Section 1 - Introduction

keyboard shortcuts

Show / Hide Library Y Move Playhead To Next .

Bar
Show / Hide Inspector I
Move Playhead To ,
Show / Hide Quick Help ⌘ß Previous Bar

Show / Hide Mixer X Move Playhead To Project ⏎

Start
Show / Hide List Editor D
Catch Playhead <
Show / Hide Note Pads ⌥⌘ P
Scroll in Play ⌃<
Show / Hide Loop O
Browser Save Project ⌘S

Show / Hide (File) F Save Project As ⇧⌘ S

Browser
Open Another Project ⌘O
Play / Pause ␣
Import File ⌘I
Open Settings ⌘,

Open Key Command ⌥K

Assignments

Show / Hide Color ⌥C

Palette

Horizontal Zoom ⇧⌥ Mouse-

wheel

Horizontal Movement ⇧ Mouse-

wheel

Vertical Zoom ⌥ Mouse-

wheel

Vertical Movement Mouse-

wheel

Zoom To Fit Selection Z

Zoom focused track ⌃Z

Toggle Cycle C

Skip Cycle “=“

Toggle Metronome K
(Click)

Enable / Disable Count in ⇧K

 Logic’s User Interface
Section 1

Library (Y) Rewind (,)

Master Volume Fader
Inspector (I) Forward (.)

Quick Help (⌘ ß) Go to beginning (↩︎)

List Editor (D)
Tool Bar (⌃⌥⌘ T) Play / Pause (␣)
Note Pads (⌥⌘ P)
Smart Controls (B) Record (R)
Loop Browser (O)
Mixer (X) Toggle Cycle (C)
File Browser (F)
Editor (E) Count in (⇧ K)
Click (K)

Tool Bar

Help
Track
Header Workspace
Place for:
Area List Editor
Library

Inspector

Note Pads

Loop Browser
Place for:
File Browser
Smart Controls

Mixer

Editor Windows

Workspace: where you create, edit and move regions.

Library: Where you save, organise and browse channel strip settings
Inspector: Where you see the channel strip of your selected track and the Master or Bus channel
Quick Help: Shows you a quick explanation when hovering over a function or window.
Tool Bar: clickable access for many functions when editing regions
Smart Controls: automatically generated set of knobs to quickly tweak your sound
Mixer: horizontal alignment of all channel strips
Editor: Window for Region editing (Piano Roll, Notation, Step Sequencer, Drummer, Audio file…)
Rewind: moves the playhead to the start of the previous bar
Forward: moves the playhead to the start of the next bar
Go To beginning: Moves the playhead to the project start
Play / Pause: Start to stops the playback of the project
Record: Enters Record Mode to record MIDI or Audio depending on the selected track
Toggle Cycle: enables or disables the loop cycle (click and hold to set it to “skip cycle”)
Count in: toggles the count in for recording
Click: toggles the Metronome
Master Volume Fader: controls the Master Volume (not the same as the Stereo Output track!)
List Editor: Lists every MIDI event.
Note Pads: write Notes for the whole Project or each individual track
Loop Browser: Browser through Apple’s Loop Library
File Browser: Browse through your own computers folder structures
 Section 2 - Editing Basics
keyboard shortcuts

Open Editor E Toggle Input Monitoring ⌃I

Open Notation N Solo Track S

Open Smart Controls B Mute Track M

Open Toolbar ⌃⌥⌘ T Solo Region ⌃S

Show / Hide Automation A Mute Region ⌃M

Show / Hide Flex ⌘F Deactivate Track ⌥M

Show / Hide Global G Hide Track H

Tracks
Import File ⌘I
Show / Hide Musical ⌘K
Typing Select All ⌘A

Show / Hide Step Input ⌥⌘ K Select All Following ⇧F

Keyboard
Invert Selection ⇧I
Global Tracks ⌥G
Con guration Select Muted ⇧M

Tool Menu T Move Selection To ⌘#

Playhead
Record R
Snap To Grid ⌘G
Capture As Recording ⇧R
Repeat Region ⌘R
Create New Track ⌥⌘ N
Duplicate Time ⌃⌘ R

Create Track Stack ⇧⌘ D Loop Region L

Set Cycle to Selection ⌘U

Duplicate Track ⌘D
Bounce in Place ⌃B

Double Drum Track ⌃D Split Region at Playhead ⌘T

Rename Track ⇧⏎ Split Region at Locators ⌃⌘ T

Track Header ⌥T Join Regions per Tracks J

Con guration
Join Regions ⌘J
Open Local Inspector ⌥⇧ I
Semitone Transposition ⌥ ↑/↓

Open Pattern Browser ⌥⇧ B Octave Transposition ⇧⌥ ↑/↓

Set Punch Locators ⌃⌥⌘ P

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 Tool Menu
Section 2

The Tool Menu can be found in the top center of the workspace.

By default you are able to select one tool as the left click tool and another as the ⌘ + left click tool

In the settings under General → Editing → Right Mouse Button you can set

Now you will see 3 Tool Menus in the top center of the workspace!

For each of these 2 or 3 Tool Menus in the workspace you have the same selection of tools.

This differs for different types of editor windows (Notation, Audio File, Piano Roll, Pattern…)

The left click tool setting can be accessed more quickly with “T”.

Here is an overview over what the tools in the Workspace to:

 Tool Bar
Section 2

The Tool Bar can be opened with the command ⌃⌥⌘ T and features a lot of functions as clickable
buttons that are usually used with keyboard shortcuts!

This is great for people who don’t like to remember the respective shortcuts!

Here is an overview of all the elements of the toolbar:

 Snap, Drag & Autozoom
Section 2

The snap pop-up menu can be found right next to the tool drop-down menu and lets you
define the nearest grid position regions will snap to when moving them.

Shortcut to activate or deactivate snap: ⌘ G

In this section of the pop-up menu you can

select the grid you want the regions to snap to

Ticks: 96th of a beat

Frames: according to the project frame rate
Quarter Frames: Frames / 4
Samples: according to the project frame rate

This section lets you set if you want to keep

deliberate offsets to the defined grid or not.

This section is for editing and moving audio

regions.

This section lets you set snap automation points

Alignment Guides help you align regions on different

tracks by showing the Alignment Guides Line

The drag pop-up menu can be found right next to the snap pop-up menu and lets you
define how regions behave when dragging them to overlapping positions.

Here is an overview over the 5 options offered in the drag pop-up menu:

1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Right next to the Drag pop-up menu you will find

the Zoom and Autozoom options!

1. Waveform zoom button (click and hold to resize audio waveforms)

2. Vertical Autozoom button: ⌃⌥⇧ Z
3. Horizontal Autozoom button: ⌃⌥ Z
4. Vertical Zoom slider: ⌥ mouse wheel
5. Horizontal Zoom sider: ⇧⌥ mouse wheel
Channel Strips and Track Types
Section 2

When adding a new track (⌥⌘ N) there are 4 track types you can add:

MIDI, Pattern and Drummer (Since

Version 11.1 Session Player) tracks all
allow you to place a MIDI, Pattern or
Drummer Region on any of them!

They offer 3 different workflows for

working on MIDI.

MIDI: Piano Roll Editor

Pattern: Step Sequencer workflow

Drummer: procedural MIDI data

creation for drums

The input for those 3 track types is

always a software instrument!

Audio tracks are totally different!

They work on the basis of analog input.

Any signal from any track type can be

processed with Audio FX

After the FX..

←it can be sent to Buses

←You can set it’s output
←You can assign it to a group
←Set it’s automation mode
←You can select an icon for the track

←You can pan it

←Change it’s volume

←Enable record or input monitoring

(only on audio tracks)
↖︎Mute or Solo the track (“M” or “S”)
 MIDI Regions and Tracks
Section 2

MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) regions can be placed on MIDI tracks, pattern tracks and
drummer tracks!

To create a MIDI region, you can do one of 6 things:

1. Right-click into an empty Bar on a compatible track

2. Use the pencil to click into an empty Bar on a MIDI Track

3. Hit “R” to record MIDI Data live into a compatible track

4. Start the playback, play in MIDI data, stop the playback, then hit “⇧R” to capture as recording

5. Drag and drop a MIDI file into the workspace

6. Drag in a MIDI region from the Loop Library

To edit the content of a MIDI Region you will have to open up the Editor with “E”.

Here are the most relevant shortcuts for manual editing:

Selection in the Piano Roll Editing Note Pitch (transposition)

Select All Notes ⌘A Transpose By Semitones ⌥ ↑ or ↓

Select Following Notes ⇧F Transpose By Octaves ⇧⌥ ↑ or ↓

Select Following Notes ⌃⇧ F

Of Same Pitch Editing Note Start (position)

Invert Selection ⇧I Nudge ⌥ ← or →

Mute Notes ⌃M Move to Playhead ⌘#

Select Muted ⇧M
Editing Note End (length)
Select Highest Notes ⇧↑
Double Note Length ⌃⌥⌘ .
Select Lowest Notes ⇧↓
Halve Note Length ⌃⌥⌘ ,
Select All Notes Of A Left-click on
Speci c Pitch the Piano or Note Start To Playhead ⌘Ö
⇧E
Note End To Playhead ⌘Ä
Select All Notes Inside ⇧L
Locators Force Legato ⇧Ü
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 MIDI Regions and Tracks
Section 2

Now let’s get into the more advanced functions in the piano roll editor!

Quantization
moves every Note to the nearest position on a defined grid.

To define the grid, open top the local inspector (⌥⇧ I) and select a grid for either..

1. time quantization
(You can also apply swing here)

Or….

2. scale quantization

To apply the quantization, first select all notes you want to quantise and then simply click the Q button
or use the shortcut “Q”

Time Handles
allow you to freely create timing adjustments by stretching or compressing selected notes in the region.

1. Enable Time Handles (⌃ T)

2. Check if they are actually activated in the “Functions” drop down menu

3. Click and drag over the notes you want to edit

4. Use the handles to retime your selection freely

 Pattern Regions and Tracks
Section 2

Pattern regions can be added on MIDI tracks, Pattern tracks and Drummer tracks.

To create a Pattern region, you can do one of 3 things:

1. Right-click into an empty Bar on a compatible track

2. Use the pencil to click into an empty Bar on a Pattern Track

3. Drag in a Pattern region from the Loop Library

To edit the content of a Pattern Region you will have to open up the Editor (Step Sequencer).

In the Step Sequencer you have rows (spread vertically) and steps (spread horizontally).

The settings for each Step, Row or the whole Pattern can be found in the local inspector (⇧⌥ I)

Apart from turning a Step on or off there are also other parameters that you can specifically set
for each individual step.

The Step Sequencer workflow comes with some limitations!

Automation can only be edited step wise.

This can create clicks when plug-in parameters change too drastically from one step to the next!

Pattern regions have a maximum length of 64 steps (unlike MIDI Regions that are basically unlimited).
 Drummer Regions and Tracks
Section 2

Drummer regions can be added on MIDI tracks, Pattern tracks and Drummer tracks!

To create a Drummer region, you can do one of 3 things:

1. Right-click into an empty Bar on a compatible track

2. Use the pencil to click into an empty Bar on a Drummer Track

3. Drag in a Drummer region from the Loop Library

To edit the content of a Drummer Region you will have to open up the Editor (Drummer).

The Drummer editor offers you abstract controls for playful procedural MIDI data generation
specifically designed for drums!

Click on “Details” to access controls like:

- Complexity range sliders

- Humanization
- Phrase Variation
- Auto Half Time

Since Logic Version 11.1 the Drummer has become one of 3 “Session Player” Instruments!

More on that in the last section!

 Audio Regions and Tracks
Section 2

Audio regions can be added only to Audio tracks!

To create an Audio region, you can do one of 6 things:

1. Drag and drop a compatible audio file into the workspace

2. Use the pencil to click into an empty Bar on an Audio Track

3. Hit ⇧⌘ I (Add Audio File) when having an audio track selected

4. Drag in an Audio region from the Loop Library

5. Hit “R” when having an audio track selected to record an Audio File inside of Logic

6. Select any Region and hit “⌃ B” to Bounce it in place

Here is an overview over different audio file types sorted by compatibility with logic:

Compatible Audio Files Incompatible Audio FIles

Waveform Audio File Format (.wav) Free Lossless Audio Codec (. ac)

Audio Interchange File Format (.ai ) OGG Vorbis (.ogg)

MPEG Audio Layer 3 (.mp3) Windows Media Audio (.wma)

Advanced Audio Coding (.aac) Real Audio (.ra)

Apple Lossless (.alac) Sun/NeXT Audio (.au)

CD Digital Audio (.cdda) Musepack (.mpc)

Pulse Code Modulation (.pcm) Monkey’s Audio (.ape)

OPUS (.opus)

Adaptive Mult-Rate (.amr)

8-bit audio formats (.wav or .au)

Every audio region is based on an audio file.

When editing Audio regions with Flex (next page) we leave the original file untouched!

However, we can also edit the original audio file!

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 Audio Regions and Tracks
Section 2

To edit an Audio Region you will have to open up the Editor (Track).

In here you can edit your audio region with Flex (⌘ F to Show / Hide Flex).

Flex offers you 8 Modes:

Logic Pro’s adaptation of “Melodyne”

The autopicked algorithm when enabling Flex

for monophonic material (for example: solo vocals)

cuts audio at transients and works from transient to transient

for drums (noisy, non harmonic material)

for complex polyphonic material (for example: whole songs)

stretch your region to pitch it up or down (ca. 6 % / Semitone)

emulates a vintage stretching device (experimental sounds)

These Modes allow you to independently transpose and stretch audio files

⌥ ↑/↓ to Transpose an Audio region by Semitones

⇧⌥ ↑/↓ to Transpose an Audio region by Octaves

⌥ left click drag on the region start or end to stretch

In the Flex Pitch Editor we have 6 Parameters for each detected Note to edit separately:

1. Pitch Drift (in)

2. Fine Tune 1 2 3
3. Pitch Drift (out)
4. Gain
5. Vibrato
4 5 6
6. Formant Shift

The Flex pitch data can be converted into a MIDI File by clicking on the “Edit” drop-down menu
in the top left corner of the audio editor (Track) and then selecting:
 Audio Regions and Tracks
Section 2

To edit an Audio file you will have to open up the Editor (File).
This destructively edits the actual file on your computer!

Left click and drag over the Ruler to scrub through the Audio file like a DJ.
Left click and drag over the waveform to select a part of the audio file

⌘ A selects the whole audio file!

In the top left corner of the file Editor (File) you will find 4 drop down menus:

The Audio File drop-down menu gives you options for backups,
transient detection, file Info management and more.

The Edit drop-down menu offers basic editing functionality like

undo or redo, copy and paste and basic selection functionality like
selecting all samples (the whole audio file) or all previous / following.

Further down you get options for audio file navigation (Go to)
and automated selection options. (Set)

Snap Edits to zero crossing will move every start or end of a selection
to the nearest zero crossing in the audio file.
 Audio Regions and Tracks
Section 2

The Functions drop-down menu offers many well known audio file
editing functions like normalisation, gain change, reverse, invert…

Any function selected here will be applied to the selected part of the
audio file!

The Time and Pitch Machine is a window where you can precisely
set the desired Transposition and Tempo change.

It has 2 Modes (Free & Classic).

Only Free offers you the controls over the Destination!

When set to Free It also features 9 Algorithms to choose from:

For any sound

For any sound
Monophonic Material
Sustained, polyphonic audio sound
For rhythm content (rhythm guitars etc.)
For drum loops
For any sound
For highly complex audio (full songs etc.)
Like Beats Only but better at handling reverb

The View drop-down menu offers you options for what you see in the audio file editor:

You can set what you see on the Ruler

You can Enter Transient Editing Mode which you can also do
by hitting the button right next to the view drop-down menu.

With this mode you can fine tune the detected transients for
your audio file.
 Audio Regions and Tracks
Section 2

The available tools in the audio file editor are not the same as the tools in the workspace!
Even though some of the tools also exist in the workspace tool menu, they have different functions
in the audio file editor!

Make a selection of samples in your audio file (⇧ left-click to extend the selection)

Move the selection of samples in your audio file (quick access: ⌥ left-click)

Zoom in horizontally on the audio file (⇧⌥ mouse-wheel)

Listen to one specific part of your audio file

Draw in waves freely (you have to be zoomed in for it to work)

Replace a selection with silence (shortcut: ⌃⌦)

To play back and loop specific parts of your audio file in the file editor there are buttons right next
to the tool menu:

Preview volume slider

Preview (⌥ Spacebar)

Cycle Selection (⌃ C)
 Region Conversion
Section 2

Input/Output→ MIDI Pattern Drummer Audio

↓

MIDI right-click menu right-click menu Bounce in Place

→convert to -> convert to ⌃B

Pattern Region Drummer Region

only if:
- max. 4 Bars
- simple data

Pattern right-click menu right-click menu Bounce in Place

-> convert to -> convert to ⌃B

MIDI Region Drummer Region

⌃⌥⌘M

Drummer right-click menu right-click menu Bounce in Place

-> convert to →convert to ⌃B

Midi Region Pattern Region

⌃⌥⌘M only if:

- max. 4 Bars
- simple data

Audio ⌃E From MIDI: From MIDI:

Drag audio into right-click menu Right Click Menu

the empty track
header area →convert to -> convert to
Pattern Region Drummer Region

only if:
- max. 4 Bars
- simple data

In addition to that you can convert the Flex Pitch data from the analysis of dry monophonic
material to MIDI by selecting “Create MIDI Track from Flex Pitch Data” in the “Edit” drop-
down menu in the audio region region editor!
The 4 Methods of Tempo Analysis
Section 2

To analyse the tempo of a recording there are 4 methods you can choose from in Logic Pro!

