If you’ve ever wanted to learn how to make progressive house music, you’ve come to the right place.
In the tutorial video above, acclaimed dance music producer John Grand sat down with us to showcase how to make progressive house music from scratch. He starts by importing a reference track and setting up markers in Ableton Live to outline his song structure. From there, he uses Splice Sounds and Bridge to find one-shots and loops that make up the rhythmic backbone of the track. He then uses synths from Arturia’s V Collection and Xfer Records’ Serum to lay down his chord progression, and finally brings the track to life with atmospheric vocal loops and arpeggiated leads. Throughout the process, he discusses various topics including sound design, sample selection, and arrangement.
“I hope you enjoyed this tutorial on how to make progressive house music,” John Grand tells us. “From here, it’s just about ironing out the individual sections with your favorite effects, fills, hi-hats, and so on. The way I like to see it, the process of producing with a reference track is a lot like solving a puzzle and starting with the edges first. If you start out with the middle pieces, it can be a little bit disorienting, but when you do it this way, you can really dive into the track knowing exactly how it’s going to start and end. And the cool thing about this puzzle is that you get to draw the picture.”
Get the sounds and free project file
If you liked any of the specific sounds that John Grand used in the track, you can find all of them in this Collection. He’s also offering the Ableton Live project for absolutely free, so that you can use it to follow along and build your own progressive house track—download it here.
And there you have it! We hope this tutorial gave you a solid foundation for diving into the world of progressive house music. Which tips or topics did you find the most interesting? What other genres would you like to see us tackle next? Let us know in the comments section of the video, and subscribe to the Splice YouTube channel for more artist-led tips, tutorials, and insights.
Find innovative house and techno sounds for your own productions via John Grand’s sample label:
September 21, 2024
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