Logic Pro : Learn to Use the Session Players - Drums, Bass, Keys, and Chords

1. Welcome to this Class: Hi there and welcome to this class, where you'll learn how to use the session players and chord track in Logic Pro 11. Session players are pre recorded performances of patterns of drums, percussion, electric bass, and keyboard parts from virtual musicians that you can use to seamlessly integrate into your songs. These players offer realistic performances in a variety of styles, making them perfect for enhancing your tracks with human like groups. In this class, I'll also show you how to use a chord track, a powerful tool that allows the session bassist and keyboard player to follow your song's harmonic structure. You'll learn the essentials of different types of chords that you can use in the udtrak including major, minor, suspended, diminished, augmented, as well as extended chords, such as seventh, ninth, 11th, and thirteenths. So join me in this class if you're a logic pro 11 user, and you want to unlock the potential of session players in the chord track to elevate your compositions and productions. 2. Overview of the Session Players in Logic Pro 11: There, and welcome to this section, where we will discuss the session players in Logic Pro. These were introduced in Logic Pro 11. In previous versions of Logic Pro, we had the drummer instrument. And now in Logic Pro 11 and later versions, there's an updated session drummer, a new bass player, and a keyboard player. So you can see that when we create a new track, we can add a session player. In the next few sections, I'll show you in detail how to use these different session players and customize them. I think the session players can be great for helping you generate ideas, but I also think it's a good idea to customize these so you can make the parts more your own and tweet and change any parts if you wish. Okay, so that's what we're going to cover in the next few sections. Let's start by looking at the basics of the drummer session player, which we'll cover in the next video. 3. Drummer Playing Styles: Okay, so now let's look at the basics of the drummer session player, starting with the drummer styles. So when we create a new track, we'll get this pop up box. Now in the session player area, let's select drummer, and let's press Create. Now we have this session editor down here, which we can open and close with the Editor button up here, or by pressing the key command E. Okay, so now let's have a look at the drummer style. We can choose our drummer style by clicking on this area here. This is currently on Pop Songwriter, but we have all these different styles as well. We have rock, songwriter, alternative and R&B. Let's play this back on the pop songwriter style first, though. Okay, let's now choose another style so you can hear the difference. Let's now choose a rock style. Let's choose punk rock. So you can hear there. That's a very different playing style, and it also has a different drum kit instrument. So if I open up this instrument here, you can see we have the drum kit designer with the Easy Bay kit. And if we change this to another drummer style, for example, let's choose psychedelic rock. You can see that these drums have changed. And this time, we're using the Manchester kit. Let's hear this back. By the way, if you don't want the drum instrument to change when you swap between different playing styles in the drummer instrument, make sure you uncheck change patch. Now, if I swap back to the punk rock style, it's still using the Manchester kit. However, for now, though, I will enable change patch, as I wanted to change the drum patch with the different styles, as Logic does a pretty good job selecting the right type of drum sound for the different play styles. Okay, let's now listen to a few more play styles. Let's choose one of the songwriting ones here. Let's try Pop Brush. By the way, you may need to download additional sound packs to use some of these playing styles. If you do, you'll receive a pop up that will notify you if you need to download them. Let's now listen to one of these alternative playing styles. Let's try Indie Rock. And let's try one of the R&B playing styles. Let's try modern R&B. So you can hear there, we do have a large variety of different play styles available for us to use. So I do recommend testing out all of these different platyles yourself, but there's just a few, so you can hear the difference. Next, let's have a look at the complexity and intensity sliders and also the perform again button, which we'll look at in the next video. 4. Complexity, Intensity and the Perform Again Button: Okay, so now let's have a look at complexity, intensity, and the perform again button. So for this example, let's use the pop rock style, and let's first talk about complexity. So when we pull up the complexity slider, we will have a much more complex pattern. And when we pull down the slider, we will have a simpler pattern. We can also see this update here and in the region. So it adds more parts when it's more complex and fewer parts when it's more simple. Then we have the intensity slider. So this is the dynamics for your drum part. If you pull this down, then the part will be softer. This doesn't just pull down the volume of the playing. Pulling down the intensity slider will trigger different samples when the drums are played harder or softer. So you can hear there that when we pull this slider down, it's not playing the snare, it's playing a rim shot. So this is where the drummer hits a stick on the rim of the snare drum, which creates a sound, which is often used for softer styles of drumming. So it can trigger different samples when we adjust the intensity slider. Let's now have a look at the perform again button here. This allows us to vary the session player's performance without changing the settings. So let's say you want to change the pattern slightly, you can do this here. So you can see this fill change when we click the perform again button. Let me just play this fill area here. And let's click the perform again button a few times. And you hear that as Phil is different. Okay, so that's complexity intensity and the perform again button. I recommend going through the different drum instruments and adjusting these sliders to hit a difference yourself. Okay, so next we're going to look at creating another session player region and also drum selection. 5. Creating a New Session Player Region and Drum Selection: Okay. So now let's look at creating a new session player region and drum selection. Like any other region, we can loop the session player region by hovering over the top right of the region, and this loop icon will appear. We can then click and drag to the right, which will loop the region. If we go to the middle of the region, we get these arrow icons, and with this, we can click and drag to make the region smaller or larger. You can see that when we resize the region, the session player region will update. For now, though, let's put this back to 8 bars. I prefer to make a new region for a new section of the song, for example, verse or chorus. That way, we can easily change some of the parts. For example, you might want to swap to a different drum instrument in another section or have less or more drum instruments or more or less complexity or intensity. For example, if you're going from the verse to the chorus, you might want to have more intensity in the chorus compared to the verse. Let me show you now how to create a new session player region. All you need to do is hover over to the right of the region here in the arrangement, and you can see that this little plus button appears. If we click on this, we can add another session player region. We can also duplicate our region by clicking on our session player region here, holding down Alt and clicking and dragging. However, I'm going to delete this region for now. Okay, so now we've created this region here. Let's change the parts between these two patterns. Let's first of all, click on this first region, and you can see here we can choose hi hat, Ride, or Tom. Let's just play this back and swap between these so you can hear the difference. Let's walk back to the high hat for now, though. We also have the kick and snare down here. So let's say you want an intro with no snare drum, you can disable the snare by clicking on it here so it doesn't light up. So for this example, let's not have any snare for the first region, and for the second region, let's have the snare. So I'm going to disable this now for the first region. Let's hear this back. And you can hear there we had Snare in the second region, which created some variation between the first and the second region. You might have a section, let's say, a bridge or a buildup with no kick drum. So you can do the same thing here, but just disable the kick drum. So let's hover over to the right of the second region and click this plus button to create a new session player region. Now in this region, we're going to disable the kick drum. So let's now go from the second region to the third region and you'll notice there's no kick. You can also see down here there's no kick. We do have two kicks in this pattern, but in general, there's no kick. So let's delete this by selecting this region and pressing the delete button. Let's click on the first region again, and let's actually bring the snare drum back. So we can actually create different patterns here for the kick and snare and also for the high hat, ride and tons. And we'll be looking at this in the next video. Okay, so that's how to create a new session player region and also drum selection. Thanks for watching, and I'll see you in the next one. 6. Drum Patterns: Okay, so now let's have a look at these different drum patterns here. Let's start off with the kick and snare patterns. If we click on this pattern here, we can see it gives us other patterns we can choose. Let's go through some of these now and have a listen. We can also have the kick and snare pattern follow the rhythm of another track or instrument. We'll look at this later, though, when we add another instrument to the song. We can also choose a manual pattern. Let me show you this now. So we need to go over to the manual tab here, and here we can type in our own pattern for the kick and snare. So the bottom row here is the kick, and the top row is the snare. Let's start off with something simple, so the kick on Beat one and beat three and the snare on Beat two and beat four. Let's hear this back now. We can also change the length of this manual pattern. We're clicking here under length. For this example, let's change this to 2 bars. So you can see here we have bar one and Br two. So we had the kick on beats one and three, and the snare on beats two and four. Let's now add a few more notes. So let's add the kick on the end of beat one and the snare on the end of beat four. Let's now hear this back. So this pattern is 2 bars, and this region here is 8 bars. So we'll loop this manual pattern. Okay, let's actually put the length back to 1 bar, and let's make this pattern a bit more complex. Okay, let's hear this back now. If we go back to the main tab, you'll notice it says manual pattern for the kick and snare, but we can also go back to one of these preset patterns if you wish. For now, let's go back to one of these preset patterns, and let's choose Pattern five. We can also choose a pattern for the high hat, ride or Tom. Let me show these different ones now. So this is for the high hats. So you can see here that some of the dots are darker and some of the dots are gray. The lighter tone dots will have a softer velocity. So you can see here that pattern one is more simple. Then Pattern two has these gray notes in between the black ones, which adds more lighter velocity notes or hits in between these hits every beat. Then pattern three has a combination of the softer velocity notes and the harder velocity notes. Then pattern four, which has hits every 16th notes. So for the first 16th note of the bar, it has a hard velocity note, and then the other 16th notes of the bar have softer velocities. We also have patterns for the ride symbol and the Toms. Let's say the ones for the Ride symbol. Let's now have a listen to the patterns for the Tom drum. For the Toms, we have fewer pattern presets, so just three patterns rather than four like we have for the high hats and Ride. For now, though, let's go back to the hi hat pattern, and let's go back to Pattern two. By the way, we can't oe a manual pattern for the hi hat to ride or Tums, but later on in this section, I'll show you how to convert the session player region into MDI and how to adjust and customize some of the MIDI notes. Okay, so that's the drum patterns. In the next video, we're going to look at the fill and swing area. 7. Fill and Swing: Okay, so now let's have a look at the fill and swing area over here. Let's first have a look at the fill and mount dial. With this, we can adjust how many fills you want to hear in your pattern. So if we move the dial to the right, we will add more fills, and when we move it to the left, we will add fewer fills. Let me show you now. We can also adjust the complexity of the fills with this control here. So the complexity determines how many notes are in the fills and how fast the fills are played. Just for this example, let's increase fill amount to 100% and fill complexity to 100%, so we can clearly hear it. That may be a bit too extreme, though, as it does sound more like a drum solo than the drum groove. So let's just drag the fill amount back, and let's also drag the fill complexity back. Okay, something like this is a bit more suitable. You'll notice here that we have this padlock icon next to fill them out. So if you click on this, it will lock the fill settings, and you won't be able to change them unless you unlock the padlock by clicking on it again. So if you're happy with these settings, you can lock them so you don't accidentally change them. Okay, that's the fill settings. Let's now have a look at the swing settings over here. With this swing dial, we can add eighth note swing to our part. We can also add swing on the 16th note, if we wish to by clicking on the eighth here, and it'll change to 16th. The eighth note swing will be a little more obvious, though. So if you're creating jazz or blues music, then you might want to add some swing or if you just want to add some swing to your drum part. We also have a padlock icon next to swing, where, again, we can lock the settings. But for this part, I don't want to add any swing, so let's turn this off by putting this down to 50%. Okay, that's fill and swing. The next video, we're going to look at a Details tab. 8. Details - Part 1: Okay, now let's look at the details tab. So we can access this by pressing the details tab here. This area has the settings for ghost notes, feel, dynamics, humanize and tempo. In this part one video, we'll look at ghost notes and the pop up menus for the snare, percussion, high hat, ride, and toms. Okay, let's first talk about ghost notes. These are very soft subtle notes that are played on the stair drum. These notes are so soft that they're almost ghostly, which is why they're called ghost notes. So we can add or remove ghost notes with this dial here. Let's put this on 0%, and let's hear the groove with no ghost notes. Let's now increase this to 100% so we can clearly hear the difference, and you should be able to hear some additional softer snare hits. So you could hear that when we added ghost notes, it added some texture, dynamics, and groove to the drum part. That's a bit too much for I want, though, so I'm going to reduce this to 50%. Let's hear this back now. Okay, that's a bit more suitable. Let's now have a look at these drop down menus here. The first option is for the snare. This allows us to choose what type of snare hit we want for our performance. You can leave this on automatic, but let's have a look at these other snare options, which allow you to select the exact type of snare hit for the performance. Center will hit the snare in the center of the drum. This will give us a standard sounding snare hit. Let's hear this now. Then we have Rim shot. This is where the drummer hits a stick on the snare drums rim. We can hear in this example, it sounds like it's hitting the rim and the snare drum at the same time. Then there's side stick, and this is a rim tap. And then we've got Tom. This will replace the snare with the Tom drum. For now, though, I'm going to leave this on automatic. But if there's a specific type of snare hit that you have in mind, you might want to play around here and find one that's closer to what you have in mind. Okay, let's now have a look at the percussion pop up. This allows us to add some percussion to our performance. We've got tambourines, shakers, and claps. So we have three different patterns for each one of these. Let's play this back and I'll swap between these different percussion instruments so you can hear the difference. I'm just going to loop these 8 bars up here with the cycle region. We can enable and disable the cycle region by clicking on this gray bar up here so it turns yellow or by using the key command C to turn on and turn off the cycle region. Okay, let's play this back. So the patterns there are quite different. So if you do want to add some percussion to your drum part, you can do so here. For now, though, let's turn this off. Let's now have a look at the next pop up. So this is for high hats. But if you go back to the main tab and change the high hats to either the ride or the Toms, you notice in the details, this has changed. For now, though, let's look at high hats, and you can see here we can choose different ways that the highs played. We have automatic, closed, half closed, half open, open, and wide open. So I'm going to play this back now so you can hear a difference. So this is just different ways. The drummer will play the high hat with a foot pedal. Let's go back to the main tab now and swap this to ride. Let's go back to details. And here you can see it's not just the ride. We can also change it to a crash. So we can have Ride, ride bell, which is the center or bell area of the ride. Ride crashed, so they're playing the ride more like a crash symbol, crash one and crash two. Let's play this back, and I'll swap between these different ones here so you can hit a difference. Let's now swap this over to Tom's. If we go back to details, you can see we can choose automatic, Tom Low, Tom Mid or Tom High. With this, we can choose the type of Tom's who wants an adron performance. Obviously, the Tom Lows are lower, and the Tom highs are higher. For now, though, let's go back to the main tab and swap this back to high hats. Okay, so that's the end of this video. Next, we're going to continue looking at the details tab where we're going to look at feel, dynamics, humanize and tempo. 