Logic Pro X Music Production and Sound Design for the Moving Image

So, you want to create music? Youve downloaded Logic Pro X? But you dont know how
to use Logic to its full potential, do you? Fear no more as this guide will take you through
the basics of Logic Pro X, as well as the more advanced capabilities of Logic. We will also
explore the sound design side of Logic too. Whilst mainly a music production software
Logic is also one of the best programs for post-production sound design for short movies
making it very popular among aspiring directors. Logic was the software of choice for my
group in our short movie project over FL studios. Also a disclaimer, Logic Pro X is only
available on Apple devices.

By the end of this guide you should be able to use logic to the fullest of its capabilities
like the image above.

Peripheral Equipment
The key to using logic effectively requires a good understanding of the external devices
you will be using with logic.

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The keyboard has a bunch of shortcuts and hot keys that can help when using logic, for
example hitting the R key will start recording or hitting the space bar will either pause
or play your project depending if it is currently paused or currently playing.
The mouse is your best friend, the
mouse can be used for easy menu
navigation, drawing notes and/ or
chords and editing said notes and chords
with some of the many tools available. >

< Speakers will be used to hear your

track, there isnt much else to say about
them.

A MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) keyboard isnt required but using one can
make your time easier. That is if you have a basic understanding of playing the piano/
organ/ synthesiser. A MIDI keyboard allows you to play notes, and they get inputted onto
the piano roll for any software instrument which is selected.

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And finally, the microphone. You will use the microphone to record vocals for a song, or I
can be used to add dialogue or narration to a short movie, podcast or radio play.

Basic Layout

RED Fast Forward and Rewind Buttons

ORANGE Stop Button
YELLOW Play Button
LIME GREEN Record Button
GREEN Display (BPM, The Key of the song, Overall time, Time Signature)

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LIGHT BLUE Loop Button
BLUE Count in Button
PINK Metronome

A Whole New File

The first and possibly most important thing about Logic is opening a new file and adding
various tracks to your project. Upon opening logic for the first time you should be
greeted with the following screen;

After seeing this screen, you want to double click on the empty project icon we have
highlighted above. Once you have completed this task youll be greeted with the screen
below.

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This screen allows you to add diverse types of tracks to your project. At the bottom is
says the number of tracks that will be added to your project. It is possible to add distinct
kinds of tracks into one file. For a song feel free to use any of the tracks, however for a
movie I recommend sticking to just an audio track for now.
The Software Instrument track gives you a large variety of different instruments that can
be played via MIDI keyboard or by drawing notes in. Such sounds include Synthesisers,
Woodwind instruments, Orchestral instruments, Synth-Pads, Sequencers and plain old FX
sounds. That isnt all Logic has to offer so youll have to experiment for yourself.
Software Instruments are MIDI tracks and will originally appear green on Logic Pro X,
however you can change this.

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The audio track allows you to import external audio as well as record vocals directly onto
Logic Pro X. Audio Tracks will originally appear blue on Logic Pro X, but you can change
this.
The drummer track allows you to customise a virtual drummer, and use a simple interface
to create drum beats. This is great for people who struggle to create drum beats on their
own. Drummer tracks will originally appear yellow on Logic Pro X, but you can change
this.

The guitar and bass is used when plugging in a guitar. It allows you to select different
amps and I assume it also allows you to activate overdrive and boost or reduce certain
sounds like a normal amp. Guitar and Bass tracks will appear purple on Logic Pro X;
however, you can change this.

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And finally, external MIDI we wont be paying attention to this as we dont need it and its
older fashioned using retro external MIDIs to store sounds.

Software Instrument
After youve selected the software instrument track option, you should be greeted with a
screen like this:

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This menu which has been highlighted contains all the software instruments on Logic Pro
X. You have everything from the standard electric piano, various orchestral instruments
and even synthesisers so any kind of sound can be made. There are even some obscure
traditional instruments, so unique songs or melodies can be made.
Each instrument is categorised so all instruments are easy to find as you can see here:

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After selecting which instrument you would like to use its time to input some notes. On
Logic Pro X there are 3 ways to input notes:
Method 1 MIDI Keyboard
If you recall, in the equipment section of this guide I showed a MIDI keyboard, by
selecting a track and playing the MIDI keyboard like any other piano the Keyboard will
play the sound of whichever software instrument is selected on the current track.
Method 2 Keyboard
This functions similarly to the MIDI keyboard only you use the normal keyboard that
comes with any computer. To explain more clearly you would use the number and letter
keys. However, you will have to change the input settings in the options menu.
Method 3 Drawing Notes
This third method is drastically different than the other two, as this method means to
open the piano roll. To open the piano roll first you must create an empty MIDI region,
this can be done by right clicking in the area shown below.

