Logic Pro Quick Start: Music Production for Beginners

1. Welcome to the Logic Pro Quick Start Class: Hi there, and welcome to this Logic Pro Quick Start course. In this class, I'll guide you through the very basics of Logic Pro. So even if you've never opened this software before, you'll be able to quickly understand how it works and start making your own music in no time. My name's Tomas George. I'm a music producer and educator, I've taught hundreds of thousands of students music production, mixing, and songwriting around the world. Logic Pro is an incredibly powerful digital audio workstation. When you first open it, it can feel a bit overwhelming with all its tracks, instruments, and features. That's why in this course, I'll show exactly where I need to get started. I'll walk you through how to create a new project and how to create tracks, how to record and edit both Midi and audio and how to use Apple Loops and live loops. I'll then show you how to arrange, mix, and export your first song in Logic Pro. So by the end of this course, you'll have a solid understanding of Logic Pro's workflow and have the confidence to start building and producing your own song. This mini course is perfect for beginners wants a fast, hands on introduction to Logic Pro. So when you're ready to get started, hit the enroll button, and I'll see you in the class. Oh. 2. The Track We Will Build in This Class: This course, we are going to build a complete track from scratch, using Logic Pro's core tools. This is the finished track we will be working towards, and I'll show you how every part is created step by step. The goal here is not to create a perfect commercial release but to understand the Logic Pro workflow and learn how to finish a complete piece of music. Now, I'll play you a short section of the track. I. I have been producing music for a long time. But the techniques taught in this course are designed so that you can create something similar by following along. You can also take what you learn here and apply it to any genre you want to work in. Attached is the Logic Pro project used for this track. So feel free to download it and open it yourself. You can listen back, explore how the session is set up, and move or adjust any parts you like. With that said, let's get started, and I'll see you in the first lesson. 3. Opening Logic Pro and Choosing a New Track: Opening Logic Pro and choosing a new track. When you open Logic Pro for the first time, you'll get this screen. To this, let's hos an empty project. So under new project. Let's select Empty Project, and then select Choose. Or you can go to File and New. Now this pop up will appear where you can choose your track type. If you want to record or program in MIDI notes and use virtual or software instruments to play about this midi, choose Software Instrument. If you want to record audio, so maybe singing into a microphone, a guitar, bass or external synthesizer, choose audio. If you want to record in a step sequence or style midi pattern, you can choose Pattern. This is most commonly used for programming in drum beats. Or you can choose a session player. Logic will give you a variety of virtual drummers, bassist, and keyboard players, which you can adjust and manipulate. For this first example, though, let's choose MIDI Software Instrument. We can choose that instrument down here or we can change it later on. For now, let's click Create. 4. Musical Typing: Musical typing. Right now, I have a MIDI keyboard in front of me, so let's play some notes on this and you'll be able to hear the software instrument. If you don't have a mini keyboard, then you can use musical typing. So you can use your computer's keyboard to play mini notes that software instrument will play. You can enable musical typing by going to Window, showing musical typing or by using the key command Command K. Now I can play some keys on my computer to play about notes. However, I do recommend using a mini keyboard, as it is a lot easier to play than musical typing, especially for chords. Okay, let's now close musical typing by pressing Command K, and let's now choose a different software instrument. 5. Changing the Software Instrument: Changing the Software Instrument. We can change the instrument via the inspector and we can show and hide the inspector by pressing this button here or by using the key command I. You should be able to see the instrument name here. And if you can't just click on these raw buttons here to close these areas. Now let's hover over to the right of this instrument name, and you'll see these raw buttons. If you click on them, a drop down list will appear. Here we have a list of different software instruments we can select. For this example, let's choose retrosynth. So let's hover over this and select stereo. Let's hit this back. We can also change the software instrument in the mixer as well. The mixer is where we can change the levels and add effects for the different tracks and other things, too. Let's just close the SIP and I'll show you how to open the mixer. We can open the mixer by pressing this button here or by using the key command X. So you can see here we can see the name of the Software Instrument. We can also click in the middle of this to open the Software Instrument. So here we can change different settings for the instrument. For this SIP, we can change things like the oscillator shape. The filter, and the LFO. If you're new to synthesis, I recommend checking out my complete Logic Pro course where I cover synthesis in detail. We can close the instruments by pressing the red X button in the top left. If we close it, we can still hear the SIF. We've only closed the SIMPSEditor window. Let's close the mixer now so we have a bit more space. We also have the library on the left here. The library, let's just choose different presets, instruments, and sounds. But for now, let's close this, too, so we have a bit more space, and we can do this by pressing the library button up here or by using the key command Y. Okay, next, let's have a look at Quick help. 6. The Quick Help Tool: Quick help. By the way, if you ever get confused about what something does or you simply have forgotten, you can turn on Quick help by pressing this button here. You can also show in High Quick help with this arrow button. This gives you a brief description of many buttons and features when you hover over them. For example, if I hover over to the Loops browser button, you can see it tells us what this button is called. It also shows us the key command, which is O. It then gives a brief description, which is add pre recorded loops to your project. You can also press Command and slash, which will bring up Logic Pro guide and will show the relevant section that appears in the quick help area. Don't worry. We'll be looking at a Loops browser later on in this course. I'm going to close quick help now by pressing this button here. But if you're new to Logic Pro, or you might have forgotten what a few things do, I recommend leaving Quick help on, but I'm sure soon enough, you won't need to use this feature anymore. Okay, now let's have a look at the time round Ruler and Tempo. 7. The Timeline Ruler and Tempo: Timeline Ruler and Tempo. Up here, we have the timeline, and this is measured in bars. If I turn on a click or metronome by pressing this button up here or by using the key Command K, then I can play this back by pressing the play button or by using the space bar. For this example, and in most cases, four beats will make a 1 bar unless you've chosen a time signature other than 44. If you're new to music production or music in general, I recommend leaving this and 44. Later, you can experiment with different time signatures or how many beats are in a bar. We can change the Tempo of the project up here. You can drag up to make the Tempo faster or drag down to make it slower. When I increase this, you can hear the metronome run faster. And when I decrease this, you can hear it slow down. You can also double click and type in the Tempo you want. For this example, let's set the Tempo to 115 BPM or beats per minute, as I want a slightly slower vibe for the song, I'll create. We can also see what bar and beat we're in or appear, which links to the Timeline Ruler. We also have the key signature. You can click here to choose a different key signature. For this example, though, we're going to keep this in C major, which is all the white notes of the piano keyboard. Okay, so that's the Timeline Ruler and Tempo. Next, we're going to look at recording in and wept. 8. Recording in a MIDI Part: Okay, let's now start making some music and record in a midi part. For this example, I'm going to record in some chords on my midi keyboard. If you don't have a midi keyboard, you can use musical typing or you can program midi notes into the piano roll Mi Editor, which I'll show you soon enough. Before record, I'm going to make sure I have the metronome enabled, so I play in time, and I'm also going to make sure I have the counting button enabled. If I have this enabled, then by default, it will give me 1 bar or four beats before record, so I can prepare myself and give myself a feel for the Tempo before record. We also need to make sure the track is recorded enabled. We can do this by clicking this R button on the track header so it lights up red. Let's now make sure the playhead ruler is at the start. We can do this by clicking and dragging the roller to the start or by using the key command Enter. Okay, so now I'm going to record in some chords on my mini keyboard. We can record by pressing the record button up here, or by using the key command R. I'm going to keep it really simple and play the chord C major, A minor, G and F major, all in root position, and one chord per bar. So we can stop recording by pressing Space Bar. If you want to do another take, you can always delete what you just did and recording again. But for now, I'm going to use this part. I'm also going to disable record enable, by press and this small R button again. This is not about recording in the best possible song at this stage. It's about getting used to the recording and editing process in Logic Pro. Once you have this down, you can experiment with more complex parts. Okay, so there we go. I did make a slight error during the recording, but don't worry. I'll show you how to edit and fix minute information soon enough. Okay, let's hit this back. So let's press Enter or Return to go to the start. And now let's press Spacebar to playback. And we can press Space Bar again to ports. Now let's have a look at what we recorded into the piano roll MIDI Editor. We can show and hide the midi Editor by pressing this button here or by pressing the key command E. Just make sure you have your midi region selected, and now you can see the MIDI notes that are recorded it. Okay, now let's have a look at some basic editing that we can do in the midi Editor. 9. Basic MIDI Editing and Quantizing: Basic midi editing and Quantizing. In the piano roll, we have a piano keyboard flipped on its side, and these blocks here are the midi notes that were recorded in. We can click and drag these up or down to move the pitch. So vertically, we have pitch, and horizontally, we have time. We can also edit multiple notes by clicking and dragging over these notes. We can also undo any changes by pressing Undo, which is Command D. For this example, I want to delete this note here. As you may remember, I did play a mistake. So let's click on this note here and press delete. The notes are played slightly out of time, so we can snap into the grid so they're perfectly in time. We can do this manually by clicking on the notes and making sure they're on the grid, or we can quantize them. Quantizing is a lot quicker, so let's do this. So let's select all the notes by pressing Command A, and then we can press this cue button here, or we can use the key command to quantize. So you should have seen there, they're now perfectly on the grid. Let's play this back so you can hear that they're perfectly in time now. We can choose the Quantizing amount in this drop down list here. If you're playing long held chords, you might want to change this to one quarter note, for example. So this will snap the notes to the nearest quarter note or crotchet or beat when you're in 44. If you're playing really fast notes, you might want to use faster quantize settings. For example, you could select one 16th. So this will snap the note to the nearest 16th note or semiquaver. For this example, though, it has actually snapped it perfectly on the grid. But, for example, if it's snapped here instead and you want it exactly on bar four, you can swap this to one quarter note. And you can see now it's lined up perfectly on the grid for bar four. We can also move the notes up or down at octave by using the key command shift option arrow up to move up. Or shift option arrow down to move down octave. If you're unfamiliar with octaves, you can see this pattern for the keyboard repeat. Two black notes, then three black notes, and it repeats. On octave, it's 12 notes or where the pattern repeats. So, for example, this note A here, an octave above will be this A, and an octave below will be this A. We can also type in our own notes with the pencil tool. You can see that the pencil tool is currently a command Clic tool. We can change a command click tool here. But for now, let's leave this on the pencil tool. So now let's type in a few more notes. Let's add an octave above the root note. So an octave above the C here, which is this one here, C four. Let's do the same for the next chord. So this A here, an octave above will be this A. The next chord, we have this G here and octave above will be this G. The last one, we have this F here, and octave above will be this F. Okay, let's play this back now and hear what this sounds like. There are many other notes we could have added, but just to keep it simple, I wanted to add an octave. We can also draw in all of the notes in the midi Editor. We don't have to record anything in if we don't want. What I often like to do is record in notes on my MIDI keyboard and then edit them and add new parts or notes with a pencil tool when needed. For this example, let's draw on some new notes into a new midi region directly into the midi Editor. So let's do this now. We can create