9. Details - Part 2: Okay, now let's continue looking at the details tab for the session player drummer. So now we're going to look at feel, dynamics, humanize and tempo. Let's first talk about feel. So if we move the dial to the right, this will push the field forward, which we can see in the region. If we play this back, you should be able to notice that the notes are rushing a bit. And if we move the dial to the left, it will pull it back. And this will sound like the notes are kind of delayed. This is simply a method to control how much you want the drum groove to be ahead or behind the beats. Let's just add the bass part to the song so we can hear this a bit clearer. We'll look at the session bass player a bit later on in the next section, but for now, I'll just drag over a loop. So let's go over to Apple Loops. One that I found previously that I like the sound of is this one here called acid noise base One. So let's drag this over below so it creates a new track, and let's loop this so it's 8 bars long. Let's close the Apple Library now and hear this back. Okay, great. Let's now go back to the session player drummer. So I'm going to double click on this dial, so it goes back to 0% and during playback, I'll adjust this dial. It'll be pretty subtle, but listen out to hear the difference. H. The heavy rock and similar styles, you might want your transients to stand out a bit more ahead of the bass and guitars. For something more lay back, you may wish to move the field to push. Let's now mute the base track by selecting the bass track and pressing M. And now let's talk about the dynamics control over here. So this dynamic style allows us to control the amount of dynamics in our drum kit. This goes from 0% all the way up to 200%. If we increase the dynamics, there will be more dynamic variation and velocity variation in the different drums, including the ghost notes. If we pull this down, there will be fewer dynamics, and the velocities will have less variation. So the snare hits will sound very similar, and the kick drum hits will be very similar, as will the other drum instruments in this pattern. So if you want more dynamic variation in your performance, I recommend increasing this. But if you want it to sound more uniform, you can decrease this. So it depends on what you want for your song. If you want something to sound more like a computers playing the drums, then you can decrease this, and if you want it to sound a bit more like a human would play with dynamic variation, then you can increase this. Let's double click to put this on a default of 100%. This brings me on to the next control, which is humanizes. So humanize will affect the timing of the drum part. If we put this to 0%, then it will play this perfectly in time. And if we increase this, it will move some of the notes so they're slightly out of time. That's because a real person playing the drums can't play them perfectly on time, but on the computer, we can make the drums timing perfect. So you can see that when we move this dial, the timing of some of the notes moves. Again, it depends on whether you want this to sound like a person is playing the drums or if you want it to sound like it's computer programmed. Let's just unmute the bass again by selecting this track and pressing M, and let's put human eyes down to 0% and play this back. Let's now put this on 100% and play this back. The difference will be subtle, but it should sound a little less robotic. But for now, let's put this back to the default, which is 20% by double clicking. Let's now have a look at this tempo drop down here. Changing this from standard might be useful if you've recorded the song at double or half tempo, as the drummer will follow the project's tempo. Right now, this isn't useful for the song. But, for example, if you've recorded the song at 170 BPM, but the groove is actually at 85 BPM, then you could select halftime. The other way around as well, if your groove is actually 170 BPM, but you record it at 85 BPM, then you could select double time. Also, if this is in the automatic mode, then the session player will play in double time or halftime if the project's tempo is very different from the style default tempo. But for now, though, let's leave this on standard. Okay, so that's the end of this video, we've looked at this section in the Details tab, which can help you pull or push your groove and can help you add dynamic variation and humanization if needed. And we've also looked at the tempo pop up menu. So thanks for watching, and I'll see you in the next one where we look at converting our session drummer pattern into a midi region and adjusting the pattern as midi. 10. Converting to a MIDI Region: Okay, now let's look at converting our session player region into a midi region. If we do this, we can customize and change our part. Before I do this, though, I'm going to duplicate the session player track by selecting the track and pressing the duplicate button up here, or we can use a key command Command D. I'm then going to select the drummer region here and then copy this over to the new track by holding option and dragging down. This is just so I get a copy of the session player in case I want to go back to the session player region, as we can convert a session player into a midi region, but we can't convert a midi region into a session player region. Okay, so I'm going to mute this new track so we can't hear it. We can also hide the track, too, if you don't want to see it. We can do this by pressing H to show the Hide button above the track headers, and then we can select H on the track header if you want to hide this track. Now we can press H again and you can see the track is hidden. So when the H button up here is orange, it means the tracks that have the Hide button enabled will be hidden, and when it's green, it means the tracks are all visible. Okay, let's now convert the session player region into a midi region. So select the region you want to convert and then right click or Control Click and select convert to midi region. We can see now this is a midi region, and in the MIDI editor, we can see that the drums have been converted to midi information. We have the piano keyboard on the left with the different drum names. We can click on these piano notes to hear the different drum hits. Let's just mute the bass track so we only hear the drums, and let's hear the drums back now. Let's now zoom in on the Media editor by selecting the editor and using the key command command right arrow to zoom in. Okay, so here I'm going to adjust this fill slightly. I'm going to add two more snare notes. I'm going to copy these by selecting a note and holding down option dragging. I also want to add another kick drum here. So let's do the same. Let's select this and then hold down option to drag. Let's just turn off the cycle region by pressing C, and let's hear bar eight to bar nine. Okay, great. We can also adjust some of the velocities if we wish, so we can adjust how hard it sounds the drum has hit. Let's now change the command click tool to the velocity tool in immediate Editor. So let's select the command click tool up here and let's change it to the velocity tool. For the snare hits here, I'm going to adjust the velocity, so it sounds like the snare builds up more. So I'm going to hold command to bring up the velocity tool, and then I'm going to drag down on the first hit. Let's do the same for the next one, but I won't drag down as much. Same for the next one. I won't drag down as much. And the same for the next one, as well. And the next two, I'm actually going to drag So the snare hit should start off sounding softer and then get harder, creating more of a build up. Let's hear this back now. Okay, I think this builds up a bit more and changes the sound. There's still a lot more we can do in the pattern, but that's just a quick way of showing you how you can start to customize your drumbeat in the midi Editor. Okay, so that's all the settings for the acoustic drummer. Next, we'll look at the electronic drummer session player. 11. Electronic Drummer Session Player: Okay, now let's look at the electronic drumer session player. The settings for this drummer are very similar to the acoustic drummer we looked at previously, but we'll explore a few differences in this video. Okay, so let's mute the drum track we were working on previously, and let's now add a new track by pressing the Add Tracks button up here or you can use the key command option command N. Now under session player, let's select drummer, and we can click on the dropdown list here to view drummer styles. So you can see here that we have acoustic drummers, and down below here, we have electronic drummers and percussionists. We'll be looking at the percussionist in the following video. But for now, let's choose one of these electronic drumers. For this example, let's choose Synthpop, and let's press Create. We can always click on this button here in the Editor and choose another electronic drumer if we wish. You can see here that the different electronic drummers are in different categories, including electronic, hip hop and alternative. Let's first of all, hear the synthpop drummer back. Let's now loop the cycle range by pressing C, and let's unmute the base loop we had previously and hit our drums with the bass. So straightaway, I think that sounds pretty good. But let's now mute the base track and have a look at the complexity and intensity sliders here. These do the same thing as the acoustic drummer. With the complexity slider, we can make a more complex pattern when we drag the slider up and we can make a more simple pattern when we pull the slider down. Then we've got the intensity slider, which affects the dynamics of the drum part. So if we drag the slider up, the part will be louder, and if we pull the slider down, it will be softer. Then we've got the patterns area over here, which are very similar to the acoustic drummers pattern area. So here we have some predetermined patterns for the Tams and cowbell. So if you want Tams and cowbell and a pattern, we can click here to add these to the light up yellow. Here we have five different patterns we can choose. Let me show you now. So we can have either the cowbart and Tom's in the pattern or both of them or none of them. Then we have the same thing for the high hat and shaker. And also the ok, snare, and clap. Here we have six preset patterns. With this pattern, you can see follow rhythm of chords is checked. However, we don't currently have any chords, but it will follow the chords if we have some, and this is enabled. Then we can also follow the track. Here we can follow the drum kits and the bass track, and we can also follow the individual drums for the acoustic session drummer that were converted in immediate Editor earlier. For this example, though, let's have it follow the bass part. So let's select this here and then unmute the bass and play this back. So you can hear there that the kick pattern follows the base part, and we can see these new kicks have been added to the region as well. We can also manually type in a pattern for the kick, snare, and clap. We can do this by going over to the manual tab, and each four squares here is a beat. So if I type in a kick every four squares, you'll hear that a kick will play on every beat or every quarter note. Let's just mute the base track again and hear this back. For this example, let's type in a clap for every one of these squares. So these are 16th notes, and we'll hear four claps every beat. Let's just delete these, and we can delete these by clicking on them again. Okay, let's now make a more appropriate beat. So let's have a clap and snare play on Beat two and beat four. And let's add a clap on andaba four, and let's add a kick over here, and let's add a kick on of Beat two. Okay, let's hear this back now. Again, we can choose the length of the beat over here, so we can have it longer than 1 bar if we wish. However, for this example, I will use one of the preset patterns we looked at before and have this follow the base part. So let's go back to the main tab and click on the pattern here for the kicks now and clap. And I'm going to choose one of these preset patterns. Let's choose pattern free, and let's make sure this follows the base again. Okay, great. Just like the acoustic session drummer, we have the fill amount and complex D. We can also add some 16th note or eighth note swing with this style here. Let's just adjust these, try and playback to hit a difference. However, let's not use swing for this part. And we can do this by double clicking on a swing dial, and this will turn our swing by setting this back to 50%. Okay, let's now go over to the details tab and talk about these complexity ranges. These set a range between the most complex and least complex things for the drum instruments to play. As you see here, we have kick drum, snare, clap, high hat, shaker, Tom, and cowbell. So if we move this range up, it'll be more complex, and if you move it down, it'll be less complex. Let's look at the kick drum first. So as you can see here in the region, when we move this down, there will be fewer kick drums. Then when we move this up, there'll be more kicks and a kick pattern will be more complex. We can also have a larger range, so it can go from simple to complex, or we can have a smaller range. So maybe it's only complex or only simple, or we can have somewhere in the middle. It's the same for the snare. Right now we have a large range between simple and complex, or we can just have it simple or just have it complex if you wish. The same applies to the other instruments here as well. So this allows you to customize your drum parts in this electric session player even more. Then we have the phrase variation slider over here. With this, we can adjust how much rhythmic variation occurs over several bars. So if you want the pattern to be more repetitive, then you can lower this. But if you want the pattern to have more variation, then you can increase his phrase variation slider. Okay, then we have feel, dynamics, humanize and tempo, which is the same as in the acoustic session drummer. I'll cover this again briefly as a refresher, or in case you missed the video about this. With a feel dial, we can push or pull the feel. So if we move the dial to the right, we can push the feel. For heavy rock and similar styles, you might want to push the feel. And if we move the dial to the left, it will pull it back. Or something more laid back, you may wish to pull the feel. Then we have the dynamic style, which allows us to control the amount of dynamics in our drum kit. So if we move this to the left, then there will be fewer dynamics, and there will be less velocity variation. If we move this dial to the right, there'll be more dynamics, and there'll be more velocity variation. Then it's humanize, which will affect the timing of the drum part. If this is at 0%, then it'll play back perfectly on time. If we increase this, it will move some of the notes so they're slightly out of time. Then there's tempo. Changing this from standard might be useful if you've recorded the song double or half the tempo, as a drummer will follow the project's tempo. One other thing to mention for this electronic drummer session player is the perform again button down here in the bottom left. This will give us a slight variation of the drummers performance without changing the settings. Again, like in the acoustic session drummer, we can convert this to MIDI and then adjust some of the drums in the midi Editor. We can do this by right clicking on a region and select convert to MIDI region if you wish to do this. Okay, so that's the electronic drummer session player. For now, I'm going to delete this track. And next we'll look at the percussion session player. 