When producing, it is often desirable to stack different instruments to create more unique and textured sounds. The process of editing the MIDI data that controls those instruments can become tiresome and interrupt creative work flow as you are forced to update all corresponding MIDI regions before even the smallest of MIDI edits can be previewed. There are a few ways around this in Logic, one of which provides us with the opportunity to take a look into Logic’s Environment.
How to Create a Multi-Instrument in Logic’s Environment
Nov 20th in Logic Pro, Production by Will Walker
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How to Edit All Your Takes At Once in Logic Pro 9
Nov 14th in Logic Pro, Mixing & Mastering by Joel FalconerLet’s say you’ve just finished a day of tracking and you have a whole bunch of takes for one vocal part thanks to Logic’s comping feature. But at the last minute it’s decided that two lines should be switched around for creative reasons, or a certain word should be sung closer to the beat. It would be a waste of time and money to go back to the tracking phase, but it’s going to be hard to choose the best comp without being able to preview the changes. How do you edit them all at once so you can judge each take? Logic Pro 9 allows you to do so.
How to Create Acid Synth Sequences
Nov 9th in Logic Pro, Production by Mo VolansThere seems to have been somewhat of a resurgence in acid style synth programming of late. So … I thought I would do a tutorial on how to create that classic acid sound with a standard subtractive soft synth, a heavy dose of glide and some distortion.
Using Logic Pro 9’s Varispeed to Tempo-Shift Entire Projects
Nov 6th in Logic Pro, Production by Joel FalconerOne of the many excellent new features of Logic Pro 9 is Varispeed. Varispeed gives you the ability to speed up and slow down your projects — not just a single instrument, but the entire project can be instantly tempo-shifted. Let’s look at how it’s done.
How to Use Pitch Correction for Vocal Effects
Nov 4th in Logic Pro, Production by Ryan LeachAuto-tuned vocals are a cool effect have become a standard technique in popular music. The sound can be heard all over pop and electronica from the last decade. A variety of artists use it, from T-Pain to Cher, and even the J-Pop band Perfume from West’s Polyrhythm tutorial. Even President Obama has gotten in on it (well, sort of…).
How to Use Gate Plug-ins Creatively
Nov 2nd in Ableton Live, Cubase, Logic Pro, Production by Mo VolansThis tutorial will help you to stop looking at your gate plug-ins as boring noise removal tools and get you using them as creative tools and effects.
Drum Replacement in Logic
Oct 26th in Logic Pro, Production by Björgvin BenediktssonThe basic rhythm track drives the song forward, and everything else
builds upon it. You may have written your song on an acoustic
guitar and laid that down first, but drums are usually the backbone
of a song, keeping everything well structured and grooving. But what
if you don’t know how to record drums? Or you end up with
someone’s recording that’s so bad that you’d rather tap pencils
on your desk. Drum replacement may be an option.
Recently we showed you how to use Logic Pro 9’s Drum Replacer. This tutorial covers a technique that allows you to fix drum tracks by replacing the drums using previous versions on Logic.
Quantizing Audio with Logic Pro 9’s Flex Time
Oct 23rd in Logic Pro, Production by Joel FalconerLogic Pro 9 introduced the “Flex Time” feature which is a set of tools for manipulating audio rhythm and timing data the way you would edit MIDI. I’m going to be covering Flex Time in detail and how you can use it in detail, but in this tutorial we’ll get our feet wet with some basic audio quantization.
How to Use Logic Pro 9’s Drum Replacer
Oct 17th in Logic Pro, Production by Joel FalconerDrum replacement is a tool that comes in handy when recorded drums just won’t work with the rest of the track. Whether that’s because of a badly placed mic or the wrong kit was recorded, technology has made it easy to swap in some more appropriate samples while retaining the dynamic characteristics of the original recording. I’ve long wished that Logic would adopt drum replacement abilities like those Pro Tools has, and with Logic Pro 9 it did — and it does it much better, too.
How to Layer Sequences to Create Depth and Pace
Oct 5th in Instruments, Logic Pro, Production, Sound Design by Mo VolansMost of us use MIDI sequences in our projects at some point in the production process. Even when you find the perfect pattern that really compliments your other parts, you can still be left wanting. Even with extra processing and effects a simple pattern can sometimes sound a little dry and clinical.
The answer often doesn’t lie in reprogramming the sequence or using heavy effects processing. A more simple approach can be using one or two extra synths layered with your original pattern. This can add depth and pace to the whole piece and often make the part more exciting.
Lets take a look at the entire process, from recording the original part right through to mixing the layered sounds into your existing project.
