Guide To Logic

Terms You Will See On Logic (Part 1)

Quantizing: Commands Logic to fit all selected notes into a certain timeframe, this can make an out of time or inaccurate recording sound
as though it were played perfectly.
Normalizing: Applying gain to an audio recording to bring it up to a target level.
Transposing: To change the key of a piece of music by shifting the notes. This is useful if your composition has to accommodate a vocalist or
instrumentalist.
Piano Roll: Allows notes to be written in using a cursor instead of using a MIDI controller. This is useful if you cant play a MIDI controller to a
desired level, so the notes can just be manually inserted.
Looping: A repeating segment of sound. Clicking the loop bar on a Logic file will cause the selected section to be played on repeat. If you
are attempting to find your desired sound on a particular part of your composition this is useful as that one segment will play over and over
allowing for easy modification.
Automation: This allows Logic to remember the audio engineers adjustment of faders and move them, without it being done manually
allowing for ease of volume and panning control.
Delay: This is an effect that can be applied on Logic, it stores a sound and plays it after a certain period of time has passed.
Velocity: A measure of how hard the key was originally pressed on the keyboard, this affects the attack of the note and its volume.
Dynamics: The volume of a note.
Mixer: The equivalent of a mixing board in a studio. The mixer allows level adjustment, group bussing, input addition and panning.
Busses: Tracks can be assigned to a bus. This means that all the tracks can be adjusted as a group. Drum kits are typically assigned to a
bus as you want each individual drum to sound similar to the rest of the kit, however it is also used for many other groups of instruments.
Panning: Deciding where in the audio field a sound will be played. Tracks can be panned to the centre, left, right or somewhere in between.
E.g. if you were to pan a guitar all the way to the right in the audio field, the sound of the guitar will only play from the right speaker.
Metronome: A click track which can be set to various time signatures and BPMs, allowing recording to be done in time.

Terms You Will See On Logic (Part 2)

Audio Regions: The blue rectangular object on a Logic file that you will see
after audio is recorded. This will display how long the recording was and
how much sound was recorded by displaying the sound waves.
MIDI Regions: The green rectangular object on a Logic file that you will see
after notes are inputted, usually via a MIDI keyboard, this displays how
long the notes are and where in the composition the notes are sitting.
Transport Bar: The area at the bottom of the Logic file which has the play,
pause, record, rewind, fast forward, skip forward and skip back buttons.
Moreover, it has the metronome button, soloing, looping and volume
controls.
Insert Slots: This is where you can insert an effect plug in to a particular
track. There are a huge number of effect plug ins ranging from reverb,
compression, pitch shifter and many more.
Play Head: Indicates which part of the Logic file is currently playing.

Automatio
n

Delay

Loop Bar

Quantizin
g
Transposi
ng
Velocit
y

Logic
Instrument
s

Play
head

Insert
Slots
Busses
Volume
Fader

Pannin
g
Mute/Sol
o

Zoom
Functio
ns

Mixer
Piano

Play/Pau

Tempo

Metronome

Opening A New Project

1) First you will need to click the
Logic icon on the desktop, which will
look like this:

2) Then go to file and click

new.
3) Then click empty project
and it will take you to the
screen displayed in the
previous slide.

Saving A Track
2) Then make sure
these two boxes are
ticked.

1) First, go to the top left of the screen and go to

file, then click save.

3) Choose what you want the

project to be called and type it
into the save as section, then
choose a save location.

4) Click save.

Bouncing A Track

1) To bounce a track go to file and

then bounce, you can then choose a
destination to bounce to, in this
example I have chosen MP3. After
you have chosen click bounce.

Used as a
cursor.

Tools On Logic

Used to write notes

into the piano roll.
Deletes parts of the file.
Write on regions,
useful for naming
them.
Cut up regions into
smaller sections.
Glue together regions
to make them one.
Solos one track so it
plays alone.

Used to flex
Used to modify
audio to
any automation
different Temporar
thats used.
timings. y

Mutes a track so it
cant be heard.
Adds fade to the
beginning or end
of a track.

Zoom in on a specific
area.

Typical Studio Setup

XLR
Cables =
Speakers

Monitor/ Computer
Screen

MIDI
Interface
Control
Surface
MIDI
Controller

Ta
l
Co kba
nt ck
rol
ler

So
u

Au
di
o
M
Pr ic
ea
m

nd
ca
rd
In
te
rfa
ce

XLR Cables

The top of a
3 pin XLR
cable

XLR cables are a type of electrical connector that

are commonly found in many professional studio
settings. They can come in many forms, the main
difference being the number of pins you will find in
the head of the cable. The most common type of
XLR cable is the three pin XLR cable.

Female

Male