12. Percussionist: Okay, now let's look at the session percussionist. This is a session player for percussion. This includes shakers, tambourines, maracas, hand claps, and more. This might be useful alongside the session drummer, or you can use it with other loops, samples or recordings of real drums. Let's now create a new track by pressing the Ad track button up here, or by using the key command option command N to add a new track. Under session player, let's choose drummer, and in the drummer style dropdown, let's select one of the percussionists. We've got Latin, pop, and songwriter. Let's select Pop and press Create. Let's now make sure that other tracks are muted, and let's play this back and hear the percussionist. Just like the acoustic drummer and electric drummer, we have the complexity and intensity controls. We can make the pattern more simple or complex with the complexity slider, and we can adjust the dynamics for the pattern with the intensity slider so we can make it louder or softer. I'll just play this back again and adjust these sliders so you can hear the difference. Let's now have a look at the main tab. Again, like the acoustic drummer and electric drummer, we have the fill amount, fill complexity, and swing controls. We can click here to choose eighth note swing or 16th note swing. Let's just play this back again and adjust these controls so you can hit a difference. However, let's put these controls back to default by double clicking on them. Then over here we have the different percussion instruments that we can enable or disable. We also have the patterns we can choose for them here as well. The percussion instruments and patterns actually change when we choose a different type of percussionist. So we can see these change when we swap between pop, songwriter and Latin percussion. For now, though, let's go back to pop. Let's play this back again, and I'll choose different percussion instruments and patterns draw and playback so you can hear difference. I'll start with none of them on, and then I'll gradually add each one so you can hear different percussion instruments when they're added. As you heard, there's many different percussion instruments and patterns that we can choose. You'll notice there's no follow rhythm area for these patterns, so we can't have the percussion patterns follow something else like with the session acoustic and electric drummers. You'll also notice there's no manual tab, so we can't manually type in the pattern for the percussionist to follow. But we do have the details tab, and let's have a look at this now. This is actually the same as the electric drummer, and I'll briefly go over this now. We have these complexity ranges for the different percussion instruments. So if these, we can have a large range between simple and complex, or we can drag the range down to make it only simple, and we can drag it up to make it only complex. Then we have the phase variation slider, which we looked at in the previous video. So if you want your pattern to be repetitive, slide it down. And if you want more variation in your pattern, slide it up. Then we have feel to pull or push to feel. Then we've got dynamics, so we can move this dial to the left for less dynamic variation, and we can move it to the right for more dynamic variation. Then we have humanize, so we can move this dial to the right to add rhythmic imperfections like a human would play, or we can move it to the left to make it perfect, but more robotic. Then there's tempo, which you can use if you've recorded the song at double or half tempo. Again, we can convert this to midi by right clicking or command clicking on the region and selecting convert to a midi region. Now you can go into the midi Editor and manually change some of the midi notes if you wish. Okay, so that's the session percussionist. As you would have noticed, the session acoustic drummer, electric drumer and percussionist are very similar, and I hope now you're able to use these to help you quickly come up with drum grooves and percussion parts for your song. For now, though, let's mute this percussion track. And in the next few videos, we're going to look at the session bass player, keyboard player, and chord track. So thanks for watching and I'll see you there. 13. Session Bass Player - Part 1: Main Tab: Okay, so now let's have a look at the session bass player and Logic pro. By the way, this is only available in Logic Pro 11 and above, so this won't be available if you're using an older version of Logic proro. So let's create a new track by pressing the new Tracks button up here or by using the key command option Command N. Now under Session Player, let's choose base player. For the bass player style dropdown, we have eight different playing styles. For this, though, let's choose pop rock and hit Create. You can see that the layout of the session bass player is very similar to that of the session drummer. So let's play this back and hear what this sounds like. Let's just unmute the drums and hear what this sounds like with the drums. Mm. The session bass player uses a studio bass instrument, and we can access this by clicking on the bass instrument in the inspector or mixer. We can click on this drop down list here where it says Classic, and we can play the pattern back on another bass instrument. These different bass instruments emulate popular basses. For example, Classic is a fender Precision bass. 60s is emulating what looks like to be a Hofner bass, similar to what Paul McCartney from the Beatles played. Let's hit this back. Let's look at the next one, which is rock. This is emulating a Rickenbacker bass. Let's hit this back. Then there's a session. This looks like it's emulating a fender jazz base. Then there's Modern, which looks like it's emulating an Ernie Ball stingray base. Then there's American upright, which is emulating an upright base. You can hear that these different bases all have quite different tones and sounds, and I recommend testing these out yourself on different baselines to hear a difference. For now, though, let's go back to the classic bass instrument and close the studio bass instrument, and let's continue looking at the session bass player. If we click on the session player button, we can choose another bastyle from here. When we choose another style, it may change the bass instrument, but if we uncheck change patch, then it won't change the base instruments. So say, for example, you really like the classic bass instrument. You can uncheck this and hit the different stars without instruments. But for now, I'm going to check this as Logic Pro does a pretty good job selecting the right type of tone and base instrument for the different playing styles. Okay, let's just play this back and switch between the different playing style so it can hit a difference. Let's also show the studio based instrument again so we can see the different instruments change as we go through the different playstyles. Let's just resize this and make this a bit smaller and move it over here. Let's play this back and I'll select Retro rock, and then I'll select all the different play styles. I I and So as you can hear, the different playstyles are very different. You'll notice as well that these different play styles do have different effects, and we can see this in the effects lot over here. For this, though, I actually like the sound of retro rock. So let's select this one. Let's just click off this to close this pop up box, and let's also close the studio base. Okay, then we have the complexity and intensity sliders, which do the same thing as the studio drummer, and I've covered these several times already, but I'll just play this back and adjust these so you can hear a difference. Let's now have a look at the controls for the main tap. Just like the studio drummer, we have the fill amount, fill complexity, and swing controls. Again, let's play this back, and I'll adjust these so you can hear the difference. Let's set these back to default, though by double clicking. Okay, let's now have a look at these controls here in the middle of the main tab. Over here, we have melody. With this, we can choose these different grooves or we can choose root only. Root is the root note of the chord. For example, the root note of a C major chord is C. Let's play this back on root only. As I said, we have these different grooves. As a These options will change when we choose another bass player style, though. For example, if we switch this over to pop songwriter, you'll notice it now says root only some notes, more notes and most notes. With these, we can choose the complexity of the notes in the bass melody. So if you want a more simple melody, you can choose root only. But if you want a more complex melody, you can try another one of these, which will add some more additional notes to the melody. Let's just play this back now and I'll swap between these so you can hear a difference. You can also choose how many octaves you want. So you can stay in one octave by selecting none. We can mostly stay in one octave by selecting some. Or you can select more octaves, and you'll hear more octave drawing playback. Ooh. Then we have phrasing, so we can have shorter or more staccato notes by choosing short. Or we can choose medium, which will give us medium length notes, and this is what we had previously. Or we can have longer phrases or longer notes by choosing long. And we can also see this update in the region as well. Mm. For now, though, let's go back to medium. We can also have the session bass player follow another instrument. We can do this by clicking on the Patterns button here and then under track, let's choose our drums, so the bass will follow this. And our drums is the first one here called SoCal. And you can see that region updated. Let's hear this back. Mm We also have these other patterns here that we can choose. We can also enable this switch here, which will emphasize the chord changes. However, we'll look at this in a bit more detail later on when we look at the session keyboard player and cords. As right now, we just have one chord. Let's now have a look at where it says lowest note. So on the four string electric bass guitar and standard tuning, the lowest note will be an E one. However, for a lot of rock or metal music and also some other dramas, as well, you might want to use drop D. So lowest note is D one or even drop C, so lowest note is C. So if the guitars on your track are tune this way, you might want to change the lowest note for the bass. This actually goes all the way down to B zero, as a five string or six string base actually has one lower string, and this is a B zero note. However, for this example, let's put this back to E one. Okay, so next, let's have a look at the details and the manual tab, which we'll look at in the next video. 14. Session Bass Player - Part 2: Details and Manual Tab: Okay, so let's now continue looking at the session bass player, and let's have a look at the details and manual tab. Let's start off with a details tab. Let's first talk about dead notes, which are also known as muted notes or ghost notes. We can use dead notes to add rhythmic texture and groove to our bassline. Dead notes allow the bassist to create more intricate rhythms. They can add a percussive element to the part and can enhance the groove. They can also be used to break up space between the notes and can add a funky feel to the baseline. If this dial is on 0%, then every note will be played and they won't be muted. We will notice when we increase this dial, we hear more dead notes. It depends on what you want for your part, but for this example, let's have some dead notes. So I'll leave this around 40%. Then we have this slide style, and this allows you to add more or less slides to your baseline. So let's just play this back and I'll ajust this d. For this example, I quite like having some slides, but if the part has short staccato notes, then you might not hear some of these slides, but for long held notes, you should hear it slide between the notes. Then we have these free buttons down here, which are pickup hits, dynamic mute, and a line root. Let's first talk about pickup hits. If you enable this, then it's more likely to have pickup hits. So these are percussive rhythmic mutter click sounds that are created when the bassist uses their finger or thumb to tap the pickups or strings close to the pickup. These can add percussive elements to a baseline and can emphasize the groove and can make the line sound more rhythmic. These add more rhythmical nuances to the bass part and are often used in jazz, funk, and experimental styles of music. Mm. Then there's dynamic mute. If you have this enabled, then this allows you to have more muted notes in your baseline. Then there's a line root. When enabled, the bass part will play closer intervals drawing chord changes, preventing large jumps in the intervals drawing chord changes. So when the line root is disabled, there will be larger intervals between the chord changes, and when it's enabled, there will be smaller intervals between chord changes. By the way, intervals is just a musical name for the distance between notes. So right now, we're just using one chord, so this won't make a difference. But if you have multiple chords in your progression and you want your part to sound less jumpy, then you could consider enabling this. Okay, then we have double stops and mute offset. Double stops are when two notes are played together. These can add harmonic depth and texture to a baseline. With this control, we can adjust the probability of playing back double stops. So at zero or 0%, there will be no double stops. And if it's on 100 or 100%, then there will be double stops all of the time. Let me show you now. But we can choose somewhere in between, say 50%, and we can actually double click on this and type in a number and press Enter rather than dragging if you wish. Let's say this back now at 50%, and you should be able to hear that around half of the time, it plays two notes at the same time. For this, though, let's put this on 0%, as I don't want to hear any double stops for this part. Then we can choose how much we want the notes to be muted with the mute offset control, and this goes from -100 to 100. So you might want to mute the part as it can give you a percussive rhythmic sound. Muting also allows you to control the sustain of the note. So instead of letting every note ring out fully, muting allows you to cut notes shorter, which can make the bass part more expressive and dynamic. Let's play this back and I'll adjust to mute offset amount so we can hear a difference. So for now, though, let's put the mute offset back to zero. Okay, let's now talk about the manual tab. This is the same as a manual tab for the session drummer. So this we can create a pattern by typing one. So we can click on one of these steps down here to create a pattern and we can click on it again to delete the pattern. Each one of these steps is a 16th note, and every four of these is a beat, and four of these beats is a bar. By changing the length here, we can make our manual pattern longer or shorter than the bar, if you wish. Just for this example, though, let's leave this on 1 bar, and let's type in the pattern. We can also change this pattern drawing playback. Okay, let's hit this back. You'll notice if we go back to the main tab, it says we're using the manual pattern, but we can always go back to one of these patterns here if you wish. One quick thing to mention, like the session drummer, we have the perform again button down here. If we press this, then this will add a slight variation to the pattern without changing any of the settings. Okay, so that's the session bass player. Again, like the session player drummer, we can convert the session bass player to MIDI by right clicking or control clicking on the region and selecting convert to MIDI region. You may wish to duplicate your track before you convert and basically make a copy of your session player as you can convert from the session player to MDI but not from MIDI to a session player. So if you want to go back to the session player and tweak a few things, you can't, if you convert it to MIDI, which is why I recommend making a copy of the session player. So you can duplicate the track with this button here or by using the key command Command D, and then you can option click and drag to make a copy. Now let's unsolo this and mute this, and let's also show the hidden tracks. And then we can hide all of the hidden tracks by pressing the key command H. By the way, if you don't have this hide Tracks button, you can just press the key command H, and this will appear. I personally like having a backup of my session player instruments until I'm completely done and happy of my midi parts. Okay, so that's the session bass player. Next, we'll look at the keyboard session player, and after that, we'll look at the chord track. Thanks watching, and I'll see you there. 15. Session Keyboard Player - Part 1: Playing Styles: Okay, now let's look at the keyboard session player. In the next few videos, I'll show you the controls for this session player. Then after this, we'll look at the chord track so you can add different chords. For now, though, let's just use this one chord we've been currently working with. Before we create a new instrument, I'm just going to unsdle the bass and mute this track, and also mute the drum track. Let's now add a new instrument by pressing the new instrument button or by pressing the key command option Command N. Let's now select the keyboard player session player. You can see here we have this drop down list where we can choose different keybod player styles. We just have these different styles. We don't have dramres like the other session players. For this example, let's select the first one, which is freely, and let's press Create. So you can see here it's created this region. Okay, let's now hear this back. Let's now have a look at the studio piano instrument. We can open this instrument by clicking on the instrument slot in the inspector or mixer. This freely style uses the studio grand one mic instrument, and I think this instrument sounds nice. Let's, however, try the next style. So let's click on this keyboard icon here and let's choose the next one which is broken chords. So you can see here the instrument has changed to vintage upright. Let's hear this back. This style gives us a different feel and sound. Let's try the next one, which is block chords. This again, uses the vintage upright piano. Then we have the arpeggiated style, which again, uses the studio grand one mic instrument. We can also play these styles back on other studio piano instruments. For example, let's change this piano sound to the concert grand. Let's also try this on a studio grand instrument. This time, you can see it has multiple microphones. And we can turn the different mics on by selecting these buttons down here. Now we can adjust the levels for these mics with these controls. We don't have to hear this back only on the studio piano instrument. We can choose another instrument, too. Let's click on the right of this instrument slot here and change this to another instrument. For example, let's change this to the vintage electric piano. Okay, let's hear this back. So we have a very different style there, but it has the same playing style and notes. Let's now have a look at the last playing style, which is simple pad. This doesn't actually use the studio piano instrument. It uses the retro synth instrument with a pad preset sound. Let's hear this now. Let's now open the retrosynth by clicking on this effect slot, and we can adjust the controls for the synth it will give us a very different sound. For example, let's play this back and change the filter cutoff and resonance amount drawing playback and you'll hear how it sounds different. Okay, so that's the different playing styles for the keyboard session player. Before we continue, let's actually change this playing style. Let's choose block Cords again. Okay, next we're going to look at the main controls down here, which we'll look at in the next video. Thanks for watching, and I'll see you there. 