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ULTIMATE GUIDE TO THE
LOGIC PRO X Everything you need to create, mix and master in Logic
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Master Logic Pro’s Expert advice for Hidden features & Create pro-quality instruments & FX a faster workflow little-known tricks tracks at home!
ULTIMATE GUIDE TO THE
LOGIC PRO X
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Editor Si Truss, simon.truss@futurenet.com Art Editor Phil Cheesbrough, philip.cheesbrough@futurenet.com BIG THANKS TO… Catherine Hood, Simon Arblaster, Jono Buchanan, Joe Rossitter ADVERTISING For Ad enquiries please contact: Leon Stephens, leon.stephens@futurenet.com MARKETING Group Marketing Manager: Laura Driffield Marketing Manager: Kristianne Stanton PRODUCTION & DISTRIBUTION Production Controller: Fran Twentyman Production Manager: Mark Constance Printed in the UK by: William Gibbons & Sons Ltd on behalf of Future Distributed by: Seymour Distribution Ltd, 2 East Poultry Avenue, London EC1A 9PT, Tel: 0207 429 4000 Overseas distribution by: Seymour International CIRCULATION Trade Marketing Manager: Michelle Brock Tel: + 44 (0)207 429 3683 LICENSING International Director: Regina Erak regina.erak@futurenet.com Tel: +44 (0)1225 442244 Fax: +44 (0)1225 732275 MANAGEMENT Content & Marketing Director: Nial Ferguson Head of Content & Marketing, Film, Music & Games: Declan Gough Group Editor-In-Chief: Daniel Griffiths Group Art Director: Graham Dalzell
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Welcome to this special edition from the team behind Future Music. In every issue of FM, we cover a broad spectrum of topics relating to hi-tech and electronic music making, most of which, naturally, involve the use of a computer. As anybody reading this magazine will no doubt understand, if you want to make music using a computer in 2015, there’s one type of application you will need to master before anything else – a digital audio workstation, or DAW. While there’s no single ‘best’ DAW out there that could be called an ‘industry standard’, in electronic music circles at least, Apple’s Logic Pro has a pretty good stab at claiming that crown. And as a result, Logic has always featured pretty heavily amongst the pages of FM. Here we’ve compiled the best of Future Music’s Logic Pro X tutorials, along with a ton of new features, to form a comprehensive guide to working with Apple’s powerful music production platform. We’ve everything covered from your few minutes with Logic to version 10.1 power tips, and from basic sound creation and recording right up to the final mix and mastering stage. We’ve a heap of audio and video content to help you along too. Head to vault.futuremusic.co.uk and register this magazine as issue 31 to download it all. We hope you enjoy! Si Truss, Editor simon.truss@futurenet.com 3
ULTIMATE GUIDE TO THE
LOGIC PRO X
CONTENTS
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New to Logic? Get to know its look, feel and features with our handy introductory guide.
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78
NEW IN LOGIC 10.1
VOCALS IN LOGIC
88 PARALLEL UNIVERSE
Unlock the potential of parallel processing, and learn how to use it in your Logic projects.
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INSTRUMENTS
BEATS
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Master Logic’s range of synths, samplers and instruments with our comprehensive guides.
INTRODUCING LOGIC PRO X
Explore the highlights of Logic’s latest update, and how to use each in your projects.
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Get pro-quality vocals in Pro X. We show you how to record, comp and mix for great results.
142 Gear Guide
You’ve mastered Logic, so where next? Expand your set-up with our expert buying guide...
EFFECTS
Unleash the power of Logic’s range of effects, from sound design to the final mixdown.
Explore the power of Drummer and Drum Kit Designer, and learn to create better beats in Logic.
BEYOND THE BASICS Become a Logic power user. Explore the deep, advanced features of Apple’s DAW.