Smart Tempo
The Smart Tempo editor is always the third Pane in the Audio or MIDI Region editor

Audio regions are automatically analysed, MIDI has to be analysed first to work with Smart Tempo

When MIDI has been analysed, Smart Tempo sets up an independent grid with
downbeats and divisions that you can tweak manually in 5 ways:

This way you can create tempo information manually which is directly associated with the region.

To show the tempo information select “Show Tempo Curve Overlay” from the
“View” drop-down menu.
The 4 Methods of Tempo Analysis
Section 2

The second option goes hand in hand with Smart Tempo, because it it using the same algorithm
and is called:

Free Tempo Recording

In the right-click menu of any MIDI or audio region under “Tempo” you will find many options
to automatically detect the tempo and use it as the project tempo.

With the Free Tempo Recording button you can record and immediately after stopping
the recording select one of the following options for what should happen to the automatically analysed
tempo information of the recording!

If you don’t see the button make sure to right click on the display at the top to
“Customize Control Bar and Display”
The 4 Methods of Tempo Analysis
Section 2

The third option can be accessed through the global tracks (G) and is called:

Beat Mapping
You can enable beat mapping by pressing ⌥ G to configure the global tracks and selecting it from
the menu there. The quick access command is: ⇧⌘ B

When having it enabled, select your Audio or MIDI Region to show up on

the Beat Mapping track!

After that, drag the subdivisions from the ruler of the beat mapping..

..onto the transients or MIDI events of the selected region

to create project tempo automation

This feature is especially

useful when working
with videos in Logic Pro!

Last but not least there is a function accessible with ⌥⌘ T called:

Detect Tempo of Audio Regions

With this function the Tempo of an audio region is

automatically detected and in addition to that you can also use
typically desired options like Half Time, Double Time, 2/3 or 3/2

You can choose to write the detected information into the

audio file, to use the average tempo (usually not desired) and
to apply the Region Tempo to the project!
 Track Stacks
Section 2

The shortcut to create a track stack when having the desired tracks selected is
⇧⌘ D

There are 2 types of track stacks

Folder Stacks offer Mute, Solo and Summing Stacks offer the same
Volume control over the Stack. channel strip options as a Bus
You can not process the sound in channel strip. In fact Logic
the track stack at all! automatically sets up a Bus input
assignment for the summing stack
This type of stack is only for track and respective output
visually tidying up the project! assignments for any tracks within
the summing stack.

You can use this stack type to

visually keep your project tidy and
to process the sounds together!
 Track Alternatives
Section 2

Hit ⌥ T to configure the Track Header components and tick

“Track Alternatives”

You will now see the track alternatives drop-down menu on

the track headers

Left click on it to view all the options you have to

work with track alternatives.

Every alternative is a set of regions!

Instead of creating new tracks with the same channel

strip settings in your mixer, you can create
alternatives if you aren’t sure which set of regions will
make it into the final version!
 Take Folders
Section 2

Take Folders are closely related to Track Alternatives! Even so much so that you can
convert one thing into the other.

Both are ways of managing sets of regions for a track!

To “Pack a Take Folder” select all regions you want to pack into it and hit “⌃⌥⌘ F”

Alternatively: select all your regions, right click and go to “Folder → “Pack Take Folder”

The Take Folder will look like this:

In the top left corner of the Take Folder there are two buttons

The one on the left opens up the take folder. You can now (by clicking on it) select which
take you want to use as the actual region on the track!

The one on the right opens the Take Folder pop-up menu which contains functions to
work further with the content of the take folder

Thats all functions you have for MIDI, but

there is more when it comes to audio!
 Take Folders
Section 2

The audio Take Folder pop-up menu

features more functions like:

Moving the active Take to a New Track

Unpacking the Takes to independent tracks

Quick swipe comping (⌥ Q)

You can also enable or disable Quick Swipe

Comping by clicking on the third button on
the audio Take Folder.

When disabled, you can move the

individual takes in time.

When enabled, you can create a

composition of the takes by clicking and
dragging.

Notice how the resulting audio region

already has fades to avoid clicks!
 Groove Track
Section 2

Right-click on a track header and

select Groove Track from the Track
Header Components Menu

1.

2. 3.

Now you should be able to see a

new quantisation setting in the
region inspector on the regions on
the tracks where you ticked (3.)
Match Groove Track

To make this feature work properly:

Bounce the groove track (if is isn’t audio) in place (⌃ B).
Setting a MIDI-track as the groove track sadly
doesn’t really work :/
 Varispeed
Section 2

Tick the box for “Varispeed” inside of the right click menu of the LCD

Varispeed lets you speed up or slow down your project by a defined percentage:

This is typically used to slow down the project while recording so that afterwards you
can speed the project playback back up. This makes it sound like you can play faster
than you actually can!

Varispeed offers 3 Modes for changing the project Tempo:

Changes playback speed and maintains the pitch

Changes the pitch according to the speed change

(1 Semitone roughly equals a change of 6 %)

Also effects external MIDI tracks, otherwise

similar to “Speed and Pitch”
 Track Groups
Section 2

Track groups allow you to treat multiple tracks like they are the same track.

To assign tracks to groups open the mixer (X) and left click on the Group Slot

The settings for the Groups can be found in the Inspector

(shortcut: I).

Here you can switch your assigned groups on or off, hide them or
rename them.

In the Settings drop-down menu you can determine in what ways

every individual group is supposed to be treated like the same
track.

On the standard setting the Automation Mode, Volume and Mute

is ticked.

Tweaking these parameters on one of the group members will

affect all members of the group similarly!

Even the Track Zoom and the Track Color can be choosen here!
 MIDI FX
Section 2

MIDI FX slots are only available in MIDI and Pattern tracks!

They convert a MIDI input into a MIDI output, just like an Audio FX plugin converts an
audio input into an audio output.

Here is an overview over all 9 stock MIDI FX:

 MIDI FX
Section 2

Now to explain what they do:

Lets you create an Lets you create a Lets you reassign MIDI
arpeggiated MIDI output polyphonic MIDI output events from one MIDI CC to
on the basis of a legato (Chords) an the basis of a a different MIDI CC. It also
MIDI input monophonic MIDI input lets you add to the input
(Notes) value and scale the input
value.

Lets you add an LFO or an Lets you create 0 - 99 Lets you map, offset, and
Envelope Modulator to a repeats of the input MIDI randomise a specific MIDI
specific MIDI Parameter. notes, offset by a defined Parameter input to a
time value, transposed mutilated output.
from the copy before by a
defined transposition value
and played at different
ascending or descending
velocity values.

Lets you write a custom Lets you transpose and Lets you work with velocity
Java script to create your scale quantise the notes on like a compressor works
own MIDI FX plug-in! the MIDI input. with audio.

If you want to code your own MIDI FX plug-in, but you don’t know how to code in
Java, thats no problem!

Many AI models (when using the right prompts) can do it in seconds!

So you don’t need to learn Java to work with the Scripter plug-in!

My go-to ai: perplexity.ai

 Automation
Section 2

With automation you can change any MIDI parameter over time.

The automation modes for each individual channel strip can be

set in the Mixer (X) or on the channel strips in the Inspector (I).

There are 4 different main Automation Modes, some of which can

be used in combination with “Trim” and “Relative”.

There are 9 possible combinations:

Read - (default) reads automation data that is already there

Touch - overwrite existing automation, let go to snap back to existing automation points

Latch - overwrite existing automation, parameter value replaces existing until playback stops

Write - overwrites all parameter values without touching them! (Warning message)

R-Touch - Touch mode for relative automation (only for Volume and Pan)

T-Touch - Touch mode for adding secondary motion data to a preexisting automation

R-Latch - Latch mode for relative automation (only for Volume and Pan)

T-Latch - Latch mode for adding secondary motion data to a preexisting automation

R-Write - Write mode for relative automation (only for Volume and Pan)

To Show / Hide automation use the

keyboard shortcut: A

alternatively: click this button

 Automation
Section 2

In Logic Pro there are 2 types of automation data that you can work with!

1. Region automation

2. Track automation

Region automation takes priority over track automation and will always be moved and stretched
together with the associated region!

Even though there is a feature in the Settings (⌘ ,)

under “Automation” to “Move Track Automation with
Regions” this rarely works properly in complex
situations!

→ If you want to move your track automation data

together with the region it makes more sense to move
the track automation data to the region!

For that, open the right-click menu on your region and

go to “Automation”.

Shortcuts for working with automation:

Automation Settings ⌥A

Select Connected ⇧ Leftclick

Automation Points

Automation Curve Tool ⇧⌃ Leftclick

Stepped Automation ⌥ Pencil

Drawing (Pencil Tool) Tool

Move Current Region ⌃⌘ ↑

Data to Track

Move Current Track Data ⌃⌘ ↓

to Region
 Audio FX
Section 3

MIDI, Pattern, Drummer, Audio, Bus tracks and the Stereo Output track all have 16 Audio FX slots
through which they can be processed.

There are 14 stock Audio FX categories and also the “Audio Units” category where you will find all
the installed third party plug-ins.

The following pages provide an overview over all of them:

Starting with the first category which is called:

The first plug-in of the first category is the Amp Designer!

This offers emulation of different popular analog guitar

amp models.

The Bass Amp Designer offers emulation of different

popular bass amp models.

The Pedalboard offers a selection of 37 emulations of

widely used stomp boxes usually used on guitars.

You can create a whole effects chain within the plug-in

itself!

The same selection emulations is available as standalone

audio effects in the Stompboxes subcategory.
 Audio FX
Section 3

The second category of Audio FX is called:

The Delay Designer offers a great variety of presets and

options for creative delay effects like transposing, panning
or filtering the offset copies of the input signal.

The Echo plug-in is the most simple Delay plug-in. It offers

control over the time it takes for every new iteration of the
input signal copy to occur (Rate) a Filter getting more and
more intense as the delay progresses (Color) a Feedback
Knob (How much quieter every iteration is in comparison
to the last one) and Dry and Wet knobs to control how
much of the processed signal you want to hear.

The Tape Delay plug-in offers great functionality for

emulating vintage tape delay effects by modulating
parameters in the plug-in with an LFO or a Noise Module
(Flutter)

The Sample Delay plug-in lets you offset the left, the right
or both channels at the same time by a specific time value
which can be set in samples or milliseconds.

The Stereo Delay plugin gives you great options to create

delay effects that play with the stereo field (such as also
called “ping pong delay” easily)
 Audio FX
Section 3

The third category of Audio FX is called:

The Bit Crusher offers controls over the sample rate

reduction (Downsampling), which is the reduction of the
resolution of readout over time, as well as the bit
resolution, which is the resolution of the dynamic
information. In addition there are controls for an input gain
(Drive), 3 different Modes (Fold, Clip and Wrap) and a Mix
Knob.

The Clip Distortion plug-in offers controls for making

“round” waves more ”angular”. It is the most basic form of
distortion.

The Distortion plug-in emulates the sound of vacuum

tubes, transistors, or digital circuits. It adds warmth and
bite to audio, commonly used in rock and pop music to
overdrive signals and create a musically pleasing distortion.

The Distortion 2 plug-in offers you the same distortion

algorithms as the ones you can find in the “Vintage B3
Organ” Software Instrument!

The Overdrive plug-in simulates the natural distortion

produced by overdriven guitar amplifiers. It adds a warm,
saturated tone to audio, often used to enhance guitars or
other instruments in a mix.

The Phase Distortion plug-in manipulates the Phase of the

input signal to create a type of distortion known for its
aggressive tone and dominance around the first harmonic.
 Audio FX
Section 3

The fourth category of Audio FX is called:

The Adaptive Limiter is a basic limiter plug-in with the additional

special function of a lookahead (the limiter will look into the future
to detect peaks more effectively). Also is features detection for the
optimal lookahead which you can then apply with the press of a
button.

The goal of a Limiter is to “squash” the sound against an output

ceiling and is typically used as the final plug-in on a master chain.

The goal of a Compressor is to reduce the dynamic range of a sound

by setting a threshold, which, when a sound passes it, causes the
compressor to reduce the gain by the Ratio. How quickly the
compressor starts and stops the reduction of gain is set by the
Attack and Release knobs. How the compressor works with values
close to the threshold is determined by the Knee.

You can use the “Side Chain” input to control the compression with
the dynamic information from a different track. This is typically used
to compress bass sounds when a kick is playing to mix the low end
properly. The name for this technique is “Side Chain Compression”.

The Logic stock Compressor features 7 modes that (apart from the
Platinum Digital) all emulate a different analog compressor:

Platinum Digital (default) - purely digital transparent compressor

Studio VCA (Voltage Controlled Amplifier) - Focusrite Red 3 Dual Compressor/Limiter

Studio FET (Field Effect Transistor) - UREI/Universal Audio 1176 Rev E “Blackface” Compressor

Classic VCA - ddx 160 series

Vintage VCA - SSL G-Series Bus Compressor

Vintage FET - UREI/Universal Audio 1176 Rev H “Silverface”

Vintage Opto (Optical compressor) - Teletronix LA-2A optical Compressor

Audio FX
Section 3

The DeEsser 2 is the new DeEsser plug-in that has been

added to Logic in version 10.7.

It is a plug-in specifically designed to tame sibilants in

vocal recordings.

The Enveloper creates envelope modulator information on

the basis of a set threshold. The envelope modulator data
is then used to control the output volume of a sound. This
plug-in can be viewed as a transient processor.

The Expander does the opposite of a compressor. Instead

of reducing gain when a threshold is passed, it adds gain.
You can use the “Side Chain” input to control the
expansion with the dynamic information from a different
track.

The Limiter is the most basic limiter plug-in in logic. It lets

you set an Output Level (usually 0 dB), input gain, Release
and Lookahead but does not feature a lookahead
detection like the adaptive limiter.

The Multipressor plug-in lets you compress or expand any

of the 4 frequency bands separately.

The Noise Gate is a plug-in that lets you eliminate sound

input underneath a defined threshold completely. You can
use the “Side Chain” input to control if it is “opened” or
“closed” with the dynamic information from a different
track.
 Audio FX
Section 3

The fifth category of Audio FX is called:

The Channel EQ is the most basic way of shaping your

input sound spectrally.

One instance gives you:

2 Cuts (High and Low), 2 Shelfs (High and Low) and 4

Bells (for Low Mids, Mids and High Mids)

The Processing Mode can also be set to Stereo, Left, Right,

Mid and Side.

The Linear Phase EQ corrects for the phase offset created

by any standard EQ plug-in like the channel EQ. However
this will introduce latency!

In most cases the phase offset is barely noticeable which is

why the Channel EQ is in any usual case the better choice!

The Match EQ lets you record two “spectral shapes“ and

determines their difference. This can be used to achieve a
more flat frequency response when mastering by using
white noise as the Reference and the mix as Current.

The Single Band EQ plug-in lets you set up exactly one

frequency band and is usually not used when working
inside of logic!

The Vintage EQ Collection is a list of 3 plug-ins which are

all emulating classic analog hardware EQs.

Neve 1073 preamp and EQ

API 560 graphic EQ
Pultec EQP-1A Tube EQ
 Audio FX
Section 3

The sixth category of Audio FX is called:

The Auto Filter filters a sound while using Envelope and

LFO (Low Frequency Oscillator) Modulators. If the input
exceeds a defined threshold the envelope is triggered. The
Side Chain input can be used to control the filter with
dynamic information from another track

The EVOC 20 Filterbank features two 20-band filter banks

for specific control over each frequency band. This way,
like with the EVOC 20 Vocoder Synth you can modify an
approximation of the sounds formant!

The EVOC 20 TrackOscillator is a monophonic vocoder

with life pitch tracking of the input signal. It includes
formant filter banks like the EVOC 20 Filterbank and can
use the Side Chain input to apply the formant of the Side
Chain input (the volume of each band) to the signal of the
track oscillator.

The Fuzz Wah plug-in emulates classic wah effects

combined with fuzz distortion. It’s commonly used for
guitar effects but can also create screaming or funky
sounds with other instruments!

