Logic Pro: "Tips and Tricks"

All post here

I'd like to learn some tips also.
Just converted from a PC w/ Pro Tools over to a Mac Book Pro with Logic.
Vanglorious!

i know a bit about logic... im logic 7 and 8 certified through apple. I havent used it much lately though but ill try to think of some tips..

one tip for cutting up samples that can be useful.. with an audio region go to the local Audio menu (Audio pulldown in the arrange window) and then Strip Silence. from there you can adjust the sensitivity to where it cuts the region into slices.. based on the "silent" parts.. you can then drag the samples into the EXS24 sampler. and yep. pretty simple.

yAtch wrote:i know a bit about logic... im logic 7 and 8 certified through apple. I havent used it much lately though but ill try to think of some tips..

one tip for cutting up samples that can be useful.. with an audio region go to the local Audio menu (Audio pulldown in the arrange window) and then Strip Silence. from there you can adjust the sensitivity to where it cuts the region into slices.. based on the "silent" parts.. you can then drag the samples into the EXS24 sampler. and yep. pretty simple.

It would be dope if you could do a little tutorial on drum chopping/sample editing in Logic. I just got 8 and I was practicing by chopping up some drum breaks with strip silence. My first impression is that once I get it sorted, it's going to bring a whole other dynamic to processing samples.

For the time being though, it took me forever! I'd like to see how other people are doing it for tips to improve my work flow. Also, if you have any tips on using some of the sample editing functions, such as Audio Energizer, I'd like to know.

I cut up two kits, just experimenting with different settings, etc and I have a lot to learn because one sounded OK and the other sounded like some doo doo.

Some basic questions:

1) What's the best way to go about adding effects to individual drum hits?

2) After saving invidual hits as Wav files, I used Automator to rename all of my samples i.e. FUNKKIT01, ..02, ...3, etc. For some reason if I bulk drop on PAD187 the samples all load out of order. Anyone know what's up with that?

3) I'm having volume issues as well. When I record into logic the volume is really low, so I normalized my hits so that when I put them on the mpc they would match up with the other samples I have on there. Problem was, even when normalizing everything sounded really low back on the MPC. Anyone have a similar problem?

One of the biggest tips I can think of is to learn your keyboard shortcuts and set up personal ones.
Massive timesaver

djconrad wrote:One of the biggest tips I can think of is to learn your keyboard shortcuts and set up personal ones.
Massive timesaver

Good point! I'm about to break down and buy a book. LOL

There are so many things that I know I should be able to do, but I just can't figure it out. The manual is helpful, but I just want to make music.

The sheer power of this thing is blowing me away.

on chopping drums:
a lot of times i dont rely on the strip silence feature because sometimes it will cut off parts i want to keep and make the chops sounds really unnatural, that is if your sensitivity/threshold is too high, whatever its called I dont have it open at the moment. most of the time I use the scissors tool to chop. just zoom in on the sample, and as you click and drag across the wave form it will "scrub" the sample so you can hear where youre cutting. I tend to do my cutting in the arrange window and not the sample editor (when you double click on the waveform) because the sample editor is destructive, and will effect the actual file on your hdd. if you have specific questions maybe i could help better.

if you want to slice a sample into 16 equal pieces, this is capable in logic also. theres a trick with the scissors tool where you can cut things into equal segments. What you do is select the scissors tool, and lets say the first cut you make is a 1/4 note in length. but as you cut hold down the OPTION key. this will cut that 1/4 piece as well as every 1/4 segment of the region following that. kind of hard to explain, just give it a try, once you see what happens you'll get it.. and it will make things a lot easier.

adding effects to samples.
in order to add effects to your samples youll have to put each piece on its own track.. that is if you want to EQ/add processing or whatever to an individual piece. some places to start would be filters, maybe a compressor, a little reverb.. check out the space designer plugin. it takes impulse responses from different rooms/halls/environments and you can use that on your samples. you can even create your own impulse responses and use those, but thats a whole other lesson hah.

for volume issues.
what interface are you using? Im using an Mbox at my home studio and i noticed the levels SUCK! maybe try a compressor before sampling back into the MPC?

another interesting thing... you can quantize with the MPC "swing" within logic. I wont really get into how to do it now, but basically you can use an MPC template to quantize your compositions in Logic with. when I learned this, thats when I was totally sold on Logic. there really is a lot of awesome features in this program. I'd recommend the Logic training books put out by peachpit press. I think the logic 8 is written by david nahmani.

i can go on and on haha.

o yea.. and keyboard shortcuts are a must!
some ones I use a lot that you should look into
pickup clock
capture last take
nudge

while im at it.. heres another tip about tempo

in logic you have the options of
A) adjusting the tempo of the entire song project to match the tempo of a particular audio region
and B) adjusting the tempo of an audio region to match the tempo of the song project.

to adjust the songs tempo to match a regions..

have a region that you know the length of. for example a region that is 4 bars long. click on it to select it. then in the bar ruler create a cycle region that is 4 bars long (click and drag from left to right). so after you have hilight the 4 bar region and make a 4 bar cycle. go up into Options>Tempo>Adjust tempo using region length and locators. it will ask if you want to do this globally and click yes. and thats it, the tempo of your song should match whatever tempo that region is.

to do it the other way so the region is the same tempo as your song. you do the same thing. so if you have a 4 bar region, click it and create a 4 bar cycle. but this time go to your Audio menu in the arrange window and then Adjust length to locators. thats it. you can do some tricks like double time, 1/2 time by creating different cycle lengths. basically in both scenarios the cycle length is telling logic how many bars the sample "should" be.

Good tips.

Anyone have any experience with any of these videos:

http://www.macprovideo.com/tutorial/Logic8101

I'm looking for something a bit more in depth then what I've see on youtube, but it's kind of pricey.

yAtch wrote:if you want to slice a sample into 16 equal pieces, this is capable in logic also. theres a trick with the scissors tool where you can cut things into equal segments. What you do is select the scissors tool, and lets say the first cut you make is a 1/4 note in length. but as you cut hold down the OPTION key. this will cut that 1/4 piece as well as every 1/4 segment of the region following that. kind of hard to explain, just give it a try, once you see what happens you'll get it.. and it will make things a lot easier.

Thanks for that one, worked perfectly, excellent

Great! Keep em coming. the Strip Silence feature is nice indeed

those videos are pretty good, I've seen a few of them. I think the guy that made those videos wrote the Logic 7 training book. I highly recommend the apple training book. It includes a dvd with logic projects that you use in conjunction with the lessons in the book. and when you're feeling confident you can even sign up and take the level 1 Logic certification exam. for level 2 you'll need to attend the class.

BUMP!
Any one else with tips?

i'll try to think of some more tips. i've been busy trying to get the mpc and logic to play well together. thanks Murahachibu for the help in my other thread.

anyone else having issues with 10.5.2? ever since I updated i've been getting audio dropouts in addition to loss of internet blah blah.

Murahachibu wrote:Good tips.

Anyone have any experience with any of these videos:

http://www.macprovideo.com/tutorial/Logic8101

I'm looking for something a bit more in depth then what I've see on youtube, but it's kind of pricey.

They are great and informative also depending on the series some like the tips and tricks series have downloadable monthly updates. Martin Sitter is the man.