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MASTERING IN LOGIC PRO X
Discover the secrets of the dark art of mastering and create pro-quality tracks at home. 5
Feature | Introducing Logic Pro X
Introducing
Logic Pro X The very definition of a modern, all-singing, all-dancing software workstation, Logic Pro X is Apple’s top-end platform for pro audio creation
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oftware packages which combine tools for sequencing, recording, editing, mixing and mastering music – taking a musical idea from its inception through to completion, in other words – are known as Digital Audio
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Workstations, or DAWs. Apple’s Logic Pro X is the very definition of a DAW, as it provides comprehensive tools for all of these processes. From more humble roots as a computer-based MIDI sequencer in the ’80s (the program was originally called Notator, made by C-Lab), a later version of Logic was bought by
Apple from German company Emagic in 2002. Since then, it has become a comprehensive software program, whose capabilities extend to every aspect of the modern music making process. It offers a suite of software instruments to help you program backing tracks and instrumental pieces, and audio recording facilities
for adding vocals and ‘real’ instruments captured through microphones. It also provides a large list of effects to help you mix these together, plus a range of other tools. Over the coming pages, we’ll introduce some of Logic Pro X’s key features and help you find your way around if you’re new to the program.
Introducing Logic Pro X | Feature
A Tour Of Logic Pro X’s Main Page
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The Main Page is where most of the action happens in Logic Pro X, with the vast majority of the key functions you need for music production accessible here. Let’s start by taking a tour of some principal features, so you can familiarise yourself with where you’ll find the tools you need. Logic Pro X is designed for left-toright workflow, which is a fancy way of saying that you can choose sounds and settings on the left, before recording these to the right. When you first open Logic Pro X, you’ll be greeted with a launch screen which will let you open a new, empty Project, or a template. Each of the templates loads with pre-selected instruments and effects settings. As you become more confident with Logic Pro’s commands, you’ll learn that all of these settings can be changed but, to get an overview of what Logic Pro X can do, clicking on one of these will get you started. The picture below is a screenshot taken from the Electronic template, so, once you’ve clicked on the Application to open Logic Pro X, click on this next and you’ll be looking at the same screen. The main body of the screen is mostly empty, with only a single yellow block labelled Intro. This area will eventually fill up with more ‘regions’ – blocks of information like Intro, containing music notes or audio recordings. To the left of this is
the Track List, with each horizontal layer here representing a Track. Each Track contains a single sound, so one might be assigned to a Bass sound, while the next one down might be assigned to play a drum kit. Read more about Logic’s tracks in Understanding Track Types. To the left of the Track List, you’ll find Logic’s Inspector which you can toggle open and closed by pressing the ‘i’ button in the top left-hand corner. The Inspector contains information and settings for the currently selected Track. At the bottom, you’ll see two channel strips, which look like those you’d find on a traditional mixing desk. The one on the left is the channel strip for whichever Track is selected, with a volume fader, a pan dial (selecting whether a sound plays back on the left, the right, or somewhere in between) and, further up, blue strips showing the names of effects which change the tone, volume, space and other sonic qualities of each track. The channel to the right of this is the main Output channel. All of the individual Tracks in a project reach this point before they’re sent to your speakers or headphones, so changing settings here (such as Volume) will have a global effect on the whole mix. At the very top of the screen is the Transport area, which contains Play, Record and ‘return to the beginning’ buttons, which help you get around your project as it grows.
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Feature | Introducing Logic Pro X
Basic Sequencing and First Edits
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Logic Pro is a huge program which offers such a comprehensive range of features that even seasoned users continue to discover new functions. But Logic has a shallow learning curve so you can make music within just a few minutes of booting the program for the first time.
With the release of Logic Pro X, Apple made it possible for those graduating from GarageBand to customise how many of Logic’s ‘pro’ features are available, the idea being that a smaller range equates to an easier learning experience. As a result, in Preferences you’ll find an Advanced Tools option. Clicking this offers Logic Pro in its fullest form,
but you might want to hold off until you’ve orientated yourself first. Sooner or later, however, it’s time to take the plunge and record your first MIDI sequence. To do this, load a sound from the Library, choosing an instrument category first and then a preset sound. Every time you click on a sound, you’ll be able to audition it by playing some notes on your MIDI keyboard or via the Musical Typing keyboard, which turns your computer’s keyboard into a note input device. You can swap it again later, so don’t worry about finding the
You can make music within just a few minutes of booting Logic Pro for the first time ‘perfect’ sound at this stage. When you’ve found a sound, double-click the Tempo button in the Transport area and select any tempo – pressing the record button will allow you to hear a metronome, so
Working With The Note Editor MIDI sequences can be edited to erase mistakes, correct timing and address other issues. Read on for a quick tour of the Piano Roll display The Piano Roll display is the main area in Logic where MIDI sequences are edited and it can be used for sequence creation too. On any MIDI track, either double-click an existing sequence or use the Pencil Tool – selected by pressing ‘T’– to click in any bar to create a new one. Once double-clicked, your sequence will open a new window at the bottom of the Main Page called the Piano Roll display, so named as notes in the sequence are placed next to their pitch shown by the virtual piano keyboard running up the left-hand side. The duration of each note is shown by its length, and its colour equates to Velocity; how strongly it has been played, in other words. Usually, strong playing equates to loud notes, while softer velocities are quieter. As we’ll see, the Piano Roll display updates as a MIDI sequence is edited.