The Spectral Gate plug-in splits the signal into very narrow
alternating bands that are either enabled or disabled on
the output. It creates a sound that almost sounds like the
reduction in sound quality that you get from audio
compression algorithms and is only very rarely used.
 Audio FX
Section 3

The seventh category of Audio FX is called:

The Binaural Post-Processing plug-in is used in

combination with the Binaural Panner and let’s you
select one of 4 Compensation Modes:

Headphone FF (Free-Field) - optimized for sounds

placed right in front of the listener

Headphone HB (Horizontal Bias) - optimized for

sound placed laterally

Headphone DF (Diffuse-Field) - averages the other

two headphone modes

Speaker CTC (Cross-Talk Cancellation) - optimised for

speaker playback, allows for binaural panning on
speakers!

The Direction Mixer plug-in lets you tweak the stereo

width and direction of a sound. You can split the
adjustment into two bands.

The Stereo Spread plug-in pans the sound to left and

right by frequency band (in theory) in accordance with
the content of the graphical display.

However the panning goes the exact opposite way as

shown on the display!
 Audio FX
Section 3

The eighth category of Audio FX is called:

The BPM Counter helps you detect the beats per minute of an input
signal. This is great especially for detecting the BPM of audio regions
that have a stable tempo (such as songs or loops). The :2 and x2
buttons can help you quickly calculate double of halftime.

The Correlation Meter shows you the stereo correlation and is only
available in the plug-in list with a stereo input!

On audio tracks mono and stereo are symbolised with 1 or 2 circles.

A stereo correlation of 1 means both channels are the same.

A stereo correlation of -1 means both channels are phase inverted so

exact opposites.

The Level Meter plug-in lets you analyse Peak, True Peak, RMS and
combinations of the three. RMS stands for “Root Mean Square” and is
considered the most basic measurement for the average volume. These
measurements are not nearly as important as the..

..measurements on a Loudness Meter!

This plug-in allows you to measure the Loudness Units Full Scale
(LUFS) which measures the average volume while using an
approximation of the human hearing sensitivity curve (K-Weighting) in
its calculation!
The plug-in features 3 measurements:
M (momentary) measures the loudness over a time span of 400 ms
S (short term) measures the loudness over a time span of 3 seconds
I (integrated) measures the loudness over a freely definable time span
This is what the Start and Reset Buttons are used for!

The MultiMeter offers a one for all solution for measuring the spectral
shape, Peaks, Loudness, Stereo Correlation and Stereo Field. The
Stereo Field can be viewed in the Goniometer Window.

Logic’s Tuner can be used to tune instruments and is known for being
a pain in the butt.
It can be quickly accessed in the control bar.

It now analyses the audio input, so you don’t have to insert it on a track
as a plug-in!
 Audio FX
Section 3

The ninth category of Audio FX is called:

The Chorus plug-in creates a copy of the input signal and modulates it’s pitch
with an LFO. The D-Mode button enables an emulation of the Roland
Dimension D a classic analog chorus plug-in. When enabling the D-Mode
button, it widens the stereo field and enhances the high frequency range.

The Ensemble plug-in creates multiple delayed copies of the input signal, each
with slight pitch and timing variations creating the illusion of a unison
ensemble rather than only one single voice.

The Flanger plug-in introduces a delay (1-10 ms) modulated by an LFO on a

parallel signal path which creates interesting sounds through destructive and
constructive interferences.

The Microphaser plug-in splits the input signal, applies phase-shifting to one
path, and modulates the phase shift with an LFO.

The Modulation Delay plug-in delays the input signal and modulates the delay
time with an LFO. The effect sounds very much like a Flanger or Chorus with
additional pitch modulation to emulate analog tape machines.

The Phaser plug-in splits the input signal, applies a series of all-pass filters to
one path, and modulates the filter cutoff with an LFO.

The Ringshifter uses very complex sound processing ideas!

It combines a ring modulator (multiplies the input with a “carrier”) and a

frequency shifter.
 Audio FX
Section 3

The ninth category of Audio FX is called:

The Rotor Cabinet plug-in simulates a rotating speaker by modulating the

input signal’s amplitude, frequency response and pitch like with a Doppler-
effect. The algorithms used here are also used in the Vintage B3 Organ
Software Instrument plug-in!

The Scanner Vibrato plug-in delays and modulates the pitch of the input
signal using an LFO. The algorithms used here are also used in the Vintage
B3 Organ Software Instrument plug-in!

The Spreader plug-in processes the input signal by introducing slight phase
and timing differences between the left and right channels. This enhances
stereo width without altering the frequency response much.

The Chorus plug-in modulates the amplitude of the input signal using an
LFO. The LFO can be synchronized to the project or be free. The
“Symmetry” value determines the kind of curve, the “Smoothing” value
determines how smooth the curve is, the “Phase” value determines how the
right and let channel are treated in relationship to each other and the
“Offset” offsets the curve in time.
 Audio FX
Section 3

The tenth category of Audio FX is called:

The Beat Breaker plug-in has 3 Modes (Time, Repeat & Volume).
It works by mapping the timing or volume input to output and is
great fun to play around with.

You can use the “Volume” mode as a basic Side Chain plug-in!

The Phat FX plug-in is specifically designed to make sounds

sound fatter! It features 4 modulators (2 LFOs, 1 Envelope, 1
Vectorpad) and makes the signal output from those modulators
assignable to any parameter inside of the plug-in.

The plug-in features the following audio effects:

Filters, Bass Enhancer, Compressor, Distortion, Mod FX, Limiter

With the Remix FX plug-in you can play around with live sound
processing like a DJ.

The look and sound are not great, but it is probably good
enough for most people to have a little fun and to mess around!

The Step FX plug-in offers a step modulation workflow and a

vectorpad modulator and makes both modulators assignable to
any available control inside of the plug-in. The plug-in features
the following audio effects:

Reverb, Distortion, Mod FX, Filter & Delay

 Audio FX
Section 3

The eleventh category of Audio FX is called:

The Pitch Correction plug-in is Logic’s adaptation of the

industry standard plug-in for live pitch correction (Autotune).

It detects the pitch of the input signal, determines the difference

in pitch to the nearest note on the edited scale and then retunes
the input signal to that note with a response time and a
tolerance which both significantly impact the character of the
pitch correction!

The Pitch Shifter plug-in creates a copy of the input sound and
lets you pitch it up or down typically to mix it in with the
unprocessed signal.

With the Stereo Link set to invert, it will create 2 hard panned
copies that are both tonally at an equal distance to the input.

Generally speaking, this plug-in introduces a lot of artefacts and

I would not recommend it for anything else than playful live
sound processing. In my opinion it is definitely not good enough
for making it into a final mix!

The Vocal Transformer plug-in lets you independently tweak the

Pitch and Formant of a sound. It also allows you to “robotize”
the sound (meaning it will be tuned to one fixed pitch).

With the “Tracking” you can measure the tonal distance between
the input signal’s pitch and a defined pitch base and apply the
measured tonal distance ranging from -100 % to 200 %!

All these plug-ins need a dry monophonic input to work

properly!

Don’t expect them to do a good job when the input signal has
significant amounts of reverb or when it is polyphonic (multiple
notes at a time) material!
 Audio FX
Section 3

The twelfth category of Audio FX is called:

The ChromaVerb plug-in is an algorithmic reverb plug-in that

uses internal delays and feedback loops to simulate spaces. It
allows precise control over parameters like room size, reflectivity,
and diffusion. It lets you shape the sound spectrally inside of the
plug-in’s interface which otherwise you would have to do with a
bus send

The EnVerb is a hybrid reverb combining algorithmic and

convolution techniques. It generates early reflections
algorithmically and uses convolution for the reverb tail.

The SilverVerb plug-in is a very simple algorithmic reverb plug-

in, and you can hear it :/

The Space Designer plug-in is the reverb flagship of logic!

It is a convolution reverb that uses impulse responses (IRs) to

replicate the acoustic characteristics of real spaces. It convolves
the input signal with the IR, though which it applies the reverb
tail and spatial qualities of the sampled environment.

And the best thing: you can use your own sampled IRs!!

Isn’t that cool?

With the new Logic Versions came a new reverb plug-in the
Quantec Room Simulator

This is without a doubt the best Logic stock reverb plug-in and it
comes with a huge array of great presets.
 Audio FX
Section 3

The thirteenth category of Audio FX is

called:

The Exciter plug-in adds harmonics to an input by generating a

second path which first goes through a high-pass filter, then
through a non-linear distortion algorithm which is then mixed
together with the original input.

There are 2 “Colors” to choose from here.

1 - More subtle, 2 - more audible and dense

The SubBass plug-in analyzes the input signal and generates

subharmonic frequencies (typically 1–2 octaves below the
original). The processed signal can then be mixed together with
the original to create a sub bass heavy signal all together.

The fourteenth and last category of Audio

FX is called:

The Auto Sampler is used to The Gain plug-in can be used The Test Oscillator plug-in
sample external MIDI devices. to change the gain, pan your lets you generate sine waves,
You can send MIDI messages sound or invert the phase of square waves, needle pulse
out to an external synth and one of the channels (L, R). waves, as well as white, pink,
automatically record the sound and brown noise. It can be
coming from it to use it further Inverting one of the channels used to program a sine
in Logic’s samplers. will result in a stereo sweep or set a constant
correlation of exactly -1! frequency.

Last we have the I/O plug-in on our list!

Is is primarily useful for integrating external hardware effects units into your
digital workflow. It allows you to route audio signals from Logic Pro out to
external gear and then back into the Logic. The ping function in the plugin,
which is supposed to measure the roundtrip latency (how long a signal takes to
go out of logic and back inside) doesn’t work properly!
 Buses
Section 4

Buses allow you to manually create your own sound signal paths.
There is a total of 256 available Buses in Logic!
In the Mixer (X) you can send the signal of your track to up to 8 Buses or set a buses the Output.

In an example like this the outputs of the 2

Software Instruments inputs are both set to Bus
2.

When setting the output to Bus 2 Logic

automatically creates a track for Bus 2 (Aux 2).
This bus track is being used to compress the
two sounds together!

On the “Inst 1” there is also a “Send”.

With a bus send a parallel signal path (Aux 1) is

created which you can individually process and
assign to outputs (Aux 1).

For Bus sends there is also a send level control

which lets you control how loud the input of the
Bus send it supposed to be!

The arrows are used to show the signal flow in

this example!

You should always avoid circular signal paths

because it can create a feedback loop that can
suddenly result in incredibly loud volumes!

This can pose a serious threat to your hearing!

One of the ways in which bus sends are

typically used is in parallel compression.

This is typically used on Drums.

In addition to the original signal path with the

bus send a heavily compressed signal path is
created which is then mixed in at a low volume!

This makes a drum kit sound more “full” and

“thick” without adding a lot of volume!
 What is Sound?
Section 5

Music is a form or art that organises sound in time in a meaningful way.

So now: What is sound?

Sound is a vibration propagating through a medium (for example air) creating differences in
pressure within the medium.

Different mediums have different speeds of sound.

Sound travels at roughly…

…331 m/s through air air at 0°C

…343 m/s through air air at 20°C

…1,5 km/s through fresh water

…60 m/s through Rubber

…5,7 km/s through steel

When reaching a human these periodic differences in pressure cause our eardrums to vibrate which
stimulates the auditory nerves of our central nervous system which creates the sensation of sound!

But not every sound is the same! Sounds have different frequencies, amplitudes, and waveforms.

However, any sound is made up by sine waves.

Sine waves are based on a perfect circular shape

All other waveforms are all still made up of sine waves stacked on top of each other!

Whether that is a totally chaotic noise or a note of a specific waveform, all of them are made up by
sine waves stacked on top of each other.
 Harmonics and Formants
Section 5

Sounds of a constant detectable fundamental frequency are called notes!

The difference between the same note played on a guitar or a piano is (apart from the
characteristics of the transient and other small differences) the Formant.

The Formant is in music often described as the “timbre” of the sound. It is used to describe the
relative volumes of the harmonics of a note.

Harmonics are the whole number multiplications of the fundamental frequency.

Say you are playing an A in a low octave with a fundamental frequency of 110 Hz.

The harmonics of that note are: 220, 330, 440, 550, 660, 770, 880, 990, 1100 and so on (practically
until around 20.000 Hz because thats how far human hearing goes!).

Depending on how loud those harmonics are in relation to each other you will get a specific formant.

The only waveform in the universe that doesn’t have any harmonics is the Sine Wave because it is
what the fundamental and all harmonics are characterised by!

Here are two other often used waveforms and their formant:

The harmonic series is a very integral part of our perception of sound itself! So much so that even if
the fundamental frequency and its octaves are removed completely it still sounds like its there!

Don’t believe me?

Check for yourself!

Section 5 - Harmonics and Formants - 1:37

 Musical Harmony
Section 5

Lets analyse musically what we get when moving up the harmonic series. (When we multiply a
fundamental frequency by integers).

For those of you who don’t yet know anything about music theory it will make sense to look at the
pages: Intervals - Chord extensions first!

In the musical analysis we will detect the tonal distances (intervals) between the fundamental (1.
Harmonic) and the harmonics corrected for octaves.

Through this analysis intervals will reoccur in the harmonic series (which is why they have the same
colors in the chart)

Here is an overview over the first 10 harmonics:

2. Harmonic Same note (octave)
If you transposed all of these notes into the same
octave and played each harmonic as its own
fundamental on (lets say) a piano the result 3. Harmonic Fifth (- 2 cents)
would be:
4. Harmonic Same note (octave)
A justly tuned Dominant Seventh Chord with a 9

With the Rootnote C: 5. Harmonic Major Third (- 14 cents)

C
6. Harmonic Fifth (- 2 cents)
E (-14 cents)
7. Harmonic Minor Seventh (- 31 cents)
G (-2 cents)

Bb (-31 cents) 8. Harmonic Same note (octave)

D (+4 cents)
9. Harmonic Major Second (+ 4 cents)

10. Harmonic Major Third (- 14 cents)

A theory for how musical harmony was created is that through the first conscious perception of the
harmonic series and intervals within it humans first started singing in polyphony (more than one note
at a time) with simpler harmonic relationships, which then evolved into more complex harmonic
relationships as time moved on.

Before we move on with music theory though on the following 3 pages I want to clarify a bunch of
technical aspects you should know about when working in a DAW!
Technical Parameters and Concepts
Section 5

When making music in a DAW like Logic we are not working with unlimited resolution (obviously).

We are making a deliberate decision with regards to how high resolution our audio file should be!

The resolution of time (the “X-Axis”) is

called the sample rate

The resolution of the dynamic

information (the “Y-Axis”) is called the bit
depth

Both things multiplied together and Y

multiplied by the number of channels
(usually 2 for Stereo) is the bitrate

So for a lossless stereo file: bitrate =

sample rate x bit depth x 2

The standard sample rate in the music industry is 44.100 Hz

24
The standard bit depth is 24 bit (2 = 16.777.216 different amplitude values)

Now to some common technical problems in the production process:

DC Offset stands for “direct current offset” and describes a constant offset to a wave.

This is one of the typical undesired aspects of working with analog gear of any sort!

Luckily it is easy to fix in Logic’s audio editor!

Technical Parameters and Concepts
Section 5

Another common issue has to do with zero-crossings.

These are the points where a wave crosses zero:

When trimming an audio region the probability that you will precisely hit a zero crossing is very low.

Anytime you trim an audio region at a point that isn’t a zero crossing the output of that track will
click because it snaps from the non zero crossing amplitude to zero within the time of only one
sample!

With ⌃ O you can

But there is a problem here as well! What If you are working in stereo (L and R channel) and they
both have zero crossings at different times?

Then this function will prioritise the left channel (top) and disregard the zero crossings on the right
channel!

To solve this problem you can use a Fade to let the audio region fade out to create a smooth
transition between the amplitude value and zero on both channels simultaneously!
 Phase
Section 5

The phase of a wave is described by pi or degrees.

It starts at zero

Reaches it’s maximum after pi/2 (90 °)

Reaches the next zero crossing after pi (180 °)

Reaches it’s minimum after 3 pi/2 (270 °)

Ends and starts again at 2 pi

Two sounds that are similar and only differ in their phase can, when added together, create
constructive or destructive interferences. This is called Phasing!

This can create drastic volume fluctuations which

are especially audible and undesired in the Low
End.

In the Low End of a mix there is typically only one

fundamental wave to rely on.

The further you move up the frequency spectrum

the more dense your sound becomes.

Hence, phasing in the higher parts of the

spectrum is no problem, while it is a huge
problem in the low end!

Ideally you only want to have one Bass track to make sure to not have any phasing issues.

Realistically you might find yourself in situations where you have 10+ bass layers to create the exact
bass sound you like.

To get around phasing issues nonetheless you can simply cut away the low end of any bass sound
that clashes with the main sub bass in your project.

This is not a religion, it is something to know about and to take into consideration when producing
music. A little bit of phasing, even in the low end, probably won’t kill you but it can create drastic
problems.