a new media region by right clicking on an empty space in the track workspace area and selecting create Midi region. So this midi region is now 1 bar. I want to have this a bit longer, so if you hover over the bottom right of this region, we can see this arrow button appear. Let's click and drag this over so it's 4 bars long. Now you can see this midi Editor is empty. Let's make the midi editor a bit bigger by clicking and dragging up. So now we can add in our own parts if you wish. We can resize the midi notes. They don't have to be 1 bar long. So I'm just going to play the C major chord again here. But break up some of these notes here to make an arpeggio. Let's now add the notes for the next chord. So the next chord was an A minor. So we have this A here. Let's put this in first. And that's full of the same pattern, but change the notes so they fit this cord. Okay, let's hit this back now. Let's now add a next chord. Remember, it was a G major. And let's follow this same pattern. Let's hear this now. And now let's add the notes for the last chord, which was the. Again, let's use the same pattern to keep it simple. Okay, now let's hear all four of these chords for this new pattern. We can also duplicate regions. So let's actually duplicate this first region and then change it slightly. Let's hold down Option, click and drag, and this duplicates this first region. For this region, I'm going to delete the high notes here. And I'm going to make some inversions. Inversions is just when you change the order of the notes, so they sound a bit smoother going from one to the other. Remember, we can change octave by pressing Shift, option, and up and down arrow. So I'm going to put this first note down octave. Let's put this note here up and octave. Okay, let's hear this back now. It will sound slightly different to this first region, as I've got rid of these higher octave notes, and I've also added some inversions. Also change the velocity of some of the notes. This is midi velocity and higher values. Sound like the notes are being played harder and lower values. Sound like the notes are being played softer. So let's do this for the second region here. So you can see it's all the same color, which means they're all the same velocity. Adjusting the velocity can also make the notes sound more human like. As when a person plays a keyboard or instrument, not every note will be played at the same strength, but when notes are programmed in on the computer, the velocity can be identical, so it can be a good idea to add some velocity variation if you want your song to sound less robotic and more like a human played it. Okay, so let's do this now. So we can click on the notes and change the velocity down here with this slide. So I want to have the first note being played quite hard. And then the other one's a bit softer. Mm. I'm also going to select multiple notes here, but holding down chef when I'm clicking. And you can see now the colors have changed as we have different velocities. Let's play back and hear the difference. I'm going to add a few variations here, so it doesn't sound identical. Okay, great. Let's say this once more. So I do recommend adding some velocity variations to your parts. For these other regions here, I did play the part in myself, so you can see it already has some velocity variation, so I don't really need to add need for these parts. However, when programming in your parts yourself, I do recommend adding some velocity variation. Okay, so that's some basic midi editing. Next, let's have a look at adding some drums to this synth part. 10. Apple Loops and Cycle Region: Apple Loops, Pattern Loops and Cycle Region. There are a few ways we can add drums and Logic Pro, but one simple and easy way is to add an Apple loop. These are royalty free loops that you can use in your songs. We can view the Apple Loops browser by pressing this button up here or by using the key command. Oh. Here we have a lot of different types of loops. If you don't have many loops and you want more, you can download additional content by going to Logic Pro and Sound Library, and choosing download all available sounds if you have enough hard drive space or download essential sounds if you don't have much space on your Mc. You can also open the Sound Library manager and choose exactly which packs you want to download. However, I have all of these downloaded already. Okay, going back to the Apple Loops, you have these tabs up here where you can narrow down the loops in the Apple Loop browser. Let's first of all click on Instrument. For this example, let's choose all drums. And then for genre, let's choose electronic. And then for descriptors, let's choose dark and intense. So you can see now we have fewer loops. We can click to preview different loops. We also have different loop types as well. We have audio loops in blue, midi loops in green, pattern loops in purple, and session player loops in yellow. I personally prefer using MIDI loops, as you can easily edit the MIDI notes in the midi editor, and it's a bit harder to edit audio and you can't edit as much as what you can do with MIDI. Okay, let's have a listen to a few more of these loops. Okay, I think this one called Go ahead space beat two sounds fine. If you're following along and you don't have the exact same loop as this, don't worry, choose one that's similar. Let's now click and drag this below the track, and you can see it's made a new track and it's added a drum kit instrument. You can see that this loop is 2 bars long and the midi region for our keys part is 4 bars long. So if we hover over to the top right of our loop, we can see this loop icon appear. Now let's click and drag to the right of this loop to make it 4 bars long. Okay, let's play this back now. And you should have noticed there that it looped. Now in the MIDI Editor, we can edit some of these midi notes if we want to customize the part a bit more. So we can open up the midi Editor by pressing this button or by using the key command E. Let's now find the original loop. So we can click on these different mini notes to hear what they sound like. So just for this example, I'm going to edit some of these midi notes here so we can hear a difference. And we can zoom in with a shortcut command right arrow. And we can zoom out with a shortcut, command left arrow. So I'm just going to move some of these high hats here. Okay, let's hear what this sounds like now. Let's go back to the start by press and return or enter and play this back with Space Bar. So you can hear there, I quickly made the beat sound very different. For this example, though, I want to find another loop, so I'm actually going to delete this loop. So let's click on the loop and press Delete. I'm also going to delete the track. So let's click on this and press Delete. Now let's find another Apple loop. For this next example, I want to use a Pattern loop. So in the Apple Loop library, let's press the loop type button here and select Pattern loop. Now, only display the pattern loops. Let's have a listen through some of these. Okay, let's try this one called Glass Spikes Beat. So let's click and drag this below the track. Again, let's loop this so it's 4 bars long. So this now has added a pattern loop. This is in a step sequence of format which many people like to use for programming in drums, so you can click on a block to add or remove a step. You will notice that affects both the loop pattern and the original pattern. This is because the loop is an exact copy and includes any changes or edits made to the pattern or region. Okay, now let's adjust some of the steps in the step sequencer. Vertically, we have different instruments or samples, and horizontally, we have the beat divisions. In this case, each step is a quarter note. You can adjust the steps in the pattern drawing playback, so you can loop your part and adjust it drawing playback. You can loop the area by pressing the cycle button up here or by using the key command C. You can also click on the area up here, so it's yellow, and this area will cycle. You can then click and drag the edges of the cycle range to adjust its length. And if you hover over it, you'll see a hand icon up here. This allows you to move the position of the cycle region. Okay, so now let's play this back and draw and playback. I'll adjust some of these steps in the step sequencer. Okay, something like that. I did make the part a lot simpler, but I think it works better with our keys part now. Okay, now let's add an audio loop. This time, I want to add some percussion. So let's reset the Apple loop search up here. And in the loop type, let's change this to just audio loops. And now let's type and shake it in the search. Okay, now let's listen to a few of these audio loops. For this example, let's choose this one called Endless Drive Shakers. Let's now click and drag this below our tracks. And this time, it's an audio region, and it's open to audio editor. Again, let's loop this so it's 4 bars long. Let's now have a listen back to this. For now, I'm going to mute the pattern loop as I think this is a bit too intense, and let's now hit this back with just the shaker and the keys part. You could just delete the region and track, but it can be a good idea to mute tracks just in case you want to use it later on. Okay, so that's a basic overview of the Apple Loops. Let's close the loop browser by pressing this button here or by using a key command. Oh. Next, let's have a look at setting up to record audio. 11. Setting up and Recording Audio: Setting up and recording audio. So to record audio, you will need an audio interface or USB microphone. You can use your built in microphone on your Mac, but it won't be great. If you want to record audio, I recommend using an audio interface and Exile microphone. You can also record guitar bass and external synthesizers in Logic proro two. But again, you'll need an audio interface to do this. Before we record audio, let's set up an audio interface. We can do this by going to Logic proro in the top left and then go to settings and then Audio. Then in an input device, you can select your audio interface. If you don't have an audio interface, you can select your Mac microphone if it has one, but it won't sound good, but you can choose this if you want to test that recording audio and lodge it Pro. We can also choose our output device. Here you can select your audio interface if you have studio monitors or headphones connected to it. You may notice that I have a lot of different input and output devices. That's for making videos, so you probably won't have as many as these. Next, let's talk about the buffer size. For recording audio, I recommend using a smaller buffer size. This will give you less latency or recording delay. For this example, let's choose 32 samples. However, smaller buffer sizes will use more CPU power or computer power, and if you experience any clicks or pops in your audio recordings, you should increase your buffer size. Also, for arranging and mixing, I recommend using a larger buffer size. For recording, though, I would use a smaller buffer size. Now when you have this setup, press apply and close settings. Okay, now let's create a new audio track. We can do this by pressing the new Tracks button here and choose an audio track. For this example, let's choose Markle line. I have my microphone plugged into input one, so I'm going to make sure input one is selected. And now let's press Create. Now let's record enable this track by pressing this R button here, and you can now see the audio level coming through. If you want to record audio from a microphone, I recommend wearing headphones so that audio from your computer or speakers is not picked up by the microphone. Let's now make sure the audio level isn't too loud and doesn't clip, and now I'm going to record in a part of me talking. So we can press the record button up here or press the key command R. And slower, we rise. Rich and we do. Then when you finish your recording, press Space Bar. Okay, so that's how you can record audio. As I said, it's not just a microphone that you can record. You can also record a guitar or bass or external synth if you have them plugged into your audio interface. Next, we're going to have a look at Live Loops. 