Spend less time learning and more time recording Logic Pro X offers Mac users the tools and power they need to create recordings ready to share with the world. This book provides the know-how for navigating the interface, tweaking the settings, picking the sounds, and all the other tech tasks that get in the way of capturing the perfect take.  Written by a Logic Pro X trainer who’s used the software to further his own music career, Logic Pro X For Dummies cuts back on the time needed to learn the software and allows for more time making amazing recordings. Record live sound sources or built-in virtual instruments Arrange your tracks to edit, mix, and master Discover tips to speed the process and record on an iPad Make sense of the latest software updates A favorite among Logic Pro X beginners, this book is updated to reflect the ongoing changes added to enhance Logic Pro X’s recording power.

Table of Contents:
Introduction 1 About This Book 1 Foolish Assumptions 2 Icons Used in This Book 2 Beyond the Book 3 Where to Go from Here 3 Part 1: Leaping into Logic Pro X 5 Chapter 1: Getting Logic Pro Up and Sprinting 7 Embracing Logic Pro 8 Transitioning from Other Software 9 Creating with Logic Pro 10 Thinking like a pro 10 Planning your creative process 10 Getting to the finish line 12 Connecting Your Logic Pro Studio 13 Setting up your computer 14 Connecting your hardware 15 Building common setups 16 Chapter 2: Examining Logic Pro Projects 19 Starting Your Project 20 Opening a project 21 Saving a project 22 Closing a project 23 Naming and renaming a project 23 Augmenting Your Project 24 Saving time with project templates 24 Autosave your hard work 24 Recover from problems with project backups 25 Create options with project alternatives 25 Customizing Your Project Settings 26 Import settings and content from other projects 28 Export your project for collaboration 30 Tidying Up Your Project 32 Chapter 3: Exploring the Main Window and Tracks Area 35 Navigating Logic Pro 35 Getting comfortable in the main window 36 Working in the tracks area 36 Controlling the control bar 39 Polishing in the editors area 42 Investigating the inspector 43 Taking Inventory of Your Track List 44 Make headway with track headers 44 Make it pretty with track colors 46 Zooming Tracks 47 Your Logic Pro Toolbox 48 Keeping It Simple with Smart Controls 51 Opening smart controls 51 Editing smart control layouts 53 Manually mapping smart controls 53 Editing smart control parameters 55 Controlling the controls with your controller 56 Navigating with Key Commands 57 Saving Workspaces with Screensets 60 Chapter 4: Embracing Tracks and Regions 63 Knowing Your Track Types 64 Audio track 64 Software instrument track 65 Drummer track 65 External MIDI track 66 Track stacks 67 Folder track 68 Around the Global Tracks 69 Sorting and Hiding Tracks 71 Creating Options with Track Alternatives 72 Knowing the Region Types 72 Audio region 73 MIDI region 73 Drummer region 74 Editing Regions 74 Dragging, moving, and resizing regions 74 Splitting, joining, and deleting regions 76 Snapping regions to a grid 77 Looping and copying regions 77 Part 2: Digital Recording and Using Prerecorded Media 79 Chapter 5: Introduction to Digital Audio and MIDI 81 Understanding Digital Audio 81 Acoustics 101 82 Set your sample rate 83 Determine your bit depth 84 Choosing audio file types 85 Connecting Your Audio Devices 86 Choosing your input and output device 86 Setting your I/O buffer size and reducing latency 87 Monitoring signals through your hardware or software 88 Exploring audio preferences 89 Understanding MIDI 91 Sending MIDI messages 92 Changing MIDI channels 92 Connecting Your MIDI Devices 93 Connecting MIDI controllers 93 Connecting external instruments 93 Exploring MIDI preferences 93 Chapter 6: Recording Audio 95 Preparing to Record Audio 95 Test your recording levels 97 Enable software and input monitoring 98 Setting up the metronome 98 Recording Your First Audio Take 100 Recording Multiple Takes in Cycle Mode 101 Recording Multiple Inputs 103 Punching In and Punching Out 103 Recording with Smart Tempo 105 Setting Up Multiple Monitor Mixes 106 Giving your singer a separate vocal cue mix 107 Chapter 7: Recording MIDI 109 Preparing to Record MIDI 109 Recording external MIDI instruments 110 Recording software instruments 112 Recording with musical typing 113 Recording with the step input keyboard 114 Recording Your First MIDI Take 116 Recording Multiple MIDI Takes in Cycle Mode 117 Creating Tracks in Cycle Mode 118 Overdubbing MIDI 119 Recording Multiple MIDI Inputs 119 Chapter 8: Adding Media to Your Project 121 Adding Apple Loops to Your Project 121 Navigating the loop browser 122 Adding audio