Then you double click on the new region created.

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Once complete you should be greeted with a window like this.

As you can see the piano roll has now opened at the bottom of Logic. Just drag the
window up for full screen mode. Once the piano roll is open by selecting the pencil tool
(see the tools section) you can draw a note on the piano roll.

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 *Left Click*

You can change the notes length and positioning even after its been drawn. You can also
edit notes on the piano roll if they have been recorded by methods 1 & 2.

*Click at the
*Hold and end of the
drag to note*
wherever you
want *

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Personally, I like to draw my notes in and I did just that on every track in my extended
play except the acoustic one. I prefer to draw notes as I am not very good at playing the
piano and drawing in notes allows me to be more accurate with how I want the notes to
sound. In addition, I dont have a MIDI keyboard of my own so when using Fruit Loops on
my laptop this option isnt available to me. Drawing in notes also saves me a lot of time,
as it could take me multiple attempts to play a section of a song correctly and even when
I have I would still need to quantise and edit the notes so its easier to just make draw
them the way I want first time. However, if I am remixing or covering a song and
struggling with a certain section I will use a MIDI keyboard to play that section exactly
the way I want it, which I did once or twice.
Recording
Now we need to record the notes, this is straight forward all you need to do is hit the
record or hit the corresponding shortcut on the keyboard R. After hitting record, you
input notes using methods 1&2. Once you have played all the notes you want you now
either press the stop button or the corresponding hot key Space.

Tools
To use Logic Pro X easily and efficiently you should learn about the tool bar and what
each tool does. At the current moment, I have not used every tool myself so some may
be absent. But fear not as they will be added later once Ive learnt myself.
Pointer
This tool is used to move or edit any notes currently recorded into your piano roll. Simply
click on the note and hold the mouse button to reposition any note, you can change the
note by dragging it up or down. Also by clicking on the end or beginning of the note you
can stretch the note to whatever length you so wish.
Pencil
This tool is used to draw new notes onto the piano roll. You may have seen this tool
referenced during the Ways of Imputing Notes section. Whilst the pencil tool is
equipped by clicking on the piano roll you will create a basic note corresponding with the
note on the piano. You can now use the pointer tool to edit your note.
Eraser
A simple tool that allows you to erase notes from your piano roll, who wouldve guessed?
All you need to do is select the Eraser tool and click on any existing note on your piano
roll. This will delete the note instantly
Fade
The fade tool is used to fade your notes in and out. To use this tool, click and hold the
mouse button just before or just after your notes you want t0 fade. Drag the mouse over

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the notes to the point you want the fade out to start (from the end backwards) or for the
fade in to end (from the beginning).
Scissor
This is a simple tool, simply click on a sound recording with the scissor tool to split it into
two halves. This can be done as many times as required. The audio will not be altered in
any way.
Glue
This tool works as the opposite to the scissor tool. You can use it to link two separate
recordings into one. To do this place the two recordings next to each other so one will
play straight after the other. Then click on both recordings with the glue tool equipped
to stick them together.
Flex
The flex tool can be used to change the length of an audio track. However, this keeps the
entire audio recording and warps it to fit the desired times, either by making it last longer
or by shortening it and increasing the tempo of which its played at. It can also be used to
elongate or shorten specific parts of an audio recording. To change the entire recording
simply click at the end of the recording and drag to change the duration of the whole
recording. To alter one specific part simply click in the recording where you want the
change to occur and drag until you get the desired results.

MIDI:
Using a MIDI interface and MIDI instruments has its advantages for one it can really help
with composition as you can still edit the notes after theyve been played or drawn in, I
found this particularly useful. As this provides extra room for creativity as producers can
try out many more different ideas, a lot quicker. And if things go wrong a few clicks of
the undo button and everythings back to the way it was. Not only that but you can
change the software instrument by clicking the track and selecting another one, but the
notes you have recorded will stay the same. If this was acoustic you would have to play
the exact same thing on the new instrument, whereas with MIDI you dont have to.

Audio Track
Sampling
Sampling means to take a small clip of audio, whether it be a drum beat or a clip of
someone saying something, and incorporating it into a song. The tricky part is to keep
your song unique and different enough to prevent any legal disputes. You can find
samples all over the music industry, especially in electronic and rap music. Electronic
usually samples vocals for a drop and a lot of rap songs sample the same drum beat, but
these are just a couple examples. There have been many cased where a song has been
built around a sample, this can help if the producer is having a challenging time thinking
up any melodies or want to try something fresh. In addition, sampling can also be used in

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short films or sound design projects. Adding sound effects into Logic is done in the same
way.
Now to import a sample into logic its simple. You find the file you would like to import in
your file explorer, then click and drag it into logic.

