Logic Pro X for Dummies

Spend less time learning and more time recording

Logic Pro X offers Mac users the tools and power they need to create recordings ready to share with the world. This book provides the know-how for navigating the interface, tweaking the settings, picking the sounds, and all the other tech tasks that get in the way of capturing the perfect take. 

Written by a Logic Pro X trainer who’s used the software to further his own music career, Logic Pro X For Dummies cuts back on the time needed to learn the software and allows for more time making amazing recordings.

• Record live sound sources or built-in virtual instruments
• Arrange your tracks to edit, mix, and master
• Discover tips to speed the process and record on an iPad
• Make sense of the latest software updates

A favorite among Logic Pro X beginners, this book is updated to reflect the ongoing changes added to enhance Logic Pro X’s recording power.

Graham English is a singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, jazz-trained keyboard player, and audio expert. When he's not sharing the stage with rock and jazz greats, he trains and coaches creative professionals at Logic Studio Training and creates online training materials for aspiring songwriters at speedsongwriting.com.

Introduction 1

About This Book 1

Foolish Assumptions 2

Icons Used in This Book 2

Beyond the Book 3

Where to Go from Here 3

Part 1: Leaping into Logic Pro X 5

Chapter 1: Getting Logic Pro Up and Sprinting 7

Embracing Logic Pro 8

Transitioning from Other Software 9

Creating with Logic Pro 10

Thinking like a pro 10

Planning your creative process 10

Getting to the finish line 12

Connecting Your Logic Pro Studio 13

Setting up your computer 14

Connecting your hardware 15

Building common setups 16

Chapter 2: Examining Logic Pro Projects 19

Starting Your Project 20

Opening a project 21

Saving a project 22

Closing a project 23

Naming and renaming a project 23

Augmenting Your Project 24

Saving time with project templates 24

Autosave your hard work 24

Recover from problems with project backups 25

Create options with project alternatives 25

Customizing Your Project Settings 26

Import settings and content from other projects 28

Export your project for collaboration 30

Tidying Up Your Project 32

Chapter 3: Exploring the Main Window and Tracks Area 35

Navigating Logic Pro 35

Getting comfortable in the main window 36

Working in the tracks area 36

Controlling the control bar 39

Polishing in the editors area 42

Investigating the inspector 43

Taking Inventory of Your Track List 44

Make headway with track headers 44

Make it pretty with track colors 46

Zooming Tracks 47

Your Logic Pro Toolbox 48

Keeping It Simple with Smart Controls 51

Opening smart controls 51

Editing smart control layouts 53

Manually mapping smart controls 53

Editing smart control parameters 55

Controlling the controls with your controller 56

Navigating with Key Commands 57

Saving Workspaces with Screensets 60

Chapter 4: Embracing Tracks and Regions 63

Knowing Your Track Types 64

Audio track 64

Software instrument track 65

Drummer track 65

External MIDI track 66

Track stacks 67

Folder track 68

Around the Global Tracks 69

Sorting and Hiding Tracks 71

Creating Options with Track Alternatives 72

Knowing the Region Types 72

Audio region 73

MIDI region 73

Drummer region 74

Editing Regions 74

Dragging, moving, and resizing regions 74

Splitting, joining, and deleting regions 76

Snapping regions to a grid 77

Looping and copying regions 77

Part 2: Digital Recording and Using Prerecorded Media 79

Chapter 5: Introduction to Digital Audio and MIDI 81

Understanding Digital Audio 81

Acoustics 101 82

Set your sample rate 83

Determine your bit depth 84

Choosing audio file types 85

Connecting Your Audio Devices 86

Choosing your input and output device 86

Setting your I/O buffer size and reducing latency 87

Monitoring signals through your hardware or software 88

Exploring audio preferences 89

Understanding MIDI 91

Sending MIDI messages 92

Changing MIDI channels 92

Connecting Your MIDI Devices 93

Connecting MIDI controllers 93

Connecting external instruments 93

Exploring MIDI preferences 93

Chapter 6: Recording Audio 95

Preparing to Record Audio 95

Test your recording levels 97

Enable software and input monitoring 98

Setting up the metronome 98

Recording Your First Audio Take 100

Recording Multiple Takes in Cycle Mode 101

Recording Multiple Inputs 103

Punching In and Punching Out 103

Recording with Smart Tempo 105

Setting Up Multiple Monitor Mixes 106

Giving your singer a separate vocal cue mix 107

Chapter 7: Recording MIDI 109

Preparing to Record MIDI 109

Recording external MIDI instruments 110

Recording software instruments 112

Recording with musical typing 113

Recording with the step input keyboard 114

Recording Your First MIDI Take 116

Recording Multiple MIDI Takes in Cycle Mode 117

