to choose random for all of these.
And then go to envelope settings, enable the animal lover everything pretty much and just move the decay slightly.
So you have this click.
And we’re gon na use the same melody for to click as for these, and it’s just gon na add this plucky start to delete. Can hear it right?
So we’re gon na make it even less obvious.
Let’s sanction it as well.
So yeah.
Let’s hear how it sounds with the new layers and in the song.
Sounds pretty good so far. I’m gon na do some mixing, but first, I’m going to add one more sound or two more sounds.
Let’s see.
So let’s just add some exhaust, which is sort of like white noise.
I’m gon na go to effects, quite nice sauce.
Just add this one or, and also sanction the exhaust like so.
So that’s good so far.
And one more thing I want to add is some sort of a walker, which will make this more interesting and more original.
So I’m going to go to vocals Note vocals will cashout long ones.
And I’m gon na take this one. Let’s create a new pattern.
And it’s just a regular local watershed, it’s in the key of D.
And I’m going to sort of crossfade it here, and then change the length.
So it sort of repeats seamlessly.
And let’s put it on a new track and make sign changes as well.
So routed to Detroit, number five, and then let’s put reverb on it and lower it to dryness.
So it’s sort of in the background.
And one thing I’m going to do is click on miscellaneous, choose a key as D, because that’s what it is that it says here in the name, and just put it into track.
But you have to hit the right key for a track.
And I think that’s B minor right there.
So we can barely hear it.
Now.
Let’s make it louder.
So right now a lot is happening in the song, and there are too many sounds.
So now is the time to do some mixing, which is always a pain when it comes to Progressive House.
But let’s do it.
So what I’m going to do is go to the master channel, and put wave candy in here, change the presets to peak meter.
And now we can see all the decibels of all the sounds.
So start with the kick.
Let’s do minus five, the right maybe a little bit lower.
I like to go lower, and then if it doesn’t sound good in the mix, I put it back higher.
Okay, the claps are okay, these clumps, maybe a little bit lower.
And now the bass is pretty loud.
Maybe we should pull it back just a little bit.
Now the sub bass sounds pretty good.
The hybrid, of course.
Okay, they sound pretty good, but I think we can lower some of the frequencies here.
So we have some more space for the melody.
We will see.
Now the melody is a bit tricky.
So let me go to the melody.
Let’s delete all the low frequencies right off the bat.
Let’s also put a stereo shaper on it.
So the melodies, sort of like wider in the mix stereo, not in the middle of the mix.
So it’s more spacious, maybe some reverb, but just a little bit because it already has some reverb from the sounds.
And I’m going to use the transient processor, and this sort of helps to make it more plucky.
So the attack is louder or make it longer so the release is louder.
You can hear it immediately.
So let’s just sort of make both a little bit more obvious but lower the volume of them because they are too loud.
Here they’re fine.
So that’s good.
And let’s hear the vocal.
So I’m going to go to the Whirlpool and put EQ on it and make it like super high frequency ish.
low frequencies.
Okay, sounds good.
Let’s prove it.
Okay, I feel like the leaves could be still more plucky.
Maybe you play with the bass sounds.
Let’s hear it now.
And now Elise pierces through a little bit better.
And at this point, it is just about testing it out, repeating the song, hearing what was read was wrong.
And always take a day off, and check it out the next day, because you will definitely get the unified view or whatever it’s called.
And if you listen to it constantly, and for me, especially for Progressive House, this happens all the time.
But yeah, this is essentially one more thing I’m going to add is this feeling at the end of the first repetition of the drop.
So we’re going to remove the kick here and remove all the sounds actually.
And go to the melody, take the last part of the melody. That’s a good way to do it with the melody, and I’m going to find like a whirlpool.
Like this one, and we can put the melody in here.
But make sure to set the root node, the correct one, which is G.
And make it go lower.
and increase the out so it’s shorter.
And I’m gon na put it on the same track as delete.
Actually, let’s put it on a separate one.
And the relative to the one where deletes are.
But I want to make this way higher.
Because it’s sort of weak.
So let’s put some good dessert on it as well.
And I’m going to use a little trick where I layer it with percussion to make it more obvious.
So, so take a percussion duplicate the vocal melody, the rhythm is important here, and just have it play the same rhythm.
But with percussion, make sure you stay on one note.
And it’s c five.
So the progression is in the correct key.
Yeah, it sounds pretty nice.
But I also want to layer it with a snare as well.
Sounds pretty good there.
And one more thing we need is the proto snare, which is in the big snares.
And we just put it at the end of this beat, right here.
And yeah, let’s do the same in the second one.
And I think our drop is ready.
So let’s have a listen to what we created.
I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and learned something new.
Because that’s the whole point of these videos, is to teach you how to do stuff. They are supposed to be proper tutorials to explain everything in detail.
Let’s hear our finished result.
Enjoy.
And there you have it.
That is it for this video.
I hope you enjoyed it.
I hope you learned something new.
And again, thank you to melodics for sponsoring this video.
Definitely check them out to learn the piano and improve your composition making skills.
I guess.
That’s the song I made with a little bit more time because I did a lot of mixing a lot more than I did in this video.
But hey guys, thank you for watching this video.
I hope you enjoyed it.
And as always, I will see you in the next one.
Goodbye.