This is the Track I will be sampling. First, I select it and drag it into the track section. You
will need an audio track open in Logic as this is an audio file.

Thats it! Your track has been successfully imported, you can now edit the track until you
find a part you would like to sample! Sampled tracks will always be audio files which is
universal across all Music Production Programmes.

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For example, this is one of my songs created using Fruit Loops Studios on Windows 10, as
you can see the samples are still audio files. I feel that samples add a lot of diversity into a
track, a common use of a samples which you can see in the picture above is a reverse
cymbal followed by a normal cymbal to create a build-up effect. This also works with a
reverse drop sound effect and a normal drop afterwards.

Vocals
Sampling can be used to incorporate vocals in your track, but you can also record vocals
directly into Logic Pro X. Copy these steps to add dialogue or narration into short movies
too. You will need a microphone for this as specified in the peripheral equipment section.
First you will have to plug your microphone in, obviously, then you must create an Audio
track. Once this completed you should be greeted with a screen like this.

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Now after you see this screen you must make sure you have your input source selected
and click the R button. Once complete you screen will look like this.

Notice how the R is red and there is a green bar next to it. That means that track has
been selected and the green bar is the volume of the sound that the microphone is
picking up. Just hit the record button at the top of the screen or the R key to begin
recording. Also make sure your speaker volume isnt too loud otherwise you could cause
a feedback loop. A feedback loop is when the volume from your speakers get picked up
by the microphone which them plays the sound back through the speakers.

Live and Multi-Track recording

Audio tracks dont just allow you to record vocals but live instruments as well. I used
multi-track recording to record live drums for a project of mine as well as live recording a
grand piano for the same song. But before we talk about how to record the instruments,
live and multi-track recording takes some preparation so its always good to plan your
sessions out. For example, my plan for live recording:
Live Recording Day
10 am Get in college, check with my drummer to
make sure we are both free.
11 am Set up the drums and the drum mics, perform
sound checks, adjust the microphones to suit
my liking as well as practice runs for the
drummer
12 pm Record the drummer, this can take multiple
attempts so give yourself plenty of time
1 pm 2pm Lunch Break
2pm Go to the other studio and set a mic up for the
grand piano, a comparable situation here
perform sound checks and practice runs

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 2:30pm Record the piano which again can take
multiple attempts so give yourself plenty of
time
3pm Finalise the recordings, mixing, editing and
polishing
4pm Day over

A good plan such as this allowed me to complete all my live recording in one day, which
was not only time efficient on my part giving me more time on other projects, but I didnt
waste my drummers time doing take after take throughout the whole week. In addition,
this gave my peers more time to use the live recording studio s themselves.
Ok youve planned your recording sessions. Now time to set the drum microphones up, I
will only touch on other instruments due to drums needing a lot more attention as it is
harder to record drums than a piano or guitar for instance.
First things first each section of the drum has a unique microphone to record it, below I
have a list of the microphones names, a picture of them, what drum they belong to and
what input we used for each microphone.

MICROPHONES IMAGES CORRESPONDING INPUTS

NAME DRUM
AUDIX F6 Kick Drum 1
SHURE SM57 Top Snare 2
SHURE SM58 Bottom Snare 3
AUDIX F2 Rack Tom 5
ADUIX F2 Floor Tom 6
AUDIX F9 Overhead Left 9
AUDIX F9 Overhead Right 10

Once you have all the microphones set up, it should look something like this:
(Picture of drum kick with all the microphones set up)
Now its time to move onto Logic.

Sound to the Moving Image

Logic Pro X is an incredible program especially when it comes to sound for the moving
image. Its very simple to use and offers a variety of tools exclusively for movie projects.

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With Logic you can create short movies like the image above. Weve already covered how
to add dialogue and sound effects into a short movie project in the audio track tab.
Logic Pro X makes it easy to compose for the moving image, as well as making it better
than FL Studio for sound design. You can open a movie in Logic Pro X and adjust sounds
in sync with the movie. Then you can bounce or export it as a single file.

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By clicking file then movie, you can see we have a variety of options to do with adding a
video into Logic. To add a movie simply click open movie.

And then the movie will play in the little box which you can enlarge. You will also get a
new track with the original audio if the video had any audio to start with. I inserted an
arrow showing the original audio in the picture above.

