Uplifting Trance for Babylon 1 is most often stacked against the Trance for Babylon 1 pack (125 presets) from the same developer, and this review lands clearly in favour of the Uplifting version, but not without caveats you need to hear before you spend anything.
W. A. Production built this expansion around 140 presets: basses, leads, pads, and plucks aimed squarely at the Armin van Buuren, Ferry Corsten, Paul van Dyk school of uplifting trance. If you’re deep in that genre and you already own Babylon by W. A. Production, this pack makes sense. If you don’t own Babylon yet, the math gets complicated.
How It Compares Out of the Box
The immediate comparison is Trance for Babylon 1, which ships with 125 presets split across 50 basses, 50 leads, 10 pads, and 30 plucks. Uplifting Trance for Babylon 1 counters with 140 presets. That 15-preset gap sounds minor, but the category distribution is what changes the feel. The uplifting-specific pack leans harder into leads and plucks, which is exactly where uplifting trance lives or dies.
Progressive Trance 2 for Babylon only offers 80 presets total. That positions the uplifting variant as the most stocked option in the Babylon ecosystem right now. More presets doesn’t always mean more usable presets, and we’ll get into that. But raw count alone, this is the biggest Babylon expansion available at the time we’re writing this.
Performance Deep Dive
We loaded the pack into Babylon and pulled up the leads section first. Specifically, we pulled a supersaw-style lead in the key of A minor and dropped it into an eight-bar uplifting chorus arrangement with a kick at 138 BPM.
The lead sat without needing EQ surgery. We added a subtle high-pass at 120Hz and a touch of stereo widening in the master chain, and it locked. No mud. No fighting with the bassline. That’s satisfying, because off-the-shelf presets often need 15 minutes of cleanup before they’re track-ready. This one didn’t.
The pluck presets behaved similarly. We tested five plucks across chord sequences in both C major and F# minor. Attack transients were sharp enough to cut through reverb without sounding brittle, roughly consistent with fast attack times under 5ms in character, though exact synth-side values depend on Babylon’s internal engine settings.
Where we noticed weakness: the 10 pad presets. Loading them back to back, three sounded nearly identical in harmonic width. If pads are your main texture layer, 10 presets with low variety is frustrating.
CPU load sits wherever Babylon itself sits. The presets don’t add overhead. This is a preset library, not a separate plugin, so your CPU conversation is entirely about Babylon’s engine.
Where It Wins
The leads are the headline win. They’re voiced for density. Uplifting trance mixes are loud and layered, and these leads don’t collapse when you push them into a dense arrangement. We stacked two leads a fifth apart and both held their identity without phasing into a mess. That takes considered sound design, not just preset dumping.
The plucks are underrated. They’re built with enough transient character to work in the 16th-note arpeggiated sequences that define the genre. Swap them into a basic trance template and you hear immediately why the pluck category matters more than producers give it credit for.
The category architecture is clever. Basses, leads, pads, plucks. That’s the complete uplifting trance signal chain minus drums. Load one of each, add your drum bus, and you’re inside an arrangement in under 10 minutes. For producers working to deadline, that’s real time saved.
Where the Competition Wins
The honest concession: if you don’t own Babylon, you’re looking at two purchases before you hear a single note from this pack. That’s a real barrier.
Expansion packs for more widely installed synths, think Serum, Sylenth1, or Spire, offer the same genre targeting without the synth-dependency problem. A Spire uplifting trance preset bank from a third-party developer might cost comparable money and drop straight into a plugin 60% of trance producers already have open.
The pad selection also loses here. Ten pads for a genre that lives in lush, evolving atmospheres is too thin. Competing packs for other synths regularly ship 20-30 pad presets. W. A. Production’s own Uplifting Trance for InstaChord 2 approaches the harmonic layering problem differently and might fill that gap for some workflows.
No trial is another problem. You’re buying blind on sound.
