Tag Archives: Mixing

My Favorite New Features in Logic Pro X – Part 3, Compressor

Mastering, Mixing,

One of the cool new things in Logic Pro X 10.1 I really love is the new Compressor plug-in. I think AskAudio Magazine covered it quite well. Their article not only described the new features, but what compressors are being modeled. I think that it is great how Compressor now shows you what it’s doing in real time, either via the Meter or the Graph.

However, what this update made glaringly obvious was how dated some of the other plug-ins look. They probably were appropriate for their time, but now they show their age. Personally, I expect that Apple will go through all the “blue” ones at least and clean them up to match the basic black look that you see in the Channel EQ plug-in, as well as the basic plug-ins that are in GarageBand. But, I also think that some real-time feedback will appear in some of them as appropriate, even if it’s as simple as a meter to show what the plug-in is doing.

My Favorite New Features in Logic Pro X – Part 2, Alternatives

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I’ll admit it, I’m obsessive and can get a bit precious. In this case, this meant that if I wanted to try something new in a project, I had to save the old/current version, duplicate it, and start working on the new version/idea. Since I like to keep projects as a package with all the assets stored internally, this can start to hog drive space quickly. Also, knowing which file in the Finder was which was something else to manage.

Screen Shot 2015-06-29 at 5.39.51 PM

Project alternatives make this a breeze. Now, if I want to experiment with a new mix or edit, all I have to do is stop before I do anything else, create the new alternative, and then start work on that alternative. For example, if the end of the song has several choruses and I want to see what it’s like to have the first of those be a drop chorus, I can create a new alternative called “Drop Chorus” and then begin editing the first of the final choruses to be that drop chorus. If I like it, I can continue with that. If not, I can revert to the previous alternative* and move on from there. Or, if I want different versions of the song such as single edits, extended solos, different arrangements, etc. I can create those all in the same project.

I’ve already created several alternatives in some of my projects, even though I haven’t gone back to the previous alternatives. But since this uses little drive space, it doesn’t matter that I have all these other alternatives. Maybe I’ll use them for something, maybe not. But it’s nice to be a hoarder without the clutter.

*The initial version of the project will always be stored as an alternative with the same name as the project. If you look at the Alternatives menu shown above for one of your projects and you have not created any alternatives, you’ll see the name of your project already listed below the line on the right submenu.

My Favorite New Features in Logic Pro X – Part 1, The Effect Slot

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Having recently upgraded to Logic Pro X, there are a lot of changes in the new version(s – 10.0 and 10.1 both added numerous changes) for me to explore. But a few have got me really excited and improved my workflow quite a bit. I’ll highlight these in a few posts.

This one actually changed in Logic Pro X, MainStage 3, and GarageBand 10 because at their core, these apps all share quite a bit.

The Effects slot used to be a bit confusing, and in previous versions of Logic Pro, what it did depended upon how you clicked on it. (Note that right- or control-clicking never does anything useful nor interesting. I’m kidding, but really, I’ve never used that menu.)

Clicking on an empty Effects slot brought up a menu listing all your effects plug-ins. This is still true in Logic Pro X.

Screen Shot 2015-06-29 at 4.57.01 PM Screen Shot 2015-06-29 at 5.04.42 PM

 

Logic Pro 8/9 on the left, Logic Pro X on the right

 

But strangely, once you selected a plug-in for that Effect slot, if you clicked on the slot again, nothing happened. You had to click-and-hold on the Effect slot to bring back up the effects plug-ins menu. If you wanted to open that particular plug-in window, you had to double-click on the Effect slot. None of this was very intuitive.

Now, the Effect slots are easy to figure out, and there aren’t any tricks to get it to do what you want. When you mouse over the Effect slot with an effect already selected, the slot goes from showing you the effect name to showing you three controls that are available.

Screen Shot 2015-06-29 at 5.06.18 PM

On the left is the Bypass button, which allows you to quickly deactivate the plug-in without having to open the plug-in window nor remove it from the channel strip.

Clicking the center area of the slot opens the plug-in window when it’s closed.

The control on the right opens the plug-ins menu allowing you to remove the plug-in or select another one.

For whatever reason, I never remembered the click combinations to open the plug-in window nor the plug-ins menu, so having this change in Logic Pro X has sped up my workflow immensely.

Creating an Equalizer Preset in Logic Pro 9

Mastering, Mixing, , ,

[As I mentioned on the About page, this all started when I took the Introduction to Music Production course from Coursera/Berklee. This was my fifth assignment. The Introduction and Reflection sections were required, there was a 1000 word limit, and I put in the “Before We Begin” section for those less familiar with Logic Pro. I hope you find the PDF linked below to be useful. As I state in the PDF, other versions of Logic Pro are similar if not the same. After the course materials are posted, new entries will be posted directly here instead of as PDFs.]

Creating an Equalizer Preset in Logic Pro 9

The Logic Pro 9 Compressor

Mastering, Mixing, ,

[As I mentioned on the About page, this all started when I took the Introduction to Music Production course from Coursera/Berklee. This was my fourth assignment. The Introduction and Reflection sections were required, there was a 1000 word limit, and I put in the “Before We Begin” section for those less familiar with Logic Pro. I hope you find the PDF linked below to be useful. As I state in the PDF, other versions of Logic Pro are similar if not the same. The Logic Pro X Compressor is much prettier! There is a link at the end of the PDF to a good article about the changes and features of the new Compressor. After the course materials are posted, new entries will be posted directly here instead of as PDFs.]

The Logic Pro 9 Compressor