Creating Tracks in Cycle Mode 118

Overdubbing MIDI 119

Recording Multiple MIDI Inputs 119

Chapter 8: Adding Media to Your Project 121

Adding Apple Loops to Your Project 121

Navigating the loop browser 122

Adding audio loops 123

Adding MIDI loops 125

Adding drummer loops 125

Adding Prerecorded Audio to Your Project 126

Using the browsers to find audio files 126

Adding audio to your project 127

Adding audio from the media browser 128

Adding audio from the all files browser 130

Importing Video to Your Project 131

Adding a movie to your project 131

Exploring the movie track 132

Creating movie scene markers 133

Importing audio from your movie 133

Part 3: Making Music with Virtual Instruments 135

Chapter 9: Making Beats with Drum and Percussion Software Instruments 137

Playing with Your Virtual Drummer 138

Creating a drummer track 138

Creating drummer regions 139

Choosing and directing your drummer in the editor 139

Selecting producer kits 142

Building custom kits with Drum Kit Designer 142

Converting drummer regions to MIDI regions 144

Creating Beats with Ultrabeat 144

Exploring the Ultrabeat interface 145

Choosing sounds in the assignment section 146

Shaping sounds in the synthesizer section 148

Sequencing patterns in the step sequencer 152

Controlling patterns with MIDI 155

Exporting patterns into the tracks area 156

Designing Electronic Drums Kits with Drum Machine Designer 156

Exploring the Drum Machine Designer interface 158

Playing drums and kit pieces 158

Editing drum sounds 158

Chapter 10: Playing Virtual Vintage Instruments 161

Taking Stock of Vintage Instruments 162

Loading and playing vintage instruments 162

Choosing vintage instrument presets 163

Spinning Your Tone Wheels with the Vintage B3 163

Understanding drawbars 164

Get the vintage vibe with vibrato/chorus and percussion 168

Playing with presets 170

Spinning the Leslie 170

Going deep into expert options 171

Controlling the manuals and foot pedals with MIDI controllers 172

Funking Up the Vintage Clav 173

Choosing your Clav type 173

Picking your pickups 173

Getting classic sounds with effects 175

Extending your Clav 176

Getting the Tone of Tines with the Vintage Electric Piano 176

Exploring tines, reeds, and tone bars 176

Producing great sounds with timeless effects 177

Playing with additional parameters 177

Making Music with the Vintage Mellotron 178

Fusing Four Synths with Retro Synth 179

Choosing your flavor of synthesis: Analog, sync, wavetable, and FM 179

Controlling your synth parameters 180

Modifying synth effects 181

Modulating the synth 181

Chapter 11: Sound Design with Synths and Samplers 183

Exploring the Logic Pro Synths 183

The EFM1 FM synth 185

The ES1 subtractive synth 186

The ES2 hybrid synth 188

The ES E ensemble synth 190

The ES M mono synth 191

The ES P poly synth 193

The EVOC 20 poly synth vocoder 194

Modeling Sounds Using Sculpture 195

Understanding sound modeling 196

Exploring the Sculpture interface 197

Sampling with the EXS24 Sampler 199

Importing sample libraries 199

Converting regions to sampler instruments 200

Controlling sample parameters 201

Editing sampled instruments 202

Manipulating Samples with Alchemy 203

Exploring the Alchemy interface 203

Designing and resynthesizing sounds 204

Using the arpeggiator 205

Adding effects 206

Chapter 12: Conducting a Virtual Orchestra 207

Building an Orchestral Template 208

Choosing your orchestral instruments 209

Choosing appropriate staff styles 211

Saving your orchestral template 212

Performing Your Orchestra 214

Playing with Studio Strings and Horns 216

Traveling the World Instruments 217

Part 4: Arranging and Editing Your Project 219

Chapter 13: Arranging Your Music 221

Working in the Tracks Area 221

Using the ruler 222

Scrubbing the arrangement 223

Investigating the region inspector 223

Investigating the track inspector 225

Showing Your Global Tracks 226

Creating and naming markers 227

Creating key signature and time signature changes 229

Creating tempo changes 231

Creating arrangement markers 233

Creating transposition points 233

Beat Mapping Your Arrangement 234

Beat mapping MIDI regions 234

Beat mapping audio regions 235

Automatically beat-mapping regions 235

Arranging Regions in the Tracks Area 236

Selecting regions 237

Selecting parts of regions with the marquee tool 238

Moving regions 239

Soloing and muting regions 240

Time-stretching regions 241

Demixing MIDI regions 241

Fading and crossfading audio regions 241

Stripping silence from audio regions 242

Creating Folder Tracks 243

Packing and unpacking folders 243

Adding and removing regions 244

Creating alias folders and regions 244

Using Groove Templates 245

Creating a groove template 246

Importing groove templates from other projects 247

Importing third-party groove templates 247

Chapter 14: Editing Audio Tracks 249

Knowing Your Audio Editors 249

The audio track editor 250

The audio file editor 250