So be aware!
 Notes and tone sets
Section 5

A Note is the smallest harmonic unit in music and is defined by one constant fundamental!

Notes are named alphabetically! After G, we reach the next octave (doubling in frequency).

Notes that are octaves apart are not the same notes (indicated by numbers: “e.g. C3”) but they share
the same chroma!

Why does an octave only have 8 tone steps?

Because of the harmonic series and the intervals you will find in it! The first 11 harmonics contain
almost a whole major scale!

A musical Key is defined by a Root Note and a Mode and has a specific tone set!

The Mode that is based on the harmonic series is called Ionian (Major).

The Root note we have to pick such that we can play a Major scale with only the natural notes
(white keys) is C.

The tone set of C Major (Ionian) is A, B, C, D, E, F, G (all natural notes (white keys))

With the same tone set, if we pick A as the root note, we will get: A Minor (Aeolian)

Because A Minor and C Major share the same tone set we call them Parallels!

Every step in a major or minor scale is a tone step which can be one of two things:

Wholetone Step (200 cents)

Semitone Step (100 cents)

The scale that we get if we play ascending Semitone steps is called the chromatic scale.

For this scale we never need to define a Root note, because regardless of the root note the tone set
(all notes) will always be the same.

White keys are called natural notes, black keys are called sharps and flats

The symbol for sharp (+ 1 ST) is: #

The symbol for flat (-1 ST) is: b

The note in between C and D is called C# or Db!

There is a inconsistency in Germany, Russia, Poland, Scandinavia and Slavic countries!

What you would call Bb / A# internationally is called B in those countries.

What you would call B internationally is called H in those countries.

 Intervals
Section 5

A Semitone step is 100 cents, a Wholetone step is 200 cents but what is the name of other distances
between notes? Thats where we get into intervals!

Semitone Steps Cents Name

The names of intervals are based 1 100 Minor Second

on the tone steps which can be a
200 or 100 cents big. This is why 2 200 Major Second
we often have a “pair” of a Minor
and Major Interval! 3 300 Minor Third

4 400 Major Third

5 500 (Perfect) Fourth

6 600 Tritone

7 700 (Perfect) Fifth

8 800 Minor Sixth

9 900 Major Sixth

10 1000 Minor (Dominant) Seventh

11 1100 Major Seventh

After the Octave the naming for
the intervals is purely based on 12 1200 Octave
their use as chord extensions!
13 1300 Minor Ninth (b9)

14 1400 Natural Ninth (9)

There are two intervals in here..
15 1500 Sharp Ninth (#9)
19 ST and 16 ST
16 1600 Major Third + Octave
..that are never used as an
extension which is why they don’t 17 1700 Eleventh
have a name!
18 1800 Sharp Eleventh (#11)

19 1900 Fifth + Octave

The terminology for intervals
ends at the thirteenth. 20 2000 Flat Thirteenth (b13)

21 2100 Natural Thirteenth (13)

 Modes
Section 5

C Major and A Minor share the same tone set but do not share the same step pattern!

Any major scale (Ionian) has this Step Pattern: T, T, ST, T, T, T,

Any minor scale (Aeolian) has this Step Pattern: T, ST, T, T, ST, T

Apart from major or minor there are more Modes we can discover by playing the natural keys and
choosing any of the natural keys as root notes. This gives us 7 individual step patterns that translate
to Modes!

These Modes are called “Church” or “Gregorian” Modes:

Root Step Pattern Name Category

C T, T, ST, T, T, T, ST Ionian Major

D T, ST, T, T, T, ST, T Dorian Minor

E ST, T, T, T, ST, T, T Phrygian Diminished or unstable

F T, T, T, ST, T, T, ST Lydian Major

G T, T, ST, T, T, ST, T Mixolydian Major

A T, ST, T, T, ST, T, T Aeolian Minor

B ST, T, T, ST, T, T, T Locrian Diminished or unstable

Lets have a closer look at the 3 categories.

In the Major category we find:

Ionian (natural major)

Lydian (Ionian with a raised fourth)

Mixolydian (Ionian with a minor seventh)

In the Minor category we find:

Aeolian (natural minor)

Dorian (aeolian with a raised sixth)

In the diminished and unstable category we find:

Phrygian (has a natural occurring diminished chord as the “dominant” chord and is hence unstable)

Locrian (Features a tritone instead of a fifth! Being “home” on a diminished chord is weird!)
 Chords
Section 5

Chords are made up of at least 3 notes!

The most basic way of forming chords is to pick a Mode (e.g. C Ionian)
and to play the root, skip the next note, play the next note, skip the
next note and again play the next note.

In C Ionian, Lydian and Mixolydian you can get a C major chord that
way!

In C Aeolian and Dorian you can get a C minor chord.

In C Phrygian you would also get minor chord but as said Phrygian
features a diminished chord as its “5-Chord” which is why its regarded
as unstable.

This again clarifies the categorisation of modes!

Instead of starting on the root note of the scale we can also start on any of the other notes in the
scale and form a chord on every one of the 7 notes of the tone set of our C major scale.

In the key of C Major these chords serve “functions” are are named accordingly.

All Diatonic chords in C Major

Chord Symbol Notes Chord Name Functional term Jazz Term

C CEG C Major Tonic I (“1 Chord”)

d DFA D Minor Subdominant Parallel ii (“2 Chord”)

e EGB E Minor Dominant Parallel iii (“3 Chord”)

F FAC F Major Subdominant IV (“4 Chord”)

G GBD G Major Dominant V (“5 Chord”)

a ACE A Minor Tonic Parallel vi (“6 Chord”)

b° BDF B diminished Dominant Seventh vii° (“7 Chord”)

Chord without root

Every chord or melody only featuring notes of the tone set of the mode is described as “Diatonic”.
 Chord Extensions
Section 5

If you go on with the scheme from the last page (play a note, skip a note, play a note…) the next
naturally occurring note you will add is always a seventh.

Sevenths are a little complicated to wrap your head around because a minor Seventh is called the
“standard” or “dominant” seventh while a major seventh is always called a “major seventh”.

CEGB Cmaj7 C major 7

Here is a little chart to clarify the
naming convention of sevenths as
extensions of major and minor C E G Bb C7 C Dominant
chords: Seventh Chord

C Eb G Bb Cm7 C Minor
Seventh Chord

C Eb G B Cmmaj7 C Minor Major

Seventh

Any other note we add to our chord will be named according to its interval to the root.

To simplify the chord symbols they often only feature the highest extension used in the chord even
though all other extensions are also present in the chord!

If just the one high extension is part of the chord it is clarified with “add”!

Here are some examples:

Notes Chord Symbol Name

C E G Bb D C9 C Dominant
Seventh Ninth
Chord

C E G Bb Db Cb9 C Dominant
Seventh Flat
Ninth Chord

CEGD Cadd9 C add Ninth

Chord

C E G Bb D F A C13 C Dominant
Thirteenth
Chord

C E G F# Ab Cadd #11 / b13 C add Sharp

Eleventh Flat
Thirteenth
 Chord Types
Section 5

Apart from Major and Minor Chords which are the two main chord types there are many other chord
types with specific names. Here is an overview:

Notes Chord Type Symbol example

Root, Major Third, Fifth Major C

Root, Minor Third, Fifth Minor C, Cm, Cmi, C -

Root, Minor Third, Tritone Diminished c°, Cdim

Root, Minor Third, Tritone, Half diminished Cø7, Cø

Minor Seventh

Root, Minor Third, Tritone, Fully Diminished C°7

Major Sixth

Root, Major Third, Minor Augmented C+, Caug

Sixth

Root, Major Second, Fifth Sustained Second Csus2

Root, Fourth, Fifth Sustained Fourth Csus4

Root, Fifth Power Chord C (5)

Root +5/7 *n Quartile/Quintile

Chords

Two chords stacked on top Polychords D

of each other —
C

Chord with speci ed Bass “(Chord) over D/C

Note (Note)” or: (Chord)
with (Note) in the
Bass

More than 2 Semitone Cluster Chord C9/C#

Step intervals next to each
other in one chord
fi
Symmetrical Chords, Scales and Intervals
Section 5

Chords, Scales and Intervals that naturally reoccur when reaching the next octave are called
“symmetrical”.

They are based on whole number divisors of the number of Semitones per octave (12) which are:
1,2,3,4 and 6.

If we use these as numbers of semitones per step we will get the list of symmetrical Chords, Scales
and Intervals:

1 ST / Step: Chromatic Scale

Because all keys share the same tone set in the chromatic scale you could say there is only one!

2 ST / Step: Wholetone Scale

Because half of the keys share the same whole tone scale tone set you could say there are only two
of them!

3 ST / Step: Fully Diminished Chords

There are only three tone sets for fully diminished chords!

4 ST / Step: Augmented Chords

There are only four tone sets for augmented chords!

6 ST / Step: Tritone Interval

The name "tritone" comes from the Latin “tritonus”, which is derived from the Greek “trítonos”,
meaning "three tones." This refers to the interval's span of three whole tones (or six semitones).

There are six tone sets of Tritone intervals.

 “Tonicized” chords
Section 5

Dominant Chords lead you back to the tonic chord. In C Major, a G Dominant Seventh Chord (G B D
F) will want to resole to C Major.

We can use this to create non diatonic but harmonically cohesive passing chords by using a
“secondary Dominant” as if the next chord was a tonic chord. We are tonicizing the next Chord.

Here are a few examples of the use of secondary dominant chords leading to tonicized destinations:

C → E7 → Am

C → B7 → Em

C → A7 → Dm

These Progressions all land on diatonic chords. We can also use a secondary dominant to gently
switch keys completely.

C → C#7 → F#

Instead of just using the Dominant (5) chord to get to a tonicized destination, we can also use a
“2-5-1” so the subdominant parallel (2) and the Dominant chord (5) to get to the destination.

This is typically used in jazz and in the realm of jazz notation! Here are some typical jazzy 2-5-1
progressions on the basis of the examples we looked at before:

Cmaj7 → b°7 → E7 → Am7

Cmaj7 → f°7 → B7 → Em7

Cmaj7 → e°7 → A7 → Dm

The “2” chords in aeolian are like the “7” chords in Ionian, diminished. This is symbolised by: °

Let’s go from C to F# (change keys) with a jazzy 2-5-1:

C → G#m7 → C#7 → F#
 Circle of fifths
Section 5

The Circle of fifths organises keys and notes in a Circle by tone

set (or chroma) similarity!

Clockwise motion↩ : Fifth steps

Counter Clockwise Motion↪ : Fourth Steps

The right side of the Circle of Fifths is regarded as the “bright”

side while the left side is regarded as the “dark” side.

Chord Progressions that come from the bright side are called
“perfect” while they are called “plagal” when they come from
the dark side!

Anything bright can be flipped to its dark counterpart and

vice versa! This is called Negative Harmony!

To get the negative Harmony counterpart of any chord you

have to flip every note within the chords about the axis of the
key center!

So any negative harmony conversion is always based on a

fixed key center!

The negative harmony axis is always in between the Root of

the key center and the fifth! On the Piano the actual point(s)
where the flipped notes converge are:

in between Eb and E and In between A and Bb

On the Circle of fifths it becomes easier to flip every note to

it’s negative counterpart by rotating it slightly such that the
space in between the Root and the Fifth is at the top. (C-G)

Now you simply have to imagine horizontal lines in between all

other notes that symbolise the negative harmony conversion!

The Root note (C) becomes the fifth (G)

The Fourth (F) becomes the Major Second (D)

The Minor Seventh (Bb) becomes the Major Sixth (A)

The Minor Third (Eb) becomes the Major Third (E)

The Minor Sixth (Ab) becomes the Major Seventh (B)

The Minor Second (Db) becomes the Tritone (Gb)

 Rhythm Basics
Section 5

Music as an art form organises sound in time. Rhythm determines how exactly that organisation
occurs.

Most music has a constant and easily detectable tempo expressed as BPM (beats er minute).

The standard BPM in Logic is 120, making every beat 0.5 Seconds long.

Beats are organised into Bars. The typical Time signature is 4/4 (Four beats / Bar).

The BPM always refer to 4ths!

The Number of beats within each Bar in logic can be set freely from 1 until 96.

The Note value can be set to be: 1 / 1; 2; 4; 8; 16 ;32; 64

The BPM However always refer to the fourths!

What happens in the space of one Beat to the next? Thats where we have Subdivisions!

The number for subdivisions always refers to how many you can evenly space into one bar.

If you have your Beats in a 4/4 Bar subdivided into 4 parts they will be called 16ths (4*4)

If you have your Beats in a 4/4 Bar subdivided into 3 parts they will be called 12ths (4*3)

If you have your Beats in a 4/4 Bar subdivided into 6 parts they will be called 24ths (4*6)

To create basic rhythm simply pick a subdivision grid (16ths, 12ths etc.) and place your musical
elements on it.

When creating drum grooves there are two terms you should know about:

A 4 to the floor beat means the kick is playing on every fourth

A broken beat describes a drum groove where the kick is irregular

Generally when you emphazise unusual subdivisions it is called a Syncopation!

This is sometimes used deceptively in song intros to make you think the beginning of the bar is at a
place it actually isn’t at. It can create pleasant surprise when the rhythmical context tells you where
the start of the next bar actually is!
 Swing
Section 5

So far we only talked about straight beat grids.

With these grids the space between the subdivisions is the same everywhere!

When applying swing we postpone every even numbered subdivision by a percentage

ranging from 50 (straight, no swing) to 99.

The most typical swing is “triplet-swing” and sits at a swing percentage of 66 %.

Some of the nontypical swing percentages have names too:

60 % : Quintuplet swing

It is named after the fact that if you subdivide a beat into 5 parts (Quintuplets) and take the
subdivision after 50 % thats closest to 50 % you will take 60 %.

This kind of swing is especially cool to listen to when it isn’t applied to the level of 16ths but
to the level of 8ths instead!

Other no typical swing percentages would be:

57 % : Septuplet Swing

55 % : Nontuplet Swing

These are typically the swing percentages used to create drunken grooves!
 Polyrhythms and Polymeters
Section 5

Polyrhythms are what happens when you play all the two different subdivision grids simultaneously
at the same tempo.

A polyrhythm where a subdivision of 2 is played simultaneously with 3 is called a “two against three”
(2:3) polyrhythm!

To learn polyrhythms it can help to remember sentences!

For a 2:3 those could be: “Nice Cup of tea” or “Not Difficult”

For a 4:3 those could be: “Pass the Goddamn Butter” or “I can play this rhythm”

While polyrhythms are fun to learn they aren’t often used in music.

Polymeters are based on multiple musical elements playing on the same subdivision grid!

With polymeters they have differing rates of reoccurrence.

In this example a hi-hat plays after every 3 16ths while a kick plays after every 4 16ths.

This concept can be used to metrically modulate to a different Tempo by recontextualizing an

element occurring at a constant rate.

Section 5 - Music Theory Basics: Rhythm - 16:15

 Sound Design in Vital
Section 6

Make sure to download Vital from vital.audio together with all the additional packs available for
download in accordance with the respective lecture in this section!

The Basis for sound synthesis are..

Oscillators

There are 3 oscillators in Vital! You can find them in the “Voice” Window (selectable in the top left)

Oscillators create oscillations of specific frequencies (in accordance to the MIDI input).

These oscillations can have different simple waveforms (e.g. Sawtooth (standard), Sine, Square) and
also complex waveforms or dynamically changing waveforms!

On the left side all 3 Oscillators can be independently activated or deactivated, gained up or down,
panned, pitched (by semitones or cents) and sent to filters.

In the middle waveforms can be selected and edited, and the frame (the point within the .wav file)
can be set!

On the right side, there are options

for a “unison” effect. With this the
oscillations are multiplied and their
pitch and phase are randomised by a
specific amount. In addition you can
set the Phase (where in the wave
cycle the oscillator starts) and the
phase randomisation.

Underneath those controls there are

drop-down menus for Spectral
Morphs (left) and Wave Morphs
(right).

Both drop down menus offer a

number of ways to dynamically
change the waveform of the
oscillator in real time.

In the Wave Morphs we also find FM

(Frequency Modulation) and RM
(Ring Modulation)

FM is a form of Modulation where the

amplitude of one oscillator is used to
control the frequency of another. This
creates a metallic and aggressive
sound often used in dubstep.

RM is a form of Modulation where

two signals are multiplied together.
This outputs sum and difference
frequencies while suppressing the
original input.
 Sound Design in Vital
Section 6

Sample Oscillator

There is a 4. oscillator in vital which is

technically not an oscillator but rather a very
simple sampler! Randomize
Pitch mapping playback start
point

Loop Sample

Forwards and
Backwards
playback

A sampler takes an audio file and plays it back

at different speeds in accordance to the MIDI
input.

A Semitone can be defined as the ratio of two

frequencies of 21/12 which equals roughly 1.06.
Every semitone you move up on the keys the
sample will be played back at about a 6 %
higher speed. This option can be deactivated
with the pitch mapping button.

