Hello.
Welcome to this Logic Pro X tutorial where
you’ll learn the basics of the software
at the beginner level.
I’m going to lay this all out and make it
as easy as possible, so you have no problem
getting started.
So, if you want to feel more comfortable with
Logic Pro X keep watching.
And don’t forget to grab our free Logic
Pro cheat sheet.
There is a link in the bio or on screen now.
Hey.
How is it going?
Rob here from Musician on a Mission.
And let’s dive right in with this tutorial.
First, let’s breakdown the interface, because
the first time you load it up you’re going
to be, “Wow!
What the hell is this?
This is so confusing, where do I even start?”
And that’s normal.
That’s the case with any piece of audio
software.
So, let’s make this really easy.
First of all, we have all the file menus up
here everything you need to start a new file.
Eventually you’re going to want to take
everything you’ve done inside Logic Pro
X and create just a normal audio file from
it.
When you want to do that ignore export that
would be too easy it’s called bounce.
So, this is where you want to go when you
are ready to finish your track.
Another option you need to know about if you
get the Logic Pro X at the top here, and then
preferences audio.
This is where you select your output and input
device.
So, I’ve got a Universal Audio Thunderbolt
Interface you select your interface here.
You can also change your buffer size here.
So, if you are recording use the lowest possible
setting, but then when you start mixing you
want to use the highest possible setting.
It will cause a delay but it gives the computer
more time to process everything.
So, if you want to use 20 reverbs on one channel
like some kind of wizard just go for it.
Across the top here we then have the main
interface area.
So, you can click any of these to hide or
show different windows.
The help control here is going to be really
easy when you’re getting started because
that’s going to show you exactly what things
do.
So, we have an additional toolbar here, but
I’m not going to cover that in this video
because honestly I don’t even use that that
much.
So, you can get away without using that.
Then we have these two buttons up here.
The library which is this window here and
the inspector window which is this one here.
So, let’s start by just deleting this channel
and go from scratch.
If you want to create a MIDI channel where
you can add virtual or software instruments
choose software instruments.
You can change the number of tracks here.
Just hit create and that is going to load
that up, and then we can use this library
here to select the thing that we want.
For example classic, electric, piano or maybe
you could find something else that you want
to use like, I don’t know, cop show clap.
Umm funky.
Then we have this inspector window, so you
can close that if you’re not using it.
The inspector window I tend to leave this
open, but I open and close library when I
need it.
And the reason why I leave this open is because
we’ve got some other cool settings here.
But we’ll come back to that in a second.
Let’s keep working our way across.
So, then we’ve got a few more controls.
Smart buttons I don’t use them personally.
The mixer we’re going to come back to that
later as well.
Then we have the edit window, and also down
here we have the piano roll which we’ll
be using quite a lot.
Score if you don’t want to do that kind
of stuff and some of the windows that you
don’t need to know about just yet.
We’re going to really just focus on the
basics here in this video.
Otherwise you’re brain is just going to
melt.
These should all be pretty self explanatory.
We got rewind, fast forward, stop, play, record
etc.
When you actually want to record something
you need to make sure it’s on record armed
as well just something to bear in mind.
Cycle we’ll come back to that.
And we’ve got beats, buss that kind of stuff
here.
We can change this.
If you already have something recorded you
just need to figure out what the tempo is,
and then input that there.
Then if you are going to be using lots of
MIDI you can change the key here that’s
probably worth doing.
And if you are not doing any of that you can
change this to time, but the default window
is beats and projects and we could actually
use beats and time here.
So, play around that a bit.
Got a few more options here.
The ones that you really need to know about
are count-in.
So, with this if we hit record it won’t
start recording straightaway it’ll count
us in either none or one buss, two buss, six
buss etc.
And then here we’ve got our metronome.
Here is the master volume slider.
I’d never use that personally instead I
would just use the control on my interface.
Then we’ve got a few more things here.
List editor, so I don’t tend to use this.
Don’t worry about that.
We also have a notepad if you want to use
that.
We got the loop browser which is pretty handy.