The file tempo editor 251

Creating the Perfect Take with Quick Swipe Comping 251

Comping takes 252

Creating alternate comps 253

Editing take regions 253

Packing and unpacking take folders 254

Time Traveling with Flex Time 255

Choosing flex time algorithms 256

Using flex markers 258

Using the flex tool 259

Tuning with Flex Pitch 259

Editing pitch in the tracks area 260

Editing pitch in the audio track editor 260

Editing pitch event hot spots 261

Quantizing the pitch and scale of a region 262

Editing Audio in the Audio File Editor 262

Navigating and playing audio 263

Selecting audio 264

Editing audio 265

Editing Tempo in the File Tempo Editor 267

Editing beat markers 267

Chapter 15: Editing MIDI Tracks 269

Knowing Your MIDI Editors 270

Editing MIDI in the Piano Roll Editor 274

Adding and editing notes 275

Editing the velocity of notes 275

Quantizing notes 276

Muting notes 276

Using automation 277

Editing MIDI in the Step Editor 277

Creating and editing steps 277

Creating and editing lanes 278

Creating and editing lane sets 279

Editing MIDI in the Score Editor 279

Creating and editing notes in the score 280

Investigating the score region inspector 281

Adding items from the part box 282

Editing MIDI in the MIDI Transform Window 283

Using transform presets 284

Creating transform presets 285

Editing MIDI in the Event List Editor 285

Displaying events 285

Creating and editing events 286

Editing Your MIDI Environment 287

Exploring object parameters 287

Viewing environment layers 288

Inserting objects in the environment 288

Part 5: Mixing, Mastering, and Sharing Your Music 289

Chapter 16: Mixing Your Project 291

Understanding Important Mixing Concepts 291

Mindset 292

Acoustics 292

Balance 294

Panning 295

Frequency 296

Depth 297

Effects 297

Dynamics 297

Interest 298

Knowing Your Channel Strip Types 299

Audio channel strips 299

Instrument channel strips 300

MIDI channel strips 300

Auxiliary channel strips 300

Output channel strips 300

Using Meters to Visualize Volume and Levels 301

Understanding clipping 302

Choosing pre-fader or post-fader metering 302

Changing the level-meter scale 304

Using the Loudness Meter 305

Adjusting Channel Strip Controls 305

Adjusting volume and toggling between levels 306

Adjusting the pan balance 306

Muting and soloing tracks 307

Grouping tracks 307

Choosing input and output settings 308

Selecting channel strip settings 309

Taking Track Notes 309

Chapter 17: Shaping Your Mix with Effects 311

Adding Effects to Tracks 311

Adding audio and MIDI insert effects 312

Adding send effects 312

Controlling Signal Flow 314

Understanding how insert and send effects work 314

Using auxiliary channel strips 314

Using multi-output instruments 315

Using the output and master channel strips 316

Adjusting the EQ of Your Tracks 317

Adding Channel EQ 317

Using match EQ 319

Adding Depth with Reverb and Delay 320

Using Space Designer 321

Using ChromaVerb 323

Using Delay Designer 324

Adding or Removing Dynamics with Compression 325

Using Compressor 325

Using Limiter 328

Using other dynamics tools 329

Chapter 18: Automating Your Mix 331

Turning Your Mix Into a Performance with Automation 331

Choosing Your Automation Mode 332

Adding Automation to Your Tracks 333

Adjusting automation points 334

Moving regions with or without automation 334

Recording Live Automation 335

Chapter 19: Mastering Your Final Track 337

Fine-Tuning EQ 338

Using Linear Phase EQ 338

Matching a reference mix with Match EQ 338

Adding Multiband Compression 340

Using Multipressor 341

Avoiding a squashed mix 341

Turn It Up 342

Using Adaptive Limiter for maximum loudness 342

Matching levels to other recorded material 343

Chapter 20: Bouncing and Sharing Your Music 345

Bouncing Your Project 345

Recording external instruments before you bounce 346

Bouncing to an audio file 347

Creating Stems and Alternate Mixes 348

Bouncing a stem mix 349

Bouncing alternate mixes 349

Sharing Your Music 350

Sharing your project to iTunes 350

Sharing your project to the media browser 350

Sharing your project to SoundCloud 351

Part 6: The Part of Tens 353

Chapter 21: Ten Ways to Use an iPad with Logic Pro X 355

Playing Keys 356

Playing Guitar 357

Playing Drums 357

Editing Tracks and Your Arrangement 358

Using Your iPad Mixing Console 360

Recording Remotely 361

Commanding Logic Pro 361

Navigating Logic Pro 362

Adding Tracks with GarageBand for iOS 363

Importing iPad Audio 364

Chapter 22: Ten Tips to Speed Your Workflow 367

Keep Detailed Notes 367

Use Key Commands 368

Use Screensets 368

Save Track Stack Patches and Channel Strip Settings 369

Choose a Tool and Master It 370

Choose a Tool and Ignore It 370

Use the Fastest Way, Not the Right Way 370

Establish a Troubleshooting Strategy 371

Save and Back Up Frequently 371

Don’t Lose Sight of the Music 372

Index 373

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