12. Introduction to Live Loops and Creating a Keys Part: Okay, so now let's have a look at the Live Loops. So in Logic Pro, we have the Tracks Area, which is what we've been looking at so far, but we've also got the Live Loops area. The Live Loops area is a little different from the Tracks Area. It gives you a grid based way to create and perform music, similar to Ableton Live Session View, if you've used that before. You can show and hide the live loops area by pressing this button, and we can show and hide the Tracks Area by pressing this button. I personally really like using live loops, and most of the ideas for the electronic music I create are made in a live loops area. What I usually do is use live loops to record my ideas and build loops and patterns, then create an arrangement in the live loops area. After that, I record the performance of the arrangement into the Tracks area for further arranging and mixing. Okay, so now let's have a look at how to set up to record your own loops and a live loops grid. Here we can add loops into the cells, and we can place multiple loops on the same track or instrument by using different cells on that track. We can also add Apple loops or our own samples into the cells if you wish. It can feel a little clunky or messy having tracks play back in both the live loops area and the Tracks Area. We can press the Tracks activator button up here to switch the tracks between the live loops area and the Tracks Area. So for now, let's select the arrow button on the left, so we only hear the live loops area. We can click and drag loops from the Tracks Area into the live loops area and vice versa, so let's drag over the loops we want to use for our song. So let's show the Tracks Area now. For the retro symp track, I want to use this second region here. So let's click and drag this over to the Tracks Area. I also want to use the Shaker Apple Loop. So again, let's click and drag this over to the Live Loops area. Later, I will show you how to record your performance from the live loops area into the Tracks Area, as I mentioned earlier. You don't have to work in the Live Loops area, though. You can just work in the Tracks Area if you prefer. We can play about the cells by clicking on them here. We can click on the Magen to pause, and we can press Space bar to pause the playhead Ruler. We can stop all the clips with this button here, and we can play about the column of clips with this button down here. So if I press this here for Row one, it's going to play about the retrosynth part and the shaker part. Let me show you now. If I press the space byte, it will pause playback, you can see the cells are still flashing or cued. To stop these completely, press the stop or sales button down here in the bottom right of the live loops area. Okay, so now let's add a new software instrument, and we can do this by pressing the new Tracks button here. And for this example, let's choose software instrument. For this example, let's add a piano instrument. So in the instrument here, I'm going to choose studio piano and stereo, and then press Create. Now I'm going to play some notes on my midi keyboard, so you can hear that this is a piano sound. Now let's record enable this track, and if you hover over one of these empty cells, you can see this record button appears. For this example, I'm going to play some simple chords. See if you remember before our chords were C, Amna G and F. So let's record this in now. And then press Space bar to finish recording. Let's press the stop clips button, and let's press the small R button again as we don't need to record enable this anymore. Let's close the Tracks Area by pressing this button here, and let's close the library by pressing Y, so we can just see the live loops area. Now we can double click on the cell to open the Media Editor and we can edit the MIDI information I've just recorded them. So what played there was a lower octave, octave above, and then the free note chord. I did the same pattern for all four of the chords. I'll solo this by pressing S, and I'll play this roback so you can just hear this. Okay, so first of all, it was slightly out of time. So let's actually quantize this now. Let's select all the mini notes by pressing Command A, and let's go to quantize here. Let's change just to eighth notes. As 16th notes may be a bit too fast, and it may snap to the wrong 16th note on the grid. The eighth note should be fine. Let's play this back again. Okay, the next thing I noticed was this note here. It's very, very low velocity. It's at five, where the other note below is at 59. So let's increase this to about the same amount. And now let's play this back again to hit a difference. M. Okay, great. I might just drop the velocity for these two notes here. Okay, that should be fine now. Let's now unsolo this by press and S and hear this back with the other tracks. Again, let's stop the play back by pressing Space Bar and stop all the cells with this button here. Okay, now let's add a drum part. 13. Creating a Drum Part in Live Loops: Okay, now let's add a drum part. So for this, let's create a new Software Instrument. So let's click on this plus button here and let's choose MIDI Software Instrument. And in the instrument dropdown list, let's choose drum kit designer and stereo. And now let's click Create. So I have my mini keyboard in front of me here, and the kick is C one. The snare is D one, and the closed high hat is F sharp one. Now I'm going to create a simple drumbeat with just these free drums. It's also a good idea to loop a few bars in the tracks area, so the playhead always starts on a downbeat, and we don't lose the playhead ruler. So for this, I have the first 4 bars looped. Let's now play this back and get a groove for the drum part. Draw and playback, I'll experiment with some ideas. Okay, something like that. So let's arm this track and then press the red circle for this cell. And this will give me a 1 bar counting and I recording a drumbeat. Okay, let's do this now. Okay, I think that should be fine. Remember, we can press Space Bar to stop the recording and this button here to stop all cells. Now let's just quantize what I just recorded in. So let's select all by pressing Command A. And the fastest notes are played here we 16th notes. So let's change the quantize to 16th. And now it's snap the notes to the grid. Let's hear this back now. Let's now record in another drum part on a new empty cell. So we're going to use the same instrument, this drum kit designer, but I'm going to record in a different part. So the shaker and retrosynt part will play back. I'm going to record in a new drum part. Okay, let's do this now. For this, I changed the KitrnPattern, and I didn't add the snare. Again, let's quantize this, so let's select all with Command A, and then press this button here or Q to quantize. So this part here with the high hats isn't quite well wanted. So let's zoom in here by pressing Command and right arrow and change this first bar for the high hats. The second bar looks fine, so let's copy this with Command C, and the first bar, let's drag over this and delete this and then make sure the playhead rule is on bar one and then paste this with Command V. Okay, looking at this now, this should all be fine. Let's now press Space bar to play this back and hear what it sounds like. So that kick drum here isn't quite in the right place. So let's just move this over here. And this one here should be there. So when you're recording in, it might not be perfect, and when you quantize, it may actually snap somewhere else. For example, there, this part may have been closer to another 16th note, not the one I wanted. So after Quantizing, I do recommend playing your track back to check that the notes are in the right place. Okay, let's hear this now. Okay, great. That's exactly where I want them now. Let's close a library over here, as we don't need it right now, and it is taking up unnecessary space. So we can close it by pressing Y. Now let's close Editor by pressing E. Let's now stop all the cells by pressing this button here. And now let's copy over this piano part to the second cell. We can do this by holding down option and clicking and dragging. So now we have this first scene here, which has its first drum part, the piano part, the shaker and the retrosynth part. Then we have the second scene here, which has this new drum part and the piano part. 14. Creating a Bass Part in Live Loops: Now create a bass part. You can also create audio loops if you want to play a real bass guitar or record a bass part from an external synthesizer, but often it is much simpler to create a Mi loop. So let's stick with MIDI for now. Okay, so now let's create a new track. So let's click on this plus button here. Then under MIDI Software Instrument, let's click this instrument dropdown, and let's choose Studio bass and stereo. Now let's click Create. You can, of course, choose a synthesizer, but for this example, I want to bass sound that's closer to a real electric bass. Okay, so I'm going to play some notes on my MIDI keyboard now, and let's hear what this sounds like. Before I do this, I'm going to record, arm this base track. Okay, that sounds quite realistic. Okay, let's now record in the bass part. So for this first cell, I want the bass part to have a bit more movement. And for the second part, I want the bass part to play long held notes using the root note of each chord. The root note is simply the main note that the chord is built from. Okay, let's do this now. So for a press record now, it's not going to play about the other tracks, it's just going to record the MIDI into this cell. So let's just play about this cell and then press Space bar. So these other tracks are flashing and are cue. Now in the press record, it's going to play about the other tracks. Okay, let's do this now. Okay, just that. A really simple part. Let's stop all the cells. And let's double click to open immediate Editor. Let's also close the library by pressing Y. And I just played one mistaken there, which we can delete. And now let's quantize all of this. So command data select all and to quantize. You can see now it's perfectly on time. Let's now record in the second cell for the base part. Again, I'm just going to play about the scene and pause it. So these other cells are flashing and cued. So now we're in a press record here, it's going to play about these other tracks. Okay, something like that should be fine. Let's now stop all clips and double click on this cell here. As you can see here, I played it quite good, but it's not perfectly in time. So again, let's selectol and then quantize this. You can see now it's perfectly in time. Let's now playback scene one a couple of times and then scene two. So you could hear their drawing playback, the cells were looping. 15. Arranging and Organizing Your Live Loops: Okay, let's now copy over the cells from scene two to scene free. So let's click and drag over these scenes here, then hold down option and click and drag the scene free, and you can see it's copied these over. To keep things organized, I'm just going to name these tracks. So down here was the bass. Above is the drums. Above this was the piano. And then we had the shaker and above this was the SEP. Let's move the SIP part down and also the shaker and we move this audio part up as we're not going to use this right now. We can delete these tracks we're not using later on, though. I just want to make this a bit more organized for now. This drum part here was a different part, so I'm actually going to choose a different color for this. We can choose a color with the key command option C. So for this, let's just choose a different color as I know it's a different part. The same with the base part. Let's choose a different color. As this was a different part as well. Now if it's scene three, let's drag over the shaker and also the Senth part. So let's hold down option and click and drag. Okay, now let's go from scene two to scene three. Okay, so it's very simple, but we're starting to create an arrangement now. Next, we're going to look at recording from the live loops area into the tracks area. 16. Recording Your Live Loops into the Tracks Area: Record from the live loops area to the Tracks Area. Let's now perform these clips and record them over to the Tracks Area where we can arrange fervor and mix. It's really simple to do. First of all, make sure you disable the socle region in the Tracks Area. So let's open up the Tracks Area by pressing this button. Now let's disable the Cycle Region by clicking on this yellow bar up here or by using the key command C. Just be aware that when we record from the live loops area into the Tracks Area, it will record over any regions already in the Tracks Area. To keep things simple, let's just delete the regions we currently have in the Tracks Area. So let's click and drag over these and press delete. Now let's make sure the play heads at the start. We can click and drag this to the start or we can use the key command Enter. Now we need to enable the performance recording button by pressing our grid button so it lights up red. Now all we need to do is hit the record button up here and play about the cells or scenes, and it will record it from the live loops area to the Tracks Area. So I'm going to let each scene play a few times, and then when it feels like it should move to another scene, I'll trigger the next one. Okay, let's do this now. So I'm going to start with this first scene here. Okay, let's press space bar to stop this. Okay, now let' stop all the clips by pressing this Stop button, and let's disable the performing record button. Okay, now we should be able to see our parts in the Tracks Area. If it's grayed out, just press this right arrow button up here. Now we can play back what recorded into the Tracks Area. Okay, so that's the live loops area. Logic Pro gives you a lot of options. You can record in this grid format or in a more traditional linear format in a Tracks Area, or you can use both. I personally like to use the live loops for a lot of my initial ideas, and then I'll record these ideas into the Tracks Area and expand on them further in here. Okay, let's now close the Live Loops area by pressing this button up here. And now let's continue working in the Tracks Area. I do cover the live loops in a lot more detail in my complete Logic Pro course, so I do recommend checking this out and watching the Live loop section in the course if you want to deep dive into Live Loops. Okay, next, let's have a quick look at the Session Drummer. 