loops 123 Adding MIDI loops 125 Adding drummer loops 125 Adding Prerecorded Audio to Your Project 126 Using the browsers to find audio files 126 Adding audio to your project 127 Adding audio from the media browser 128 Adding audio from the all files browser 130 Importing Video to Your Project 131 Adding a movie to your project 131 Exploring the movie track 132 Creating movie scene markers 133 Importing audio from your movie 133 Part 3: Making Music with Virtual Instruments 135 Chapter 9: Making Beats with Drum and Percussion Software Instruments 137 Playing with Your Virtual Drummer 138 Creating a drummer track 138 Creating drummer regions 139 Choosing and directing your drummer in the editor 139 Selecting producer kits 142 Building custom kits with Drum Kit Designer 142 Converting drummer regions to MIDI regions 144 Creating Beats with Ultrabeat 144 Exploring the Ultrabeat interface 145 Choosing sounds in the assignment section 146 Shaping sounds in the synthesizer section 148 Sequencing patterns in the step sequencer 152 Controlling patterns with MIDI 155 Exporting patterns into the tracks area 156 Designing Electronic Drums Kits with Drum Machine Designer 156 Exploring the Drum Machine Designer interface 158 Playing drums and kit pieces 158 Editing drum sounds 158 Chapter 10: Playing Virtual Vintage Instruments 161 Taking Stock of Vintage Instruments 162 Loading and playing vintage instruments 162 Choosing vintage instrument presets 163 Spinning Your Tone Wheels with the Vintage B3 163 Understanding drawbars 164 Get the vintage vibe with vibrato/chorus and percussion 168 Playing with presets 170 Spinning the Leslie 170 Going deep into expert options 171 Controlling the manuals and foot pedals with MIDI controllers 172 Funking Up the Vintage Clav 173 Choosing your Clav type 173 Picking your pickups 173 Getting classic sounds with effects 175 Extending your Clav 176 Getting the Tone of Tines with the Vintage Electric Piano 176 Exploring tines, reeds, and tone bars 176 Producing great sounds with timeless effects 177 Playing with additional parameters 177 Making Music with the Vintage Mellotron 178 Fusing Four Synths with Retro Synth 179 Choosing your flavor of synthesis: Analog, sync, wavetable, and FM 179 Controlling your synth parameters 180 Modifying synth effects 181 Modulating the synth 181 Chapter 11: Sound Design with Synths and Samplers 183 Exploring the Logic Pro Synths 183 The EFM1 FM synth 185 The ES1 subtractive synth 186 The ES2 hybrid synth 188 The ES E ensemble synth 190 The ES M mono synth 191 The ES P poly synth 193 The EVOC 20 poly synth vocoder 194 Modeling Sounds Using Sculpture 195 Understanding sound modeling 196 Exploring the Sculpture interface 197 Sampling with the EXS24 Sampler 199 Importing sample libraries 199 Converting regions to sampler instruments 200 Controlling sample parameters 201 Editing sampled instruments 202 Manipulating Samples with Alchemy 203 Exploring the Alchemy interface 203 Designing and resynthesizing sounds 204 Using the arpeggiator 205 Adding effects 206 Chapter 12: Conducting a Virtual Orchestra 207 Building an Orchestral Template 208 Choosing your orchestral instruments 209 Choosing appropriate staff styles 211 Saving your orchestral template 212 Performing Your Orchestra 214 Playing with Studio Strings and Horns 216 Traveling the World Instruments 217 Part 4: Arranging and Editing Your Project 219 Chapter 13: Arranging Your Music 221 Working in the Tracks Area 221 Using the ruler 222 Scrubbing the arrangement 223 Investigating the region inspector 223 Investigating the track inspector 225 Showing Your Global Tracks 226 Creating and naming markers 227 Creating key signature and time signature changes 229 Creating tempo changes 231 Creating arrangement markers 233 Creating transposition points 233 Beat Mapping Your Arrangement 234 Beat mapping MIDI regions 234 Beat mapping audio regions 235 Automatically beat-mapping regions 235 Arranging Regions in the Tracks Area 236 Selecting regions 237 Selecting parts of regions with the marquee tool 238 Moving regions 239 Soloing and muting regions 240 Time-stretching regions 241 Demixing MIDI regions 241 Fading and crossfading audio regions 241 Stripping silence from audio regions 242 Creating Folder Tracks 243 Packing and unpacking folders 243 Adding and removing regions 244 Creating alias folders and regions 244 Using Groove Templates 245 Creating a groove template 246 Importing groove templates from other projects 247 Importing third-party groove templates 247 Chapter 14: Editing Audio Tracks 249 Knowing Your Audio Editors 249 The audio track editor 250 The audio file editor 250 The file tempo editor 251 Creating the Perfect Take with Quick