16. Session Keyboard Player - Part 2: Main Controls: Okay, so now let's have a look at the controls down here for the main tab for the keyboard session player. Just like the other session players we looked at before, we've got the complexity and intensity sliders over here on the left. So we can change the complexity of the performance with this slider so we can make it more complex by moving it up or more simple by moving it down. Then the intensity slider allows us to adjust the loudness of the performance. So we can move it up to make it louder or we can move it down to make it softer. Let's just play this back and I'll adjust these two sliders so you can hit a difference. The complexity slider doesn't seem to do too much for this playing style. Let's change it to arpeggiated. And again, let's play this back. Okay, with that playing style, you can hear the difference a lot more. And then, of course, we have the fill amount, fill complexity, and swing amount. This again is the same as other session players. So again, I'm going to play this back and adjust these so you can hear the difference. Okay, let's now have a look at the middle section here, which gives us some settings for the pattern and also for the left and right hands. Let's first have a look at the patterns. This again is the same as the other session players. So we can click here and choose another type of pattern. Let's listen to a few of these now. We also have this switch here, which allows us to follow the rhythm of the chords. We did look at this previously in the bass session player, but when this is enabled, this will emphasize the chord changes. So this will be more noticeable when there's a new chord being played. I would generally leave this enabled, so it emphasizes the chord changes. We can also have the keyboard session player follow another track, for example, the drums or bass. So let's click on this and let's have this follow the drums, which is this first one here called SoCal. Let's just unmute the drums and hit these together. Let's now have this follow the base. So let's choose this one here called Simple Foundation, which is the base track. Let's unmute the bass now and hear this with the drums and bass. So we can have this follow another instrument, if you wish. But for now, I'm going to change this to off, and let's just mute the bass and the drums again. And now let's have a look at these left and right hand controls down here. So we can turn on and mute the left and right hands by pressing these buttons here. Let's leave these both on for now, though. Below these, we have these sliders for the left and right hand. These allow you to adjust the hand placement for the left and right hands, so you can make the hands closer together for a more closed position. Let's just turn off the right hand and have a look at this for the left hand. So when they move their left hand slider to the left, we will have a lower range, and it will play lower notes. So if you want more notes in the lower end or some more bottom end, then you can move it down. When we move it to the right, it will have a higher range, and we'll play higher notes. This is also the same for the right hand. So let's mute the left hand and unmute the right hand. So when we move this slider to the right, we will have notes in the top range. And when we move it to the left, we'll have notes in the lower range. Okay, then we have these voicing style and movement options below. Let's first have a look at the voicing for the left hand. So let's just mute the right hand and mute the left hand. So in the voicing right now, it's on root only. So when we have this selected, it'll just play the root to the root note of the chord. We can also choose root and octave. So this will play the root note and an octave above. Then we have root and fifth, so the root and the fifth note of the chord. And then root fifth noctiv. I generally choose root only or root and octave, but they recommend testing this out for yourself and choose whichever's most suitable for your part. So for this, let's just go back to root only. Then below, we have style. With this, we can choose different complexities for the left hand. These different styles will change the rhythm and length of the notes. This is currently on sustain only, so this will play long and sustained notes. Then there's simple, which will play a lot of long notes and we'll play some short notes. Then there's moderate. This plays a moderate rhythmic pattern. Then there's complex. This plays a more intricate or complex pattern. Draw and play back there. I just enable the right hand so we can hear both hands together. Then we've got follow right hand, which will play accents that will follow the right hand. Then we've got steady eights, and this will play straight steady eighth notes. For this arpeggiated pattern, this is the same as follow right hand as a right hand is also playing eighth notes. But if you change this to another playing style, for example, blotchords you notice follow right hand will be different to steady eights. Let's just hear this back. But for this example, let's just go back to sustain only. Okay, let's now mute the left hand and have a look at the voicing and movement settings for the right hand. So this voicing setting is a little different from the left hand. Here you can choose the different amount of voicings. So this allows you to select how many notes can be played. Right now, this won't do much because we're playing a C five chord, so it's just a two note chord. But if we open up the global settings by pressing G and then double click on this chord here, we can change this to a chord with more notes. So I'm going to change this to C major, and let's also change this to C major seven. So this is a four note chord. By the way, in one of the next few videos, we'll be looking at how to create this chords in the chord track. Okay, let's just close the global tracks again by pressing this button up here or by using the key command G. Let's now select the region for the keyboard session player. Okay, let's go back to the voicing for the right hand. So now it's on full chord. So this will play the four notes that make up the chord. Let's hear this now. We can also change this to two voice. So this means the right hand will play a maximum of two notes at the same time. We also have a two voice fixed interval, which means two notes are played together, and the space between them stays the same as you move to a different chord. So right now we just have one chord, but let's open up the global tracks again. So let's drag the loop back. Then I'm going to drag this back, so it's just 2 bars long. Then at bar three, I'm going to right click and select Create Chord. So here I want to add another chord to demonstrate this. So for this, I'm going to change this to G and major and seven, which is a G dominant seventh. Again, I'll be going over this in detail in one of the next few videos. And let's just click off this and let's drag this back so it starts on Br two. And let's just trim this back and close the global tracks and click on the keyboard session player region again. So let's now put this on two voice, and you can see here in the region it's changed. Let's hit this back again. So let's change this to fixed interval. As I said, the two voice fixed interval means the two notes are played together, and the space between them stays the same as you move to a different chord. So let's hear this with this example. So using this type of voicing can help you create a minimal and stable structure in your arrangement. Okay, then we have two voice common tone. This is where two notes are played together, but one note stays the same, or the other changes to create a new chord. This gives you music a steady feeling since one note remains constant. Let's hear this back with the left hand, as well, so we can tell it's a different chord. You can also choose free voice common tone. So this time, one note will stay the same, while the other two changes to create a new chord. Then we have four chord, which we've already looked at, and then we have four chord fixed in version. This means you're playing all the notes of the chord, but the order on version has changed and stays fixed while playing. The lowest note for the right hand is no longer the root note, but all of the notes of the chord are still included. Or we can choose four plus voices, which might be useful if you're using extended chords, for example, seventh, ninths, 11th or thirteenths. Or we can choose four plus voices fixed in version. So like full chord fixed in version, it means you're playing all of the notes of the chord, but the order or inversion has changed and stays fixed while playing. Again, the root note for the right hand will no longer be the lowest, but all of the notes of the chord will still be included. For this example, though, let's go back to four chord. Then we can choose the movement. With this, we can choose the range of the movement for the right hand. Right now it's on minimal range, which will have a more minimal movement. So this will have more inverted cords, or you can choose a larger range, which will have larger jumps and loops between the different cords. Or we can choose something in between with small range and medium range. But for this, let's go back to minimal range. Okay, so that's the main tab. Next, we'll look at the details and the manual tab, which we'll look at in the next video. So thanks for watching, and I'll see you there. 17. Session Keyboard Player - Part 3: Details and Manual Tab: Okay, so now let's have a look at the details and manual tab for this keyboard session player. Let's start off with the details. So the settings in this tab are quite minimal. We just have this grace notes control. By the way, we don't have this for the simple pi playing style. We don't actually have any pattern controls for this, and there's no manual tab as well. But let's go back to another one of these plain styles and talk about grace notes. For this example, let's choose freely. So let's go back to the details tab and let's now talk about grace notes. Grace notes on the piano are tiny fast notes played right before the main note. They are used to add a little extra decoration to the music. I suggest not using too many grace notes as too many can make the music sound out of key. Let's hear this back with no grace notes, and then I'll play this back again with the grace notes at 100%. You can add grace notes to your piano or keyboard part to make the melody more lively and interesting with quick, decorative touches. But as I mentioned, it's best not to overdo it. Let's put this back to the default amount of 25% for this playing style by double clicking. Okay, then we have the manual tab, which is just like the manual tab for the other session players. With this, we can type in our own rhythm for the keyboard player to follow. So let's just type something in now so you can hear a difference. So as you heard there, we can also change the manual pattern drawing playback. You can also see that when we go back to the main tab in the pattern area, it says manual pattern, but we can click here and choose one of these patterns. If you'd rather use one of these than the manual pattern. Okay, so that's the keyboard session player. Next, we're going to look at the chord track. Thanks for watching, and I'll see there. 18. Chord ID (Logic Pro 12 Only): Chord ID. In this video, I want to focus entirely on Cord ID, which was introduced in Logic Pro 12. I'll explain why, in my opinion, this is one of the most important workflow updates logic has had in a long time. On the surface, chord ID looks simple. It analyzes a region and tells you what the chords are, but that's not really the point. The real value is what happens after logic understands your harmony. Chord ID turns sounds into structure, and that structure unlocks a completely new way of building arrangements quickly. This isn't about replacing music theory or creativity. It's about speeding up the path from idea to arrangement. What chord ID does? At a basic level, chord ID analyzes the harmonic content of a region and writes that information into Logic's chord track. This works with midichord performances, harmonic audio recordings like guitar, piano, simpson pads, extracted stems, and rough demo recordings. One very important thing to understand is this. Chord ID does not change your audio or MIDI. It creates chord data in the chord track that other parts of logic can follow. Your original audio or MIDI always stays exactly as it was. That separation is what makes this feature so flexible. Why this matters? Before chord ID, if you dragged a loop or recording into logic, you basically had two choices. You either worked out the chords manually or ignored the chord track entirely. This was fine if you wrote everything yourself and knew the harmony already. But it slowed things down, if you work with loops, you collaborate with musicians, sending demos, you sketch ideas quickly, or you revisit old projects. Chord ID solves this by letting you go from sound to harmony to arrangement tool in seconds. Basic chord ID workflow. Let's look at the basic workflow first. I'll start by selecting a region that contains harmony. In this case, I've recorded a retrosync part playing chord steps. Let's just hear this back now. Let's now close the piano roll editor by pressing this button up here or by using the key command E. And now let's open the global tracks by pressing this button here, or by pressing the key command G. Now all we need to do is drag this region into the cord tract. So we just click and drag it here. Logic analyzes the region and writes the chord progression. Depending on the length and complexity of the part, this can take a moment. This has done quite a good job, it's not perfect. The chords are actually A minus seven, C major seven, F major seven, and E minus seven. It may not be perfect for more complex parts, but hopefully this will change in the future Logic Pro update. So if we look at the median information here, we can see the first chord is actually A minus seven because it has this Genote here. And the last chord, the E minor, this is actually E minus seven because it has this note here, which is a D. So we can actually click on a chord here and change this if you wish. So let's change the first one to an A minus seven. And the last one here, let's change this to an E minus seven. As I said, it's not perfect, but it is pretty good. Also check where each chord starts and where each chord ends. If a chord starts slightly earlier or late, fix it manually. Think of chord ID as a starting point, not as a final answer. Okay, let's now have a look at a demo with an audio loop. So we now have a blank Logic pro project, and let's now open up the loop browser by pressing this button here or by using a key command, Oh. So now I want to find a harmonic loop, so something with clear chords rather than just rhythm. So the one I found earlier was a string part called Diesel Power strings. So I'm just going to type diesel power into the search here. And it's this one. Let's now click and drag this over to our project, and I'll also import the tempo. Okay, let's now close the loop browser by pressing O. And now let's open up the global tracks by pressing this button here, or, again, by using a key command G. And now let's drag this over to the chord track. And now a zoom in so we can see the cords. So here it says, A minor, F E minus D minor. And it's also added the cord names to the region. So again, I do recommend checking the cord timing and whether anything needs adjusting. Loops often have pickups or syncopation, so this manual check is especially important. Okay, let's now add a base part, and I'll follow the cords. So let's create a new track, and I'll choose a mini software instrument. And for this, I'll choose a studio base. Okay, let's arm this to record. And I'll record in some base notes now that follow these chords to check to see if it works with this string part. Okay, something like that. I just played a simple part based on root notes, and added a few extra notes from the chords as well. So I think that sound fine, and it's chord work. Okay, let's mute this base part for now. And now let's add a session bass player to see if this follows the chord track, as well. So let's create a new track, and let's choose a session bass player. For this example, I'll leave it on pop rock. And I'll reduce the complexity, so it's a bit more simple. One thing to bear in mind, sometimes the session players can cut off the very first note if they start exactly on bar I beat one. So for that reason, I don't recommend having them play on bar I beat one. Giving