Just like with any other oscillator the pitch can

be offset in cents or semitones and the output
of the oscillator can be sent to effects.

In the middle you can select the sample (by

default white noise)

On the right side you can tweak the oscillators

pan, level and sample oscillator specific
parameters that have to do with the playback
of the sample.
 Sound Design in Vital
Section 6

Filters

In Vital there are two filters right underneath

the oscillators.

Every oscillator can be sent to:

This dropdown menu can be found

individually for every oscillator!
Blend
Which oscillator is sent to which filter can also
be set on the filters themselves!

Overall there are 3 Filters in vital!

Two underneath the oscillators and another Cutoff

Drive
one in the effects. Resonance Key
Mix Tracking
Every Filter has the following controls:

All three filters feature the same set of

selectable filter types.

There are 8 categories of filter types:

The first 4 share the same selectable filters:

The filters from the other 4 categories are

specific for each filter category!
 Sound Design in Vital
Section 6

Envelope Modulators

There are three envelope modulators in Vital. They are triggered by MIDI input, so start when a note
is played and go through the DAHDSR (Acronym for all phases of envelope curve) before returning
to 0.

The Envelope Modulator output can be set to influence any other parameter by clicking and
dragging here!

Now to explain all the 6 Phases in detail:

Delay:

Introduces a delay of 0 - 10 seconds before the start of the envelope

Attack:

Determines the time it takes for the envelope to reach its maximum. This can range from 0 -10
seconds. Short attacks (0-10 ms) are used in plucky sounds, long attacks (over 10 ms) in soft sounds.

Hold:

Defines the time the envelope maximum is held. This can be set from 0 to 10 seconds as well. The
hold time can be understood as a delay before the Decay phase.

Decay:

Determines how long it takes for the sound to fall from its maximum to the sustain level. Again this
can be set to 0 - 10 seconds. For a plucky sounds this is typically 0.1 - 1 seconds long!

Sustain:

Determines at which percentage of the maximum level the envelope will stay as long as the key is
held down.

Release:

Determines the time it takes the envelope to go from the sustain level back to 0.

By default Envelope 1 is controlling the Master amplitude and the other 2 Envelopes aren’t mapped!
 Sound Design in Vital
Section 6

LFO Modulators

LFO is an acronym for “Low Frequency Oscillator”. There are 4 LFOs in Vital. Each LFO outputs
values just like an envelope does but instead of only going through the cycle once it goes through it
in a loop. Also, the shape can be defined with much greater precision.

Here are all functions of LFOs inside Vital:

Brush Editing toggle and

Editor Mode Menu LFO curve selection

X&Y
Resolution
for the Brush
Editing Grid
Creates round edges for
otherwise hard cuts in LFO
curves

Delays the start of the LFO

Restarts the LFO with each note
Outputs offset info
Synchronizes the LFO to the project tempo
for L & R
LFO acts like an envelope
LFO acts like an envelope, last value is sustained
After one full cycle the LFO repeats the next cycle from set point
The LFO loops from the start to the set point
The LFO goes from point to point with every note you press

The LFOs frequency is set in absolute time values

The LFOs frequency is set by notes (relative to project tempo)
The LFOs frequency is set by dotted notes (note value + 50 %)
The LFOs frequency is set by triplets (1/3 of the note value)
The LFOs frequency is set by the MIDI note input
 Sound Design in Vital
Section 6

Macros

Macros are knobs that can be mapped to any value in Vital.

There are 4 macros in vital (on theft side of the “Voice” window)

You can rename any macro by clicking on the Pencil

symbol

This however will not change the name of the Macro when
you are automating it in your project. It will still be called
“Macro 1 - 4” there!

To have the macro influence another parameter again

simply click and drag on the space underneath the knob!
 Sound Design in Vital
Section 6

MIDI and Performance Modulators

In the bottom right of the “Voices” window there are even more modulators to work with.

First there are 2 random value generators offering 4 different modes for differently shaped noise.

On the right side there are 8 more Modulators.

Note: Outputs the MIDI note number of the pressed note (C-2 - G8)

Velocity: Outputs the Velocity of the MIDI input (how hard you press the note)

Lift: outputs a static value after letting go of a note. It’s value is associated with the velocity, it’s
length is associated with the release time set in Envelope 1.

Octave Note: Outputs one of 12 MIDI note numbers (Note corrected for octaves)

Pressure: Outputs the aftertouch pressure (only with compatible MIDI hardware)

Slide: Outputs values from sliding gestures (only with compatible MIDI hardware)

Stereo: Sends different values for the L and R channel for any parameter

Random: Outputs random values every time a new note is pressed (not while you hold it)

In the bottom left corner of the plug-in window you will also find the Pitch
Wheel and Modulation Wheel which are part of any MIDI hardware.

Again you can click and drag to choose a destination for them here!

And at the very bottom of your screen you will find the keyboard. This will show
the keys pressed on an external MIDI keyboard or the internal Musical Typing
Keyboard (⌘ K) and also allow to click on keys with your mouse!
 Sound Design in Vital
Section 6

Voice Settings

Any syntheziser has Voice settings. In Vital they can be found in the bottom right corner.

They control how the synth reacts to multiple notes pressed at the same time or in succession.

Voices: determines how many notes the synth can simultaneously play at maximum (default: 8). 1 will
result in a monophonic synth setting! The maximum is 32.

Bend: determines how many semitones upwards and downwards the Pitch Bend Wheel will move
the pitch of the synth. This ranges from 0 (no effect) to 48 (4 octaves).

Velocity Track: controls how much the Velocity affects the global synth amplitude. The default is the
central position (it doesn’t influence it at all). If anything you will want to set it to a positive value!

Spread: controls how by much the Unison voices are panned across the stereo field.

Glide: controls how long legato gliding between notes takes

Slope: controls how the gliding between notes is curved

Always Glide: applies Legato even with non overlapping notes

Octave Scale: scales the legato glide time according to the distance between the notes that glide
into each other

Legato: Transitions between the pitch of overlapping notes and prevents the retriggering of
modulators.
 Sound Design in Vital
Section 6

Matrix

The Matrix can be found in its own window in the top left corner.

In here we see all the relationships of sources (Modulators) and Destinations (Parameters) that exist
within the current Vital setting. Instead of clicking and dragging modulators to their destination you
can also manually set up the relationships here.

Here is how you should understand the column captions in the Matrix:

#: the identification number for the respective Modulation relationship

Source: selection of the Modulator

Bipolar: toggles if the relationship between source and destination is bipolar or unipolar

Stereo: inverts the relationship on the right channel (the Left channel remains)

Morph: quick access modulation remap (linear, exponential or logarithmic)

Amount: by how much and in what direction the source influences the destination

Destination: the parameter influenced by the source. This can also be a modulation itself!!

In this scenario the amount of Modulation 5 (LFO 1 → Voice Tune) is influenced by LFO 1 itself.
 Sound Design in Vital
Section 6

Audio FX

Vital already comes with a selection of 9 Audio Effects accessible in the “Effects” Window.

They have the same functionality as any other audio effect of its type.

On / Off

You can change their order by clicking and dragging them on the left side.

In my opinion many of them sound very synthetic which is a contra argument for using them.

An obvious pro argument is that you can easily modulate parameters in these effects all within vital.

With audio effect plug-ins that come after Vital you will have to automate the parameters by hand.
 Vital vs. ES2
Section 6

Many of the options in the free third party synth Vital can also be found in a Logic Stock Synth
called ES2.

3 Oscillators
Built in FX

Semitone Cents
Mod Matrix
Detune Detune Unison options

Envelopes

LFOs

Voices Legato Glide Time

2 Filters
Bend Range
 Vital vs. ES2
Section 6

The Location of the respective functions can be different, their naming can vary slightly and there
might be different differences in the details.

The basic functionality of a synthesiser however remains regardless of the exact synth we are using!

Voices

Unison
2 Filters
3 Oscillators options Built in FX

Cents
Detune
Semitone
Detune

Legato
Glide
Time

Bend
Mod Matrix
Range

LFOs Envelopes
Logic Stock Software Instruments
Section 6

Logic Pro offers 28 stock Software instrument plug-ins! With the 11.1 Update they have been sorted
into the following categories:

Let us start with:

The Drum Kit Designer offers realistic sounding

sampled drum kits with a nice visual user interface that
might remind you of the Drum Kit plug-in in
GarageBand. It is very user friendly and is great to lay
down basic drum grooves with half way realistic
sounding acoustic drum sounds.

The Drum Synth is a synthesiser specifically designed to

synthesise Kicks, Claps, Hats and percussion sounds for
electronic music. Most of the sounds are really terrible
though! The only sound that I ever used from this plug-
in is the 80s Cowbell from the Percussion menu.

The Ultrabeat Drum synthesiser has been a part of logic

pro since version 7 and combines sound synthesis &
sampling and offers a step sequencer workflow inside of
the plug-in itself.

Its the “OG” Drum Sequencer.

Logic Stock Software Instruments
Section 6

The Quick Sampler is a great plug-in for a quick one-

shot sample workflow. Simply drag and drop an audio
file into it and you are good to go!

The plug-in automatically figures out the pitch of the

file, and maps it to the keys with pitch correction.

The Sample Alchemy plug-in features the same

functionality that Alchemy features when importing
audio samples into it. It is a very powerful granular
synthesiser perfect for creating Erie atmospheres. It is
great for experimenting with granular synthesis.

To see it in action check out:

Section 8 - Logic Template: Erie Sound Design

The Sampler (Multi Sample) evolved from the EXS24

which was a part of logic since version 5.

It is now a much more easy to use sampler that allows

to map audio samples to played notes and velocity.
There are lots of great preinstalled sampler instruments
in here covering almost all kinds of sounds you can
imagine!

To get an in depth view check out:

Section 6 - Sampler (Multi Sample)

Logic Stock Software Instruments
Section 6

The Studio Bass offers great controls for creating highly

realistic analog bass sounds. Even though is is at the
end just based on samples it has a great set of settings
and a huge number of available articulations to play
around with and use in your MIDI Regions!

The Studio Horns plug-in offers great sample based

sounds for Trumpets, Trombones, Saxophones and
combinations of them. This comes with a big variety of
articulations to use in your MIDI Regions as well!

The Studio Piano plug-in features only a very limited

number of sampled piano sounds. Instead of using this
plug-in my recommendation would be the free third
party plug-in “Labs” by Spitfire Audio!

https://labs.spitfireaudio.com/

The Studio Strings plug-in offers great sample based

sounds for Violins, Violas, Cellos & Double Basses and
combinations of them. It again comes with a big variety
of articulations that you can use in your MIDI Regions.

To Show the articulation in the MIDI Region Editor

(Piano Roll) you have to go to the track inspector and
scroll all the way down. After selecting an articulation
Set here a new option will show up in the inspector in
the MIDI Region Editor.
Logic Stock Software Instruments
Section 6

Alchemy is Logic’s most versatile Software Instrument

plug-in. It comes with thousands of presets, highly
advanced options and definitely deserves the sport as
logic’s greatest software instrument plug-in!

I am walking through the whole synth in great detail in a

separate lecture in this Section and it is definitely worth
to watch!

Section 6 - Alchemy & Sample Alchemy

The EFM1 (FM Synth) is a simple synthesiser with

Frequency Modulation options. It is a great plug-in to
create plucky Bass sounds that are especially used in
genres like Deep House.

It has also been used to create the well known high

pitch pluck sounds in the Hit Single “Latch” by
Disclosure and Sam Smith!

The ES E (Ensemble Synth) features very simplistic

functions. One oscillator, one LFO, one Filter and one
Envelope all with very limited options. The Envelope
only features Attack and Release. This Synth is used for
old-school sounding pad sounds. One thing to note here
are the 3 built in effects (Chorus 1, Chorus 2, Ensemble).

The ESM (Monophonic Synth) is even simpler than the

ES E. It features one oscillator, one filter, an overdrive
unit and one knob (Decay) for the filter and amplitude
envelope. It can be used to create Acid Bass Sounds but
it sounds very goofy without any further processing!

With many of these very simple synths it makes sense to

open the drop down menu in the bottom left of the
plug-in window. Some of them have very important
functions hidden here!
Logic Stock Software Instruments
Section 6

The ES P (Polyphonic Synth) has 6 oscillators:

(Triangle, Saw, Square, Square - 1 Octave, Square - 2

Octaves, Noise)

It features a Filter, a ADSR Envelope and a Chorus and

Overdrive effects unit. It can be used for simple bass
sounds and pads

The ES 1 (Synthesizer 1) is an advanced synthesiser that

features multiple oscillators with a bigger selection of
waveforms, complex LFO shapes and even a side chain
input for sounds coming from outside of the synth.

This might have the worst ratio of featured functions

and achievable sound in logic. It has a lot of functions
but sounds really goofy. The only use case I can imagine
for this is a monophonic funk lead (but only after
processing).

The ES 2 (Synthesizer 2) is the closest you will get to a

one-for-all-purposes Synth like the industry standards
Vital or Serum. It features 3 Oscillators, 2 Filters, 3 built
in effects, a Modulation Matrix, 2 LFOs, 3 Envelopes,
Unison options and a lot more. It comes with over 250
presets organised into 14 categories and is usable in
many different scenarios.
Logic Stock Software Instruments
Section 6

The EVOC 20 PS (Vocoder Synth) is Logic’s Vocoder

Synth. The word Vocoder is short for Voice Encoder and
was initially developed by Homer Dudley in 1938. The
concept is based on a Carrier Signal, a Modulator Signal
and a Filter Bank. The Modulator signal here is the
voice. This is what you select on the side chain input of
the Vocoder. The Filter Bank splits the modulator signal
up into 20 bands (hence the Number 20 in the name),
captures the band’s volumes and then applies the values
of each individual band to the carrier signal. The Carrier
signal is the synthesised musical sound. The “PS” in
“EVOC 20 PS” stands for “Poly Synth” and is the basis
for the synthesis of the carrier signal.

Logic’s Retro Synth has been built to emulate the

analog sounds of retro synthesisers. It comes with well
over 100 presets organised into 8 categories.

The synthesizer offers 4 modes (Analog, Sync, Table,

FM), many modulators and especially great sounding
filters!

Logic’s Sculpture (Modeling Synth) plug-in is the last

plug-in in the “Synthesizer” category and has been
created to emulate the acoustics of real material (Nylon,
Wood, Glass or Steel). You can create very realistic and
analog sounding sounds with this plug-in. It comes with
over 200 presets organised into 15 categories.
Logic Stock Software Instruments
Section 6

The External Instrument plug-in is used to connect and

integrate external MIDI hardware into the workflow in
logic.

The Klopfgeist is a simple plug-in used for metronome

clicks. The click track you hear when pressing “K” can be
viewed by opening the MIDI environment with “⌘ 0”.

The click track there is using the Klopfgeist plug-in.

Changes in the metronome settings are direct changes

to the settings of the Klopfgeist plug-in on the click
track in the MIDI Environment!

With Logic’s Test Oscillator you can generate a Sine,

Square or Pulse Width wave of a specific frequency. To
define the frequency you can turn the frequency knob,
double click on the knob to type in a number or press a
note on the MIDI input. In addition to that you can
generate White and Pink Noise and you can also
program sine sweeps.

When inserting this plug-in is automatically plays 1000

Hz at - 12 dB. Make sure to prepare for that before
insertion or you might get jumpscared!
Logic Stock Software Instruments
Section 6

The Vintage B3 Organ plug-in emulates the Hammond

B3 Organ which was invented by Laurens Hammond
and John M. Hanert in 1935. The B3 Organ became very
popular in Jazz, Blues and Rock and was used in many
songs by names like Deep Purple, Booker T. Jones or
Jimmy Smith.

The sound of the plug-in comes really close to the

original featuring many of the same options you would
have on the analog instrument as button on the digital
interface.

The Vintage Electric Piano emulates classic electric

pianos like the Wurlitzer and Rhodes. Wurlitzer E-Pianos
were invented by Benjamin Miessner in the 1950s and
were produced until 1983. The concept here is an
electromechanical sound generation with metal reeds
and pickups to create the sounds.

The Rhodes piano has a smoother sound and was first

created by Harald Rhodes in the 1940s.

The Vintage Clav emulates the Hohner clavinet which is

an electromechanical keyboard instrument invented by
Ernst Zacharias first produced in 1964. It has strings that
are struck by hammers and pickups that amplify the
generated sound. It has a very distinctive funky
percussive sound and was used in world hits like
“Superstition” by Stevie Wonder or “Could You Be
Loved” by Bob Marley.

The Vintage Mellotron emulates an early analog

sampler keyboard which was developed in the UK in the
1960s called the Mellotron. The analog Mellotron used
pre-recorded tape strips for each key and became
popular around progressive rock and more psychedelic
music genres in the 1960s and 1970s.
Logic Stock Software Instruments
Section 6

The Drum Machine Designer is a very specific software instrument plug-in that works unlike any
other.