Swipe Comping 251 Comping takes 252 Creating alternate comps 253 Editing take regions 253 Packing and unpacking take folders 254 Time Traveling with Flex Time 255 Choosing flex time algorithms 256 Using flex markers 258 Using the flex tool 259 Tuning with Flex Pitch 259 Editing pitch in the tracks area 260 Editing pitch in the audio track editor 260 Editing pitch event hot spots 261 Quantizing the pitch and scale of a region 262 Editing Audio in the Audio File Editor 262 Navigating and playing audio 263 Selecting audio 264 Editing audio 265 Editing Tempo in the File Tempo Editor 267 Editing beat markers 267 Chapter 15: Editing MIDI Tracks 269 Knowing Your MIDI Editors 270 Editing MIDI in the Piano Roll Editor 274 Adding and editing notes 275 Editing the velocity of notes 275 Quantizing notes 276 Muting notes 276 Using automation 277 Editing MIDI in the Step Editor 277 Creating and editing steps 277 Creating and editing lanes 278 Creating and editing lane sets 279 Editing MIDI in the Score Editor 279 Creating and editing notes in the score 280 Investigating the score region inspector 281 Adding items from the part box 282 Editing MIDI in the MIDI Transform Window 283 Using transform presets 284 Creating transform presets 285 Editing MIDI in the Event List Editor 285 Displaying events 285 Creating and editing events 286 Editing Your MIDI Environment 287 Exploring object parameters 287 Viewing environment layers 288 Inserting objects in the environment 288 Part 5: Mixing, Mastering, and Sharing Your Music 289 Chapter 16: Mixing Your Project 291 Understanding Important Mixing Concepts 291 Mindset 292 Acoustics 292 Balance 294 Panning 295 Frequency 296 Depth 297 Effects 297 Dynamics 297 Interest 298 Knowing Your Channel Strip Types 299 Audio channel strips 299 Instrument channel strips 300 MIDI channel strips 300 Auxiliary channel strips 300 Output channel strips 300 Using Meters to Visualize Volume and Levels 301 Understanding clipping 302 Choosing pre-fader or post-fader metering 302 Changing the level-meter scale 304 Using the Loudness Meter 305 Adjusting Channel Strip Controls 305 Adjusting volume and toggling between levels 306 Adjusting the pan balance 306 Muting and soloing tracks 307 Grouping tracks 307 Choosing input and output settings 308 Selecting channel strip settings 309 Taking Track Notes 309 Chapter 17: Shaping Your Mix with Effects 311 Adding Effects to Tracks 311 Adding audio and MIDI insert effects 312 Adding send effects 312 Controlling Signal Flow 314 Understanding how insert and send effects work 314 Using auxiliary channel strips 314 Using multi-output instruments 315 Using the output and master channel strips 316 Adjusting the EQ of Your Tracks 317 Adding Channel EQ 317 Using match EQ 319 Adding Depth with Reverb and Delay 320 Using Space Designer 321 Using ChromaVerb 323 Using Delay Designer 324 Adding or Removing Dynamics with Compression 325 Using Compressor 325 Using Limiter 328 Using other dynamics tools 329 Chapter 18: Automating Your Mix 331 Turning Your Mix Into a Performance with Automation 331 Choosing Your Automation Mode 332 Adding Automation to Your Tracks 333 Adjusting automation points 334 Moving regions with or without automation 334 Recording Live Automation 335 Chapter 19: Mastering Your Final Track 337 Fine-Tuning EQ 338 Using Linear Phase EQ 338 Matching a reference mix with Match EQ 338 Adding Multiband Compression 340 Using Multipressor 341 Avoiding a squashed mix 341 Turn It Up 342 Using Adaptive Limiter for maximum loudness 342 Matching levels to other recorded material 343 Chapter 20: Bouncing and Sharing Your Music 345 Bouncing Your Project 345 Recording external instruments before you bounce 346 Bouncing to an audio file 347 Creating Stems and Alternate Mixes 348 Bouncing a stem mix 349 Bouncing alternate mixes 349 Sharing Your Music 350 Sharing your project to iTunes 350 Sharing your project to the media browser 350 Sharing your project to SoundCloud 351 Part 6: The Part of Tens 353 Chapter 21: Ten Ways to Use an iPad with Logic Pro X 355 Playing Keys 356 Playing Guitar 357 Playing Drums 357 Editing Tracks and Your Arrangement 358 Using Your iPad Mixing Console 360 Recording Remotely 361 Commanding Logic Pro 361 Navigating Logic Pro 362 Adding Tracks with GarageBand for iOS 363 Importing iPad Audio 364 Chapter 22: Ten Tips to Speed Your Workflow 367 Keep Detailed Notes 367 Use Key Commands 368 Use Screensets 368 Save Track Stack Patches and Channel Strip Settings 369 Choose a Tool and Master It 370 Choose a Tool and Ignore It 370 Use the Fastest Way, Not the Right Way 370 Establish a Troubleshooting Strategy 371 Save and Back Up Frequently 371 Don’t Lose Sight of the Music 372 Index 373