them a short lead helps them lock in properly. So let's just drag this all over to Br two. I'll close Editor by pressing E. So let's now click and drag over all of these regions and move it to Br two. You'll notice that the chord track didn't move, but we can click and drag this over to Br two, as well. Okay, let's hit this bat now. So you should have noticed there that the session bass player full of the chords from the chord track. Just for this example, let's try another bass player. Let's try modern R&B. Let's hear this back now. So, as well, the bass part was following the chord progressions that came from the audio loop. This can be incredibly powerful when starting a track from a loop, and you want everything else to fit it musically. Let's now have a look at another example. So imagine someone sends you a rough demo recording. This could be a guitar recording, a piano sketch, or even a phone recording. So for this example, I have an audio recording of myself playing some chords on an electric guitar. Let's now hit us back. So it's not the best performance, but let's see if logic broken analyze cause correctly. So let's open up the global tracks and drag this audio into the chord track. So you can see here it says the calls are E minor, A, E minor, C, D, E minor. That's almost correct. The second core is actually an A minor. So let's double click on this and change it from A major to A minor. Also, the decord enters on bar ten, which isn't quite right here. So let's zoom in and click and drag this over to bar ten. And this E minus should enter on bar 11. So let's do the same here. Okay, that seems right now. However, the first chord here says no chord, and this should be an E minor. So let's change the root note to E and then minor. Okay, this should be correct now. With recordings like this, it's especially important to review the results carefully. Human performances can often push or pull timings, use passing chords or blur cord boundaries. We can add session players or we can add our own instruments. So for this next example, I'm going to record myself playing the bass on my midi keyboard following these chords. So let's create a new track. And under MIDI let's choose software instrument, and I'll choose studio base. Let's just close a library so we have a bit more space, and let's record a part in now. Okay, something like that. I just followed the chords and style of the audio recording. Let's hear this back again. It actually cuts off the first note, so we can always go in the piano roll and fix this. We can also mute the original audio and build the entire arrangement using session players or your own instruments following the same chords. So for this example, let's mute the guitar recording and also the bass part I just recorded in. Now let's add a session player bass player. So let's create a new track. Let's choose a session bass player. And for the player style, let's choose pop rock. As I mentioned previously, sometimes the session players can cut off the very first note if they start exactly on beat 1 bar one. So let's just drag this over, so it starts on bar two. Let's also do the same for the chord track, and I'll drag over these muted parts as well just in case we want to use them in the future. So this is actually a ten bar loop, so I'm going to click and drag this, so this region is 10 bars long. Okay, let's now add a drummer. So let's gredge new track, session player drummer. And for the drummer style, I'll choose synth pop. I'm just going to drag the fill amount all the way down so we don't have any fills. And again, I'll drag this over so it starts on bar two. And I'll click and drag this, so it's a ten bar loop. Okay, let's now hit this. Okay, it's starting to sound good. Now let's add a keyboard synth session player. So let's create a new track again. Choose keyboard player under session player. And for the keyboard player style, I'm going to choose SIP modulated pad. Again, let's position this so it starts on bar two. And then drag this over. So it's a ten bar loop. Okay, let's hit this back now. Okay, so it's starting to sound really good, and that's just built from the chords from this guitar recording. Chord ID is especially powerful if you work with loops, collaborate with other musicians, build ideas quickly, or you're still developing confidence of harmony. It makes you spend less time on thinking about what the chords are and more time arranging and working on your song. Remember that chord ID is not magic and it's just a structural tool. But if used correctly, it can dramatically speed up songwriting and arranging. So when you combine chord ID with session players, the workflow feels less like programming and more like sketching ideas in real time. So I do recommend testing out chord ID yourself. So that's the end of this video. Thanks for watching, and I'll see in the next one. 19. Chord Track - Part 1: Basic Features: Okay, let's now have a look at the chord track. This allows you to create chord progressions that the session bass player and keyboard player can follow. You can see up here we have C major seven and G seven. So right now the keyboard and bass will follow this C major seven chord and then at bar three, we'll follow this G seven chord. We can change these chords and add more chords by going to the chord track in the global tracks. We can show in either the global tracks by pressing this button here or by using the key command G. So we can see here we have the chord track. On Br two, let's add a new chord. Let's select the first chord and trim this back, so it's just 1 bar in length. Let's add a new chord. We can add a new chord by right clicking or control clicking on the chord track and selecting great chord. For this example, let's change this chord to an A minor. So under root note, let's change this to an A, and let's change this to a minor chord. Let's now click off this so we can close this pop up box and reposition this and drag this so it's 1 bar and length. I also want to change the first chord so we can double click on this to bring up the chord field. For this example, let's change the root note to a D, and let's also change it to a minor chord. We can also type in the chord up here if you wish. If we type in D, it will choose a D minor chord. Let's now change the chord for about three. So let's click on this and you can see it's brought up the cord field. If there's a third chord, let's change this to a C. So I'm actually going to type this in this time. So I'm going to type in C here and hit Enter. And this has changed this to a C major chord. Now let's click off this and trim this back, so it's just one by and length. On bar four, I'm going to right click on the chord track and go to create Chord. For this, let's change this to a G major chord. So let's change the root note to G and leave it on major. Let's click off this now and reposition and trim this so it's one B and length. Let's also reposition the cycle range, so it'll loop these 4 bars. So as we're in C major, this has given us a two, six, 15 chord progression. Let me just close this editor by pressing E, and let's unmute the session bass player and the drum track that we made previously. Okay, let's hit back. Okay, the chords are changing there, but the parts are a bit messy. Just because the bass and keyboard part are following these chords doesn't necessarily mean the parts are going to be good. So let's go back into the session player and change it slightly. Let's change the playing style to another style. Let's choose this one called Broken chords. Let's also click on the pattern area here, and let's have the rhythm follow the drums. Let's close the Editor by pressing E, and let's double click on the region for the session bass player. Let's choose another playing style here, and I'm actually going to choose the pop song writer style again, but go back to the default settings. And again, let's click on the pattern here, and let's click on the track here, and you can see here again, we're following the drums. Okay, let's close the editor again. And hopefully, this should sound better and more organized. Let's hear this back now. Okay, much better. By the way, we can loop and trim our cords in the cord track, just like a region. Let's actually make this 8 bars long now, so let's copy these four cords and paste them at bar five. We can click and drag to Select All of the cords, or we can click on where it says Cord and go to Selectall cords. We can also select all of the chords that are in the cycle range. So just for this example, let's change the cycle range so it's just bar one and two, and let's click on wet Says Cord again and go to select all cords in the cycle range. And you can see here, it's just selected the first two chords that are in the cycle range. We can also click and hold down Shift. If you just want to select some of the chords, not all of them. However, for this example, I want to select all of them, and as there's only a few chords, I'm going to click and drag over them. Now we can press Copy with Command C and paste with Command V or we can hold down option and drag to copy and paste. Let's now change the cycle range, so it's 8 bars. Okay, let's now hear this back. Just for this example now, I'm actually going to add an E minor chord, but just on the last beat. So let's just zoom in by pressing Command and the right arrow, and let's just drag this back one beat. Now on bar eight beat four. Let's right click on here and go to create Chord. This time, let's change this to an E minor chord. So let's change the root note to E and change this to minor. Let's click off this and drag this back and trim. Okay, let's now hit this back. We can also change the position of the chord. We don't have to have the coords change on each bar. For this example, let's just drag this A minor back so it enters on Beat two of bar six. We can also loop this D minor chord here as well if you wish. The D minor chord will continue to play, but we can also loop this here or drag this back so it looks a bit neater. Okay, let's hear this now. I do think it was better before, so let's just press Command E a few times, so it's back to what it was. Let's now change to a new key, and Logic Pro will transpose the chords on the chord track to this new key. So let's change the key in the LCD display up here. Let's now change this to D major. So this is a key with two sharps. So the F will now be an F sharp, and the C will now be a C sharp, and the key will root around the Dne rather than the C note. You can see that when we do this, this transpose cords pop up appears. This says, Do you want to transpose cords on the chord track and on the session player regents to follow the key signature change? For this, I'm going to select transpose. So you can see here our chords are different, but they actually use the same 2615 chord progression, but now in D major. Or for the second half is 26153. Okay, let's hit back now. By the way, if you're new to music fury and you're not sure what chords or cord progressions to use, then you can use the chord progression that Logic provides. So for this, let's actually delete all the chords that we wrote in previously. So let's drag over these and press delete. And now let's add a new chord. On bar one, let's right click on the chord track and go to create chord. Let's just click off this and drag this back. So it's 8 bars in length. Now, all you need to do is right click or Control click on this chord in the chord track, and then go to Core progressions. Here you can see we have some core progressions that we can choose. These will also be in the key of the project, which for now is Dmjor. Okay, let's try some of these. Let's try the first one, two, 51. Okay, let's hear this back. Let's try another one, so let's right click on this again and go to Cord progressions. And let's choose the second one, one, five, six, four. By the way, when we have an uppercase Roman numeral, it means it's a major chord, and when we have a lowercase Roman numeral, it means it's a minor chord. So the one, five and four will be major chords, and the six will be a minor chord. Okay, let's hear this back. Let's now go back to C major by choosing C major in the LCD display up here. And if this pop up box appears, let's choose Transpose. So you can see here we have this 1564 cord progression in C major now. Okay, so that's the essentials of the chord track. Next, I'm going to deep dive into the different types of cords you can choose, which I'll cover in the next video. So thanks for watching and I'll see you there. 20. Chord Track - Part 2: Major and Minor Chords: Okay, so now I'm going to cover the different types of chords that the chord track offers. So if you're new to songwriting or music theory, then I recommend watching this video as I explained the theory of chords. If you're quite proficient at Music Theory, and you already know about different types of chords, then I recommend skipping these next four videos about the chord track. Okay, so let's get started. So let's double click on this first chord to open the cord pop up window, and let's have a look at some of the settings here. So we can see here that we can choose a major or minor chord that we looked at before. Let's now quickly explain the differences between a major and minor chord. These chords are different in the structure and the mood they convey. A major chord sounds happy and uplifting and a minor chord sounds sad and darker. To demonstrate these different chords, I'm going to create a new piano instrument. So let's hit the plus button to create a new instrument, and now I'm going to choose a midi software instrument. And I'm going to choose the studio piano and hit Create. Let's just close the library by pressing this button here or by using the key command Y. And now let's bring up musical typing. We can do this by pressing Command K. And I'm going to press this button here so we can see the piano keyboard. Let's just resize this a bit. Okay, now I can show you some of these ideas on the piano keyboard. Okay, let's go back to the first chord in the chord track and have a look at how to create a major and minor chord. A major chord has a root note, then a major third, which is four semitones or half steps from the root and a perfect fifth, which is seven semitones or half steps from the root. So a C major chord has a root note of C. And then it has a major third, which is four semitones above C. So let's count up four, one, two, three, four. That brings us to E, and then we have a perfect fifth, which is seven semitones above C or four semitones above the third. Let's count up from the root, though. So let's count up seven, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven. Or three semitones above the third. So this gives us the note C, E and G. We can also hear what this sounds like by pressing a preview button down here, and this will play about the chord on a piano instrument. Okay, let's now talk about a minor chord. A minor chord has a root note, then a minor third, which is three semitones above the root, and then a perfect fifth, which is seven semitones above the root. So let's work out a C minor chord. So we have the root note, which is a C. And then we need to count up three semitones above the root. One, two, three, and this is an E flat. This sounds the same as D sharp, but it's an E flat as the key of C minor has flats not sharps. Then we have the fifth, which is four semitones above the third or seven semitones above the root. Let's count from the root. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven. So a C minor triachord which means a free note chord has a note C, E flat, and G. Again, we can preview this down here. So it's the third note that's a difference between a major and minor triad. Let's now play this groove back with a C major chord and then I'll play it back again with a C minor chord so you can hear the difference. So you can hear there the major chords sounded happy and uplifting and the minor chords sounded sad and darker. Okay, so that's how you can create major and minor chords. We've also got other types of chords as well, which we'll continue looking at in the next few videos. So thanks for watching and I'll see you there. 21. Chord Track - Part 3: Sus, Augmented and Diminished Chords: Okay, let's continue. So we have other types of chord, such as a sus two chord, which is a suspended second chord. If you choose this type of ord, then this will replace the third note of the chord with the second scale degree or the second note from the scale. This creates a more open unresolved sound. For example, a C major triad has a note C, E and G. But a sus two triad has a note C, D, and G. Without having a third note in the triad, it gives the chord a suspended unresolved sound. Let's preview this down here as well. Let's also hear what the sounds like with the groove. Okay, then we've got a sus four cord type, which is a suspended fourth chord. So this time, the third will be replaced by the fourth. So a C sus four will have the note C F and G. Now, let's preview this again and hear this back with a groove. Sus cords create tension, and they sound like they want to resolve to a more stable cord, such as a major or minor cord. Okay, then we have five cords. So this type of cord just has the root and fifth. It doesn't include the third of the cord. For example, C five will just be C and G to the root and the fifth. Let's also hear this back with a groove. These are also known as power chords, and just with these two notes, we don't know if the chord is major or minor as there's not enough information as we need the third to determine this. These types of chords can sound powerful and neutral sounding and are often played on electric guitars with distortion and are used in rock and metal dramres. Okay, let's have a look at the next chord type. Let's look at augmented. This type of chord can create drama in the music and creates a tense, unresolved sound. As augmented in the fifth note, creates a feeling of instability. A C augmented chords has not C, E and G sharp. And you can see here shop five is highlighted because augmented chord has a sharpened fifth note. Let's preview this down here as well. So this chord isn't in the key of C major, as C major doesn't have a G sharp note. At augmented chords use, it's more for adding movement and harmonic color rather than strictly belonging to a key. Again, let's hit this back with a groove. Then there's a diminished chord. This is essentially a minor chord, where the fifth note is half a step or a semitone lower. This type of chord creates an unresolved tense and dissonant sound. These are also often used to create tension. For this example, let's work out a B diminished chord. If you remember, a minor chord has a minor third, which is three semitones above the root, and then the perfect fifth, which is seven semitones above the root. So let's just work out the B minor chord first and change this into a B diminished cord. So the root note will be B. And then we need to count up three semitones, one, two, three, to D, and then the fifth note is seven semitones above the root or four semitones above the third. Let's count up from the root. