Dedicated track page · synth + tracker · 2026

Undertow.

Progressive trance built by subtraction from one three-note motif: a loop that never quite repeats the same way, a long melody tied across the bar lines, and a drop that is the only moment everything plays at once.

Listen · mastered preview

A pull under the surface

Mastered Undertow stereo waveform and logarithmic spectrogram

Tempo 136 BPMKey F minorMaster −14.0 LUFS · −1.5 dBTP

Arrangement

Each section declares which parts play and how densely; the section markers below come from the same table as the score.

Section	Bars	Time	What happens
intro	1–16	0:00	Kick from bar 5, closed hats, the pad's filter opening across the section; the motif heard once, alone; a short riser into the groove.
groove	17–32	0:28	Off-beat sub, clap, sixteenth hats; the motif every bar, varied every four; the kick starts pumping the bass and music buses.
theme	33–48	0:56	Strings join, the long melody makes its first quiet statement, chord stabs answer the phrase ends, a short riser.
breakdown	49–64	1:25	No kick, no bass: the loop runs backwards under the reversed motif, the supersaw previews the melody through a high-pass sweeping down, a riser and a clap roll.
drop	65–96	1:53	Everything at once: the 808 gliding into each chord, the supersaw carrying the long melody, off-beat stabs. The melody's long holds get small answers, a string voice resolving under them or vibrato with a lifting high-pass, and stay simple around the busier phrase ends. The second half turns through E♭ into B♭ minor: the harmony's filters close on the turn's last beat and open again as the melody returns.
reprise	97–102	2:49	No kick, so the bass yields to the stabs instead, each chord blooming and relaxing under their groove; the motif breaks down to a rising pair that lands half a bar early, anticipating the outro.
outro	103–118	3:00	A downlifter, then the groove returns and loses a layer every few bars; the kick leaves last.
release	119–122	3:28	Strings alone on D♭maj7, fading out unresolved.

Mix

Four group buses sit between the instruments and the master. Drums (kick, clap, hats) is a plain sum. Low (sub, 808) is ducked hard by the kick, so the two never pile up in the same 50 ms. Reprise bass has no kick to follow, so it is ducked by the chord stabs instead. Music (keys, pad, strings, stabs, supersaw) is high-passed to leave the low end to the bass and ducked lightly by the kick, which is the pump. The riser stays outside the groups. Sends to the dotted-eighth delay and the reverb are taken before the groups, so the tails do not pump. Parameter slides open the pad, sweep the supersaw's high-pass and drive the riser's band-pass.