Logic Pro’s Event List, the Automation Event List, the Automation Arrange Window, Fader Messages, Control Data, Region Data, Track Automation… Learning all automation features that Logic Pro offers is just plain hard. But hey, it’s Easter! So put on your bunny suit, and let’s go hunt for some Logic Pro automation tips and easter eggs.

I did some heavy duty Vocal Comping this week. I worked on thick prechoruses and even thicker choruses containing 4 or 5 vocal takes for the lead vocal melody alone. It’s unbelievable how much work this used to be in the days without Take Folders, Flex Mode and Transient Detection!

Back in the day, I would basically cut up every syllable and align them by hand if I needed a tightly aligned chorus. These days I would normally put Flex Mode to Monophonic for solo vocals, but this time it was giving me too much artefacts. Flex editing certainly has its quirks. Then I thought about it: do I really need to align every syllable and consonant, and make all lengths the same too? Next time you’re aligning vocals, ask yourself the same question.

Let’s dive into programming ‘swing’ in Logic Pro. Some call it ‘groove’, or ‘shuffle’. It’s what you get when you delay every even numbered note in an 8th or 16th note pattern. Logic Pro offers a myriad of swing presets and quantizing parameters to get your groove on. We’ll quickly look at those. To keep workflow tight, we’ll also have a look at how to quickly select the notes that make things groovy, if you want to go beyond the presets…

Sometimes a solution to a problem is so simple, it makes you feel you totally forgot about the basics of sound design. Today, I needed a synth to be snappier, and as I was pondering what plugin to pick (Compression? Enveloper? Or even go multiband?) I decided to check the synth’s envelopes.

This morning, before the usual craving for coffee entered my mind, I thought to myself: “what’s the fastest way to program a couple of measures of a four-to-the-floor kick, without using the mouse?” So I dragged a .WAV into the Arrange Window, and pressed ⌘+R for ‘Repeat Region’:

Lately I’ve been programming drums by dragging .WAV files directly into the Arrange Window. This method certainly has its limitations and drawbacks, but it doesn’t require me to set up an instance of the EXS24 sampler, Ultrabeat or a third party plugin before I can begin programming.

So I got these 4 snares in two bars:

To keep things tidy without making folders, and region count low, I wanted to make a 2 bar loop out of these regions, so I merged all regions with ctrl+=. I got this:

When you’re using a sample library where articulations are plenty, you’ll be forced to deal with many keyswitches. Sometimes, the sustain pedal triggers a different articulation too, forcing you to use Hyperdraw. Here’s a quick way to control the sustain pedal with its own ‘keyswitch’ – by using Transformer. I’ll use Scarbee Jay Bass as an example.

It’s the smallest MIDI keyboard in the world : the Caps Lock Keyboard. When you’re on the road and you’ve only brought your Macbook, this will have to do. Its timing is a bit sloppy, and you can only play six notes at once. Anyone who can play six notes at once on this thing, while sounding musical, is a boss! The reason I am posting about it, is that you can use the Caps Lock Keyboard as a controller source, making it the smallest controller in the world too.

In this short post, let’s look at thickening up a reverb a bit by putting an octave on the dry signal that will only be reflected in the reverb. When applied subtly, this technique will thicken the sound of the reverb, without losing the relationship with its dry signal.

What can you do if you like the ‘punch’ of one kick, but not the ‘oomph’, and the ‘oomph’ of another kick, but not the ‘punch’? Isolate the punches (or ‘transients’) and the ‘oomphs’ in the Arrange Window and combine them. Let’s see how that goes.

Back from Switzerland! Instead of enhancing transients with Enveloper, try stacking them. For this to work, we need to be able to extract timing and pitch data from audio material. Enter ‘Audio To Score’. Say we want to add some more ‘slap’ to this slap bass loop:

On to part three of how to make good disco claps in Logic Pro. In parts one and two, I promised I’d use EXS24. I’ll limit myself to one sampler instrument, and just one sample of a clap from a Boss DR110. I’ll use some pitch and sample start modulation for variation. Let’s begin by asking: So what makes a clap a clap?

Listen to this Dr. Dre track on Spotify – explicit, you bet:

Youtube link for the Spotifyless among us.

I love the piano that’s in there. Well played – or well programmed? Let’s take this on purely from a programmer’s perspective, without an external keyboard to play on. How ‘human’ can Logic Pro get by programming alone? Let’s dig in…

Here’s a quickie, but a biggie: My favorite way to set the velocity of all notes in a region to the same value: select the region, hit E to bring up the Event List. Doubleclick the value (‘Val’) of the top event, enter value, hit enter, then hit ⇧+V. That’s “Copy Value To All Following Events”. This works on Channels (Ch), Notenumbers (Num), and Notelengths (Length). Another way, one of many actually, is to select all events in the Event List, and then drag a value while holding down ⌥+⇧. Must be my Dr. T’s-Keyboard-Controlled-Sequencer-on-Amiga-days why I use the Event List so much…

In part one, we looked at extracting a groove template from a record.

We’ll look at another great source for groove templates : your Apple Loop collection. Most, if not all, MIDI loops in there (the green ones) have been either programmed or quantised, so their timing is not that interesting – unless you like everything tight of course. But then you probably won’t be needing groove templates. Most of the blue loops have been played live, and you can use these as a source for your groove templates too. Let’s see what we’ll encounter.