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven. So remember, diminished chord has the fifth note half a step or a semitone lower. So instead of this F sharp, it'll be an F. So B diminished chord, we'll use the notes B, D and F. This is also in the key of C major. As C major has no sharps or flats, it's just the white notes on the piano keyboard. Let's just change this in the cord pop up box as well. So let's change it to B diminished. So you can see here we have the flat five because the fifth note is flattened. Let's preview this back again. And let's hear this with the groove. So you can hear that, it sounds very tense. Let's now switch this back to our major chord, and let's change this back to a C major chord. And you'll notice six appears. So if we select this, this will turn it into a C six chord. So this will add a sixth note to the chord or make this a four note chord. For example, a C six chord will have the note C. So the root, E, the third, G, the fifth, and A, the sixth. This can add richness to a basic ord. Let's hear this with the groove as well. Okay, so that's sus cord, five chords, augmented, diminished, and six chords. The next video, we're going to look at seventh chords. I'll see you there. 22. Chord Track - Part 4: 7th Chords: Okay, let's now have a look at seventh chords. So let's uncheck six and select seven. When it's a seven chord like this, it will make the chord a dominant seventh chord. So this is a major triad with added minus seventh. So a C major triad uses a note C, E and G. So we can find the minus seventh by counting got three semitones from the fifth, one, two, three. This will bring us to B flat. So a C seven or C dominant seventh chord has a note C, E, G, and B flat. Dominant seventh chord is often used to add tension and color and is often used in jazz and blues. For this example, let's change the root note to a G, so we have a G seventh chord, as this fits in a key of C major, as it uses a nos G, B, D and F. Again, it's a major triad, so G, B and D, and then we have a minus seventh on top. So from the fifth note, we can count on three semitones to get to our seventh. One, two, three. And again, we can preview down here. Let's play a groove back with this chord. Okay, let's have a look at another type of seventh now. Let's look at the major seventh. So this is a major chord with an added major seventh. Let's change the root note to C. So let's work out a C major seventh chord. So a C major chord, uses the note C, E and G. And then we need to count four semitones to get from the fifth to the seventh. So one, two, three, four. So a C major seventh chord, uses the note C, E, G, and B. And these all fit in the key of C major. Again, let's hit back with our groove. Okay, then we also have a minus seventh chord. So let's change this from major to minor. And let's change the root note to D because a D minus seventh chord will actually fit in the key of C major. A D minor triad uses the notes D, F, and A. And then we need to add a minus seventh on top. So we need to count it three from the fifth to the seventh. So from the fifth, we need to count up three semitones. So one, two, three. That brings us to C. So a D minus seventh chord uses the notes D, F, A and C. Again, let's hit back with our groove. A minus seventh chord creates a rich, slightly somber sound, and then we have a minor major seven chord. This is a minor chord with a major seventh. Let's work out this D major minus seven chord. First of all, we have a D minor triad, which consists of D, F, and A. Then we need to add a major seven on top. We can work this out by counting go four semitones from the fifth. One, two, three, four, which will give us a note C sharp. So we don't actually use this type of chord in a major scale. This is actually used in a harmonic minor or melodic minor scale. So this is where the seventh note is raised. So this type of chord creates a tense dramatic sound and is often used in jazz and film music to give a sense of mystery and unresolved tension. Let's just preview this down here. Let's hear this back with our groove. Okay, so that's seventh chords. The next video, we're going to look at extended chords, which includes ninth chords, 11th chords, and 13th chords. Thanks for watching, and I'll see you there. 23. Chord Track - Part 5: Extended Chords: Okay, now let's talk about these other chord extensions, which are ninth, 11th, and 13th chords. Let's swap this back to C major, and let's start with a ninth chord. So you can see it's highlighted the seven, as well. So this ninth chord includes a C dominant seventh. A ninth chord includes the root, third, fifth, and ninth. So a ninth is octave plus a second note. So when we select a ninth here, we can choose to have this as a dominant seventh or a major seventh. For this example, let's choose a major seventh as this will fit in our key of C major. Okay, let's work this out now. So a C major triad consists of the notes C, E and G. And from the G, we can count four notes to find the major seventh. So one, two, three, four. So this is our major seventh chord. And the ninth is a second above the octave, which will give us a D. Let's just move this over so we can see this a bit clearer. So this is our ninth chord. C, E, G, B and D. Let's preview this down here as well. And hit us back with our groove. So a ninth chord can sound very rich and lush and creates quite a jazzy sound. As I said, we can have a ninth chord with a dominant seventh. So let's change this to a g79 as this will fit in our key. So let's work this out. So we have a G triad which consists of G, B and D, and we can count three semitones from the fifth to find a dominant seventh, which in this case is an F. And the second note in G is an A. So we play this octave above as our ninth. So a G dominant seventh consists of G, B, D, F, and A. Again, let's hear this with our groove. We can also sharpen or flatten the ninth. Let's first look at sharpening the ninth, though. So this can add tension and distance and can add a bluesy flavor and color. It can sometimes be used in genres such as jazz, blues and rock. So in this case, we have our G dominant seventh, which consists of G, B, D, F, and our sharpened ninth will give us an A sharp. Again, let's hear this with our groove. Let's now look at flat and ninth. Let's have this with the seventh, as well. So again, we have a dominant seventh chord. And we flatten the ninth this time, which will give us an A flat. A flattened ninth also adds tension and distance and is often used to enhance dominant seventh chords in genres such as jazz, classical, and flamenco music. Again, let's hear this with our groove. We can also choose to have a flattened and sharpen ninth from the same cord. This will add a lot of dissonance and tension and can also add color to our chord. Let's preview this back. So you can here there, there is a lot of dissonance. We can also have a ninth chord without the seventh. So now it'll be a G add nine. So we have a G major cord which consists of G, B and D, and then we can add a ninth on top, which is an A. And again, we can have nips with a major seventh, and we also have minor nip cords, which I recommend testing out yourself. As I said, you can always test out these cords by pressing this preview button down here. So you can go through, click different ones and hear what they sound like. Okay, let's now have a look at 11th chords. So this has the root, third, fifth, seventh, ninth, and 11th. The 11th is an octave, plus the fourth note. So in C major, the fourth note is an F, one, two, three, four. So it's a ninth chord, plus this F. Let's change the root note to a C. So in C major, the fourth note is an F, one, two, three, four. So it's a C nine chord, plus an 11th, which is an F. So the notes for this chord will be C, E, G, B, flat, D and F. Let's preview this as well. And let's hear this with our groove. That's not in ub of our song, so if you want to have this in Ku of our song, we all need to change this to a major seventh. So a C major seven, ninth, 11th, we'll have the note C, E, G, B, which is the major seventh, D, which is a ninth and F, which is the 11th. This time, it fits in key. An 11th chord can add harmonic richness and can be used to create suspense. It can be used in genres such as jazz and R&B and can be used to enhance your music. So these chords are getting pretty big now. Again, we can have different combinations, so we could have a minor chord with a major seven and a flatter ninth and a sharper 11th. Let's hear this. This might sound very dissonant. Let's try another one, a minor chord. We have a dominant seventh and a ninth and 11th. So as you can see, we can create a lot of different complex chords, and there's so many different combinations we can choose with this chord pop up box. Okay, let's go back to a C major chord. Okay, let's now have a look at 13th chords. So let's select 13 here. So this has the root, third, fifth, seventh, ninth, 11th, and 13th or sixth note and octave higher. So in C major, the sixth note, one, two, three, four, five, six is this A. So we'll have an A note and octave above. Using a 13th chord can add depth and richness to our harmony. So this type of chord might be useful for genres that explore extended harmony such as jazz and fusion. Let's now work out C major seven, nine, 11, 13th chord. So here we have the root, which is C, the major third, which is E, the fifth, which is G, the major seventh, which is B, the ninth which is D, the 11th, which is F, and the 13th, which is A. So it's a pretty big chord. Let's preview this again and let's hit us back with our groove. So we can get some pretty complex cords, if you wish. Let's just change this back to a simple C major cord. Okay, so that's extended cords. Next, we're going to look at some other options for this cord pop up box. Thanks for watching, and I'll see you there. 24. Chord Track - Part 6: Other Settings: Okay, so now let's have a look at some other options for this chord pop up box. Let's now look at changing the base note of the chord. And we can do this with this base note drop down list. Changing the base note of the chord can add harmonic variety and tension and can emphasize a specific base movement in the progression. So let's change the base note to a D. So now we'll play a C major chord, but the base note will be a D. So we will have a C major Troad. But the base note will be a D. Again, let's preview this and hit us back with our groove. For now, though, let's change this back to none, so we'll just play C major chord. Let's now look at the scale drop down. So this, we can choose a certain scale or mode. A scale is a sequence of notes, so here we can choose different scales which might help you come up with some new ideas and break out of familiar patterns. Some of these scales can give a different flavor to the music, so I recommend testing these out as well. So our major scale is onian, but we have all these other scales we can choose as well. Some of these scales may change depending on the type of chord you select. For example, if I change this to an augmented chord, we have fewer and different scales to choose from. So let's put this back to a major chord. And you can see we have different scales here from the augmented chord. Okay, the next feature is midi input. I find this very useful if you have a midi keyboard and you want to know the name of the chord you're playing. Sometimes you can play a nice or interesting chord, but you might not necessarily know the exact name of the chord. So if you enable the midi input button and you play a chord on your midi keyboard, then it will tell you the chord name up here. I have my midi keyboard in front of me here, so I'm just going to play a few chords, so you can see input the chord name when I play them. Okay, so I'm going to start off by playing a C minor chord, and you can see it'll say C minor up here. Let's try something a bit more complex. Let's try an A diminished chord. You can see it says A DIM up here. Just for fun, I'm going to play something super complex and let's see what it says. I'm going to play loads of different notes. That's a C -11, flat 13. Let's try another one. Okay, so that's an A flat major seven, 913. Let's try one more. Let's make this a bit more crazy, and let's see what it says. Okay, so that says B flat, minus seven, major seven, flat, nine, 913. Okay, so a cord like that might take a while to work out, but if you have midi input enabled and you play the chord in, it'll tell you it here. But for now, let's go back to a nice and simple C chord. Once we're finished, we can disable the midi input button by pressing it again. And, of course, we have the preview button down here. And again, let's hear our groove one more time. Okay, so that's the different types of chords in this chord track, and that's all the settings in this chord pop up. So I hope you found these last few videos useful, especially if you're new to music theory, and I hope now you understand the different cord types and can experiment with these different cords in your music. So thanks for watching, and I'll see you in the next one. 25. Synth Session Players - Brief Look and Introduction: This lesson, I want to introduce the Synth session players which were added in Logic Pro 12. This isn't just about adding new sounds or presets. It's a new way of writing synth parts inside Logit proro. The first important thing to understand is these are not standalone synth tracks. Synth session players live inside existing keyboard and bass session players. That design choice is deliberate. These session players already understand harmony, musical roles, and how parts typically function in a song. The synth versions simply plug into that same system. Another key point is that synth session players are built to work hand in hand with the chord track. Once the chord track is set, these players already know what to play. So instead of starting from a blank midi region, you're starting from stretcher. Before we go any further, it's important to clear something up. These are not traditional synth presets. A normal preset mainly gives you a sound. If there's movement or rhythm, it's usually baked in and you don't have much visibility into how it works musically. Since session players work differently. Here you're not choosing a sound, you're choosing a musical role. Behavior over sound. Since session players generate note patterns, rhythm, articulation, and modulation, and all of this information is written directly into the region. That means you can see what's happening, edit it, reshape it, and convert it into MIDI. So instead of picking a preset and hoping it fits your track, you're deciding how the synth behaves from the start. That's a big conceptual shift. Why this matters. This approach gives you faster idea generation, clear musical intent, and more control without complexity. And you'll see roughout this section, the real power comes from shaping movement, feel, and expression rather than programming everything manually. Let's start inside the session keyboard player. Here you're seeing new symp focus style designed specifically for chord parts. The two new ones we're focused on are modulation pad and rhythmic chords. There's also the simple pad, which I cover in the session keyboard player lesson elsewhere in the course. So here we focus on the other two. Let's start with modulation pad. Let's just hear this back now. This is doing much more than holding down block chords. Logic is generating chord voicings, note lemps, dynamic movements, and modulation such as filter and envelope changes. What's important is that movement isn't hidden. It's written directly into the region. That means the data is visible, editable, and convertible to MIDI. Nothing is locked away. The modulation pad is mainly about rhythm and groove, letting you add movement and feel to the part by shaping how the sound evolves over time rather than changing the notes. Think of the modulation pad as a rhythmic and groove control. It adds motion and musical feel without changing the actual notes being played. Let's now switch to rhythmic chords and hear this back. Here the focus is less on slow evolving movement and more rhythm and groove. Logic generates repeating patterns that automatically adapt as the cause change. Because this follows the chord track, you can change the harmony at any point, and the rhythm updates instantly. This makes it very fast to sketch chords based on ideas without manually programming every rhythm. Okay, next, let's have a look at the session synth bass. So let's move over to the bass players. So let's click here and let's change type to bass player. Here we have these three synth bass players. These are synth based bass roles, and each one is designed to do a very specific musical job. Instead of thinking in terms of notes, it helps to think about what the bass is meant to do in the track. Let's have a listen to the first one punp base. Pump base focuses on groove, repetition and energy. This works well in electronic and dance styles where the bass is there to drive momentum rather than play detailed melodic lines. You can focus on feel and tone instead of programming every note. Okay, let's now look at eight to eight base. This focuses on longer sustained notes, subway and pitch movement. Because it follows the chord track, the root movement stays musical automatically. This is especially useful if you want fast results, or you're working in modern base driven genres. Sequence space. This creates repeating patterns that lock to the project's tempo and adapt automatically to chord changes. This works well for arpeggiated baselines and pattern based writing. As with the keyboard style, everything here remains editable and convertible. Okay, so that's a quick overview of the synth session players. Next, we're going to dive deep into the Elfotab which we'll look at in the next lesson. 