17. An Overview of Session Drummer: Session Drummer. In Logic Pro, we have the session players. These are AI powered virtual musicians that can play drums, bass, and keyboard parts in your songs, and they're easier to program while quickly letting you change style and feel. For this example, I'll quickly show you the Session Drummer, and you can apply what I teach you to the session basis and keyboard player, too. I also cover these in detail in my complete Logic Pro course. So for this example, I will meet the drums that I previously programmed, and now let's add a Session Drummer. This allows you to create great sounding and realistic drum parts very quickly. So let's create a new track by pressing this button up here, and let's choose a session player drummer. You can see here we can choose the different drumer styles. For this example, let's choose an acoustic drummer style. Let's choose the first one pop rock. By the way, we can change all of this inside the drumer editor. Okay, let's press Create. And you can see here it's created this drummer region. Let's just drag this back to the start, and let's also mute the Shaker for now as well. Up here, we have the waveform of what the Session Drummer plays. We also have this in the editor as well. Okay, so let's go back to the start by pressing Enter. And now let's play this bat by pressing Space bar. So as you could hear, it sounds quite realistic. Let's also turn off the metronome by pressing this button here or by using a key command K. Okay, so now let's have a look at some of these controls here for the Session Drummer. First of all, we can change the complexity and intensity with these sliders. So I'll play this back and I adjust these sliders so you can hit a difference. Let's actually turn on the cycle region by pressing C, and let's drag this out so the region is 8 bars long as this drumer region here is also 8 bars long. Okay, let's play this back and adjust these controls. A. We can also choose if we want to have high hats, symbols or toms in the pattern or none at all. Again, I'll play this back and turn this on and off so you can hear difference. We also have these different pattern presets we can choose here. So let's hear a few of these and also swap between the Toms, symbols and high hats drawing playback, as well. We can also add and remove the kick and snare as well. And again, we have different patterns we can choose from. Again, let's play this back, and I'll turn the kick and snare on and off and choose a few different patterns so you can hit a difference. We can also have the kick and snare follow the rhythm of the chords or a certain track. So it could be a good idea to have the kick and snare follow the bass, for example. But for now, I'll turn this off. Then we can choose the amount of fills with fill amount. And we can choose the fill complexity with this style here. We can also choose a swing amount with this doll, as well. And drawing playback, I swap between eighth note and 16th note swing. But for this, though, I don't want to have any swing, so let's put this back down to 50%. We can click on this drummer icon Here and choose another drummer. We have these in different dramres rock, songwriter, alternative, and R&B. We can also choose an electronic drummer as well, if you wish. So if you click on Type here, we have this drop down list. We also have percussionist, bass player, and keyboard player, but I'm not going to cover this now. Let's have a quick look at electronic drummer. So we have these different categories, electronic, hip hop and alternative. For this example, let's try Synthpop. You may get this pop up box appear, which basically says you're going to have a new session player region with different settings. So for this, I'm going to click on Change Session Player. Okay, now let's play this back so we can hear a difference. Okay, let's try another drummer. Now let's go back to the acoustic drummer. And now let's try Indie pop. Okay, let's hear this back. Okay, I think this one sounds suitable for the song. Now let's have a look at this details tab. This allows us to adjust more details such as ghost notes. These are soft subtle hits that are played between the main beat, which can help groove in realism. So I'll play this back and adjust this style so you can hear a difference. If there's st, it can add a bit more groove and realism to your part. Drawn playback, as well, a solo the drum track by pressing S. Okay, then we can choose what type of snare you want, what type of percussion, and also what type of symbol. Then we can adjust the feel so we can have the drummer play ahead or behind the beat. So if we drag it back, we have it play ahead or we can drag it forward and have it play behind the beat. We can see the waveform shift when we adjust this. Playing ahead of the beat can make the part sound more energetic and driving and behind the beat can make it sound more laid back and relaxed. Again, though, let's go back to 0%. And we can double click to go back to center, which is 0%. Then we can adjust the dynamics, which allows you to adjust the volume ranges. So if we drag it back, there's less volume ranges. So you might want to do this for a tighter, more polished sound. Then if we drag it forward, there are more volume ranges. This can make the parts sound more natural and human. Again, it can be subtle, and let's go back to default by double clicking. Then we have this humanized control. If you increase this, it will move some of the drum hits that are not perfectly in time or quantized. So this can make the parts sound less robotic and more human as humans don't play perfectly in time. And if we drag it back, it'd be more perfectly in time. Again, let's double click and go back to default. Okay, then we have this Tempo control here. This allows us to change the timing, where we can make a half time or double time, but I normally just leave this on automatic as Logic Pro does a good job of this. Okay, that's a quick overview of the details tab. Now let's have a look at the manual tab. With this, you can type in your own pattern for the kick and snare. For this example, I'll type in a simple pattern so you can hit a difference. So I'm just going to have the kick on every beat and the snare on beat two and four. I'll just add a few more notes as well, so you can hit a difference. But for this example, let's leave the kick on every beat and the snare on beats two and four. Then if we go back to the main tab, you can see the pattern has changed the manual tab for the kick and snare. However, we can click on this again and change it to one of these pattern presets, if you wish. But let's leave this on manual pattern. 18. Creating Regions and Converting to MIDI with Session Drummer: Okay, let's now create another Session Drummer region. For this region, I want to have the drums, but no snare or high hats. Let's move the cursor to the right of the Session Drummer region, and you can see this plus button the peers. Now, let's click on this and it will create a new Session Drummer region. This makes a copy of the region. For this second region, I want to have the drums, but no snare or high hats. Okay, so now let's remove the snare and high hats. So in the main tab of the Session region, let's click on the snare and high hats to deselect these. Now let's turn off the cycle region by press and C. And you notice when you go from Region one to Region two, there won't be any snare or high hats in the second region. Et's also hear this with the rest of the instruments. So let's unsolo the drums by pressing S. Okay, now let's add another Session Drummer region. Let's go to the right of the second region and press this plus bottom. And now you can see we've added a third Session Drummer region. For this, I want to add the kick again and also the high hats. This time, I want to increase the intensity, and I'm also going to increase the film out. So region one and region three are very similar, but there is some slight variations in there. I'm also going to change the kick and snare manual pattern slightly as well. I'm just going to add one more kick drum here just to make the parts slightly different. Okay, so let's hear Region two, going into Region three. So as you should have heard, region one and region three are quite similar, but Region three has this extra kick drum, a bit more intensity in fills. You can also convert the Session Drummer into MIDI, we can change the part even further. Just be aware that you can't change a midi region back to a session player region, so it'd only convert it to MIDI once you're happy with what you've done, or you could make a juplica of the session plower region and mute this as a backup just in case you need to go back to the Session plower region and change a few things. Okay, so for this example, let's convert these regions into midi regions. So we can do this by right clicking on the region and then go to convert to midi region. Now you can see the MIDI notes in the piano roll MIDI Editor. Again, let's do this for Region two. Right click, convert to Midi Region, and also Region three. Now we can go into the MIDI Editor and change some of these notes here if you wish. Let's now close Editor by pressing E, and let's hit back from the start with our new drum parts. Oh Okay, so that's a quick overview of the Session Drummer. As I said, there's also the percussionist, session bassist, and keyboard player, too, which also recommend checking out. Next, let's have a look at some arranging and structure basics. 19. Arrangement and Structure Basics: Arrangement and structure basics. Okay, so right now I have these parts that are recorded in from the live loops area into the tracks area. However, arrangement wise, there's still a lot more we can do. Let's first of all, make another 8 bars. The easiest way to do this is to loop these regions. If we click and drag over all of these regions here, then we can hover over to the top right of one of these regions, and this loop icon will appear. Now, let's click and drag this, so it's 8 bars longer. You can also use the key command L to loop and unloop. This will loop to the end of your project, but I often find it better to click and drag the loops so you can choose exactly where you want to loop. So I'm just going to undo this now with Command Z. I also like to name tracks so I know which track is which. I did do this previously, but I just double click on the track header here to rename. I also like to color regions differently if they are different parts. So I quickly know if it's the same color, it's a repeat or a loop, and if it's a different color, it's a different part of variation. So let's just zoom out now by using the key command, command and left arrow. And let's now change the color of these drummer regions here. You may remember these three regions are different. So let's color these differently. To change the color, we can use the key command option C. So let's just choose a different color here, and the same for this one. Now, I quickly know that these three regions are different. Same with the bass part, I know this region is different to this one. Let's also tidy up our project a bit more. I'm going to delete Audio two here and also this drum track here and also this drum track here. When you try to delete a track, you may get this pop up appear, delete tracks and cells. This basically means, do you want to delete the track and all the cells or regions. So for this, I'm going to press Delete. I may add the Shaker later, so I'll leave this track here. Okay, so you can see now it's a lot more organized. Normally, when arranging, think of taking your listens on a journey. In pop music, there's often a very typical structure for a song. Often intro, verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge, double chorus atro or sometimes with a double verse one, or a third verse or a variation of the chorus, but generally pop music has quite a typical structure. Other styles of music may have different structures, so study the structure of the musical genre you're working in. You do not have to follow it exactly, but it can be a good starting point. Try and make your music move and evolve and not be too repetitive, or it can be quite boring for the listener. So think of adding new sections like verses, choruses, bridges, and also adding variations for different parts, maybe adding more movement and variation for the chords, bass part, melodies, or drum parts for the different sections in the song. I wouldn't just copy and paste everything as it can get a bit too repetitive. I haven't touched on melodies, but of course, using a melodic instrument like vocals, saxophone, or a lead symph can make the song much more exciting and memorable and can give the listener something to sing or hum in the head after listening to your song. So for this example, I'm going to add a melody. This time, I'll add a lead SIP. Again, let's oe the retro synth instrument. So let's click the Ad Tracks button up here, select software instrument, and choose retro synth from the drop down list, select stereo, and create. By the way, you can also change your instrument in the inspector, hover over to the right where it says the instrument and click this drop down arrow here where you can choose a different instrument. You can also do this in the mixer. So I'll open and close the mix now with a key command X. Okay, now let's open the retro synth editor by clicking on the middle of the instrument name here. Now, let's choose a preset sound. We can browse through these presets using these Arab buttons here. Or we can open the drop down list by pressing here. And for this example, let's go to the Symphony presets. Now let's have a listen to some of these. We can also use the Arab buttons to scroll through the presets in the drop down list. O Let's use this one called Bright Cycle, as I think it will work well with our song. You can adjust the controls down here to change the sound of the SEP. I will not cover this in detail now, but we do go through retro synthh and my complete logi procs. But here is one quick and easy change you can make. You can adjust the filter cut off by moving this filter control here in the graph. This controls where the frequencies begin to be filtered. If you move it to the right, fewer high frequencies will be cut, so we hear more of the brighter sounds in the SEP. If you move it to the left, more high frequencies will be cut, so the sound will be darker with less high end. But let's have there somewhere in between. This is just a quick way to shape the sound of the symph. 