So, you can use Apple loops, build songs or
if you just want to shake apart and you can’t
be bothered to get a shaker, record it go
through all that faff.
You can just pull in a loop and it’ll conform
it to the tempo of the project and you’re
done with that.
Then we also have the browser window which
is where all of our audio – if we started
recording audio, it’d all be here even if
we delete things in this window which we’re
going to talk more about in a second then
it will still all show here.
So, that’s the top bar.
Let’s move down now.
This is called the main view and it’s the
window you’d use when you’re arranging
your song, writing, composing, editing all
that stuff.
And from left to right we have the time we
can add new channels.
So, add tracks here.
We could add an audio channel for example
and if I record on that you see my voice on
that meter.
So, that shows we have an input and if I started
recording here both of these are record armed
it’ll record my voice.
We have the count-in and then I’ll record
my voice like this from left to right and
it can also play like that.
So, now we can have a listen back, but first
let’s mute this channel like so.
So, for now I’m just going to delete this
audio.
And when you delete stuff you can even delete
it from the disc or you can keep it.
So, if we keep it it’ll still be here in
the browser window.
We can always pull that back in later and
we can just delete channels like this.
So, now that we’ve got a part we can drag
this around.
So, all I did there was just hover over the
very edge and I am zooming in there using
my track pad.
I’ve got one of these Apple Magic track
pads which is pretty cool, so I can just pinch
and zoom on that.
Otherwise you have zoom controls here.
You also have zoom controls here.
There is of course a key command for that.
Key commands are really important.
The more key commands you learn the quicker
you can navigate around the software.
So, if you just hover over this top option
here you go to key commands.
Go to edit.
You can either search for key commands or
you could search for zoom, and then we can
see – okay so use Command and then the arrow
keys.
I don’t recommend you learn all of these.
There are literally hundreds of them and I
think your time would be better spent, I don’t
know, making music just a crazy idea.
But you can use this window when you want
to search for them.
For example, I will use the mix window a lot.
So, the command I use for that is Command
2 and that will load up the mix window.
We’ll come back to the mix window in a second.
Let’s try zooming in, so we can do it like
that.
And we can just pull this in like this if
we want to by just hovering over the end there.
If we hover over the top it doesn’t show
we can move it around.
If you hover over the bottom half it’ll
be slightly different.
Here again we can pull on that side.
Naturally it will snap to the bar you can
turn that off or adjust the settings for that
here under snap.
But let’s line this up with the grid and
build a bit of a song around it, and then
we can go back to that mixer view and actually
have a look at what’s happening in there.
So, if we want to actually build a song here
we might want to edit this clav part.
Now you can just double click that will open
the piano roll.
That’s generally what I tend to do and in
this window instead we get a bit of a zoom
on this one.
So, this is just a big block we can move around.
We can’t edit the notes here.
But in the piano roll we can move the notes
around.
We could shorten them or lengthen them.
We can using the secondary tool, so you can
hold Command it will use the secondary tool
which is highlighted here.
Equally we have a secondary tool in this window
which is the marquee.
The marquee tool just lets you select sections
of audio like this and it’s really easy
to use.
And we can set that here.
So, just hold Command and we can draw in a
new note if we want it, and then we can drag
that around.
We can move things around like this.
But let’s just rid of that because it sounds
crap.
And let’s drop in a drum beat, and then
do something else instead.
So, another really cool feature of Logic is
that we have drummer.
So, we could add drummer track here if we
just wanted to lay some drums under this.
This makes it really easy to start playing
around with stuff.
And we can change the tempo if you want to
and it will just conform to that.
But maybe you want to use your own sample.
So, instead of using that we could delete
this channel.
Add a new software instrument EXS-24 that’s
the one you want to use if you’re using
samples.
Then you can pull all of your own samples
into this.
Start playing around with them in the piano
roll editor.
So, for now I could just grab a drum kit or
a piano let’s use that, and then what we
can actually see here in the sampler are samples.
But what if you want to use your own samples?
Well, you can do that too.
First we just need to go to preferences, advanced
tools, and then advanced editing.
Generally I would just recommend doing enable.
