A Basic Guide to Using Logic.

Computer Monitor

Monitors (Speakers)

Monitors (Speakers)
Mac Mini
MIDI Keyboard

To create this desk setup, you must first plug your Mac Mini or
other computer in to power and then plug in your MIDI Keyboard and
Audio Interface. In this case, the MIDI/USB Keyboard and Audio
Interface are combined allowing just the one unit to be used.
Logic is a Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) created by Apple that
allows the creation and editing of audio and MIDI files.
In every device that outputs sound in one form or another has a
built in Sound Card. An Audio Interface is just an external sound
card that can be connected by a USB, Lightning or FireWire
connection. This allows for sound to be input and output using
different connections that the one the computer provides. For
example, in the above situation, the speakers are plugged in using
1/4 inch jack connections which the Mac Mini does not have.
Instead the sound is sent to the Keyboard/Audio Interface which
the speakers are then plugged in to.
MIDI stands for Music Instrument Digital Interface. MIDI is just
computer messages sent from the device to the computer itself.
These tell the computer how to recreate the note that the user
intended by monitoring velocity and pitch of the note pressed.
Once MIDI has been inputted into the computer you can double click
on the file to open Piano Roll. This effectively shows you what
notes you pressed, when, for how long and how hard you pressed
them. In piano roll you can also adjust each on of these features
that you can view. It also allows you to make the notes more
accurate by selecting them all and Quantising. This makes sure all
of the notes fit with the music recorded on the other tracks.

Within Logic, you have to add a specific track to determine what

kind of data will be placed with in it. A track will either be a
Software Instrument Track or an Audio Track.
A software instrument is a section of the DAW that takes the MIDI
signals and applies them to a specific instrument or group of
instruments such as a String Ensemble or Grand Piano. This applies
the velocity and pitch from the MIDI data to determine how harsh
or soft the sound of the instrument is. This will be used in the
Radio Advert to add in the majority of the instrument parts.
An Audio Track contains audio in visible wave forms and once
recorded these cannot be edited as accurately as MIDI Files. Audio
files are usually in Stereo. This means that there are two audio
signals condensed into one. Each Separate signal is set to play
our of each ear. This can be heard when you listen to most songs
as some instruments will be more prominent in one ear than the
other. When you record the vocal part for your Radio Advert, you
will use a microphone and this will appear as stereo audio.
Each track with in Logic can have its individual volume adjusted
as well as being able to add effects such as Reverb, Delay or
adding an Equaliser to cut or boost specific frequencies. A track
also has the ability to pan the track to either the left or right
ear as well as being able to Solo the track and hear it on its own
or mute the track so that you don't hear it in the overall mix.
This allows you to ensure that no tracks over power each other and
allows the user to balance the sounds accordingly. These tracks
can either be viewed in the Mixer section of Logic which
displays every track with its fader alongside each other in the
form of a mixer (Below). As well as this, you are able to send
specific tracks to
separate outputs for
monitoring by the
players as they
record into Logic.
This allows them to
hear only what they
want to hear rather
than everything.

Alternatively, you can open the inspector and this

will display just the mixer for the output and the
selected track which allows you to see more of the
project. This is Pictured Right. Notice how the
Inspector is just a condensed version of the
channels on the mixer above which allows for an
easier access during recording and quick playback.

The Transport bar is located in the bottom Left

Hand corner of Logic Express 9 and along the top
bar in Logic Pro X. This bar allows you to Play,
Pause and Record Tracks on the Project. It also
allows you to adjust the Beats Per Minute (BPM) of
the project to control how fast it is played back.
It also allows the editing of the Time Signature of
the project that you are recording. This is show below.

Automation is another feature of Logic that allows the user to

adjust a feature of the track to change automatically over the
course of the song. For example, you can set the volume to fade
down at specific points and then increase back to full volume
after this. This can be used with any of the smart controls of any
of the software instruments, panning, solo and muting. This can
then be set and the software will change this feature at the
points that you have set. This can be accessed by pressing A.
Pictured below is an screenshot of automation that has already
been set in Logic Pro X.

The Yellow lines represent the volume for that track and it can be
seen to reduce and fade down at some points.

The Tool Box in Logic allows quick access to a

number of features. These are all pictured below
and are self explanatory.

The Glue and Scissors tool allow you to split or

join audio and MIDI files together within Logic
making it easier to move them all together.

To create a Radio Advert you must first open Logic Express 9 on

your computer. Once the program has loaded, you will be greeted
with this screen:

For the purpose of making a Radio Advert we will click on Empty

Project.
This will then load the screen that is pictured below. You will
notice that it now asks you how many Audio or Software instrument
tracks you want to add to the new project. You can always add more
later on so for now add 1 Software Instrument track. In this case,
we will not use the External MIDI function of logic.

Once you have added these. The software will open up a blank
project with the one Software Instrument track that you instructed
it to.
As a default in Logic Pro X, it will set the software instrument
as an Electric Piano. It will also open the Inspector that was
described earlier and the Library of patches that will allow you
to choose what instrument you want.

This can be changed by scrolling to the left in the Library

section to choose from one of the Sub menus or by searching the
name of the instrument in the search bar just under the image of
the Electric Piano.
Once you have done this you must choose what tempo it is that you
want your radio advert to be at. You can change this in the
Transport bar that is found at the top of Logic Pro. You simply
have to double click on the number and type in your new BPM.
You are now able to play any tune that you want on the MIDI
Keyboard in front of you. To record, simply press record in the
Transport Bar and wait for your count in and then play your chosen
melody.
To add an audio/vocal track you have to click the + which is
located above the first track. You then connect the microphone to
the back of the MIDI Keyboard or directly to a Soundcard using a
Three Prong XLR Cable. Ensure you hear a click when you plug the
cable in to the microphone. At this point you should turn off your
speakers to ensure that there is no feedback hum and instead use
headphones. You must then need to turn up the gain on the sound
card/MIDI keyboard. This adjusts the amount that the microphone
picks up. You should adjust this so that when the microphone is
spoken into at a distance of about 5 inches, the audio sounds
clean and not fuzzy.
You then just need to press record and record your audio on top of
the MIDI. Once this is recorded, you can use the mixer to adjust
the volume of the individual instruments on top of the audio to
ensure everything is balanced. You may also want to use the
inserts section on the mixer to insert any effects that you may
want to add to each individual track.

You then need to select the entirety of the work that you have
completed using the Selectors on the timeline. You can click and
drag along the bar to expand the selectors. Then to export your

project to a singular audio file you must click File then

Bounce. This will open the below window.

This gives you options as to what type of file format you would
like the audio to be outputted as and where it starts and ends.
This should already be correct and so you simply need to click
OK and wait for the file to export. This will then open in
iTunes and you should listen to it all the way through to ensure
that it sounds exactly how you intended. If you have followed
every step that is listed then you should finish with a perfect
Radio Advert.