20. Writing a Melody: Okay, let's continue. So let's close the retro synth Editor. Now I'm going to record a part in using my mini keyboard. So let's do this now. I'm recording melodies, knowing so music theory can really help. But if you're new to music theory, don't worry. A great place to start is by using the notes from the chords you are playing. These notes will always fit and give you a strong foundation. Another useful technique is to listen back to your track and try singing ideas that come to mind. Then work out these notes on your midi keyboard or on the piano roll. This can take some trial and error, but it's a very natural way to find melodies. Actively listening to melodies and songs you like and practicing regularly will help strengthen your musical ear. Also learning even a small amount of basic music theory over time will make it easier to create melodies that sound great. Okay, so let's move the playhead rule to the start. You can do this by pressing the key command Enter, and now let's press record to record and the part. Okay, I think that worked, but I didn't play it perfectly in time. So let's now quantize this. So let's double click on this region to open up the Media Editor. Let's also close a library so we have a bit more space. Remember we can do this with a KikamanY. And now let's selector by pressing Command A, and let's quantize this with Q. So all of these notes are in the scale of C major or all of the white notes, and they are mostly using notes from the chord. So you may remember the first chord was C major. The second chord was A minor, the third chord was G major, and the fourth chord was F major. So they're not just notes from the triad, which are the free notes of the chord. I do have other notes as well. But for this first chord, the main notes that are on the beat are from the triad. The first chord here is C major. The triad of C major has the notes C, E and G. And the main note here that's on the beat is this E note, which is in the C major triad. Then they play this E again and have some other notes here, which are in key, but aren't in the triad, but this adds a bit more movement and interest. Yeah. And then we have the chord A minor and a blank E note here. So the chord A minor uses the notes A, C and E. So that note E is in the triad. Next, we have the G. And when the G plays, it plays this note here, which is a D. So in G major, we have the free notes, G, B, and D. Again, this note is in the free note triad. Da play some more notes here that aren't in the triad, but again, add a bit more movement and interest. Then we have the F chord. And I'm playing the note C. So the chord F has the notes F, A and C. Again, when this chord plays, the melody is playing one of the notes from the triad. Denis pattern repeats, but I do have a slight variation here. So the first part with the C is the same. But then when this A minor plays, I am playing a G. So this actually turns the chord into an A minus seven chord. So I'm adding an extra note on top. This is just to make it sound a bit more interesting, and it's actually a note that I heard in my head. So just repeating the pattern again and again, can be a bit boring for the listeners. So adding a bit of variation can make the part a bit more exciting. And now when the G plays, I'm playing a different note here, which is an E. So this is the sixth note of the chord. G, A, B, C, D, E. So for the second half of this melody, called two and three, don't land on the triad. These notes are in key, but they're not from the triad. Again, it's to make it sound a bit more interesting and add some variation from the first half of the melody. And then for Cord four, which is the F major, I land on C, which again is part of the triad. So this melody adds a slight bit of tension, introducing these new notes that aren't in the chord. Then the tension resolves itself in the last chord as it goes back to one of the notes in the free note triad. Okay, let's hear this again. So you should have heard there, especially this Gino. It does add a little bit of tension. But in my opinion, it makes the part a bit more interesting. 21. Continuing and Finishing the Arrangement: Okay, now let's continue with the arrangement. Let's close the editor by pressing E, and let's zoom in by using the key command, command right arrow. So I want to duplicate this melody part, so it plays on bar 17 and bar 25. So let's hold down option and click and drag this over to bar 17. I want to have this twice the length, so let's loop this. Also at bar 25, I want to have the shaker play. So let's click and drag this loop back, and then click and drag this region over to bar 25. Now let's delete this first region here mute the Shaker. So let's play this back from bar 17. And you notice at bar 25, the Shaker enters. I just wanted to add a new part here so the song's not too repetitive. Okay, let's do this now. Okay, now at bar 33, I want to add a breakdown. So I want to have just a kick drum and the chords play here. So let's tuplcate this drum part here. Let's hold down option and click and drag. And let's also do the same for the chords part. So this piano part here. Again, let's hold down option and click and drag. Let's turn up the loop by pressing L, and let's now have a listen to this. Do you notice the drum part does have some fills in there, but quite like that. Then at bar 37, I want to add the bass part. Again, let's duplicate this by horn down option and clicking and dragging. Okay, let's hear this now from bar 33. I want the loop to continue for the piano, so let's loop this. And for the drum part at bar 41, I want to add some high hats. So let's duplicate this drum part by holding down option and clicking and dragging. And now let's double click on this midi region and add some high hats. We have the names of the different drums in this drum kit here. Let's select the drum track so we can hear these notes. And let's just select this last region here. So this is what I want here. The high hat closed. Let's just zoom in on this region by using the key command, command and write arrow. Now, every second beat, I want to add a closed hi hat. Let's use the pencil tool, which is currently set up as the command tool. So let's hold down command and draw it in a high hat here on beat two. There it is. Let's resize this. And again on beat four. Again, on beat two, and on beat four. And we can click and drag over this and hold an option to duplicate this. Again, let's do this again. Let's duplicate this. And again once more. Okay, let's now close the editor by pressing E, and let's hit this back. And then on bar 45, I want to add even more high hats. So let's open Editor again. Then we want to have a high hat every beat. So again, let's hold on option and click and drag and put this on every beat. Again, we can click and drag over this and hold option to duplicate this. Okay, let's hear this now from bar 41. And then I want to add even more high hats. So let's duplicate this region again. And now let's open up the editor, and I want to have two high hats per beat now. Like so. I also want the velocity to be a bit louder and delete these high hats here. So let's click and drag over these and duplicate this by hon down option and clicking and dragging. And again, let's copy this over. Let's do the same now with the second half. Let's just Sumo, and I'm going to drag over and duplicate a few more of these. Okay, so what's happening now is we're building up the high hats, which builds up the momentum of the song. Let's hit this from the breakdown by 33. So here we had the bass. Then we had the high hats on every other beat. Then the high hats on every beat. Then we have two high hats every beat. We can make it even more extreme here and have four high hats playing every beat if you wish. I might not normally do this, but let's do it now just for a bit of fun. So let's click and drag over these four beats here, drag it back, and jupica over the new part. Let's delete the other high hats here. Click and drag over these. Then hold down option and click and drag. Let's do the same for all of these. Speed this up. Okay, let's hear this now from about 49. That can make it a bit more interesting. But for this example, I just wanted to have two high hats play every beat. So I'm going to undo this by pressing Command Z a few times. Okay, there we go. Let's now close Editor by pressing E. And I want to add some more instruments here as well. So during this breakdown, it's not just going to be the pianos bass and drums. Let's add some of the SIMPS as well. We have the CIMP part we had previously. And Ah. Let's add this part from before, and let's have this enter on bar 41. And let's also have this new if, this melody, enter on bar 49. Then bar 57, we're going to have these drums here play. So again, let's hold on option and click and drag. And again, let's loop all this over. On the piano, let's have it end on bar 73. So let's turn off the loop by pressing L and track this over to bar 73. Okay, let's hit this breakdown now. I L Are you. Then drawing playback, added the shaker part for the last 8 bars. The shaker part is a bit loud, so I'm just going to turn it down here. We're going to look at basic mixing later on, though, but I just wanted to quickly turn a level of this instrument down. Okay, something that's a bit more suitable. Now for the ending, it just stops, which sounds a little strange. So I actually want to have this symph part for 4 bars and also the piano part for 4 bars. Let's just hear the ending. Okay, that feels like a more natural ending. There is still a lot more we could do. For example, I may add some snares at bar 49, so I'll just quickly show you how to do this now. This is the snare I want to add to every other beat. So on beats two and four, there'll be a snare. Let's just zoom in by using the key command, command write arrow. Okay, something like that. Let's hear this now. I. This is just a really basic arrangement, but hopefully, there's a few ideas there you can use. So B 57, we go back to this drum part from before. This drumbeat has more going on and has some ghost notes. So I thought it'd be nice to go from the simple drumbeat into the more complex drumbeat to build up more momentum and interest. One last thing I'm going to do is just color the tracks of these drums. Remember, these are different parts. So let's change the color by using the key command option C. So I'm just going to choose a different color, so I know it's a different part. And the same for this one. So quickly, I know we have these different drum parts. I do recommend spending more time on this for your songs, but I hope now I've taught you a few arrangement and structure techniques. Okay, next, let's have a look at some basic mixing. 22. Level Balancing for Basic Mixing: Basic mixing. Right, let's start with level balancing. So let's adjust the levels of the instrument so they fit best in the mix. Let's first of all, open up the mixer. We can do this by pressing this button here or we can use a key command X. First of all, let's pull all of the faders for the tracks down. So we're not going to pull down the stereo out or the master, just the faders for the tracks. When we increase the faders, this allows you to easily focus on what you want to hear. Also, when you begin to build up the mix, make sure you leave plenty of headroom. Aim for the loudest parts of the song to peek around -12 DB. We can see this in a stereo meter over here. Right now it's peaking at 3.5 dB, which is far too loud. So if we aim for around -12 dB, this will stop any clipping and will give space for any loudness changes that we do when we master the song. Now, choose the most important instrument or element of the track. This will normally be the vocals if your song has vocals. For instrumental music, this might be an instrument or the drums. So for this song, it's going to be this loop part. I'm also going to rename this in the mixer lead. Okay, now let's close the mixer of X, and now let's cycle a part of the song. I'm going to choose this part here as it has everything playing. Again, let's open up the mixer by pressing X, and I'll play this back, and I'll set the level for the lead part. Remember, I don't want it to be too loud. Let's now click on the peak level here to reset it. So when I play this back, we can see the level of the stereo out. Okay, I'll play this back and set this level now. Okay, now let's add the drums. So I'll play this back and I'll increase the fader for the drums. This will give the track weight. It's important to use your ear and try to set this at an appropriate level. This may take a lot of trial and error, you can always use a reference track or songs that you like mix of. You can listen to the level of the track in the song and try to level your song similarly. The drums is this one here. Again, I'm going to rename this. Okay, let's play this back now. Hi So drawing playback, when I increase the level of the drums to match the lead part, the peak level is a lot higher than -12 DB. So I turn down both the lead and the drum part. You also want to level match the different drum instruments, including the kick, snare and hats. So you can put the different drums onto different tracks, or in some drum instruments, you can change the level in here. For example, in the drum kit designer, you can change the level of the different drums in here. But for now, I think the level of the drums is quite good. Now, once you're happy with the level of the drums, add the bass. So bring it up, so it locks in with the drums. Okay. I think there's about fine for now. You may need to adjust this later on, so don't worry if it's not at the perfect level just yet. Okay, now let's add the main harmony instrument. This could be the chords, maybe the piano, synth or guitar. For this track, it's the piano part and the synth part. So let's play this back and I'll set the level of the piano first and then the SEP. I Okay, so that's all the main instruments. Now let's bring in any secondary parts. This could be pads, extra instruments, backing vocals, or effects. For this simple song, the only extra part is the shaker part. So let's level match this now. With these, try not to take away the attention from the main elements of the song. Now let's have a listen to the whole mix from start to finish and make these small adjustments to the fader if needed. Tiny changes can make a big difference, so take your time and trust your ears. So let's turn off the cycle range by press and see, go back to the start by press and enter, and then play this back with Space Bar. Oh. Okay, I think about theirs, correct? So drawing playback, I was adjusting the faders very subtly, and I was also trying to make sure that the stereo out didn't peak much higher than -12 DB. Later on, when you add different processes and effects, you may need to change the level of the tracks as well. So just bear that in mind. Again, this all takes practice, but I hope now you understand the basics of level matching and you can use a simple method when you start a mix. Next, we're going to have a look at EQ or equalization. 