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Our first track is a dreamy sequence sound playing a running sequence of notes. The timing isn’t great – you can hear the first two notes, in particular, jump. We drag in a beat loop onto an audio track, which shows up the timing irregularities even more.
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Double-clicking the sequence will open the Piano Roll display at the bottom, showing the notes as a sequence. Selecting 1/8 from the Quantize drop-down menu moves all of the notes completely in time, as each note is moved to the nearest 1/8th note grid space.
you can check if the tempo feels right. Then press Stop twice to return to the beginning of the track, press Record again and, this time, play some notes into Logic, using the metronome as a guide to keep your playing in time. As you play notes, you’ll see them being added to a rectangular sequence ‘region’. The region will automatically expand until you stop playing and press Stop, and then it will fix in size, to bracket the bars within which you’ve played notes. Press Stop a second time and the track’s playback ruler will jump back to the beginning. Press Play and you’ll hear your recording playing back. You’ve just recorded your first sequence in Logic! Chances are, it won’t be perfect but, before you delete it, let’s add a second instrument to it. Double-click below the first sound you loaded in the Track List area and a second software instrument track will be added below the first. Once again, use the Library to browse for a sound. Again, when you’ve auditioned a few, press Record and play under the first sequence. You’ll hear the first sound play back as you record the second one. Again, press Stop when you’ve finished and Stop again to return to the beginning. Press Play again and you’ll now hear both instruments. You can repeat this process as often as you like, building up a multitrack sequence in the process. If you want to remove one of your sequences, click on it once and press backspace. One of the advantages of recording MIDI is that performances can be edited in a number of ways. One of the most common is to correct the timing of a performance, using a function called Quantize. This snaps each note to a grid position within a bar and you can explore Quantize by selecting one of your sequences by clicking on it, before heading to the top section of the Inspector area. Here you’ll see Quantize: off. Click and hold ‘off’ and select one of the fractions to experiment with moving notes to the grid positions of your choice. Keep pressing Play to hear the results.
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The Piano Roll can also be used to add notes. Close the Musical Typing Keyboard (if open) and press ‘T’ while the cursor is over this display. Click on the Pencil Tool and click to add new notes. Double-click to remove them.
Introducing Logic Pro X | Feature
Introducing Automation There’s no need for sounds to be static in Logic as its extensive Automation features allow you to get any sound moving in a number of ways
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We begin by programming a basic MIDI sequence for a sound loaded from the Library named Micro Pulse. We use the Pencil Tool in the Piano Roll editor to draw a barlong sequence which is copied to the remaining seven bars. We select the notes in Bars 4, 5, 8 and 9 and move these up in pitch. We accompany these with a repeating beat loop created using Drum Machine Designer. The sounds go well together but the sequence is too repetitive.
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The opening curve recorded in Bars 2-6 sounds good but the second curve is less musically satisfying – it climbs to the top too quickly and stays there too long. It would be better to redraw the Automation with more accurate points but you can see how many individual dots there are! However, if we select the very last dot and drag it backwards to Bar 1, we can erase the automation line altogether.
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We open the Smart Controls for the Micro Pulse part and experiment with the dials. The Cutoff dial changes the tone of the sound, which becomes brighter as we turn the dial clockwise and duller if turned anti-clockwise. This sounds good and we’d like to record it changing throughout the sequence. We enable the Latch automation mode in the Micro Pulse part’s Inspector and press Play. Moving the Cutoff dial as the track plays back records the automation.
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This leaves just a single Automation point at the beginning of the track but we can click on the line to create a new one wherever we want. So with a single point at the start of Bars 2, 4, 6 and 8, we can create a new, more precise ramp, so that the tone lifts to Bar 4 before dropping to bar 6, before lifting higher at Bar 8 and dropping to Bar 10.
