Getting Creative with Logic Pro X’s Flex Audio Features - Tuts+ Music & Audio Tutorial.pdf

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Getting Creative with LogicPro X’s Flex Audio Featuresby Rohan Yellore 2 Jul 2014 1 Comment

This tutorial will demonstrate the process of using a single sample to create thefoundation of a track primarily using Flex Pitch. It should help people with writer's blockget some inspiration to create something new. I will only be using samples and tools thatcome with Logic Pro X, so everyone can try this out without any external tools or plugins.

Step 1

To start off, I'll be setting my tempo to 126 BPM and the key of the project to D minor. Youcan chose any tempo or key you like when experimenting with this technique in the future.With some basic knowledge of music theory, a part of this technique can actually be usedto find the key of a melodic sample if you plan to use it as the basis of a new track.

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Here we are setting the key from the beginning because we want Logic to play everysample or loop in the key of the song instead of the original key. This is an amazingfeature in Logic, and can be very useful when dropping in melodic samples midwayduring production.

Note: A bit of care should be taken, as sometimes altering the pitch of a sample too muchmight produce undesirable results. Trust your ears.

Step 2

Next we open up the loop browser from the right hand side of the toolbar, and import anappropriate sample to work with. I say appropriate since this technique will not work wellwith polyphonic samples or complete tracks. The best samples to work with are solomelodic instruments and vocals. The less processing, the better the results.

In this case, I have used a vocal sample called "Yasmin Melody 05". This is part of the"Voices" pack, if you haven't downloaded it yet, you can do so by selecting DownloadAdditional Content from the Logic Pro X menu. It can be found in the Legacy &Compatibility section. Once you have located the sample, drag it into the arrangement.

Step 3

Now, locate the Show/Hide Flex button on the project's toolbar. Clicking it will put all the


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tracks in the project in Flex mode and show the corresponding options. Set the FlexMode to Flex Pitch as you see in the image below.

The waveform will now change to show the notes it has detected and the variation in pitchof each note from the key it is meant to be in.

You can highlight all notes and pull down on the note which is most distant from themedian to bring them all into perfect pitch.


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Step 4

Double click on the clip to open it up in the Audio Editor window. Once the Audio Editorwindow comes up, from its Edit menu, select Create MIDI Track from Flex Pitch Data.


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A new track will be created with a MIDI region in place that contains the notes from thesample we used. That was simple enough, but usually it needs a little tweaking. Mainlywith note length and quantize. Both of these can be easily fixed right here in the AudioEditor.

Step 5

Select all the notes (Command+A) and select a Time Quantize value from the left handpanel. I have used the standard 1/16 note quantize. You can also change the note lengthat this point to your liking. Notice i have overlapped a couple of notes to facilitate glide.

Step 6

Next, open an instance of the ES2 synth and load the Classic Techno 02 preset. Itweaked it a little, you can look that up from the image below. Although, you could use


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any synth or preset you like.

Step 7

Now we can go ahead and make things a little interesting by adding some basic beatsfrom the Logic Pro X library and chopping up the vocal sample we used to create the MIDInotes. For this example, I used the Technical House Beat 02 from the Tech House Pack.

The process to chop up audio by note length in Logic is very simple. If you are chopping itup into sixteenths like I have done here, place the cursor at the end of the first sixteenthdivision, hold down Option and click. The entire sample will be automatically choppedinto sixteenths. This works the same if you want to chop it into any other size as well.


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Step 8

Remove or rearrange these chopped parts to create interesting vocal stabs or effects.How this is done is entirely up to you. If you would like to see how I did it, refer to the lastimage of the tutorial.

Conclusion

You can now go ahead and use a combination of these techniques as well as someeffects to sculpt out a track.


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For example. I used some basic effects in Logic like reverb and delay to add moredimension to the vocals and synth line. I also made a copy of the MIDI region and used asimplified variation as my bass track. The bass instrument is Logic's ES M synth.

So once again, here is the final product after tweaking:

You can now go ahead and either replicate this with the same samples and edits or try outyour own. Have fun!

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Difficulty:Intermediate

Length:Medium

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Getting Creative with Logic Pro X’s Flex Audio Features - Tuts+ Music & Audio Tutorial.pdf

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