23. EQ for Basic Mixing: Sic Mixing EQ. Okay, so now have a listen to any instruments or tracks that need a bit of tightening or clarity. This is where we can use some EQ or compression. Let's first talk about EQ or equalization. This allows you to raise or lower certain frequencies. Let's open up the channel EQ and Logic Pro, and I'll explain the basics of this. We can add a new plug in by going to an empty plug in slot here and clicking on an empty slot. For the channel EQ plugin, we will need to go down to EQ, channel EQ and stereo. I'll show you this on the drums just so it's really obvious to hear. Our drum preset currently has a channel EQ, so let's click on this to open this up. We can also access the plugins and the inspector, not just the mixer. In this EQ plugin, we have different bands, and this allows you to adjust which part of the frequency spectrum. On the left, we have the lower sounds or frequencies, and on the right, we have the higher sounds or frequencies. If it's sounding a little muddy, you can remove some of the lower frequencies, and if it's sounding a little dull, you could boost some of the upper mid frequencies, for example. So we can click on some of these nodes and move the frequencies up or down. You can also move them left or right so you can adjust the exact frequency you wish. I'll solo the drums by pressing S, and I'll play this back now and adjust some of these nodes so you can hear the difference. Before I do this, I'm just going to turn on the cycle region by pressing C, so it's going to loop this section here. Okay, let's play this back now. So you should have heard a difference when I was boosting and cutting the frequencies. We also have these controls down here. I'll explain these now quickly. The one in the middle is gain. This allows you to choose how much we boost or cut the frequency. We can control this by clicking and dragging on the node or we have this control here. At the bottom here we have Q. This allows us to control how wide or narrow the EQ adjustment is. Wide settings can sound more subtle and musical at times and narrow cue settings can be used to fix specific problematic frequencies. We can also adjust the cue settings by clicking and dragging on these vertical lines here. For example, in a vocal, if there's a harsh ringing or whistling tone, you can find that problematic area and make a cut at that specific frequency. So you can sweep through the frequencies using a narrow cue and then find an exact point which the issue is the strongest and cut there. You could also use a narrow cue setting for a snare drum or guitar if there's any unwanted ringing or resonance that stands out. So with a narrow cue, you can remove just the unwanted frequencies without adjusting too much of the overall sound or tone of the instrument. And the top setting here is the frequency. Lower numbers are lower frequencies or lower sounds, and higher numbers are higher frequencies or higher sounds. And we can turn the bands on and off with these buttons up here. Also, sometimes when you're trying to select these bands up here, it can select another band, which is why using these numbers down here can be useful. We also have these shelves here. So here we have a low shelf, and this boosts or cuts all the frequencies below a chosen cutoff point. This is commonly used to add or reduce base and low end weight. Then we have the high shelf which boost or cuts all the frequencies above a certain cut off point. This is often used to add brightness or tame harshness in the top end. I'll play this example back again and adjust a low and high shelf so you can hear a difference. It can be useful to start with some extreme EQ settings, so you can clearly hear what the band is doing. After that, you can dial it back to something more subtle and usable settings. And then we have a high pass filter and a low pass filter. A high pass filter removes the low frequencies below a selected cutoff point, and this is commonly used to clean up rumble or unwanted low end. It's called a high pass filter as it allows the high frequencies to pass. Then we have a low pass filter, and this removes the high frequencies above a certain cutoff point. This is often used to reduce harshness or to make a sound sit further back in the mix. And this is called a low pass filter as it allows the low frequencies to pass. The resonance control for these filters allows you to boost or cut around the cutoff point, and we also have a steepness control that lets you set how steep the slope is. These allow you to shape the character of the sound and decide how gently or aggressively frequencies are removed. Again, I'll play this back and turn on and off these filters and adjust some of these settings so you can hear the difference. Okay, so that's the basics of using the channel EQ and Logic Pro. Just be aware that software instruments often need less EQ than audio recordings. This is because they're usually well balanced and free from unwanted noise or room resonance. So don't recommend using EQ just for the sake of it. Use it to make the mix sound cleaner. Let's now close this channel EQ plugin for now, and next let's have a look at Compression. 24. Compression Basics: Basic mixing, Compression. Compression helps us control the dynamics of a sound. It basically turns down the louder parts of the signal and turns up the overall level. This makes the signal more even and controlled. For this example, let's add a compressor plugin on the drums. You can see here we actually have these two compressor plugins on the drums, and we also have this chromoglow and limiter plugin. So I'm actually going to remove all these plugins and add a new compressor plugin. We can remove a plug in by hovering over to the right of the plugin and clicking on this arrow button here, and then select no plugin. Let's do the same for the other plugins as well. Okay, so now let's add a compressor plugin. So let's click on empty slot and then go to dynamics, and then compressor and stereo. Okay, so now let's have a look at the main controls for this compressor. The first main control is threshold. This tells the compressor when it should start to work. So when the signal goes over the amount you set on the threshold, this is what will be compressed, and you can see the compression in this meter up here. I'll play the drums back now and adjust this threshold control. So when I have the drums on -3.5 dB, it's only the loudest parts of the drums that will be compressed. When I change this to -50 dB, anything above -50 dB will be compressed. For this example, it's all of the drums the whole time. For this example, I just want some of the louder hits to be compressed, so I'm going to adjust the threshold control now, so just the louder hits are compressed. But later, I may change this to some extreme settings so we can hear the compression a bit clearer. The next main control is ratio. This sets how strong the compression will be. The ratio is written as a number to a number. For example, a ratio of two to one means that if the signal goes four dB over the threshold, only two DB will come out above the threshold. A ratio of ten to one means that if the signal goes ten dB above the threshold, only one DB will come out above it. So the higher you set the ratio, the more the peaks are reduced, and the stronger the compression will sound. Let's play this back and I'll adjust the ratio and threshold control so you can hear the difference. So for this example, I'll leave it around three to one. So this means if the signal goes three DB over the threshold, only one DB will come out above it. Okay, now let's talk about Tech. This controls how fast the compressor starts working once the signal goes above the threshold. A slow attack allows the initial hit of a drum or a note to pass through before compression begins. This can make the sound feel more punchy. A fast attack means the compressor reacts almost instantly. So the entire signal above a threshold is controlled right away. A fast attack can be useful when you want to tame sharp peaks, smooth out aggressive transients, or keep the sound more even and controlled in the mix. I'll play this back and adjust as control, but just be aware these changes may be subtle. We can also see these changes with a needle in the meter. I'll leave this at 20 milliseconds, as this is a good attack time for drums, as it controls punch while controlling the body. Now let's have a look at release. This controls how fast the compressor lets go after the signal falls back below the threshold. A faster release means the compressor stops working quickly, which can make the sound feel more energetic and lively. A slow release keeps the compression active for longer, which can smooth at the performance, but may also make it feel more controlled or even slightly flattened if set too low. The aim is to choose release time that matches the rhythm and natural movement of the instrument. A good starting point for a drum Compression release is around 50 to 150 milliseconds adjusted so the compression recovers in time of the groove. Again, I'll play this back and adjust this control. The changes can sound very subtle, but be sure to have a look at the needle in the meter up here when I adjust these changes. Okay, I think around 97 milliseconds sounds fine for this example. This gain reduction meter shows how much of the signal has been reduced by the compressor. When the compressor is working, you will see the needle move. I recommend playing the track and watching how much gain reduction is happening. In most cases, aim for only a few dB of gain reduction on the loudest parts, usually around three to six dB. This keeps the dynamics controlled while still sounding natural. Okay, then we have makeup gain. This lets us turn the level back up, so the signal of compression and the signal of out Compression are roughly the same volume. When we add compression, the louder parts are reduced, so the overall level becomes lower. Makeup gain allows us to bring the level back up again. When mixing, it's important to match the level of the plugin on and off so you can judge the sound based on what the compressor is doing. If the compressed signal is louder, it can trick your ears and change your judgment. So for this example, I'm going to set auto gains off and adjusts makeup gain drawing playback. Then I'm going to bypass the plug in with this button up here and try to set this so it's the same level with the plug in on and off. Okay, let's do this now. Example, I think I need a round two dB of makeup gain. There are more controls for this compressor, but I've just covered the essential ones in this video. If you'd like to find out what all the settings do, be sure to check out my complete Logic Pro course. So when using Compression, the goal is to have the track feel more controlled and consistent, but still sound natural. If the sound starts to feel squashed or too lifeless, adjust a threshold or ratio. It is also more common to use compression on audio recordings than on software instruments, as recorded performances usually have more natural volume changes and need more control, while many software instruments are already very steady and level. Okay, so that's the very basics of Compression, and I recommend testing this out for yourself. Let's now close compress a plug in and move on to panic. 25. Panning Basics: Basic mixing, panning. Panning allows us to place each instrument or track in the stereo field, so we can have it more to the left, more to the right, or in the center. This helps create separation and space and stops everything from sitting directly on top of each other. By default, most tracks will be center panned. For some instruments, this is perfect. For example, vocals, bass, and a kick drum are almost always kept in the center as they form the core of the mix. Other instruments can be panned to help everything fit together. For example, you can move guitars, sips, percussion, or backing vocals slightly to the left or right so they have their own space. Even a small amount of panning can help clean up the mix and make it feel wider and more interesting. Okay, let's try this now. So let's choose a supporting instrument and pad it to one side. For this, let's choose the shaker. Let's unslo the drums and solo the shaker. Then I'll play it back and move it from the left to the right channel with this pan DL here. And then drawing playback. I'll play it back in the mix. This will be easier to hear if you wearing headphones. Okay, so let's do this now. So you should have heard there this opened up the space a little. I don't want to pan all the way to the right, so around here should be fine. Now we can pan another supporting instrument and pan it the opposite way. In this case, the left. I don't have many instruments or tracks here, but just for this example, let's pan the SIM to the left. Let's now play this back and draw on playback. I'll pan the Synth part. Also draw on playback, I'll solo the symp and also the shaker part. Okay, let's do this now. I I would pan more supporting parts, but this song only has a few parts. But just for this example, I'll leave the synth part pan to the left slightly. If you have too many instruments on one side, the mix can sound unbalanced, so try to spread things out evenly. There are no strict rules when panning, but I recommend keeping the most important elements in the center and using the sides for supporting parts. Also, try not to pan too many similar sounds to the exact same spot, as this can make the area feel crowded. Panning is a simple tool, but it can make a huge difference to clarity and width. Use it to help each instrument sit comfortably in the mix and give your song a more open and professional sound. I also recommend checking your mix on both studio monitors and headphones when you pan because each one gives you a different picture of the stereo image. We can also pan each track in the inspector and also in the track header, not just in the mixer. Okay, so that's panning. Next, let's move on to reverb and delay. 