It offers you a Drum Pad where you can drag and drop drum samples onto the respective buttons.

Each individual sample however is now played on a separate mixer track with a Quick Sampler.

Every time you use the DMD a folder structure with Quick Sampler tracks for each sample is created.
This way you can process every drum kit piece individually and get full control while still being able
to play the whole kit on the DMD track with just one region.
 Live Loops
Section 7

Live Loops is a function allowing you to access a

totally different workflow in logic. The idea with Show only the Live Loops ⌥L
Live Loops is not to create a project to bounce Grid
and listen to later but to try out different
arrangements and combinations of elements. Show Both Live Loops ⌥B
Grid and Workspace
Make sure to know the most important shortcuts
for working with Live Loops Show Only the ⌥N
Workspace (normal view)
Instead of Regions (what we have in the
workspace) within the Live Loops Grid we are Switch scenes ←/→
working with Cells that are playing on our tracks.
Play selected scene ↩︎
The Cell Editors are the same as the Region
Editors! Stop Playback ␣

Instead of going from bar to bar like we would in Record in am empty cell R / ↩︎
the workspace, we have looping “Scenes” in the
Live Loops Grid. Delete Cell ⌦

They will loop until you stop the playback or Select all Cells ⌘A
choose another scene for playback.
Select all following Cells ⇧F
For more information check out:

Section 7 - Introduction to Live Loops

Cells
Tracks
↓

Scenes →
 Screensets
Section 7

A Screenset is a setting for how the different windows (Browser, Inspector, Editor etc.) are set up.

Whether or not a window is opened, if its opened as a totally separate window, how big the window is,
where the window is, where in the window you have scrolled to…

..all of those things are stored within a Screenset!

To access the Screensets look for the Number “1” in the Bar the the top of your screen.

Here you can now click on “duplicate” to create a new Screenset.

You can then rename or delete the new Screensets.

If you have created a number of screensets you can quickly change from one to the other by pressing
the respective number (1,2,3…) on your keyboard!

I forgot to mention this in the video lecture :( But now you know!

To disable that quick change function you can lock the Screenset. Now you can only change it by
manually clicking on it in the drop-down menu.

Screensets are great for organizing more complex window setups especially when you have to change
from one window setup to another one quickly.
Custom Macros with Smart Controls
Section 7

Smart Controls can be opened with “B” and offer an automatically created set of knobs that allow for
a simplified workflow to quickly tweak parameters on your channel strip.

Instead of using the automatically created set of knobs you can create your own set of knobs and
assign them to different parameters allowing you to essentially use the Smart Controls as Macro
knobs.

To customise the knob assignments follow these steps:

1. open the inspector by clicking on the button in the top left of the Smart Controls window.

1.
2.

4. 3.

2. Select a layout from the Layout pop-up menu (There are 75 to choose from!)

3. Select a Knob on the layout you want to assign to a specific parameter

4. Click on the parameter mapping drop-down menu button

5.

5. In the drop down menu you add a new mapping by selecting it from the menu. Now a new
“Unmapped” Parameter Mapping should appear.

6. To choose the desired parameter the knob should be mapped to you can select it from the pop-up
menu or click on learn and then move the respective parameter slightly

6.

7.
8.

7. To tweak the parameter mapping you can manually set parameters like the “Range Minimum” or
“Range Maximum”. You can also invert the mapping and open the..

8...Scaling which is a Modulation Remap Window!

 MIDI Environment Layers
Section 7

Logic’s MIDI Environment can be opened by pressing ⌘ 0.

It contains all the MIDI Objects of your Logic Project!

This includes: channel strips for the tracks in your project, physical inputs, the MIDI click, faders,
monitors and a lot more!

Objects are organised into Layers so that you don’t have to work in one cluttered layer containing all
objects.

To access the layers, open up the MIDI Environment Inspector with “I” then click on the pop-up menu
in the top left corner.

All MIDI Objects listed in one Layer

Objects that are visible across all Layers

Physical Inputs, MIDI Click and Sequencer Input

All Channel Strips (including: Preview, Master, Stereo Out, Click)

In this menu you can also create your own custom layers!
 MIDI Environment Objects
Section 7

To add objects within the MIDI Environment click on the “New” pop-up menu.

In here you will see all the objects that can be added to the MIDI Environment.

The most often added Objects in the Environment are the Monitor, Faders and the Transformer!
 MIDI Environment Objects
Section 7

The Inspector (I) shows you all the settings for your objects.

There are only two settings you will find on any object:

The “Assignable” Tickbox determines whether or not an object can be assigned to a track in the Logic
Workspace. Only objects where this tickbox is ticked will show up when reassigning a track in the
Workspace.

You can reassign tracks by right-clicking on them in the track header area!

The Inspector for a MIDI channel strip looks like this while for an audio channel strip it looks like this.

The same settings can be found in the Workspace Inspector!

Making an Object assignable mainly serves two purposes:

1. Making the settings available in the Workspace inspector

2. Making finding it in the Environment easier (double click on

the track header opens the Environment where the object is!)
Aligning MIDI Environment Objects and Importing
MIDI Environment Setups
Section 7

When working in the MIDI Environment things can start to get messy when adding lots of objects in
complex setups.

To select multiple Object simply left-click drag to box-select them.

To align Objects open up the “Options” pop-up menu and navigate to “Clean up”

With “Align Objects” the selected objects will be moved closer together and aligned either horizontally
or vertically, depending on their former positions.

In the “Options” menu you also get options to navigate in between layers (1), work with Faders more
easily (2) and to import MIDI Environments from other projects (3)!

The “Import Environment” menu offers you different options for

importing MIDI Environment setups from other projects.

When selecting one of the objects you will first be asked to select the
Logic Project you want to import the Environment setup from.

Then you will be asked specifically for what you selected in the menu
before (if you selected “Layer” you have to now select the Layer you
want to import).
MIDI Environment Objects & Cables
Section 7

To connect two objects (e.g. a Fader and a channel strip) you have to click and drag from the
output of one object (you should be able to see the cable icon) and then let go over the object
you want it to be connected to!

The moment we clicked on the To add another cable to the To re-cable an output we have to
first output (1) a second one (2) same output we now have click on the respective one! This
was automatically created. to click and drag from the process can be tricky because of
second output! how small the outputs are!

↓1
↖︎2
↓1
↖︎2

To make cabling easier in the MIDI Environment there is an option in the “Options” pop-up menu
that lets you cable multiple selected objects serially.

The shortcut is: ⌃ S

To quickly get rid of objects or cables you can use

the Eraser tool and simply left-click or ⌘ + left-click
on what you want to erase!

The Tool menu can also be (as always) opened by

pressing T.

This way you don’t have to set the Eraser as your

command left-click tool if you just need it once!

If you need it more than once, it makes sense to use

it as the ⌘ + left-click tool!
MIDI Environment Fader Objects
Section 7

The Fader Objects category offers a big selection of Faders.

Many of them only differ in their design and otherwise do the exact same thing which is outputting a
single 7 bit (0 - 127) value.

The only Fader that differs from all

the other faders in its functionality is
the Vector. This outputs two 7 bit
values (X & Y) instead of only one.

In the Specials subcategory you will find Faders for very special purposes. They are used to control
the Logic Interface (goto Screenset) the navigation in the Logic Project (goto Marker) Global Tracks
(Tempo) or the MIDI Environment Setup (Cable Switcher, Alias Assigner, Transform Op & Cond)

Faders are often used to create Macro-like setups in the MIDI Environment. To do so we have to gather
some knowledge of their inputs and outputs though!

More on that on the next page!

 Some Words on bits!
Section 7

Understanding bits is necessary when working in the MIDI Environment and it helps to understand
when working in MIDI in general!

The first thing you will learn is that most computers work by storing data as ones and zeros. Every bit
can store either a one and a zero (I am writing most because a new technology called “quantum
computing” now starts to make it possible for a bit to be in the two states at once!)

So with one bit, your system can be in one of two stages: either one or zero

With a 2 bit system we can be in one of 4 stages: 1,1 / 1,0 / 0,0 / 0,1

With every bit we add to our system we double the number of possible stages.

MIDI is mostly a 7 bit system: 27 = 128

Every Fader in Logic (Pan, Volume, Reverb Wet, Filter Cutoff, Pitch Bend, Mod Wheel…) can be in one
of 128 stages.

Because we are not counting from 1 but from 0, 0 is stage number 1, 1 is stage number 2…

This is why faders in MIDI go from 0 to 27 -1 = 127

The Fader value is known as Data Byte 2 and is always in 7 bit!

But, When creating a MIDI event by turning a knob, the Data Byte 2 is not the only thing that comes
through!
123 4
To be precise there 4 parameters that make up a MIDI event.

The Monitor object will show them to you for every MIDI event!

1. The Status

Tells you if the MIDI event is a note, Fader value, Meta Information (goto Marker…)

2. The MIDI Channel

Is always 4 bit information (24 = 16) This is where the limit of audio effects on one channel strip
(15) comes from! One MIDI Channel is reserved for the Software Instrument Input, the others
can be used by each individual plug-in in the effects chain!

3. Data Byte 1 (MIDI CC standing for Control Change)

Can be 7 bit (128) or 15 bit (32,768). The only Output Type that features a 15 bit MIDI CC is the
“Fader” Output type. You need more than a 7 bit MIDI CC because many plug-ins have well
over 128 knobs you can tweak and the MIDI CC can be understood as an identifier number for
each knob in a plug-in.

4. Data Byte 2 (Fader Value)

Almost always 7 bit

(the exception are Fader objects with their Filter set to “14 bit” which allows for 16.384 stages
instead of 128). This is only very rarely used and hence only briefly mentioned in this course!
MIDI Environment Fader Object Settings
Section 7

The standard Faders in the MIDI Environment have the following settings:

As clarified any object has an Icon and an

“Assignable” tickbox!

The Style determines mostly the look of the fader, but

in the rare case of the “Vector” it also affects the other
settings!

After that we find the “Output” settings for out Fader.

Here we can set the Output Type, MIDI Channel and

MIDI CC (Data byte 1, also called -1-)

The same can be independently set for the Fader

Input.

The Output and Input Type is the most important

setting here!

There is only one output type that allows for a 15 bit

Data Byte 1 (MIDI CC) and that is the “Fader”!

This is not the default setting! The default setting is

the 7 bit “Control” output type!

Underneath the Output and input settings we

still find the following settings:

The Range determines which part of the 7 bit

range is used with the Fader (on both input and
output).

The Value as setting determines how the 7 bit

output is shown on the Fader. This does not
affect the actual output!

The Filter menu offers the following settings:

- Every value passes through without filtering

- Filters events that don’t fit the Input definition

- Filters out events that match the Input definition

- Filters out everything (Inversion of “Off”)
- Prevents MIDI events from physical objects to be sent
back back out to them. (Prevents feedback loop)
- Only creates MIDI events when letting go of the mouse
- turns the Fader into a 14 bit Fader instead of 7 bit

Feedback allows or disallows circular cabling. If

disabled an event can only pass through once!
 The Transformer Object
Section 7

The Transformer object lets you transform MIDI events in 7 bit!

MIDI CCs over 127 can not be transformed here! You have to work around it with Fader inputs and
outputs!

It lets you set up Conditions for the 4 Parameters, run custom Operations on them and apply the
transformation with various different Modes.

The available conditions for The available operations for

Channel, Data Byte 1 and Channel, Data Byte 1 and Data
Data Byte 2 are: Byte 2 are:

The available Modes for for the

application of operations on the
basis of the set conditions are:
Using Faders as Transformer Objects
Section 7

What if you want to transform MIDI CCs over 127?

In this example we want to use the Filter Cutoff and the Oscillator Mix inside the Retro Synth plug-in
and have them both be controlled by one Fader value.

RetroSynth’s Filter Cutoff is assigned to MIDI CC 403

RetroSynth’s Oscillator Mix is assigned to MIDI CC 209

A Fader Object However only has one output with only one MIDI CC (set to 403 here)!

The usual idea here would be to plug a Transformer object in between, to set the Data Byte 1 without
any conditions to be fixed to 209 and to choose the Mode:

The Problem however is that the Transformer is limited to 7 bit. Therefore MIDI CCs over 127 are out of
reach.

Instead you can add a new Fader in between with MIDI CC 403 as the input and MIDI CC 209 as the
output like its shown here:

Now when moving the

first Fader we are
creating 2 MIDI events
(one with MIDI CC 403,
the other with 209)
 Replace or Double Drum Track
Section 7

The Replace or Double Drum Track feature places MIDI events (Notes) in a MIDI Region on the basis
of an audio region passing a defined threshold.

You can find the function in the “Track” drop-down menu or you can use the shortcut ⌃ D instead.

In the “Drum Replacement/Doubling” window you can now set the desired Instrument.

The Instrument menu has the options: Kick, Snare, Tom or other. For Kick, Snare and Tom, the Trigger
Note is automatically selected in accordance to the standard drum kit piece MIDI mapping.

Other lets you freely choose the Trigger Note.

The Mode determines whether or not the original audio region should be muted after the process or
not. Replacement mutes the Region, Doubling leaves it unmuted.

The Relative Threshold determines the threshold on the basis of which (as it is written underneath)
MIDI notes will be created for transients that pass the threshold.

You can turn this value up or down and look at the generated MIDI data be changed in real time!

Not only will notes be created if their transients pass the threshold but the distance between the peak
over the threshold and the threshold is also used as a factor for the note velocity. This way the
loudness differences between different transients are part of the generated MIDI data!
 Scripter MIDI Effect
Section 7

The Scripter MIDI Effect can be inserted into the MIDI FX Slot on a MIDI track, Pattern track or
Session Player track.

After insertion both the plug-in interface and the Script Editor Window open.

In the Script Editor Window you can now write Java Script to create your own MIDI FX plug-in!

And the best thing is: we can just ask an AI to write a Java Script for us!

With a simple prompt like this:

“Write a Java Script for Logic Pro’s “Scripter” MIDI effect that allows me to transpose any of the
twelve notes independently regardless of the octave they are in!”

You will get back a Java Script like this:

// Logic Pro Scripter: Independent Transposition for Each Note

var PluginParameters = [];

// Create sliders for each note (C, C#, D, ..., B)

var noteNames = ["C", "C#", "D", "D#", "E", "F", "F#", "G", "G#", "A", "A#", "B"];
for (var i = 0; i < noteNames.length; i++) {
PluginParameters.push({
name: noteNames[i] + " Transpose",
type: "lin",
minValue: -24,
maxValue: 24,
numberOfSteps: 48,
defaultValue: 0
});
}

function HandleMIDI(event) {
if (event instanceof Note) {
var pitchClass = event.pitch % 12; // Determine the pitch class (0-11)
var transposeAmount = GetParameter(noteNames[pitchClass] + " Transpose");
event.pitch += transposeAmount; // Apply transposition
}
event.send(); // Send the modified MIDI event
}

Copy this Script with ⌘ C, select the whole content of the Script Editor with ⌘ A, the press ⌘ V, hit
“Run Script” and there you have it!

Now you can also save it as a preset for further use!

 Binaural Panning
Section 7

To access the Binaural Panner you have to right click on the pan knob of the track you want to use
the Binaural Panner on and select “Binaural Panner”. A new pan knob will appear. Double click on that
to open the Binaural Panner window.

Right-click Double-click

The binaural panner uses the HRTF (Head Related Transfer Function)
to pan sounds realistically in 2D (Planar) or 3D (Spherical).

This way sounds can actually sounds like they are behind you or in
front of you rather than just “in the middle” which is what you would
be limited to with a Balance or Stereo Pan!

To optimise the result of the binaural panner you can insert the
Binaural Post-Processing plug-in to choose one of 4 compensation
modes optimised for different scenarios.

FF: Free-Field Compensation

HB: Horizontal-Band Compensation

DF: Diffuse-Field Compensation

CTC: Cross-Talk Cancellation

 Working with Videos in Logic
Section 7

Logic allows you to import one compatible movie file at a time into your project.

Compatible movie le formats Incompatible movie le formats

QuickTime Movie (.mov) WMV (Windows Media Video)

MPEG-4 (.mp4, m4v) FLV (Flash Video)
MPEG-2 and MPEG-1 RealMedia Formats
3GPP and 3GPP2 (.rm, .rmvb, .rmhd etc.)
AVI
AVCHD

To import a movie simply drag it into your project.

Depending on the movie you imported Logic might ask you one, two or all three of these questions:

Here you can select if you want to keep the movies

audio track or not. If you don’t want to keep it, simply
untick the second tickbox.

If there is a mismatch of sample rates between the

movie files audio track and your project you will have
to make a decision about which one you want to use
since mismatched sample rates can create timing
issues, artefacts and pitch changes.

If there is a mismatch between the movie frame rate

and the project frame rate you can correct for it here.
The only purpose of logic pro’s frame rate (at least
that I can think of) is to synchronise it with a video.

