Speaking of solid Logic plug-ins, don’t overlook the Vintage Console EQ . Sounds great out of the box, and can really go a long way in shaping a sound.
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All the Vintage EQ’s really! The Pultec one (Tube) is really nice as well
My favorite plugin by far is ChromaGlow. I may be overusing it, but it’s my one stop shop for compression / saturation / tone shaping
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is proving indispensable
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FX question for the Pro pros (I don’t think a Track Stack is the way to do what I’m thinking)…
I have my Alpha Juno tracked in on two mono channels (L & R) to create the single stereo image. In applying FX generally, should i duplicate plugins as inserts and just copy from the Left track over to the Right track? Or just use Track Stack and add plugins that I only have to set once?
But specifically with delay, I’d like to be able to create an effect between the two channels that ping pongs the identical recorded signals between the L & R tracks in sync with whatever delay setting works best for the tempo or groove. I don’t think it’s as simple as just setting an insert delay plugin on one channel and then playing with the Ping Pong parameter, i.e., because the other channel is just staying static without any FX at all. but if anyone’s had experience essentially applying delay effect to “dual mono” signals, i’m open to any/all suggestions. thx!
I’m assuming there’s a reason you want to keep L and R as two mono channels instead of one grouped stereo channel (if there’s not, let me know and we’ll talk about how to set that up).
But if you want to get two monos (or any number of channels, really) into a stereo track, busses are the way. This is actually what a summing track stack will do for you behind the scenes, but I find doing it manually less confusing.
Do this:
- Make sure the L channel is panned hard left.
- On the L channel strip, find the output selector. It’ll be just below the sends and is usually set to “stereo out” by default.
- Click it, find the “Bus >” submenu, and select any empty bus. Bus 1 probably makes the most sense.
- Now a number of things happen:
- A new stereo aux strip is automatically created (called Aux1)
- Its input is automatically set to the bus you selected (bus 1).
- It’s therefore fed with signal from your L track, but because it’s hard panned left, it’s only filling the left channel of the aux.
- Now do the same thing with your R channel (only making sure it’s panned hard right). When selecting the bus for output, pick the same one you chose before (bus 1 in this example).
Now the new aux channel should be getting both left and right signals. By default the aux’s output should get routed to Stereo Out, which is probably what you want. But you can also route it to another bus, or some other ports on your interface, or whatever.
You can put any FX you like on this channel, pop EQ on there, pan and set levels, add some sends, etc. The easiest way to see the channel strip to add FX on there is probably to go to the mixer view. But it will also show up in the “inspector” on the left as the output of tracks L or R.
I’m not sure I understand the delay part of your question, but this will let you treat the aux just as if it were a stereo instrument or recording. So if you can do it on a normal stereo track, you’ll be able to do it on the aux.
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If I was tracking 2 mono parts to create a stereo track I’d probably merge to a stereo file and then keep the processing simple but if I’m double tracking (eg guitar) I’d go the bus route exactly the same way as jemmons detailed.
Another way to do it would be to create an effect bus with the delay inserted there, set 100% and send the hard panned mono tracks to it. The cool thing with that way is you could automate the send levels if you wanted to feed the ping pong from one channel or the other, but it would end up creating more work then the other method.
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Grouping to a stereo channel is, IMO, the way to go. Stereo (or dual mono) plugins, fine control over width, easy control over EQ/compression/…
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nothing against grouping them as a stereo channel, it’s just how this one gets tracked into Logic from my Big Six on two of the mono imputs, which felt like an opportunity to apply FX in a different way than the other traditional stereo inputs. thanks for the suggestions!
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the quantec reverb is ridiculous. great at clear pristine rooms and realism… but also manages to do a lot more.
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What’s the best way to get autopan going - smooth and slow and also random patterns?
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I think the most idiomatic way to do this in Logic is the stereo Tremelo audio FX. That will give you a whole lot of LFO-like options, but not random.
To do random, if you’re on a midi/instrument track, add a Modulator to your MIDI FX. The LFO there has all the standard LFO-like options including random.
Then add a utility gain to your audio FX. It has a balance parameter. Back in the Modulator, have it “Learn Plugin Parameter", and click on the utility gain’s balance UI.
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Ok cool that works. I’m all audio for now. Recording hardware into logic and processing it in there. Just using stock plugs so I wanted to figure that out. The compressor in logic is incredibly good, kind of a revelation coming from Ableton. Just had to figure out what to do with no auto pan plugin, your suggestions should do the trick.
Using 1 or more of Step FX / Phat FX is the answer for me for a lot of ‘what in Logic does this thing other DAWs did’ in a very quick and streamlined interface.
For panning, one of the lanes in Step FX is Pan. Default preset has a nice auto pan set up by default and it’s very easy to dial in your custom pattern. Switching to one of the random options generates a random pattern on the fly, and every time you switch away and back to that random option it will generate a new pattern.
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i found that stacking them as summed tracks and applying Sample Delay got the effect i wanted (zero delay on the L and then adjust the R delay until you get a hard pan back and forth in time, and varying Wide, Wider, Widest widths)
But the Step FX is just mind bogglingly deep for getting some crazy grooves and filter effects. will have to spend a lot more time digging into all the possibility…