26. Setting Up Reverb Sends: Basic mixing, reverb and delay. Okay, so now let's look at reverb and delay. These effects help create a sense of space and depth in your mix. Without them, everything can sound very dry and very upfront. With the right amount of reverb and delay, your track can feel more natural, more spacious, and more musical. Let's start with reverb. Reverb simulates the sound of a real space. When you colla up in a large room, a cave, or a cathedral, you hear the sound bounce off the walls and surfaces. Those reflections are the reverb. In Logic Pro, we are recreating that natural space. Even a small amount of reverb can help a vocal or instruments sound more natural and spacious. You can add a reverb plug in directly to a track, but I recommend using a send and return track. This allows several instruments to share the same reverb, which helps glue the mix together and also saves computer power, since you are using one reverb effect instead of adding it separately to every track. When using reverb, the aim is to add just enough to create space without washing out the sound. Too much reverb can make the mix muddy or push the instrument too far back, making it feel distant. A good starting point is to bring the reverb up until you can just hear it, then pull it back slightly so it fits naturally in the mix. Let me show you how to set up a reverb send now. I would create ascend and then load a reverb such as Chroma verb on the return track. Then I'll quickly go over some basic controls of this reverb, so you can hear how they affect the sound. Okay, let's do this now. So in the mixer, let's choose a track I want to add reverb to. So for this example, let's add reverb to the lead synth part. That's this part. Now let's go to the Sends area, which is this area here. Then click on the empty Send slot and go to BS, and you will see a list of available buses. A bus is like an internal audio pathway inside Logic Pro. It lets you send some of the audio from one track to another track without moving or copying the original audio. Think of it as routing a small portion of the signal through a separate channel where you can add effet. Okay, so let's select one of these available buses. For this example, let's choose bus one. When you do this, Logic Pro automatically creates a new auxiliary track on the right. And we can see this here. This c track is also called a return track because it receives the signal that you sent to it through the bus. All the effects that you place onto this ctrack will only affect the signal that's been sent into it, not the original track. On this c track, let's now click on an empty plugin slot and add a Reverb effect. So let's click here and go down to Reverb. And for this example, let's choose Croma verb and stereo. Logic Pro does offer many of our reverbs that it can test out as well. But for this example, I'll be looking at ChromaVerb. Now the reverb is set up on the return track. We can now use the Sen Dial on the original track to control how much of that track has been sent into the reverb. So let's do this now. Let's close this reverb plugin. Now the reverb is set up on the return track, and the Sen Dial on the original track controls how much of that track has been sent onto the reverb. So now we can turn the Sendal up or down to add more or less reverb to the sound. I'll play this back now and draw on playback, I'll adjust the sendal so you can hit a difference. Hi As a general rule, I recommend keeping the wet control inside Cromaverb at 100%. This is because on a return track, we only want the wet signal, not the dry signal. The dry signal already comes from the original track. If you add any dry signal in ChromaVerb as well, you will just make the track louder, which can confuse your level balancing. So keep Chroma verb on a fully wet signal and let the send amount decide how much reverb you hear. So let's play this back and draw and playback or unsolo this so we can hear this with the other instruments. Okay, I think about there is fine. The great thing about using Sends is that you can add the same reverb to multiple tracks. This makes your mix sound more consistent and more natural as if all the instruments are in the same space. It also saves CPU power because you're using one reverb effect instead of adding several separate reverbs on every track. So for this example, let's actually add some reverb to the synth part as well. That's this part here. Let's click on this drop down list next to SNS, go to Bs, and again, let's choose Bus one. Now we can move this Sendal to control how much reverb you're going to have on this track. So let's play this back and I'll adjust this Sendal. So I think that's about the right amount of rebb for the synth part. 27. Using ChromaVerb Basic Controls: Now have a look at some basic controls inside ChromaVerb. So let's open up the Chromoverb plugin, which is on cs one. This is quite a deep plugin, but I'll go over the main controls quickly now. However, I do cover this in more detail in my complete Logic Pro course. At the top here, you can choose a reverb space. This includes different rooms and halls. Rooms tend to sound natural and realistic. Let's just hear this one now called dark room. Draw and plowback, increase the send amount just so we could hear this more clearly. Halls sound bigger and more lush, often use of pads, strings and ambient sounds. Let's have a listen to this one called Concert Hall. And drawing playback, we'll have a listen to reflective Hall, and then finally go back to room. Okay, let's now have a look at some of these controls down here. Okay, let's now have a look at the size control. This lets you set how large the space sounds. Bigger sizes create longer, more open reverbs, while smaller sizes sound tighter and more controlled. Let's just play this back and I'll adjust the size dial. We also have the decay time. This sets how long the reverb te lasts, meaning how long it takes for the reverb to fade out. Shorter decay times help keep the mix clean, and longer decay times can give you more atmospheric or dreamy effect. For example, a short decay might suit a pop vocal, while a long decay might work nicely on a pad and ambient track. Again, let's play this back and I'll adjust this control so you can hit a difference. Another important control is pre delay. This adds a small gap between the dry sound and the moment the reverb starts. A small amount of pre delay can help vocal stand out because it gives the initial part of the word some clarity before reverb arrives. With no pre delay, the reverb starts instantly, which can make the sound feel closer and more blended but sometimes less clear. Let's play this back and adjust to pre delay. We can also choose musical beat divisions. Or we can choose milliseconds. There's also an EQ section inside chroma verb, although not all reverbs have this. This allows you to shape the tone of the reverb itself. Removing some lower frequencies is usually a good idea as low reverb can muddy up the mix. You can also brighten the reverb by boosting the highs if you want a more airy sound. These changes can be quite subtle because this EQ only affects the reverb, not the dry track. Let's play this back again, and I'll quickly adjust this EQ. Once you've created a reverb sound that you like, go back to the Sendal and mix it inappropriately. I recommend bringing it up until we clearly hear the reverb, then pull it back slightly. This usually gives you a natural and musical result because the reverb supports the sound without overpowering it. The idea is for the listener to feel the space rather than be distracted by it. So let's do this now for the symp and lead. Y. Hi Hi. Okay, I think these settings are fine for this track. So that's a quick look at reverb. Next, let's have a look at delay. 28. Delay Basics: Now, let's look at delay. Delay repeats the sound after a very short amount of time. You can use it very subtly to add width and space, or you can make it more obvious for rhythmic interest and special effects. A short delay can help create space without being as noticeable as reverb. Longer delays can create vocal throws, echo effects, or movement on instruments like guitars, pianos or simps. Like reverb, delay can build up quickly, so I recommend using small amounts. Keeping the feedback low and blending the effect gently into the mix usually gives you a cleaner and more controlled sound. Delay is also great for placing instruments in the space and adding front to back depth. Try different delay times and mix levels to hear how the groove and energy of the track changes. Let me show you how to set up delay as ascend effect and logic pro. In the mixer, choose the track you want to add delay to and look for the Sends area. For this example, let's add delay to the piano part. Now, click on an empty send slot and choose a free bus. So let's click on here and go to Bs. And for this example, let's choose Bs two. So when you select a bus, Logic Pro will automatically create a new auxiliary track on the right. So you can see now it's created an auxiliary track on the right. This orcs track is our delay return track because it receives the delay signal that we sent from the original track. Now, on this xtract, click on an empty plugin slot and go down to delay. For this example, let's select Stereo Delay and stereo. This is a very simple and clean delay effect, perfect for learning the basics. There are many other delay plugins and Logic Pro, and many of them share similar controls, so I recommend experimenting with these once you're comfortable with this one. Because we're using this as a send effect, make sure the wet control inside stereo delay is set to 100%. This means we are only hearing the delayed signal on the return track. The dry signal already comes from the original track, so we don't want any extra dry signal added inside the plug in. Now, the Send dial on your original track controls how much of that send you feed into the delay. Turn it up slowly until you hear the repeats coming through. So let's solo this and do this now. Mm Let's now look at the essential controls inside stereo delay. At the top, you will see the left and right delay times. You can set these in musical values such as quarter notes or eighth notes, which keeps a rhythm perfectly in time with your project's Tempo. You can also switch to milliseconds for custom timing by pressing the custom sync button here. Now this went sync to your project, so this can be useful if you want to looser or more creative feel rather than rhythmic delays. For this example, though, let's Tempo sync this. We can change the delay amount of the note with this dial here, or we can choose it from the drop down list. You also notice I set deviation to 0%. So this means it's perfectly locked to Tempo or grid. If you want a very tight or clean delay time, I recommend having this at 0%. But if you want more of a human feel, you can add some deviation. Let's now have a look at these feedback controls. This sets how many times the echo repeats? Low feedback gives you one or two clean repeats. High feedback creates more echos and can be great for creative effects. Just be aware that too much feedback can clutter the mix quickly, so use it with care. I'll also mention these filters. These let you remove the high or low frequencies from the repeats. High cut filters make the repeats softer and less sharp, while low cut filters prevent the delay from adding muddiness to your low end. Again, I'll play this back in the justice controls. Just for this example, let's increase the send, so it's easier to hear the delay effect. Shaping the delay with these filters helps the repeat sit nicely behind the main sound. For this example, I'm going to cut out some of the higher frequencies. Now let's blend this delay effect into the mix. Let's first of all, set the center zero. And then when you play the trap back, raise the send level gently until you hear a delay sitting behind the sound. I recommend adjusting the delay time and feedback to create the fill you want. Okay, let's do this now. About there seems suitable. Let's now hear this with the other tracks. For this example, the delay effect is quite subtle, but a little delay often goes a long way, especially on vocals, guitars, and lead simps. Okay, let's now close this delay plugin and move on to Automation. 29. Automation Basics: Automation. Automation allows you to change settings over time so your mix can evolve and feel more dynamic. You can automate almost anything in Logic Pro, including volume, panning, plug in controls, and even instruments or effects parameters. One of the most common uses is volume Automation. This lets you raise or lower the level of the track at specific parts of the song. For example, if a vocal gets a bit too loud in one phrase, you can automate the volume down just for that word. Or if you want a section to lift, you can push up the pads or backing vocals as the chorus arrives. Often the chorus is automated slightly louder than the verse to help it stand out. Okay, so let's set up Automation now. First of all, let me unsolo the piano part by pressing this S button and close the mixer by pressing X. We can show the Automation lanes by pressing this button up here or by using the key command A. Now let's choose a parameter to automate. For this example, let's automate the volume for the piano part. Let's have it gradually fade in at the start. So we need to click down here to activate the Automation then click to add a node or multiple nodes. For this example, let's have it gradually fade in. So let's click and drag down, so it gradually fades in. I'll just zoom in now with the key command and command we arrow. Let's make sure we turn off the cycle region by press and C, and let's go back to the start by press and return. I'll just so at the piano so we can only hear this. Let's now unsolo this and hear this with the rest of the instruments. Let's also add some volume Automation for the end of the song. This time, let's have the synth part gradually fade out. So I'm going to click on here to activate the Automation, and again, we're going to use volume Automation. So let's click to add nodes and then drag down, so it gradually phase out at the end. Okay, let's hit back. We could also click and drag and make it louder if you wish. It's not just for fading out. We can also make parts louder over time for volume Automation as well. So let's do this now. But for this example, I'm going to have it gradually get louder and then gradually get quieter, like so. Automation is also great for effects. You can automate a volume swell at the end of a vocal line, automate a delay throw on a single word, or automate a filter sweep on a Sym to add movement. These small touches can really help your mix feel more polished and professional. So for this example, I'm going to add a Bitcrusher effect onto the SIM part. So let's click on the track header for the SIP and in the inspector in the audio effect slot here, I'm going to add a bit Crusher effect. So let's go to distortion and then go to Bitcrusher. A bit crusher effect and Logic Pro deliberately reduces the audio resolution by lowing the bit depth or sample rate. This creates a gritty or low fi digital distorted sound. This can be great for adding texture, character and give you a retro vibe. So what we're going to automate here is the mixed dile. So I'll play this