The sampler is fantastic, particularly how easy it is to convert an audio track to a sampler one.
I’ve always really liked ES2. The interface is a bit dated now but it is great for creating sounds to process further. Sculpture is also incredible sounding but looks pretty unappealing
Recently I’ve been creating drums with the drum synth specifically to layer with sampled drums to fill in frequencies that need a bit of a boost
Chromaverb and chroma glow both sound great, the stock tape delay is on almost every track I make and for mixing purposes the simple distortion just does the trick (esp if you keep the gain down and use it like a clipper)
The “Vintage” instruments (Clav, B3, EP, and Mellotron) are all excellent when you need that thing.
ES2 is a great sounding VA synth (seriously, an all-time fave of mine) with tons of filter and modulation options. It’s UI is quite dated at this point, but there’s so much good stuff to find in there.
Retro Synth is criminally underrated. It has “analog” and “sync” modes (Moog-ish), “table” (dual wavetable not unlike the new Wavefinder in the TV), and FM (PortaSound-style 2op ) modes, all with a fantastic sounding filters.
Sculpture is a really deep and great sounding physical modeling synth. Again a bit of a dated UI, but worth the effort.
And of course there’s Sampler and Quick Sampler for all of that jazz.
FX wise:
Logic’s compressors are the best out there. I like them more than any plugs I’ve used. Seriously, if you do nothing else, really give them a run through.
The Amp Designer, Pedal Board, and associated Stomp Boxes all do what you think.
Beat Breaker is tons of fun. Load a loop and go to town.
ChromaVerb goes for… something. It’s a special reverb, but I’m way more into the algorithm than I am the results. Still, it’s unique and has interesting sweet spots.
Room Simulator works on anything. Seriously. It’s glorious.
Silververb has a distinctly digital/retro sound that I use way more than I should.
Space Designer is for all your impulse response needs.
Looking for a little heat? ChromaGlow is good for subtle coloration.
The Tape Delay, too. Turn off the “Delay” and turn up the “Character”.
As mentioned, the Mastering Assistant is pretty good. Worth trying out on the master, anyway.
The standard/linear EQs do what it says on the tin.
The Matching EQ is for finding the curves of reference tracks.
Vintage EQ has nice API, Neve, and Pultec emulations.
Yeah. I wouldn’t call it “weird vs. hardware”. I’d call it “performance vs. the studio”. But yeah, while both are very capable in many different areas these days, they’re definitely coming from different places.
+1 on the quantec room simulator. I’m mad i only discovered it recently but it has been my go-to since. Also interesting that Apple bought the company that made the original hardware and the version we have in logic is allegedly the exact algorithm ; not an approximation like we see with most plugins that try to emulate hardware (including some of logic’s other stock plugs)
The Quantec is stunning. I love fancy plugins, but this is the real deal. It’s wild it’s free and just inside Logic. Anyone who hasn’t spent real time learning the ins and outs of it are missing out. It’s top notch stuff.
I’m doing simple hardware 2 mix recordings into logic but this has been helping me get comfortable with the software. I’m still getting used to the quirks of editing. Example- looks like you have to mouse right in the middle of an audio clip to adjust its length. Zoom is CMD + arrows and doesn’t use the scroll wheel. Stuff like that I have to get used to.
When I compose again in the daw hopefully I will have developed the muscle memory to do it all on logic and mainly use the stock plugs.
So the pro way to zoom is hold ⌥ and then scroll on a touchpad. Left and right for horizontal and up and down for vertical. If you’re using an actual scroll wheel (just up and down) I think there’s another modifier you can hold to switch between vetical and horizontal. Maybe shift?
The other tip here is “Z” (no modifiers) automatically zooms so the selection fills the screen. Want to focus on just a region or two? Drag-select them and tap “Z”. Want to go back to your whole arrangement? ⌘A to select all, then tap “Z” to fit everything to the screen.
As to adjusting length of regions, click and drag from their lower right to make them longer/shorter. ⌥+drag from the lower right to stretch them. Click and drag from the upper right to loop.
All assuming you have the pointer tool selected, of course. To quickly change between tools, tap “T”. That will bring up a tool menu directly under your mouse. You can select one from there by clicking on it or by pressing its shortcut key, displayed next to the tool in the menu. Note that the shortcut for the pointer is “T”, so if you ever want to quickly get back to the pointer from some other tool, you can just tap “T” twice.
I’m finding this discussion very interesting, as I have access to Logic Pro through a work software bundle purchase. I tend to shy away from music-related work on my laptop (scrolling Elektronauts aside) but I’d like to know what simple uses I might put it to with my other devices. To that end, can anyone recommend good learning materials? I tend to prefer written, and I’m good with technical detail. The occasional short video can be useful but I don’t want to watch hours of them. Thanks!
Oh shit, this is all great. All of it. Just tried this now and it’s exactly what I needed to know. Need to do it 100x to get the muscle memory but this makes it so much easier.
The Logic amps sound great. I have used many of the big virtual amp plugins and do not prefer any of them over the Logic amps. Some have more variety, more (and better) pedal options, and additional functionality, but the Logic amp sounds are excellent. Especially the Vox and Marshall IMO. Definitely prefer just using Logic rather than Guitar Rig. I do like Genome a lot though and use it in addition to the Logic models, but I mostly bought it for when I’m working in Ableton.
+1 for the Logic manual, I’ve rarely looked at videos for anything apart from niche things. Smart tempo took the most figuring out coming from Ableton / Bitwig.
Imho retrospective record / skipback sampling is the single most important and consequential feature to come to a DAW in years in terms of process. This quote from Bob Blank about working with Arthur Russell sums it up:
Arthur showed me that anything is possible, that music is a continuous flow or process. Music can evolve out of things. It’s not a form that you fit things into.
I mean, you could always - as they did on tape - just hit record and leave it running, but that has downsides in terms of the time investment needed to go through it after and pick out the good bits. I’ve kept my 404 on the master of everything more or less since I’ve had one but having it natively is obviously better in terms of routing/latency as appropriate. Had a session on Logic with guitars last night, just a completely different and much better experience to arming and hitting record.
Also +1 for the Logic manual. No joke, everything I know about synths, sound design, and DSP I learned from reading the old, paper, Logic 4 binders on the subway, imagining what everything would sound like, and then trying it out when I finally got home.
Obviously a lot has changed since then (including the owners of Logic and the people responsible for the manual)! But whenever I check them out to read up on a new feature or update, I find it very informative.
There’s a guy named MusicTechHelpGuy that does a lot of Logic tutorials on YouTube and sells courses and stuff. I haven’t checked him out, but I have a friend learning Logic that infinitely prefers watching him to having me prattle on
Someone gave me a cracked version of Logic for the Mac in 2000 or so. I wasn’t into synths at that point, but I did have children who were good at violin and piano and wanted to record them. I didn’t do much with it at the time.
Seconds after downloading my (this time legal) software, I found and downloaded the main manual and various auxiliary guides. I will definitely start there.
I was chasing an intermittent click when monitoring in Logic. I thought it might be some new hardware or maybe old hardware acting up. Turns out that I had turned on some “handoff” features with my fairly recently purchased phone. For whatever reason every minute or two it would make a click through my monitors.
Just a reminder to myself that I’ve gotten too cavalier with updates, features, and devices with my computer that is 99% a DAW.
