How to Make Trance Like Pegassi
Pegassi is a Belgian DJ and producer behind tracks like Yoyoyo, Spectral Bells and 227kg, played everywhere from Boiler Room to Tomorrowland. In this video I build a Pegassi style track in Ableton, going through the kick and bass, the drum layers, and the synths that make up his sound. The sounds come from Hyper, our trance and hard house pack.
The foundation: kick and offbeat bass
The kick is Kick 18 from Hyper, a pretty heavy trance kick. I cut some of the high end with EQ because it felt a bit too sharp for this track. Pegassi's kicks usually have a lot of punch but not as much click as this one had on its own.
The bassline uses the Bass Bouncer preset in Serum 2, also from Hyper. It plays the typical offbeat pattern on the root note of the track, which is the bounce you hear in a lot of Pegassi's music. The filter cutoff is not all the way up, so it keeps a plucky feel instead of turning harsh.
Rave drum layers with a washy feel
On top of the kick and bass I added a 909 clap and a hat loop playing a fast rhythm, plus an open hat on every offbeat.
Underneath those sit a few drum loops: a heavy rave loop, a second groovier loop, and a percussion loop for extra drive, all turned down low in the mix. I think putting loops like these quietly underneath the main drums is what gives this style that washy rave feeling instead of sounding clean, and it adds a lot of character for not much effort.
The lead, the vocal gate and the signature bell
The main lead is the Lead Awakening preset in Serum, a cheeky modulated pulse with a bit of vibrato you can control on macro 2. I kept that low. It runs through chorus, light distortion, delay and reverb, then an EQ to remove some low end and an OTT at around 40 percent for extra compression. The first four notes of the melody carry the whole theme, the rest is filler for rhythm.
A trans vocal gate plays a very simple pattern, mostly holding the D sharp, the perfect fifth of the track's root note G sharp, before dropping to the G sharp at the end of every four bars. Without it the drop feels a bit too empty.
The Transgate Mover preset from Hyper fills the gaps with its own gated rhythm, so it plays like a question and answer with the main lead. Then there's Pluck Spectral, a tonal bell preset and the signature Pegassi bell sound, which rounds out that call and response.
A second lead and a bass that starts to move
In the second part of the drop a wonky acid lead comes in, an init preset with a square wavetable and a phasing filter driven by LFO1, pushed through bitcrushing, a delay, reverb and a phaser. It only plays the second and fourth parts of the main melody, and it comes back later in the breakdown too.
The bass also changes here: instead of staying on the root note it plays a short progression. A harsher layer called Lead Faster sits low in the mix with the lows and some highs cut by EQ, adding a melodic touch without taking over.
Strip back, don't pile on, for a harder drop
The breakdown brings in a breakbeat under the percussion loop, which is something you hear a lot in Pegassi's breakdowns, plus vinyl crackle, city ambience and a spoken word vocal from Hyper for atmosphere.
The build up does the opposite of what most producers do. Instead of adding more and more before the drop, I filter things down and remove them: the acid lead gets filtered out and removed, the breakbeat gets a high pass filter that strips the lows and highs, and the lead gets washed out in a big reverb. I kept an uplifter and a snare roll running so it still has momentum and doesn't go dry. Taking elements away instead of piling them on is what makes the contrast with the drop so big, and it's a trick that works in any genre, not just trance.
Transitions and the Yoyoyo vocal shout
Between sections there's a stack of transition effects: uplifters and downlifters glue the end of every part together, and a crash fill helps the handoff into the next one.
One more detail worth noting is a vocal shout that says 'yo', a nod to Pegassi's own track Yoyoyo. I used it in the transition between the first and second half of the drop, and again going into the outro drop.
Frequently asked questions
Who is Pegassi?
Pegassi is a Belgian DJ and producer known for tracks like Yoyoyo, Spectral Bells and 227kg, played everywhere from Boiler Room to Tomorrowland.
What BPM is Pegassi style trance?
This track sits at 140 BPM, the tempo of the Hyper pack it's built with.
How do you make an offbeat trance bassline?
Place the bass on the offbeat on the root note of the track, and keep the filter cutoff short of fully open so it stays plucky instead of harsh.
Why strip elements back instead of building up before a drop?
Filtering out and removing layers in the build up, instead of adding more, creates a bigger contrast when the drop hits, so it lands harder. The trick works in any genre, not just trance.
Related reading: hard house and trance are back, the best trance sample packs in 2026, and hard house and trance sample packs.