Thus I would highly recommend to always use the

movies frame rate!

Now that the movie has been imported you can start
to work with it in Logic.
fi
fi
 Working with Videos in Logic
Section 7

To move the movie together with it’s audio track simply click and drag on the global “Movie” track.

If you right-click on the movie track you will see a pop-up menu with many useful functions for
moving and trimming the movie precisely!

On the inspector on the left

side you can see the movie
play back. If you click on it
it will open in a large
window.

By default the audio region can not be moved independently. The reason is the SMPTE Lock.

You can right click on the audio region and navigate to “Unlock SMPTE Position” to unlock it.

The Keyboard shortcut to unlock the SMPTE Position is shown as ⌘↑ here, but this is an error in
Logic!

The actual command is ⌘⇞. What you have to press on your keyboard to use it is: ⌘ + fn + ↑

For many situations when working with

movies it makes sense to not use a
musical grid but rather a time code grid.

To use the time code grid go the the

the General Project Settings and untick
“Use musical grid”
 VCA
Section 7

VCA stands for “Voltage Controlled Amplifier” and

offers a way to control the output volume of multiple
tracks with a new Fader.

To add a VCA, open the Mixer by pressing “X”, right-

click on a track and select “Create New VCA”.

A new track (VCA 1) will appear in your mixer and

underneath the Pan knob of the track you will see
VCA 1 signalling the output volume is controlled by
VCA 1.

Clicking on the same VCA slot on another track will

now show this menu:

This way you can create a new VCA, use the already
existing one or select “No VCA” to remove a VCA.

VCAs are a great tool for mixing. They allow you to

tweak the volume of multiple tracks simultaneously
without having to send their outputs to a bus.

The maximum amount of VCAs available in one

project is 32.
 Logic’s Notation Editor
Section 7

Logic’s Notation Editor can be accessed by selecting it on a MIDI Region Editor window.

To quickly open the Notation Editor you can select a MIDI Region and press “N” on the keyboard!

You will now see an automatically generated Score on the basis of the MIDI data in your MIDI Region.

To change the Staff Style you can click on the clef (by default the treble clef) and
select one from the pop-up menu. This only works in linear view!

If the desired Staff Style does not already exist, you can “open Staff Styles
Window”!

In here you can create your own custom Staff Style by clicking on the “New”
drop-down menu. Here you can for instance create a Dual Staff Style like a Short
Score!

After having created your Staff Style with your custom name you can select it
from the pop-up menu again.

For Drum Notation use the “Drums” Staff Style

For Guitar Tabs use the “Guitar” Staff Style

 Logic’s Notation Editor
Section 7

Notes can be transposed and moved with the same shortcuts that
you can also use in the MIDI Region Editor.

How a selected note is presented visually can be set through the

right-click menu.

Many of these so called “Note Attributes” can be set with

shortcuts:

Enharmonic Shift: # ⇧#

Enharmonic Shift: B ⇧B

Stems Up ⌃⌥ ↑

Stems Down ⌃⌥ ↓

Ties Up ⌃⌥⇧ ↑

Ties Down ⌃⌥⇧ ↓

Force Interpretation ⌃⇧ I

Defeat Interpretation ⌃I

Interpretation is a feature where the note end is quantised to

get a more easy to read score.

It can be found for a whole region in the Region Inspector

window as a tickbox.

The Interpretation can also be set per note. (Right-click menu)

The Tools in the Score Editor feature 3 tools that are only
available in the Score Editor! They serve very specific purposes.

The camera tool

settings can be found
in the settings under
“Score”.
 Logic’s Notation Editor
Section 7

To add a header text, lyrics, chord symbols, key changes, dynamic markings,
accents, articulation markings, enharmonic shifts, start and end symbols and
much more you will have to open up the Part Box. You can find it in the inspector
when having the Score Editor open.

These parts can all just be dragged from the part box into logic’s notation editor
if you are in page view (⌃ P).

When dragging them in they will always be connected to a subdivision with the
given horizontal and vertical offset you create when dragging them in. Their point
of connection is indicated by a red dotted line.

You can align multiple objects by making the relative position to their point of
connection equal. To do that, ⇧ left-click to select multiple events (lyrics,
markings or what have you) then open up the event Inspector.

At the top you will see how many events you have selected, and you will also see
their vertical and horizontal position. * indicates that they are not the same. You
can reset them by ⌥ left-clicking on the number fields which sets all of them to
0. Then you can move all of them to the desired values together. They are now
aligned.

To edit the text style for any Text (Header, Bar Numbers, Lyrics, Chord Symbols) open up the
“Functions” drop-down menu and select “Text Styles”.

In here you can edit the already set Text

Styles and create new Text Styles

Double-click Double-click to
to Edit The edit the Text Style
name
 Logic’s Notation Editor
Section 7

When working in the Notation Editor, you will often encounter issues with the available space. To fix
those issues open the “Layout” pop-up menu and select Global Format (⌃⌥⇧F)

Here you will find a lot of helpful settings for the score layout.

The most often used ones are the Header Space and the Line Distance on both the score and the
part.

After having finished your score it is time to export it to a PDF.

To do so, make sure you have your score editor opened!

Then press ⌘ P to Print or navigate to File → Print

In the now opened Print window select “Save as PDF”

 Vocal Recording
Section 8

If you set up your Vocal Recording properly, post processing is very easy. If you don’t, it can get very
hard, even to the point where you have to rerecord it or use expensive sound restoration software to
clean up the audio.

First for the technical aspects:

When recording you wan to optimise the signal to noise ratio while minimising the risk of clipping.

The general consensus is that if the singer sings at about 80 % of his or her max. volume the input
volume should peak at - 6dB.

You can tweak the input volume in the System Settings under Sound → Input where you will need to
find your microphone. Here you can tweak the input volume!

Now for the physical aspects:

Which Microphone should you buy?

My microphone is T-Bone’s SC 440 and costs around 50 €. I would not recommend anyone to buy
anything under 50 € or over 1.000 €. Those are my experiences and my opinions!

How far should you be away from the Microphone?

Roughly 15 - 20 centimetres (which is a distance you can remember with this gesture:

BUT! This is only the optimised distance when you are not in a problematic recording environment!

What is a good recording environment?

A room that doesn’t create much reverb or resonance! You want to isolate the content of the voice as
much as possible. For that in recording studios there is sound proofing, which is expensive specifically
designed foam that absorbs sound and only reflects it back in a very diffuse way.

It is very expensive though!

Can I create a good recording environment out of an acoustically problematic room whilst not
spending money on soundproofing?

Yes! Just take a blanket, wrap it around yourself and the microphone and make sure it is covering all
directions. This will immediately cause a massive reduction in room resonance or room reverb on the
recording. It does look very stupid though🤣

Also: it always makes sense to use a pop filter!

If you don’t want to buy one you can wrap socks around the mic!
 Vocal EQ & Deessing
Section 8

Vocal Equalization is the first step of vocal post processing.

The goal is to cut unwanted information out of the vocal and to balance the vocal spectrally such
that any undesired characteristics are reduced and desired characteristics are enhanced!

To find the respective frequency ranges it helps to have a look at a chart like this:

You generally do not want any Rumble in your vocal, so there will always be a “low cut” in a vocal EQ!

The rest of the spectrum is about balancing.

The negatively connoted characteristic descriptions (Mud, Boxiness, Nasal, Harshness, Telephone)
describe undesired tonal characteristics that occur when the respective spectral area is too loud in
relation to the other spectral areas.

The neutral characteristic descriptions (Proximity, Presence, Sibilance, Air) describe the general tonal
characteristics of vocals in those spectral areas.

It is recommended to create separate Channel EQ instances for every frequency area you want to
tweak to keep everything organised and easy to change afterwards!

For an undesired amount of Sibilance (5k - 8k Hz) there is a vocal processing technique called
Deessing

The Logic stock Audio FX plug-in for Deessing is called

DeEsser 2 and it sends the input signal through a bell
shaped filter which is set to a default frequency of

7k Hz (right in the center of the Sibilance area)

If the filtered signal passes a set threshold the gain of

that spectral area will be reduced. This way you can
tame the sibilance of a vocal dynamically without
having to take too much of the spectral area out of your
vocal on an EQ.
 Vocal Compression
Section 8

Vocal Compression comes after spectrally shaping the vocal with an EQ and Deesser.

The different compressor models create different dynamic characteristics. The 4 most typically used
compressor models for vocals are usually described like the following:

Studio VCA - maintains a smooth and pleasant sound even with more drastic gain reduction

Vintage VCA - pleasant but dominant compression making vocals stand out in the mix

Vintage FET - more aggressive compression

Vintage Opto - great for soft and light vocals

The Threshold of the compressor (regardless of the model) should be set such that on average the
gain is reduced by about 4 - 5 dB.

The other compressor settings

(Attack, Release, Ratio etc.) can be
set to create the character that is
desired.

For most vocals the Ratio should be

in between 1.4 : 1 and 5 : 1

The Attack should be in the range of

10 ms and 50 ms and definitely not
lower than 5 ms to avoid crackling!

A Release of 20 ms - 100 ms is
suitable for most vocals.
Vocal Pitch Correction with Flex Pitch
Section 8

To work with Flex Pitch (or any other Flex algorithm) your vocal should be monophonic (only one
voice singing at a time) and dry (without any delay or reverb)!

If it isn’t both of these things, Flex will not work properly!

After choosing “Flex Pitch” from the Flex Mode menu (⌘ F) you should be able to see a visual
representation of the Flex Pitch data created by the Flex Pitch analysis of your vocal.

In the Flex Pitch Editor we have 6 Parameters for each detected note to edit separately:

1. Pitch Drift (in)

2. Fine Tune 1 2 3
3. Pitch Drift (out)
4. Gain
5. Vibrato 4 5 6
6. Formant Shift

Some of the same commands for selecting MIDI notes also apply to the notes here in the Flex Pitch
Editor!

Select All Notes ⌘A

Select Following Notes ⇧F

Select Following Notes ⌃⇧ F

Of Same Pitch

Invert Selection ⇧I

After making a selection of notes you can right click on one of them to show the following menu:

Reset any Pitch edits

Pitch correct all notes

Reset any Pitch Drift (in or out) edits

Reset all of the 6 parameters to their original state

The Flex pitch data can be converted into a MIDI File by clicking on the “Edit” drop-down menu
in the top left corner of the audio editor (Track) and then selecting:
Vocal Pitch Correction with Audio FX plug-ins
Section 8

While Flex Pitch is the Logic stock adaptation of the industry standard “Melodyne”, the Pitch
Correction plug-in is Logic’s stock adaptation of the industry standard “Autotune”.

The Pitch Correction plug-in first detects the pitch of the input audio and then pitches it up or down
depending on where the closest note of the selected scale is. The scale can be selected by simply
left-clicking on the piano keys while in “Edit Scale” viewing mode, but also by selecting a root note
and a scale type.

How the pitch is detected, how quickly the pitch What the input is being tuned to (by default the
is corrected and how many cents it is allowed to global tuning) and also if and by how much it
be away from a note to remain untouched can should be tuned up or down after the correction
be set in the Settings part of the plug-in can be set in the Tuning part of the plug-in
interface. interface.

Especially the “Response” Knob changes “if it

sounds like autotune”.

Bypassing a note is only rarely used and sometimes confused with taking the same note out of the
scale. It does something completely different though.

Bypassing a note means deactivating the pitch correction in the tonal area where the input pitch
would be the closest to the respective note and hence pitch corrected towards it.

Deselecting it from the scale means incoming pitches around that note will now be corrected to the
next closest note to the input pitch.
 Vocoding
Section 8

To work with Logic’s stock Vocoder which is the EVOC 20 PS we first need to define what a Vocoder
actually does!

The word Vocoder is short for Voice Encoder and was initially developed by Homer Dudley in 1938.

The concept is based on a Carrier Signal, a Modulator Signal and a Filter Bank.

The Modulator signal here is the voice. This is what you select on the side chain input of the
Vocoder.

The Filter Bank splits the modulator signal up into 20 bands (hence the Number 20 in the name),
captures their volume and then applies the same changes in volume of each individual band to the
carrier signal.

You could say that something like a “proxy for the formant” of the Modulator signal is applied to the
carrier signal.

The Carrier signal is the synthesised musical sound. The “PS” in “EVOC 20 PS” stands for “Poly
Synth” and is the basis for the synthesis of the carrier signal.
 Vocal Mixing
Section 8

Vocal Mixing is the process of making your vocals fit into your mix!

How exactly you mix your vocals (reverb, echo, creative fx like distortion, stereo width etc.) totally
depends on the genre and the song!

But there are some rules of thumb that apply for most vocals:

The main vocal should be central (mono) and significantly louder than any other vocals. This vocal is
also in most scenarios supposed to feel like its right in your face, and not like its far away.

Thats why the main voice should be mostly mono, pretty dry and pretty loud.

Backing vocals on the other hand can be panned to the left and right to fill out the stereo field.

They can be positioned further away from the listener in the mix by adding reverb or echo.

Backing vocals should also be equalised to sound like they are further away.
This usually involves a low cut and a high cut!

Vocal sound sources that are further away don’t

have a lot of low end or high end!

It helps to think about Vocal Mixing practically!

 Mixing & Mastering
Section 9

Mixing and Mastering go hand in hand!

The characteristics you are trying to achieve in the mastering process have to already exist at least to
some degree in your mix and can be enhanced further in mastering.

The most common goal in mixing and mastering is to make it sound clean, powerful and satisfying
and to achieve high levels of loudness!

But that is only the most common goal meaning that there are many other goals in mixing and
mastering. All of that totally depends on the style of music you are making!

Some genres of music have as part of their characteristics a certain degree of “uncleanliness and
unprofessionalism”.

Don’t use this as an excuse to make unclean sounding music though! Be honest to yourself!

Mixing is a term that describes every aspect of the music production process that deals with the
possible “clashing” of elements in your music on any level and tries to correct for it to give “every
element it’s proper place”. This involves both aspects focused on every single track and aspects that
come into play when looking at multiple tracks.

Mastering refers to the effects chain on the “Stereo Output” track (also called the “Mix Bus”) in
Logic!
Your whole mix goes through the same set of effects to enhance the desired characteristics!
The typical order of plug-ins on master chains looks like this:

Compression (e.g. “The Glue”)

EQ (e.g. “Match EQ”)
Imaging (e.g. “Mid-Side EQ”)
Saturation & Texturing (optional)
Limiting (e.g. “Adaptive Limiter”)

On the following pages we will discuss all these concepts in greater depth!
 General Info on Mixing
Section 9

Be aware of the acoustic situation!

If your room has no soundproofing and creates a lot of reverb and resonance then don’t mix on
speakers! Go for headphones instead, optimally high quality headphones!

The headphones I am using are specifically designed for mixing and are made by a company called
OLLO Audio.

I encountered many situations already where I couldn’t hear elements in complex pieces of music at
all on cheaper headphones that would later reveal themselves to me on my good headphones.

But it is also possible to mix well on cheap headphones!

Experience with the speakers or headphones is key!

Auditory vs. Visual Mixing

Auditory mixing refers to mixing related decision making based on listening to your mix whereas
visual mixing refers to looking at meters and following standard reference values.

The more experienced you are at mixing the more sense it makes to makes to rely on your ears while
you probably want to look at meters more when you are freshly starting out on your musical journey!

People who go for a lot of visual mixing sometimes forget to actually make it sound good!

A “good mix” that abides by the standard reference values of mixing (which vary from genre to
genre) can still sound terrible because of terrible creative choices!

Remember that we are not mixing to “get a clean mix” we are mixing to make the most of our
musical ideas!

Mix at low volumes!

This is a key idea that you should try to follow and remind yourself of as often as you can!!

Just like you remind yourself to sit up straight and not like a hunchback you should come up with a
ritual to turn down the volume on your speakers or headphones!

Just like there is a tendency to sit in a kyphosis provoking mess of a position because it relaxes your
muscles and brings you a few inches closer to the monitor, there is a tendency to turn up the volume
to a ear fatigue provoking level because it sounds much more powerful!

Psychologically loud equals better, which is also why advertisements (for example on YouTube) are
very often a good 5 dB louder than the YouTube video you have been watching.

You should use this knowledge to “lay the cards against your mix”!

If it still sounds powerful, even at low volumes, you have done a good job!
 Mixing Fundamentals
Section 9

Single Track Mixing

What might sound like a contradiction in terms is conceptually a very important set of ideas to get
right!

Gain Staging
This is the process of setting your input levels up correctly before you process your signal!
You don’t want to work with a clipped and hence distorted signal from the get go so make sure there
is headroom when recording audio!

EQ
Equalisation is the most common audio processing!
It creates ear fatigue very quickly because you will often have to listen to a sound up to 50
sometimes even more times in a loop to find a painful frequency area you want to dial down or to
find the right area to boost.