back so you can hear the mix on 100%. Let's just solo this. And just for this example, let's make it a bit more extreme. So let's increase the downsample and decrease the resolution. Okay, let's try something like that. So I'm going to have the mix on 0%, and then the last 8 bars, I'm going to gradually increase this mixed dile. So it down like this. So the Automation will control this dile. So let's put this back to 0%. And now let's click on this Automation dropdown list here. Now let's go to Bitcrusher in this list and then go to mix. Remember, we're going to start on 0% and have it increase here. Okay, so let's play this back and hear this. Let's now hear this with the piano part as well. So let's unsloo this. Okay, great. You can also automate Panning effect or any other parameter. Again, just for this example, let's pan the piano part. So in the Automation drop down list here, let's go to Main and then go to pan. So just for this example, let's have it pan left and then right. This will be easier to hear with headphones. Okay, let's hear this with the and the piano part. The synth part has volume Automation and a bit crusher Automation, and the piano part has the pan Automation. The panning is a bit too extreme, so let's just low this slightly around that. M I'm just quickly going through these examples, but I recommend spending some more time than this and add some Automation to add movement and interest to your song. We can also automate some parameters in the synthesizer. So for this example, let's open up the retro synth, and I want to automate the filter cutoff. For this example, I'm going to gradually open the filter so you can hear more of the high frequencies as the part plays. This is a common technique in electronic music to build energy. So let's close a retrosynth and in the Automation dropdown list, let's go to Retro synth. Let's go to filter, and let's go to Cutoff. Now let's create some nodes and drag this all the way down so you can clearly hear a difference. I'll solo this and play this back now. So I think something about this. So it starts off with a lot of the his cut out. Then they gradually enter, and then we have more his, and then some are cut out or filtered here. If I play back and open up retrosynthe, you'll be able to see this move in real time. Let's now hear this. We have the other tracks. So I just made it a bit less extreme at the start. And it also felt like it lost energy around here when we cut out some more of the highs, so I kept it going. I dropped it back down to where it was previously. Okay, let's say this again. You can also record live Automation. Well, I'm not going to cover this now, but I do cover this and my complete Logic Pro course. Just be aware that once you add volume Automation, moving the volume fader and the mixer will jump back to the automated level. For example, we have volume Automation for the SEF part. But if I try to increase this and play this back, you'll notice it will always go back to the automated level. So if you have volume Automation added to your track and you want to change the level of it, you'll need to do this in Automation lane. So in Logic Pro, you can automate many different aspects of your mix. Automation doesn't have to be extreme. Even small movements can make your mix sound more controlled, musical and engaging. So I recommend testing this out and apply this to your own musical tracks. Okay, next, let's have a look at Mastering with a Mastering Assistant. 30. Mastering Assistant Essentials: Mastering Assistant. Okay, so there's still a lot more we can do with this song. I've quickly mixed it with some essential mixing tools and practices, but let's now have a look at Mastering. This is the final stage of your production, where you get your song to the correct level and sounding polished, ready for distributing online. All the latest versions of Logic Pro actually include the Mastering Assistant. This uses AI to analyze your mix and applies a set of Mastering processes instantly. It also gives you a few simple controls inside the plugin, so you can tweak the sound and make small adjustments to the overall tone and loudness. Mastering Assistant is not meant to replace a full professional Mastering chain, but it can give you a good starting point, especially if you're new to Mastering, where you just want to quick Master to share your track online. Okay, so now let's add the Mastering Assistant. On this stereo Out on the inspector and also the mixer, you will see that Mastering Assistant is already loaded by default, but it's grade out. So let's click on this to open it now. Now it will begin analyzing and scanning your track. I recommend choosing a loud or busy part of your song, usually the chorus, and then press reanalyze. Logic needs enough information to understand the balance, tone, and energy of the mix. So let's do this now. Let's find the chorus. We'll use this section at the end, and let's play this back and press reanalyze section. After the analysis, logic will suggest a starting point. This usually includes a gentle EQ adjustment, some compression, a little limiting, and a loudness target. Small and subtle adjustments usually work best here because their aim is to enhance the mix rather than completely reshape it. Okay, now let's play this back and draw and playback. I'll bypass the Mastering Assistant using this button here. So you can instantly here there, the track was a lot louder. It may also sound clearer or more controlled, depending on the settings. Okay, now let's go through some of the main controls. First of all, we have the EQ section. You can adjust these nodes to boost or cut certain frequencies. So I play this back and adjust these nodes so you can hit a difference. You can also make the iku changes more subtle or extreme with a slider. You can also turn ikuO and off with this button here, which is useful for quickly comparing the process version with the original tone. Then we have the character settings. This lets you choose a different tone or flavor for your master. For example, you can choose something more open and natural, something more punchy, or something more smooth and warm. These can be subtle, but play this back and switch between them so you can hit a difference. Next, we have loudness. This allows you to increase or reduce the overall loudness level. You can also see the LUFS reading here. This measures how loud your track actually is. Here's a quick explanation of LUFS. LUFSM is momentary. This measures the very quick changes in loudness. LUFSS is short term, and this measures the loudness over the last few seconds. And then we have LUFSI which is integrated. This is the average loudness across the entire song. For uploading to streaming platforms, a good target loudness is usually around -14 LUFS integrated, as this is close to what many streaming services normalize too. Some grmres may aim slightly louder or slightly quieter, but -14, LUFS is a good starting point. We also have the excite control. Excite adds saturation, which is a subtle form of harmonic distortion. This can make your track feel a little brighter, fuller or more energetic. In Mastering, saturation is usually used very gently, just to add a small bit of character without distorting the mix. So I play this back now and draw on playback and enable and disable the excite control, but just be aware the differences are quite subtle. Okay, now let's have a look at spread. This adjusts the stereowidth of your master. Increasing spread can make your track feel wider and more open, while reducing it can tighten the image. You want to be careful not to overdo this as too much width can make your mix feel hollow or unfocused, but small adjustments can help a track feel more polished. Again, I'll play this back and adjust as control, you may be able to hear this a bit clearer if you're wearing headphones. Now let's talk about the loudness compensation button down here. This is extremely useful. When this is enabled, logic matches a level of the process signal to the level of the bypass signal. This means you can compare your mix fairly. Louder audio often sounds better simply because it's louder. Loudness compensation solves this issue and allows you to focus on the actual tone and dynamic changes rather than the volume differences. Let me demonstrate this now so you can hear the more subtle changes and not be distracted by loudness variation. So let's enable loudness compensation and draw and playback or bypass and unpypass the Mastering Assistant. So you should have heard there, it does sound brighter with a Mastering Assistant. But for now, let's bypass loudness compensation. So when I play this back again, the track will be much louder and you'll also be able to tell it's louder from the stereo outmeter. Another important thing to remember is headroom. Before mastering, you want to make sure your mix doesn't peak. There's no set number, but between -12 and minus three DB should be fine. This means the loudest part of your mix should not go above this. Having good headroom gives the Mastering Assistant space to work cleanly. If your mix is peaking too close to zero DB, the limiting stage can cause distortion or clipping, which can ruin your master. So always make sure your mix is not too loud before you start mastering. Okay, so that's a quick crash course into the Mastering system and lodge it Pro. I recommend experimenting with these settings yourself. Think of this tool as a way to add polish rather than fix mix issues. If something sounds wrong at the Mastering stage, it's always best to go back to your mix, fix it there, and then run Mastering Assistant again. So once you're happy with your sound, move on to the exporting or bounce in the final track. Now let's close the Mastering Assistant and move on to exporting or bounce in the final track. 31. Exporting or Bouncing Essentials: Exporting or bouncing. Okay, now let's look at exporting or bouncing your final track. Once you're happy with your song or master, you'll want to get it out of Logic Pro as an audio file so you can share it, upload it, or listen to it on any device. Before bouncing, make sure the start and endpoints of your project are correct, and you don't bounce any unwanted silence at the beginning or end. You can set this by adjusting the cycle range. You can turn the cycle range on and off with the key Command C and drag to make the cycle range the full length of your song. So for this song, it starts on bar one. And ends on bar 77. Just be aware of any reverb or delay tales at the end of your mix and allow them to fade naturally. If you're unsure how long the tale should be, listen to similar songs and notice how much silence they leave out after everything fades out. So let's just turn off the cycle region and listen out for any reverb or delay tales. So I believe the song finishes around here. Let's listen again. Just to be safe, I'll have a slight bit of silence at the end. So let's drag this to around here. Okay, now the cycle region covers the full length of the song. We can zoom out with the slider here or the key command, command left arrow. Let's just zoom in slightly so we can see the full length of the song clearer. Okay, now let's export or bounce the song. To export your song, go to the top menu and choose file, then bounce, then project or section. This will open the bounce window. Here can choose your file format, sample rate, and a few other important settings. For most situations, I recommend bouncing as a WAV file at 24 bit. This gives you a high quality uncompressed audio file. P three is are much smaller in size, but they use compression, which reduces the audio quality. So if you're exporting a final master for uploading to streaming platforms or for long term storage, I recommend choosing a WAV. So I'm going to unchNPF and just export as a WAV. For sample rate, if you're uploading your track online or releasing it as a standard audio file, I recommend choosing 44.1. That is the standard sample rate for music. If you're bouncing your track to use in a video, choose 48. Most video formats run at 48 kilohertz, so choosing that sample rate helps avoid playback issues or extra conversion later. But I just want to have this track as a standard audio file. So I'm going to choose 44.1. For format and diving, you can usually leave this on the default options. Diving is a type of noise added when reducing bit depth, and it helps prevent unwanted digital artifacts. Logic, we only use diving if you lower the bit depth, but because we're exporting at 24 bit, you normally don't need to touch this setting. Also, make sure normalize is set to off. Normalizing automatically adjusts the volume of your bounce file so the loudest part hits zero DB. This might sound helpful, but it can ruin your master as it changes the levels. Leaving normalized set to off ensures you export your mix exactly the way you hear it in Logic Pro. Once you've set your options, press Okay and save the name and location for your audio file. So for this example, I'll save it on my desktop. For this, I'll call it Project LP example Master one. And then click Bounce. Don't may take a few moments to bounce. Okay, so that's the basics of bouncing. You can now listen to your track outside of logic, or bload it, share it or send it to others. Let's now have a listen to our song outside of Logit proro. So I saved it on my desktop, and it's this song here. So, let's listen back to this now. Ah This is a very simple song, but I hope now you understand the basics of LodgerPro so you can start to make your own music. 32. Class Project and Conclusion: Okay, so we're now at the end of this class. Thank you so much for watching, and I really do hope you found it useful. For your class project, I like to create your own song in Logic Pro. Doesn't have to be too long, but it should include a drum part, bass part, chords, or a lead part. You can build your project in either the Live Loops area or Tracks Area. But if you build it in the live loops area, make sure you record your performance into the Tracks Area. Once you finish your song, take a screenshot of the arrangement, and post this as a class project. I'd also like you to write a short paragraph, explain how you made the song the way you did. Okay, so thanks again for watching this class and hopefully see another class.