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We don’t want to record any more Automation for now, so we make our track ‘safe’ by swapping Latch Mode for Read Mode in the Inspector. Then we press ‘A’ on the computer keyboard to launch Automation mode, which will let us see the Cutoff data line we drew. By default, Logic shows Volume as the Automation parameter but if we click where it says Volume, we can select Cutoff instead, which is at the bottom of the parameter list.
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By switching back to Latch Mode, we can write other Automation lines for the same instrument, or we could select Latch Mode on other tracks to record Automation for them instead. Sticking with the Micro Pulse part, we use the Smart Controls to record and edit lines for Decay Time, Delay and Reverb. Each time, we simply select the parameter we want from the list drop-down menu before editing, if necessary, as before.
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Feature | Introducing Logic Pro X
Understanding Track Types
Logic Pro has a left-to-right workflow, so you load sounds from the Browser on the left and then record them on the right
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Logic works with different types of Tracks. There’s no right or wrong order for your Tracks, so you can set them up however you like. The first Track type is called a Software Instrument which allows you to use a range of virtual instruments which can play sounds of all shapes and sizes. If you want to make a recording of a real instrument, either through a microphone or by connecting a guitar, for instance, you’ll need to set up an Audio Track instead, of which more later. Logic also allows you to connect external instruments such as MIDI keyboards and the External Instrument option gets Logic and that piece of hardware communicating with each other. Drummer is a dedicated track type which helps you create lifelike, interesting drum patterns, whether you favour the sound of real, acoustic drum kits, or electronic drum machines. The Drummer instrument provides you not only with a collection of drum sounds but also with an intelligent pattern generator, which allows you to build a convincing drum pattern based on key criteria. A simple axis allows you to find the right balance between Loud and Soft playing and Simple and Complex patterns, with the resulting position translating to a pattern for the whole kit. You can further customise this by using sliders to select alternative patterns for kick and snare, or switching between hi-hats and cymbals, for instance. All of Logic’s sounds can be loaded directly into its software instruments, but it’s often more intuitive to load sounds from the Browser, which can be opened in the top left-hand corner. This then lets you search by sound or instrument type, creating a left-to-right flow across Logic’s screen as you choose sounds before recording them. If you decide to record using microphones and you select an Audio Track to capture their sounds, you’ll need to match the Input Number at the top of the Audio Track to the physical port of your audio interface to which you’ve connected your microphone.
Introducing Logic Pro X | Feature
Expanding Your Logic options
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Do download the free Additional Content which Apple make available for Logic Pro. It’s full of sounds and instrument settings, so head to Logic Pro X > Download Additional Content.
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Remember you can open GarageBand songs directly in Logic. Drag and drop a GarageBand project onto the Logic icon and it will load, complete with all settings.
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Explore the templates. When you first open Logic, you can open a blank project or load a template. The templates offer a great way to explore a pre-packed group of Logic’s instruments and effects.
Apple’s Loop Browser
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Amongst the content you can download once you’ve installed Logic Pro X is a huge collection of audio files which, together, form the Apple Loop Library. The majority of this is loopable musical content which you can drag and drop onto audio tracks. The Loop Browser, in the top right-hand corner of the screen provides a matrix via which you can narrow the criteria of a search; so you can track down Clean Acoustic Guitars by clicking those three buttons, for instance. Each individual loop is tagged with rhythm data and/ or pitch data too, showing you the original key and speed at which the audio was captured. But the unique thing about the audio content in the Loop Browser is that it is designed to automatically ‘match’ your project. If
you drag and drop a drum loop, for instance, it will automatically stretch to play back at the tempo of your project, without you having to process it manually. Similarly, pitched content can be transposed to fit your track without any offline processing. Content in the Loop Browser is either blue or green. Blue files can only work on audio tracks but green files can either be dropped as audio or dragged to Software Instrument tracks. If you select the latter option, they’ll appear as MIDI regions rather than audio files, meaning that you can retain the notes of a sequence but assign them to the sound of your choice. Whether you’re looking for some musical inspiration to kick-start the writing process, or for some subtle underscore loops to thicken your production, the Loop Browser is crammed with audio goodies.