The quicker you find those areas that you want to tweak the less ear fatigue there will be!
Meaning again: experience is key!

Also: start broad and get more specific after laying the main shape down!

Sound Characteristics
This involves processing of dynamics, different effects and even sound design itself!

While you wouldn’t traditionally call it “mixing” it does play a huge role!
You will only get a “good mix” with good sounding elements!

Mixing is no magic wand that turns bad sounds into good sounds just because they are all mixed
well together!

Sound Synergy
This usually happens as a “happy accident” in the music creation process but is definitely something
you want to try to have happen as often as possible.

In these situations multiple sounds take on complementary roles forming a synergy greater than the
mere sum of both sounds.

Here are some examples for sound synergies that I discovered over the years as a producer:

- gritty bass sound + saw chord sounds

- bass sound stab + silently layered gunshots (for added energy and aggression)
- saw chords + choir chord layer (for additional width and human imperfection)

This is where your creativity comes into play. Just mess around trying to combine sounds that
haven’t been combined before until you find a sound synergy of your own!
 Mixing Fundamentals
Section 9

Multi Track Mixing

This is what you might consider “actual mixing”.

Volume Balance
Volume balancing is the process of tweaking the volume of your tracks in relationship to each other.

The probability that you will make really bad decisions here is very low! This is the easiest part of
mixing and also what you mostly do right from the get go when you add a new element.

Spectral Mixing
This aspect of mixing is especially important for the low end (20 - 200 Hz)!

EQ plays a huge rule in spectral mixing. You can use it to avoid clashes of elements. Cutting out any
undesired low end rumble from audio recordings or other sounds in your mix is the easy part of
spectral mixing. It is easy because the vocal is not supposed to occupy the low end (the information
we are cutting away has no reason to stay anyways).

But what if two elements like a Kick drum and a Sub Bass are supposed to occupy the same space?

Then we have to use a technique called “side-chaining” the modern version of the technically
accurate term “side-chain compression”. As the name suggests, with side chain compression you
choose the kick track as a side-chain input for all the elements that need to be reduced in volume
when the kick is playing.

To get the most clean side-chaining possible the best way is to draw region volume automation for
the volume of a bus track to which you send all tracks that have to be side-chained to the kick:
 Mixing
Section 9

Multi Track Mixing

Stereo Mixing
This is where we move sounds in the stereo field to
make space for other elements. Two sounds
occupying the same space spectrally (e.g. a vocal
and chord synth) can be properly mixed by making
the chords more wide and the vocal more narrow.

There are great charts for orientation to get an idea

of where elements are in the stereo field (X - Axis)
and on the frequency spectrum (Y - Axis).

The basic needs for stereo widening and narrowing

are met by using the Direction Mixer plug-in with
which you can scale up or down the already
existent stereo field! This will not have any effect on
mono input.

Distance Mixing
Sound sources that are close to you in real life are
very clearly audible, loud and don’t reverberate in
the environment.

Sound sources that are far away from you in real

life are often not clearly audible, more silent and do
reverberate in the environment.

With Distance Mixing we can not only define the

perceived distance to the listener but we can also
define the space the elements are in by picking
different reverb types.

Because we are adding a second signal path this is

now not called “stereo widening” anymore, instead
it’s called “stereo layering”.

The reverb signal is a layer we are putting on top of

the original signal path.
 Mastering
Section 9

With logic pro stock and free third party plug-ins

there are two ways to master in logic:

1. Without the Mastering Assistant

In this scenario we will create our own custom

mastering chain. It always makes sense to put the
mastering plug-ins in the following order:

1. Compression
My favourite mastering compressor is “The Glue” by
Cytomic. You can use the demo version which is
totally free. The only downside here is that it doesn’t
save the settings you were using in the last session.
Just write them down into the Note Pad (⌥⌘ P) and
you are good to go!

You should lower the threshold such that it reduced

about 3 - 4 dB of gain in the loudest parts.

2. EQ
You can use the standard Channel EQ to make small
adjustments to the overall spectral shape of your mix.
Don’t make big adjustments here! If you have to make
big adjustments, your mix is bad! Go back and fix it in
the mix instead of trying to fix it in mastering!

The spectral goal with Mastering is to receive an

overall roughly flat frequency response (all frequency
areas are supposed to be at a roughly equal volume).

There are some exceptions to this rule:

- around 3k Hz is where the human ear is most

sensitive. You can take a little but off that frequency
area and it will make it sound more pleasant to the
human ear.
- The low-end (especially in EDM) can be a little bit
louder then the rest.

A great way to achieve a more flat frequency

response is to use Logic’s “Match EQ”.

Record your mix as “Current” and then White Noise

from a Test Oscillator as “Reference” then apply the
result slightly on the mids and highs with no
smoothing.

Section 9 - Mastering - 9:47

 Mastering
Section 9

With logic pro stock and free third party plug-ins

there are two ways to master in logic:

1. Without the Mastering Assistant

3. Imaging
There is a great free Imaging plug-in called
“Ozone 11 Imager” which is industry standard!

Go get it here:
https://www.izotope.com/en/products/ozone-
imager.html

This plug-in allows you to tweak the stereo image

of 4 separate bands and widen the stereo field
with very high-end algorithms.

The general rule of thumb for imaging it that the

low-end should be almost entirely Mono and the
Highs should be pretty wide so that you have an
inverse correlation of the frequency of your sound
and the stereo correlation.

This “V-Shape” is also what you roughly see on

the mixing charts. You will almost never in your
live see the Kick or Bass being wide! The higher
the instruments sits in the mix spectrally the
wider it is.

4. Saturation and Texturing

This is an optional step in the mastering process!
The idea here is to make a digital mix sound more
like it has been produced and mixed on analog
gear! Some people have that as a part of their
goals in mastering, some don’t.
Its up to what you like!

You can use a silent vinyl crackle track at a very

low volume to add a little bit of texture to your
music. For saturation (the process of adding
harmonics) there is the “Exciter” in Logic. But it is
not an industry standard plug-in!

If you want to saturate and texture your music

professionally, you will have to use a plug-in like
“Ozone” by Izotope.
The standard version costs 199 € but is definitely
worth the money!
 Mastering
Section 9

1. Without the Mastering Assistant

5. Limiting
This is the final step of mastering!
A Limiter works by settings an output ceiling
and an input gain. When the signal gets close
to the output ceiling it will be reduced in gain
such that it doesn’t pass it!

This way digital clipping (actual peaks over 0

dB) can be avoided.
Depending on the desired character of your
limiting you can tweak the attack and release
times.

The goal is to achieve a desired value for the

Loudness Units Full Scale (LUFS) while not
introducing noticeable artefacts!

The logic stock limiters (“Adaptive Limiter”

and “Limiter”) are not industry standard, have
very limited options and introduce artefacts
very quickly. Especially when trying to achieve
high Loudness values, they are basically
unusable!

Industry standard Limiters would be the one

on Izotope’s Ozone 11 standard version (199 €)
called the “Maximiser” or FabFilter’s Pro-L 2
(169 €).

These Limiters work with more advanced

algorithms to avoid artefacts even when the
input gain is really high!

2. With Logic’s Mastering Assistant

This plug-in is only available on the Stereo
Output track and creates a mastering chain for
you with the click of a button.

You have very broad controls over the

dynamics and the stereo width and you can
edit the automatically created EQ shape
yourself.

This mastering assistant is not doing a good

job!

You should get Ozone 11’s standard version

instead! (199 €) This features an incredibly
powerful mastering assistant!!
 Loudness
Section 9

When Measuring loudness we are not measuring peak values, but rather the average volume of our
music.

The standard average volume measurement is RMS (Root Mean Square) and can be understood as
the actual mathematical average volume of your music.
It is calculated by squaring each sample of the audio signal, calculating their averages and taking the
square root of the average.

The Problem with RMS is that it isn’t corrected for human hearing.
The correction for human hearing is called “K-Weighting”. It looks a lot like the curve for the
sensitivity of human hearing!

LUFS are essentially RMS with K-Weighting. There are other small differences for how the loudness
of stereo information is calculated but those aren’t nearly as big of a factor as the K-Weighting.

When you are mastering your song you will want to look at a Loudness Meter to get an idea of how
loud the main parts of your music sound. Optimally you will have professional reference music pieces
in the same genre to compare it to to get an idea of how loud your music should be.

There are 3 LUFS measurements in logic pros “Loudness Meter”.

M (momentary) measures the loudness over a time span of 400 ms
S (short term) measures the loudness over a time span of 3 seconds
I (integrated) measures the loudness over a freely definable time span
This is what the Start and Reset Buttons are used for!

What about Spotify’s Loudness Penalty?

What I am referring to here is a hot topic of discussion amongst music producers.

Spotify measures the Integrated LUFS of your music, calculates the difference to it’s
standard LUFS value (- 14 LUFS) and gains your music up or down depending on how far
away it's integrated LUFS value is from -14 LUFS.

One side of the argument argues that this is reason enough for never mastering a song at
significantly higher LUFS values than -14 LUFS “because it will be taken down, and that is not good”

What this side of the argument tends to miss is that it is supposed to be that way!! Your song will
not feel more silent than other music pieces because it has been gained down more on Spotify, it feel
feel as loud as other music pieces on Spotify.
In addition, especially when making music that is played live (e.g. EDM in clubs) there will be no
loudness penalty so a louder song will actually feel louder, and loud = better psychologically!
 Bouncing your Music
Section 9

To export your logic project click on the “Bnc” button (short for “Bounce”) or simply press ⌘ B to
open the Bounce “Output 1-2” window.

First to the general settings that apply to

any destination:
1. You can set the Start and End points to
specific Bars, Beats, Division and Ticks.
If you have an active cycle in your
project the bounce range will
automatically be set to the cycle range.
2. You can choose one of 3 export
Modes:

If you are using external hardware or you

want to hear the export life for another
reason, set this to “Realtime”. There are 4 Destinations to choose from:
“Automatic” will detect if there is external
hardware connected which makes real- PCM (Pulse Code Modulation) for lossless audio
time exporting necessary! export (ideal for high-quality exports)
- File Formats: AIFF, WAV, CAF
Most of you will not use any external - Bit depths: 16, 24, 32-bit (float)
hardware. To save time you can choose - Sample Rates: 11.025 kHz - 192 kHz
“Offline” which is why its the default mode! - Format
- Interleaved (one audio file with L + R in it)
3. “Include audio tail” will automatically - Split (separate files with “.L” & “.R" suffixes)
extend the bouncing range until the - Dithering (introduces noise when dealing with bit
project turns completely quiet. depth reduction which converts deterministic
quantisation errors into less perceptible random
4. “Include Tempo Information” will write errors)
Tempo Data into your audio file (just like
with audio region exports). MP3 (MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3) for lossy audio exports
(ideal for low file sizes while maintaining quality)
5. “Normalize” gives you 3 options - Bit rates: 32 kbps to 320 kbps
- Stereo mode: Joint Stereo (Mid-Side Encoding),
Normal (L + R Encoding)
- VBR (variable bit rate) encoding!
- option of writing ID3 tags!
The standard is “Off” and for good reason!!
This will not change the gain of your audio
file when exporting.
“Overload Protection only” gains your
project down such that the loudest peak M4A: AAC (Advanced Audio Coding) is a lossy
hits 0 dB. format for digital audio and streaming
“On” will gain your project up or down to - Bit rates: 16 kbps to 320 kbps
set the loudest peak to hit 0 dB. - Encoding quality (Low to Best)

Underneath you will see the calculated Burn to CD / DVD

required disk space for the export as well - exporting onto a physical disc on a connected disk
as the length of the audio file. drive
 Logic Update: 11.1.2
Section 10

1. Session Player Instruments

When adding a new track to your project you now instead of just a Drummer
have 3 Session Player instruments (Drummer, Bass Player, Keyboard Player) to
choose from. With that also came two completely new Instrument plug-ins!

The editor windows for them all offer a set of abstract controls.
The Drummer Editor has also been updated and has more controls than before!

For all 3 Session Player Instruments there is

now also a manual pane allowing to create a
manual pattern on the basis of which MIDI
information will be created.

With the addition of harmonic Session Player Instruments a new feature had to be added to make sure
they play cohesive chord progressions and melodies that are in key when adding multiple session
player instrument tracks. For that a new Chord global track was added.

To move the whole progression or individual chords simply left-click and drag them around.
To replace the existent chord progression with one of the stander chord progressions right-click and
choose one from the menu:

To precisely edit every chord one by one, select it, right-click and choose: Create Chord or Edit Chord

Type is a Chord Symbol in here to automatically set Root Note, Chord Type, Extensions and Bass Note
Select a Root Note
Select the Chord Type

Select the desired extensions by clicking on them to add of remove them

Choose the Bass Note

Choose a scale to use with the chord
Activate to set the chord to the MIDI input
Listen to a preview of the chord
 Logic Update: 11.1.2
Section 10

2. New search function for plug-ins

With the shortcut ⌃⌘ P a window to search plug-ins with a text field appears. Whether the opened
window is for Audio Effect plug-ins or Software Instrument plug-ins depends on if there is already
a Instrument on the Instrument slot. If it isn’t, it will first open the window to search for Software
Instruments and after you inserted one it will open the window to search for Audio Effect plug-ins.

In addition every time you now select any empty slot in your mixer, like you would do usually, you will
see a search box for the kind of plug-in you can insert into the slot.

Also: you can now finally search for tracks on side chain inputs

When having big logic projects with sometimes hundreds of tracks in can get very tricky to find a
specific track in the side-chain inout section menu.

With the help of the new search feature you can now find it very easily!

These features have been awaited for a good decade and are now finally a part of Logic!
 Logic Update: 11.1.2
Section 10

4. Quantec Room Simulator

Speaking of plug-ins..

There is a completely new reverb plug-in in Logic called the Quantec Room Simulator which is by far
the most realistic sounding, versatile and packed full of great presets reverb plug-in in Logic!

And it has a history too!

The Quantec QRS was launched in the early 1980s and is described as a groundbreaking digital
reverb system that quickly became known for its natural and transparent sound. It avoided the
metallic artefacts common in other reverbs of its time and even today!

The Quantec YardStick is the second option inside of the plug-in and features algorithms based on
the Quantec QRS. Instead of just the Primary controls with the Quantec YardStick you get more
detailed control over the exact characteristics of the reverb with Primary, Secondary and Extended
controls.

I would highly advise to check out the presets here! You don’t want to miss out on them!
 Logic Update: 11.1.2
Section 10

5. ChromaGlow

In the distortion category there is also a new plug-in for saturation and distortion.
It is praised in the Logic user community for it’s versatility and for how much better it is than all the
other stock distortion plug-ins.

The plug-in features 5 Models

emulating the kind of analog
gear the models are named
after.

Apart from the Squeeze Model which features these two styles:

all other models feature these two styles:

In the top right you get options for bypassing the processing on the low end, the level input, output
and the mix knob for the relative volume of the wet signal.

The Low Cut and High Cut options that can be found at the bottom of ht plug-in window let you
apply a low cut or high cut filter either before the saturation (Pre) or after (Post).

The Drive knob is at the center of the plug-in for a reason. It is the most important knob of plug-in.
With this knob you get to push your input signal into the modelled analog circuitry.

When tweaking the drive to high values you will start to see a colourful graphical display on the
plug-in.

This is by no means scientifically accurate but can give you an idea of the different models and how
they add harmonics to your input.
 Logic Update: 11.1.2
Section 10

6. New workflow features for working inside of the Mixer

Instead of removing a plug-in by left-clicking on the right third of the plug-in to open the drop-down
menu and then selecting “No Plug-in”…

…you can now just ⌘ left-click to erase the plug-in with the click of a button.

To move single tracks around in the Mixer you can simply left-click and drag them around.

With a ⇧ left-click selection you can move multiple tracks together as one bulk.

What if you select tracks in the Mixer with ⌘ left-click and have gaps in your selection?

You can now move the selected tracks together by simply left-clicking and wiggling your mouse
slightly and then letting go.

The “wiggling” is very important! If you don’t have an idea of what to do go and watch:
Section 10 - Logic 11.1 - What’s New - 8:51
 Logic Update: 11.1.2
Section 10

7. Sample Rate and Buffersize can now be set in the LCD

To show them in the LCD click on the LCD drop-down menu and select “Customize Control Bar and
Display”.

After that select Custom from the Display drop-down menu. You can now tick the box for Sample
Rate / Buffer Size.

Now the Sample Rate and Buffer Size drop-down menus are accessible in the LCD!

The options in the drop-down menus are similar to the options in the settings in Logic.
The idea behind offering these settings in the LCD Display are the following:

You sometimes need to change the Buffer Size when your CPU get overloaded in a big project,
which is why it might be helpful to access it quickly in the LCD.

When working with audio files of different Sample Rates (often happens when working with videos)
you need to make sure that everything has the same Sample Rate at the end of the process.

Because mistakes can happen you might want to check or change the projects Sample Rate without
having to search for the setting every time.