26. Synth Session Players - LFO Tab: Part 1: Okay, now let's have a look at the LFO tab in the session symph players. This is where a lot of the movement, pulse, and groove comes from in these symph parts. Unlike editing the symp sound itself, the LFO here is about how the part evolves over time. Because this modulation is written directly into the region, you're not working blindly. You can actually see how the movement is happening and make musical decisions based on what you hear and see. At the basic level, an LFO is a repeating modulation shape. It moves a parameter up and down over time. In the context of session synth players, the LFO controls performance behavior. It's not just a symphknob. Small LFO changes can completely change the feel of a part, even when the note stays the same. Okay, let's now have a look at the controls for the ELFOTab. For this next example, I want to demo this on the keyboard synth player. So let's click over here and change the type to keyboard player. And for this example, let's choose Modulation pad. This should be more obvious to here as it has many held notes. Here in the LFO tab, you'll find such controls as rate, amount, and waveform shape. Each of these directly affect how the movement feels. Let's first have a look at the waveforms. Before we do this, though, I'm just going to put the amount on 100%, just so it's more obvious to here. Okay, so we have these four different waveform shapes here, and these affect how the movement feels, not just how noticeable is. Each waveform gives you a different type of motion. Let's first talk about triangle wave. The triangle wave creates smooth either movement up and down. Because the rise and fall are symmetrical, the motion feels balanced and predictable. This works especially well for pads, sustained cords, and gentle rhythmic movement that shouldn't be distracted. It's often a good starting point when you want motion without obvious rhythmic emphasis. Let's now look at the next shape, which is a sine wave. The sine wave is the smoothest option. There are no sharp edges or sudden changes, so the movement feels very natural and flowing. Let's hear this now. This is ideal for subtle modulation, slow evolving textures, and background parts that need to stay out of the way. Okay, now let's look at square wave. The square wave creates abrupt on and off movement. Instead of just gently rising and falling, the modulation jumps instantly between values. This can produce a much more rhythmic gated feel. This works well for choppy or pulsating parts, strong rhythmic emphasis, or more aggressive or electronic styles. If used subtly, it can add groove, but push further, it quickly becomes very obvious. These wave shapes will also change when we look at the symmetry control soon enough. Okay, then we have random wave, which creates non repeating stepped movement. Instead of cycling in a predictable shape, the LFO jumps to new random values over time. This produces a more unpredictable and evolving feel. This is useful for adding variation, breaking up mechanical repetition, and creating subtle movement in sustained sounds. This works best with lower amount settings where it adds interest without sounding chaotic. But for the next few examples, let's put the amount on 100% so it's more obvious to hear. Okay, let's now talk about the phase control here. For this example, let's go back to the triangle wave. So the phase control sets the starting point of the ELFO waveform. In musical terms, this determines when the movement begins relative to the region. This is especially useful when the ELFO is synced to the grid, and you want the motion to feel tighter or more relaxed. So I'll play this back and adjust the phase control so you can hear a difference. But for now, let's put this back to zero. Okay, let's now talk about the symmetry control here. This reshapes the selected waveform rather than changing its speed. Adjusting symmetry changes how long the wave stays high versus low, which can dramatically affect rhythm. All it does depends on the waveform you're using. If you have triangle selected, symmetry turns the triangle into an upward or downward source style shape. For the sine wave, symmetry changes the angle of the sine wave. This leans the waveform left or right, creating a more saw like motion while staying smooth. Again, I'll play this back and adjust this symmetry control. Let's now look at the symmetry for the square wave. With square waves, symmetry acts like a pulse width control. At zero, the wave is perfectly square. Then for random wave, you'll notice the symmetry control is not available. That's because the movement is not based on the symmetrical repeating shape. Each step is generated randomly so there's no waveform balance or pulse width to reshape. Symmetry is one of the most powerful controls here because it lets you shape emphasis without changing rate, add movement direction, and create more expressive rhythmic patterns. Small changes often sound more musical than extreme ones. Okay, so that's the end of this video. Next, we continue looking at the LPO tab. 27. Synth Session Players - LFO Tab: Part 2: Okay, now let's have a look at LFO rate and sync. For this next example, let's go back to the triangle wave. Let's start off with rate. Rate controls how fast the LFO cycles. In simple terms, this controls how quickly the movement repeats. A slower rate creates gentle, evolving motion that works well for pads and sustained parts. Let me show you now. A faster rate creates more obvious rhythmic movement, which can work well for pulsing symp or rhythmic chords. The key thing to listen for is whether the movement supports the groove or starts feeling distracting. Okay, let's now have a look at sync. This decides whether the modulation follows musical structure, rhythm, or behaves more freely. You can see we have several options here. Let's first look at region. When this is set to region, the LFO is synced to the length of the region. So the movement stretches or compresses to fit the region, which works well for evolving phrases and pads. Let's no change this to cord. With cord selected, the Elefra resets and sinks each time the cord changes. This keeps the movement tightly linked to the harmonic rhythm and often feels very musical for chord based parts. Let's now choose beats. Beats sinks the lepo directly to the projects. Tempo uses musical divisions, and we can choose a musical division up here under rate. This is ideal for rhythmic movement that needs to lock tightly with the drums. So I'll play this back again and this time, I'll turn on the metronome so you can hear this with the click. Then we have the free mode. When this is selected, the LFO runs independently of tempo. The movement feels more organic and less predictable, which works well for background textures and subtle motion. Here the rats and Hertz. And then the last mode is random. This generates unpredictable values instead of repeating a regular cycle. This is also useful for adding subtle variation and instability, especially at low amounts. A good rule of thumb is use beats or chords for rhythmic or harmonic movement. Use region for phrase based evolution and use free or random for organic or textural movement. For this example, though, let's set this to chord. Let's also turn off the metronome, and we can do this with a key coamanK. Okay, let's just quickly talk about Epo amount. So this controls how strongly the Epo affects the target. This doesn't change the speed of the movement. It changes how far the parameter is being pushed and pulled. Lower amounts a subtle motion. You often feel more than here. Higher amounts make the movement more obvious and pronounced. In most musical situations, it's best to start with a low amount and gradually increase it until the part feels alive rather than obviously modulate it. How these controls work together. Think of it like this. Rate decides how fast the movement happens, Sync decides when and how the movement relates to the music, and the Mount decides how noticeable the movement is. Once you understand that relationship, the LFO becomes very intuitive to use. Okay, so that's the end of this video. Next, we're going to continue looking at these LFO controls. 28. Synth Session Players - LFO Tab: Part 3: Okay, let's continue looking at the LFO tab. We can click this free dots Me button here to reveal additional shaping and assignment controls. Let's first look at curve and S curve. The curve control adds curvature to the waveform. This softens or exaggerates transitions, make a movement feel softer or more pronounced. Let's increase this now, and you can see this update in the display. We can also use negative numbers. Let's now talk about S curve. If we enable this, it adds a subtle S shaped response to the waveform. This makes the movement feel more organic and less linear. However, this has no effect when the curve is set to zero, so it's best used alongside curve adjustments. Okay, let's now have a look at the assignment controls down here. So we have offset and CC target. Let's first look at offset. Ofset shifts the entire ALPO curve up or down. By default, an ElefO usually moves equally above and below a center point. When you apply offset, you move that center point, and you can see this update in the region. If we apply some offset, it means the modulation no longer returns evenly to its original position. Instead, the movement is biased in one direction. Musically, this is useful when you want continuous movement, but you don't want the parameter to fully reset or dip back to where it started. For example, you might want a filter that keeps gradually opening and closing but never fully closes or brightness movement that stays generally higher or lower overall. So offset lets you keep the motion while shifting the overall behavior of the part. Okay, let's now have a look at the CC target control. This decides what the LFO is actually controlling. The LFO itself is just generating movement. On its own, it doesn't do anything until it's assigned somewhere. The CC target tells Logic Pro where to send that movement. By default, the target is sent to CC 74, which logic uses for brightness. That's why when you first enable the LFO, you hear filter star movements straightaway, even though you haven't set anything what manually. If we click on this menu here, you'll see a list of mini controls 0-127. Each of these represents a different MIDI control. MIDI CCs can get quite deep, and we're not going to dive into all of that here. For now, I just want to show you a few common ones so you understand how the LFO routing works. For example, some commonly used ones are CC 74, which is commonly used for brightness. This is a default one we've been using so far and usually affects filter style movement. There's also CC 11, which is commonly used for expression. This can change how strong or restrained the part feels over time. And also CC seven, which controls volume. This is very obvious, so it's best used subtly when modulated by an LFO. You may notice that not every CC number will produce results straightaway, a CC is just control data, so something has to be set up to respond to it. So instead of a LFO controlling brightness, we can choose a different CC number and have the same movement affect something else. However, let's go back to the default, which is CC 74, which controls the brightness. So the important thing here is to understand that the movement doesn't change. We're not changing the LFO shape, rate or amount. We're only changing where the movement is being applied. This is why the ELFO feels so flexible inside the session players. You can keep the same rhythm or evolving motion, but completely change how it behaves musically by switching the CC target. A simple way to think about it is this. The LFO controls how something moves, the CC target controls what is moving. Once you separate those two ideas, this menu makes a lot more sense. Putting it all together, the real power of the ELFotab comes from combining these controls. Rather than relying on a single setting, you can choose a waveform for overall feel, a just rate for timing, shape behavior or symmetry, and refine motion of curve and offset. The key thing to listen for is not whether the modulation sounds impressive on its own. Ask instead, does it support the groove? Does it suit the musical role of the part, and does it enhance the movement without drawing attention? In most cases, subtle settings sound the most musical. Okay, so that's all the settings for this ElephO tab. I have only demonstrated this for the modulation pad, but we also have the Elepho settings for the rhythmic chords. And also for the session Synth based players. Let's now adjust the rate and the amount for the LFO for the Synth based players. So I recommend testing these out here as well. And we also have this Elfotab for the rhythmic chords, keyboard session synth player. And again, I'll play this back and adjust the rate and amount so you can quickly hit a difference. Okay, so that's the end of this video, and that's all the controls for this LFO tab. I do recommend testing this out yourself. So thanks for watching, and I'll see in the next video. 29. Synth Session Players - Envelope Tab: Okay, now let's have a look at the envelope tab. For this rhythmic cause keyboard synth player, we don't have the envelope tab. But if you click here and swap over to the modulation pad and change the session player, you can see here we have the envelope tab. Also, just be aware that the Session synth bass players don't have this tab. If the LFO is about repeating movement, the envelope tab is about how a part evolves over time. This is especially useful for pads and sustained synth parts where you want motion and expression without obvious rhythm. Once again, this is about behavior, not traditional sound design. Before we look at attack, hold, and decay, let's have a look at complexity and amount over here. Let's start with amount. This controls how strongly the envelope affects the performance. Lower values are subtle and the higher values exaggerate the movement. For this next example, let's leave the amount in fall. Then we have complexity. This influences how much variation the session play introduces as the envelope plays out. And we can see this update in the region when we adjust the complexity. I'll play this back now and adjust this complexity dial so you can hear a difference. Okay, let's play this back again and adjust the amount so it's more subtle. Let's leave it around there for now. Okay. Let's now talk about attack, hold, and decay. These controls shape how the session player responds after each chord change. Let's start with attack. This controls how quickly the part fades in when a new cord starts. And we can click and drag on these numbers here. Double click and type a number in, or we can click and drag on these notes. A shorter attack feels more intimate and present. Let's hear this now. And a longer attack creates a slower swell, which works especially well for pads and atmospheric parts. So let's hear this back now with a longer attack. Okay, now let's talk about hold. This controls how long the sound stays at its peak level. A longer hold keeps the energy sustained across the cord. And a shorter hold makes the part feel more dynamic and less static. This is useful for shaping how full or restrained the progression feels. But for now, let's put this to around 50. Okay, now let's talk about decay. This controls how the sound fades away after the hold stage. A longer decay gives you smooth blended transitions between cords. A shorter decay results in cleaner title chord changes. But for this, let's leave this at around 60. Together, attack hold and decay to find the overall contour of the performance. A good approach is to set the envelope shape first, then gradually raise the amount until movement feels musical rather than obvious. So let's do this now. So for this example, I'll leave it around here. Okay, now let's talk about these controls on the right over here. We have a line and Chef Start. Let's start with a line. This determines how the envelope lines up with musical timing. We have two options, start on step or Pecan step. So right now it's on Pecan step. And when this is selected, the envelope is shaped so the highest point lines up with the chord changes. This creates a more natural breathing feel, especially for pads and evolving textures. In many musical situations, this feels less mechanical and more expressive. Let's now talk about start on step. When this is enabled, the envelope begins exactly at the