I don’t know why they make that such a pain
in the ass, but that’s the way it is.
I’m just going to turn off help now because
those windows are annoying.
Now what we see in the sampler is this edit
window.
So, if we just start a new instrument or no
instrument then we go to edit, we can pull
in our own sample.
So, for this we can use Apple loop for example.
And these are just loads of loops that you
can use.
You don’t have to credit Apple for using
them or anything like that.
You can just pull them in and play around
with them.
So, we could say big Tom Break.
And then we can play that sample with different
pitches.
And you can do all sorts in this.
It’s pretty cool.
So, that’s how you can use your own samples.
For now just to make this really easy let’s
just pull in an Apple loop.
So, we can go to instrument.
We can go to drums.
That’s pretty cool.
We could just drag that in and now we can
start to play around with this.
First I want to show you a few more options
that are available now that we have some audio
to play around with.
The first thing is the waveform view up here.
We can make the waveform smaller or bigger
using this.
Equally you can do that with Command plus
and Command minus.
If you select this audio we have a few options
in this inspector view as well which I mentioned
earlier.
So, we can transpose it.
We can adjust the gain if we want to if there’s
actual clip.
We can even quantize this if we turn off flex,
but that’s a bit too complex for this lesson.
What you do though is hit that button, and
then we can go to quantize and actually quantize
that audio.
Well, let’s turn that off for a second.
If you want to add effects like EQ loads of
effects that come built-in with Logic they
are all there and we have the volume fader
if you want to turn it up and down.
You could pan it to left and right here too,
But we’re going to come to back those options
later when we talk about the mixer window.
So, let’s find a sound that works with this.
I’m just going to have a quick scan through.
Now, to make this easier I’m just going
to turn on the cycle functions.
So, this thing up here if we just click that
it turns yellow or we can click and drag to
create our own cycle like this.
It will snap to the bar and we can also hit
C if we want to turn that on and off, and
this means it’ll loop here.
It’ll keep playing it over and over.
So, now as I am searching for good sound that
works with this kit it just keeps playing
through.
So, I found a pretty cool sound, and if you
didn’t have a USB keyboard like I have here
you could go to window and show musical typing
or just hit Command K.
And now we can just play that in.
But that sucks.
So, give me a second here just to come up
with some kind of melody.
I’ve got something that’s workable here.
Let’s have a quick listen.
I’m going to lay down some bass on this
too in a second.
But first of all, let’s take a deeper look
at the piano roll editor.
As well as doing it down here you can also
open the piano roll window.
Shortcut for that is Command 4 if you use
this a lot.
Then we have a full screen for doing stuff.
The first thing I want to show you is quantize.
If I highlight all these notes with Command
A then hit this key button it’s going to
quantize them and I can then select the note.
So, you can see that with 16th.
It pulls it to the nearest 16th note if I
select 8.
That’s too much it’s pulled the note too
far.
So, you want to find the right setting if
you are using quantization.
If you select this button it will turn on
the tray which I find really handy.
It means we can just play with the velocities
in a separate window.
Equally, another thing I like to do is select
velocity as my secondary tool which means
now you can just pull up or down the velocity
of a note like that.
Another cool option next to that is collapse
mode if you are only using a few notes.
This is really handy on drums if you have
kick, snare, etc it would just remove any
other note so that you don’t get confused
about what’s raw or accidentally move things
around too much.
And then, lastly let’s talk about some of
the other tools.
So, first just hit T to open the tool window.
We can use the pencil tool if you want to
draw things in like so.
We can use the brush tool if we want to create
lots of little notes it’s like this.
And if you want to create longer notes just
select them here, and then we can do quarter
notes.
So, if we hit T and then T again that’ll
take us back to the pointer tool and we can
just always highlight things hit the delete
button if we want to get rid of them.
Then one more thing I want to show you if
we go back to the project view of Command
1 is looping.
So, we can close the piano roll here with
P.
We can close the library here with Y, and
then this if we want to loop it we can just
pull it like that in the upper right corner
and we get a little indent here when the loop
is one loop or we can just hit L and it will
loop here infinitely like that until the next
block.