Automation
From my understanding automation is simply giving your track a command to change a
setting during the song without your input. For example, changing the volume of an
instrument mid song, so it fades in or out. Or maybe when an effect starts and stops, and
what track its affecting. Automation is also highly used in sounds for a moving picture. I
will be giving examples of each from projects I have completed. I will be giving examples
of automation in Logic and FL Studio.
Volume
One of the many uses of automation is to control the volume of a given track. Like
previously mentioned fading instruments in and out. It can also be used to adjust the
mixing during the song. For example, if a new instrument kicks in, maybe some of the
other instruments should be lowered or boosted to compliment the new sound the best.
On FL Studio, there isnt a fade tool so you have to use automation to mimic the effect.

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This piece of automation is increasing the volume of the choir sound to give it a fade in
effect. (The song was an unused piece for my groups short film) You right click on the
volume dial on the mixing board and click the option to create an automation clip.
On Logic using automation is a little bit different.

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Firstly, you need to open the automation tab, by pressing the automation button which I
have highlighted in the image above. Once you click on the automation you will see a
screen like this. This is where you can program your automation. By using the pencil tool,
you create points on the tracks where you want the automation to come in. Like what
you see on the A Fallen Yute track.

However, it doesnt end there. As this is only automation for the volume. If you click on
the drop-down bar on a track you will see something like this.

You may have more tabs on the bar but we will get to that in a minute. This is where you
select what youre going to automate.
Panning
Panning is the distribution of sound, stereo or mono. By using automation to pan youre
changing where the sound is going mid song or mid video, deciding whether its going to
the left speaker/ headphone or the right speaker/ headphone. This tends to be more
common and useful in sound design and sound effects than songs. You could use this for

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footsteps to make it sound like the person is moving. And that it wasnt added in later. Or
if two people were talking standing on opposite sides of the screen, you could slightly
pan their dialogue to the side theyre standing on for extra realism. I did do this in one of
my projects.

As you can see like I described, I used panning on footsteps.

They were 2 examples of automation but there is one more example Id like to point out.

If you have an effect on a track you can use automation on the effect as well. In the same
way as you would with Volume and Panning. You decide when it starts, when the effect
ends, and how strong it is. Me and my group used Automation on one of our projects to
trigger a change in the Equalisation. All examples were done on The Yutes short film.

Miscellaneous
8-Bit Sound
I personally love retro video game sound tracks like old Sega and Nintendo games. These
games soundtracks have a very distinct sound to them, this kind of sound is known as
Chiptune. Chiptune, also known as chip music, is synthesised electronic music which is
made for programmable sound generator (PSG) sound chips used in vintage computers,
consoles and arcade machines. Due to memory and technology restraints at the time
they used a square sound wave and sometimes saw sound waves instead of sine waves.
Knowing this creating an 8-Bit sound is easy. Logic already comes with a Chiptune
software instrument but if you wish to create your own you will have to use an oscillator
or a sound design plug-in like GMS on FL Studios.

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 1. First you select a square wave
2. Secondly you turn the sustain down, I like roughly 35% but its down to
preference.
3. Thirdly you turn down the decay, I personally like 40% but again its your
preference.
4. Then you turn up the release as this creates a plucky sound, I like 70% but once
again its up to you.
5. Finally, you can continue to edit the sound as much as you want after that, maybe
add another oscillator or some modulation maybe, perhaps some effects like
distortion or reverb. The possibilities are endless.

This is the GMS sound design plug in on FL Studios just so you can see what I changed in
visual form.
RED Turn these down
GREEN Turn this up
BLUE Something else you may want to consider is turning the amount up this means
the note will play multiple times which can also lead to some distinct 8-Bit sounds.

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YELLOW Wave shape make sure you have a square or a variation of a square wave.
Also, if youre using more than one oscillator you could use a square and saw wave
together.

Now youve gotten your 8-Bit sound theres only a couple more things to go over. The
next tip is instead of using block chords, you should arpeggiate them. Which means
instead of playing the chords in blocks, each note of the chord is played in quick
succession to make it sound like the chord is being played but still have a distinct feel to
them.
So instead of having chords like the picture above, your chords should look like this:

There is no right or wrong way to arpeggiate your chords, you can change the time gate
to make each individual note last longer or not as long. Or even the range of the
arpeggiator so it uses the same notes across multiple octaves.

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Most music softwares have an arpeggiate tool which automatically arpeggiate which
ever chords are selected at the time.
Whilst I used FL Studios as an example the same can be achieved on Logic.

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