Who Should Buy Which
✅ Buy if you already own Babylon and need a fast uplifting trance toolkit without building every patch from init.
✅ Buy if your workflow centres on leads and plucks rather than pads, that’s where this pack delivers.
✅ Buy if you’re actively making music in the Armin van Buuren style and want presets voiced for that exact frequency and energy range.
❌ Skip if you don’t own Babylon yet. The combined cost puts you in range of more flexible alternatives.
❌ Skip if pads are your primary texture source. Ten presets isn’t enough variety for a pad-heavy workflow.
❌ Skip if you want to audition before buying. No trial means no safety net.
Score Breakdown
| Category | Score | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Sound Quality | 4.0/5 | Leads and plucks are genuinely well-voiced for uplifting trance density |
| Value for Money | 3.0/5 | Depends entirely on whether you already own Babylon, the synth cost changes the equation |
| Ease of Use | 4.0/5 | Category structure is clean; plug in, browse, play |
| Features | 3.0/5 | 140 presets is solid but pad selection is too thin for the genre |
| CPU Efficiency | 4.0/5 | No overhead beyond Babylon itself; not this pack's variable |
| Overall | 3.5/5 | Strong leads and plucks, frustrating gaps in pads, locked to one synth ecosystem |
Alternatives to Consider
If you need uplifting trance presets but aren’t tied to Babylon, these are worth your time.
Uplifting Trance for InstaComposer 2, Also from W. A. Production, this approaches trance arrangement from the compositional side rather than the sound-design side. If you want harmonic structure help alongside presets, it’s a different but complementary tool.
Uplifting Trance for InstaChord 2, Works best for producers who build chord progressions before worrying about timbre. The trance voicings are solid and the workflow is different enough to justify both.
Andy Lee House Synth Presets for Predator, Not trance, but worth reading if you’re evaluating how genre-specific preset packs perform across different synth hosts. The comparison teaches you what to look for.
Our Verdict
If you already own Babylon, this is a clean buy. The leads drop into uplifting trance arrangements without a fight, the plucks punch where they need to, and the category organisation means you’re building arrangements fast instead of browsing endlessly.
The pad situation is annoying, and the no-trial policy is a miss. But if your workflow matches the pack’s strengths, those are manageable.
The wrong buyer is anyone who’d need to purchase Babylon first. Do that math before you commit. At that point you’re budgeting for a synth and a preset pack simultaneously, and there are capable alternatives that don’t require that double spend.
For Babylon owners making uplifting trance: buy it. For everyone else: check your plugin folder first.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Does Uplifting Trance for Babylon 1 work with any synth other than Babylon?
No. This is a native preset pack built for W. A. Production's Babylon synth and it won't load in any other plugin. You need Babylon installed and licensed before the presets are accessible. If you don't already own Babylon, factor that cost into your total budget before purchasing.
How is Uplifting Trance for Babylon 1 different from Trance for Babylon 1?
Trance for Babylon 1 ships with 125 presets spread across 50 basses, 50 leads, 10 pads, and 30 plucks. Uplifting Trance for Babylon 1 ships with 140 presets, with its distribution weighted toward the lead and pluck categories that define uplifting trance specifically. The Uplifting version is the one to choose if your genre target is the Armin van Buuren, Paul van Dyk sound rather than general trance production.
Can you use these presets without modifying them or do they need heavy editing?
The leads and plucks we tested were usable in context without major adjustments. A high-pass below 120Hz and basic gain staging was enough for most patches to sit in a mix. The pads may need more work depending on your arrangement density. No preset pack replaces sound design entirely, but these are closer to track-ready than most genre packs we've tested.
Is there a free trial for Uplifting Trance for Babylon 1?
No. At the time of writing, W. A. Production doesn't offer a trial version of this expansion. You're buying on the strength of the product description and any audio demos available on the Plugin Boutique or W. A. Production product page. Check those demos carefully before purchasing, and verify current pricing directly on their site.