I’m going to go grab my bass guitar.
Let’s record some audio, so we can go through
that process as well.
So, I’ve got my bass let’s just lay down
a very quick bass line.
So, the first step is to add an audio channel.
I’m using input 2, so you want to set that
right.
Then you want to put this on record arm if
you want to hear it, you want to monitor it
as well with this button.
We want to make sure it works.
We got signal there and now we can record.
And what you can see is Logic has already
taken those two takes.
If you record over the top you don’t lose
the old take.
It just creates a folder like this and we
can actually go between these and choose our
favorite take.
Now, we can ditch the bass and let’s have
a listen.
So, the bass is too quiet and we’re also
clipping on this output here you saw that
little red zero.
So, time to move onto the next section now.
I’m going to open the mixer by hitting Command
2.
That’s going to open that mixer window,
and this is where you spend a lot of the time
once the song actually sounds good and you’re
finished composing, and writing.
All of that you do in the project view here.
You compose it, you edit it using those tools
I showed you.
If you want to find more tools hit T and there
are loads of tools here, so I can cut this
up.
Do what I want until the track is finished.
Then when I am done I can come to the mix
window and this is where we can start turning
things up and down and adding effects.
So, here audio 2 that’s the bass.
Well, we need to start by giving this a good
label.
We can also hit Alt C and that’s going to
bring up a color window to keep things nice
and organized.
Then here we’ve got the break, so we could
just cool out drums.
Give that another color if we want, and then
we’ve got the lead synth there.
So, let’s have a quick listen.
Already the bass is too quiet.
So, we could turn that up and we could bring
these two down.
If you could highlight several tracks by holding
Shift you can several down at once.
You can do all kinds of stuff like add the
same plug-in to several channels like so.
We can do all kinds of cool stuff if we highlight
to.
So, pull them down bring the bass up.
Let’s see if that’s better.
So, then if we want to bring out that bass
part we can add effects.
For example, EQ and you have loads of really
great stock plug-ins that come with Logic.
So, we could enhance the upper end of that
bass guitar.
And we can start playing around with all those
cool effects.
One more thing you might notice here is that
channel is clipping.
We definitely need to address that.
So, Logic has a gain plug-in if you find any
of your channels are clipping whether it’s
the master, stereo out here which we’ll
come back to in a second, all these channels
you can just add the gain plug-in there and
cut.
Then we have to bring down everything else
to compensate and get everything to the level
that we want.
So, how does this actually flow?
What’s happening with these channels?
What’s the stereo out?
What’s the master?
Well, all of these channels the output is
set here to stereo out which means they’re
going into this stereo out channel.
So, if we wanted to add the EQ to the whole
mix everything going on we could add it on
the stereo out channel.
Like so.
Then we have the master fader which is the
actual final stage.
So, you can’t add plug-ins here.
This is just if you want to turn the volume
up and down.
I find myself just not touching that fader
at all.
Basically you’re just using the stereo out.
And if you wanted to you could group these
together.
Then if you can remember from earlier once
you’re done you can get to file bounce projects
or selection, and we could bounce this track
down to stereo file that we can share online,
burn to disc whatever you want to do with
it.
So, there you go.
That’s a general overview of the basics.
If you’re a beginner that’s everything
you need to get started and actually write
a song, record a song, explore it and be done
with it.
Of course, there’s a lot more to Logic Pro
than that.
This is just a general introduction and overview.
So, I’m going to be making some more videos
that I’ll link to in the description that
go into more depth on other areas of Logic
Pro 10.
Now, I also recommend you grab the cheat sheet
because inside that I’ve got some of my
favorite key commands and using those key
commands really does save you a lot of time.
I also explained some of the plug-ins within
Logic.
Tell you want setting to use, and if you cool
thing.
So, if you are using Logic Pro grab that cheat
sheet.
It’s completely free.
Just head to the link on screen now or the
link in the description to download that.
And if you are new around here don’t forget
to subscribe and hit the notification bell.
So, that’s all from me.
I am Rob from Musician on a Mission and remember
Create Regardless.