Logic Pro’s Many Effects Processors Logic not only allows you to record sounds but it also lets you process them with many different types of effects Music producers first have to record performers through microphones and program notes using instrument plug-ins, and then they have to decide how to process each of these sounds. Most studio sounds start life fairly dry and lacking the kind of natural ambience that live sound has, so producers might add this back in by using Reverb effects. These emulate the sounds of halls, rooms and other spaces. Equally, sometimes sounds are more dramatic when they’re smeared with echoes, usually referred to as Delay effects. The list of effects available within Logic Pro is long, with effects organised in categories to reflect their type. The easiest way to introduce effects is to add them to Insert slots and creating chains of effects can be a sonically impressive way to radically shape your productions.
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Don’t worry if you don’t have access to a MIDI keyboard. From the Window menu, select Show Musical Typing and your computer keyboard will transform into a note input device. Great if you’re out and about.
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We start with a simple piano part which is programmed into the Piano Roll editor using the Pencil Tool. The sound is currently dry, meaning that it has no effects processing on it. You can see that – the Insert slots for the Piano’s channel are empty.
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By clicking on an effects slot, we launch a list of effect types and we select Tape Delay from the Delay category, then Space Designer from the Reverb one. Tape Delay adds echoes, whilst the Hall reverb adds ambience, making the piano sound more spacey and distant.
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We add a Flanger effect, which produces a doubling quality, while we also add Amp Designer, which you’d usually associate with guitar treatments. Effects can be added in any order and experimenting is the best way to familiarise yourself with what’s available.
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Feature | Introducing Logic Pro X
What Are Smart Controls?
The Smart Controls window opens at the bottom of the screen, to allow easy access to key instrument and effect parameters
How to…
Use A Drummer Track
How to…
Program Your Own Beats
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When you load a sound from Logic’s Library via the Browser, as well as setting up a sound and some associated effects, Logic Pro also provides you with some dials to allow you to modify that sound, either to create a new ‘static’ sound, or with a view to creating changes which can be recorded as Automation, to allow sounds to evolve during playback. These are called Smart Controls and they can be enabled by pressing the Smart Controls button next to the Library and Inspector buttons. Once open, the Smart Controls pane will offer some named dials which are mapped to key parameters allied to the sound you’ve selected – some will affect the instrument producing the sound itself; others might change parameters in the chain of effects included with the instrument. Exploring Smart Controls lets you feel in control of the sounds you choose. It also introduces you to the names and functions of key parameters.
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How to…
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How to…
To add a Drummer track, click the ‘+’ button above the track list and select Drummer, before selecting from the Genre options below. You’ll see two yellow regions added when you press the Create button – delete one of these (to keep things simple) and move the other to match the length of your arrangement, or a section of it. Use the Soft/Loud, Simple/Complex yellow ball to create a performance you like – press play to hear the results generated in real time. Then, modify the sliders for the instrument types to the right, dialling in Fills and Swing amount for more rhythmic variation.
Don’t like the idea of Drummer helping you to program beats? There’s nothing to stop you doing it yourself. There are lots of drum kits in Logic’s Ultrabeat instrument, as well as for the EXS24 sampler, so loading one of these is a good starting point. Then, you’ll find different drum sounds mapped to each key, so playing the keyboard will help you locate the drum sounds you want to use. Drum parts usually require timing accuracy, so drawing notes into a grid is the best way to start. Use the ‘T’ command to select the Pencil Tool, then click to create a sequence. Use ‘T’ again in the Piano Roll to add notes to grid positions.
Control Logic Remotely
Correct Time And Pitch
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If you have a keyboard packed with dials, sliders and rotary controls, you’re likely to want to use these to take control of key Logic parameters, such as mapping them to Smart Controls. While your mouse will only ever let you control one parameter at a time, a control surface will let you control as many parameters as you can get your hands on. The good news is that nearly any control surface can be connected to Logic and, while the precise ways in which this happens varies from one manufacturer to another, the instrument’s manual will help. If you own an iPad, Apple’s own (free) Logic Remote app is a great tool too.
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Audio files in Logic can be modified in a range of ways. The Flex engine takes its name from its ability to flexibly warp sections of audio files, either in terms of their pitch or their time. If you want to correct the pitch of a vocal, for instance, you can do so, whether you want to transpose entire notes, or subtly correct some wayward tuning. Equally, you can modify the timing of audio files, to pull around where the beats within a loop fall, for instance, to take regular rhythms and make them deliberately irregular. Flex editing might seem complicated but it’s a powerful manipulation engine for when you’re ready.
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