chord change. This makes the movement feel very tight and predictable. It works well when you want the envelope behavior to feel clearly tied to the harmony. We also have this invert button here, which inverts the envelope shape. So if I press this, you'll see this shape invert. So it can be interesting to hear what your part sounds like when you have inverts selected. For this demonstration, though, I'm not going to have inverts selected. Okay, now let's talk about Shift Start. The Shift start control lets you offset when the envelope begins relative to the chord change. This allows you to slightly delay the envelope for a more relaxed feel. You can also nudge it earlier for added urgency. Let's just adjust this now and you'll see this update in the region. This is a subtle control, but it's very effective when you want the movement to feel less rigid. For this demo, though, let's double click and go back to the default of 0%. Let's now talk about the free dot menu, which you can access over here. So when we click on this, this reveals additional envelope controls. These don't change the shape itself. They change how the envelope is applied. Let's first talk about the lamp setting. This determines how long the envelope lasts in relation to the music. In other words, it decides whether the envelope adapts musically to your chords or follows a fixed time base shape. By default, it's on relative. When it's set to relative, the envelope automatically adapts to the length of the cord or region. This means longer chords get longer envelope movements and shorter chords get shorter envelope movements. This keeps the behavior musical, even if you later change the chord length or arrangement. But for most musical situations, this is the safest and most natural option and the one you'll probably use the most. Okay, let's now talk about absolute scale. If we have this selective, the envelope follows a fixed time shape, but it still scales to fit within the musical context. This gives you more consistent envelope timing while still retaining musical flexibility. This can be useful if you want more controlled envelope shape, but don't want to completely ignore the musical structure. And you can see update when we change to this. Let's talk about the next one, which is absolute clipped. With this, the envelope runs at a fixed length regardless of cord duration. If the cord is shorter than the envelope, the envelope is cut off. If the cord is longer, the envelope completes early and then stays flat. This can sound more mechanical, but it's useful for stylized effects, very deliberate envelope timing, and more rigid electronic behavior. Okay, then we have absolute fixed AD. This locks the envelope to a fixed attack and decay time. This ignores cord length entirely and behaves more like a traditional SIP envelope. This is useful if you want predictable envelope behavior, more classic SIM style response or consistent shaping regardless of harmony changes. And you'll be able to hear when we chooses different length settings, it does affect the sound. If you're unsure which to use, I recommend starting with relative. It keeps things musical, flexible, and responsive to arrangement changes. The other modes are there when you want more control rather than adaptation. Okay, now let's talk about CC target. Just like with the LFO, the envelope can be routed to a CC target. By default, this is set to CC 74, meaning the envelope is influencing brightness behavior. This allows the envelope to shape intensity or Tabre over time, rather than directly controlling volume. You don't need to change this to get great results, but it's useful to understand that the envelope is working through performance data. Okay, then we have offset, and this shifts the entire envelope response up down. Instead of returning evenly to a center point, the envelope becomes biased in one direction. This is useful when you want more motion that never fully resets. For example, pads that always stay slightly open or textures that never fully fade back. Use subtly, this as polish without drawing attention. So just for this example, let's change the offset to 50, and you can see this update in the region here. Now, let's try -50. Let's try something a bit more subtle. Let's try -15. And let's try 15. Now, let's put this back to the default of zero. Okay, so that's all of the controls for this envelope. I recommend starting shaping the attack, holding decay, and then adjust the amount until it feels right. Then choose an align mode so it suits the part. You can then fine Tomas Chef starts and explore the additional controls if needed. Small adjustments usually sound best. So the envelope tab is about how a part unfolds over time, not how it sounds at a single moment. It allows you to shape motion, control dynamics, smooth chord transitions, and add musical intention, all while staying flexible and non destructive. In the next lesson, we'll move on to the slides tab and look how to add expressive pitch movement. So thanks watching, and I'll see you there. 30. Synth Bass Session Players - Slide Tab: Okay, now let's focus on the slides tab. This tab is used with the Synth Session bass players, and it really shines with the eight to eight bass and sustained synth bass parts. So let's click on this icon here and change the type from keyboard player to bass player. And let's choose eight to eight base and press change Session Players. Let's now select the slides tab here. Slides control how notes connect to each other, adding pitch movement and expression without needing to manually draw pitch bend or automation. What are slides doing musically? At its core, sliding is about how one note moves into the next. Instead of each bass note starting cleanly at its target pitch, slides allow notes to glide up to the next pitch, glide down to the next pitch, and fill more legato and connected. This kind of movement is a huge part of modern bass styles, especially trap, hip hop, pop, and electronic music. Behavior, not pitch editing. Just like the other Session player tabs, this isn't about traditional editing. You're not drawing pitch bends by hand or automating the instrument directly. Instead, you're shaping performance behavior. The session player decides when and how slides happen based on the musical context and your settings. That's why the results usually feel natural rather than exaggerated or mechanical. Let's now have a look at the slide mode. If you click on these free dots here, you'll see the mode setting. For eight to eight bases, this is typically set to pitch bend. This means the slide is created using pitch bend data, which is ideal for smooth, continuous pitch movement. Other modes may appear depending on the instrument, but for the synth based eight to eight, pitch bend is the most common and musical option. Okay, now let's have a look at the start setting. This controls when the slide begins in relation to the note. The option includes towards next note on note start and auto. Towards next note, delays the slide slightly, so the movement happens closer to the following note. If we select on Notes Start, the slide begins right at the start of the note. This gives very clear intentional slides. And Auto. Auto lets logic decide based on the musical context. This often works very well when sketching ideas quickly as it chooses slide timing that feel musical without needing fine tuning. You'll notice here if we select Auto, it's the same as on Notes Start. Okay, now let's look at Legato and curve. The Legato control determines how connected the notes feel. Higher values make notes overlap more smoothly, which enhances the slide effect. Let's just increase this to 100. A lower values create more separation between notes. So let's just decrease this to ten. But for this example, let's choose 50. Then we have the curve setting, which shapes how the pitch moves during the slide. A gentler curve feels smooth and vocal with pitch movements that sound more swung and expressive. So let's just change this to ten. And as tiebace feels more dramatic and stylized, let's change this to 100. For this example, let's leave it at 100. Together, legato and curve define the character of the slide. Okay, now let's look at slide time and amount over here. Let's first look at slide time. This controls how long the slide takes and it adjusts musically based on tempo and note spacing. We can see this update when we change the setting. Let's hear this on zero. And let's increase this and you can see this curve here. Let's now talk about amounts. This controls how strong the slide feels by adjusting how much pitch movement happens between notes. Short slide times, create quick subtle movements, and longer slide times create drawn out expressive glides. So I'll play this back and adjust this amount control so you can hit a difference. Mm. As always, small adjustments go a long way. Subtle versus obvious slides. Restraint matters here. Small amounts of slide can add groove, add realism, and help the bass sit better with the drums. More extreme slide settings work well for stylized eight to eight glides, drama specific effects, and featured bass movements. Always listen in context and decide whether the slides are supporting the song or pulling attention away. Slides tend to work best when notes are close together. The bass line is relatively simple and the rhythm leaves space for pitch movement. They're less effective on very busy bass parts where clean note definition matters more than expression. Slides versus manual Legato programming. If you're used to programming bass parts manually, you might normally overlap mini notes to create slides. A slides tab gives you a musical shortcut. Instead of managing note lengths and overlaps, you define the behavior on and let the session player handle the transitions. This keeps your workflow faster and more consistent. You also see other synth base styles here, such as pump bass and sequence base. Slides can work with these, but they tend to be more subtle and style dependent. For clear expressive slide behavior, eight to eight base is where this feature really shines. Okay, now we've covered how slides behave musically. Let's briefly look at a couple of deeper controls. You don't need to adjust these to get great results, but they're useful to understand, especially for eight to eight bases, MIDI monomode, which we can access by clicking the Me button here. This ensures the base behaves like a true monophonic instrument. This is important for slides because only one note should be active at a time. Without the slides can behave unpredictably. In most cases, leaving this enabled or is the correct choice for base. Let's now look at pitch bend range. This determines how far the pitch is allowed to slide, and it ranges 0-96 semitones. Lower values keep slides controlled and subtle, and higher values allow for wide dramatic slides that are common in modern eight toeight styles. So just for this example, let's change this to two so you can hear a difference. As a general starting point, values 12-48 work well in most musical situations. So let's change this to 48. If your slides feel too extreme or not extreme enough, this is usually the control to adjust. One of the most important things to understand about slides in the Session synth blares is that they still follow the chord track. This means slides adapt automatically when cords change. Pitch movement stays harmonically correct, and you can change the progression later without breaking the bass part. This is very different from manually programming pitch bends, which often need fixing when harmony changes. Okay, so that send us video. In the next lesson, we'll move on to the details tab where we're fine tuned feel, timing, and intensity. Thanks watching, and I'll see you there. 31. Synth Sessions Players - Details Tab: Okay, now let's look at the details tab. This is where you fine tune how a part feels. Up to this point, we've shaped motion, evolution, and expression using tools like envelopes, allopoes and slides. The details tab is where all of that gets locked into the groove and starts to feel intentional. What the details tab is really about the details tab doesn't change which notes are being played. Instead, it controls how these notes are performed. This includes things like how hard the notes played, how tight or loose it feels against the grid, and how much energy or restraint the performance has. This is often the point where the part stops to feel mechanical and starts feeling musical. The controls in the details tab can look slightly different depending on whether you're using a keyboard or bass symp session player. On bass parts, the details tab have a big impact on groove and how the base interacts with the kick. That's why it's a good idea to revisit the details tab once your drums are in place. On keyboard parts, the details tab often affects rhythmic precision, chord articulation, and how busy or restrained the performance feels. I'm not going to go over all of the settings for the details tab as the settings can be different for each player. For example, if I swap over to the sequence space, you can see the settings are different. And if I swap over to the pump base, again, you can see it's different. For now, though, let's go back to the eight oh eight base. The details tab is not about extreme settings. In most cases, small adjustments sound best. Subtle changes are realism, and extreme values can sound unnatural. But just for this example, let's increase this repeat style. This allows you to set the number of repeated notes in the baseline. Okay, let's hit this back with more repeats. Let's now swap over to one of the keyboard Sim Session Players. Let's choose modulated pad. And here this details tab is a bit more simple. Let's just talk about this strum control here. If we increase this here, this will give us a strum effect. So this will give each note of the chord a longer offset. Let's play this back and I'll adjust this control so you can hear a difference. Again, subtle changes will normally sound best. These controls will change for different players as well. As I said, I'm not going to go over all these controls here, as there's too many to cover in this video, but I do recommend you test them out yourself. So this is often the final step that makes the generated part feel like it belongs in the song. Okay, so that's send this video. So thanks for watching and I'll see in the next video. 32. Synth Session Players - Convert to MIDI: Any point, you can convert a synth session player region to MIDI. When you do this, all note data remains, or modulation data remains and nothing is lost. You're not flattening or simpling the part. You're just changing how it's controlled. Once converted, you have full manual control. You can edit individual notes, change voicings, rewrite rhythms, adjust note lengths, and automate synth parameters directly. This is what makes a sync session player so powerful. Their work is a bridge between inspiration and precision. You can sketch musical ideas quickly, shape performance behavior, and then commit when you're ready. Okay, so now let's look at how to convert to MIDI, to convert a session player to MIDI, right click on a region, and choose convert to MIDI. That's all there is to it. One important thing to know, this process is one way. You can convert a session player region to MIDI, but you can't convert a midi region back into a session player region. So once you've converted it, you won't be able to go back and tweak things like complexity, intensity, Elepho behavior, or performance settings. Because of that, it can often be a good idea to keep a backup. So what I like to do before converting to MIDI is duplicate the session player track and region, and then I'll mute it. So we can just press this button here to duplicate the track, and then we can click on the region and hold down Option and drag to copy this. Now let's meet this track. That way, I always have a version I can come back to if I change my mind later. Okay, so let's convert the session player region to MIDI now. Okay, so that's it. Now you can go into the piano or editor and adjust this MIDI information, if you wish. Okay, so that's how to use the Session synth players. So just remember these synth players are powerful, but they're not magic. They don't replace musicianship, musical judgment, arrangement decisions or sound design knowledge. Use well, they remove friction and speed up your workflow. Use blindly, they can feel generic. Some good practices are to set the chord track early, choose styles based on musical roles, not just sounds, se small adjustments rather than extreme ones and convert to midi once you're ready to commit. So the simp Session Players and Logic Pro aren't about replacing creativity. They're about removing friction. They help you write faster, experiment more freely, and understand how parts are built by seeing them in action. When combined with Chord ID, logic starts to feel less like something you program and more like an instrument you interact with. This is where these tools really shine. Okay, so that's then this lesson and the section. Thanks for watching, and I'll see you in the next one. 33. Thanks and Bye + Class Project: Okay, so we've now reached the end of the class. I hope you find it helpful, and I hope now you feel confident using the session players and chord track in logic P 11. For your class project, I like to take what you've learned and create your own groove, include the session drummer, bassist, and keyboard player, and also write your own chord progression using the chord track. When you're done, take a screenshot of your project and write a short paragraph explaining what you did and why. This will give me a better understanding of your creative process and also your groove. So thank you so much for watching this class, and I hopefully see in the next class.