In this tutorial, we are going to take a look at the TEMPLATES that come with Logic Pro
X and learn how to create and save our own, as well as gain an understanding of what project
properties are and how we can set them for a project.
I'm going to start by launching Logic Pro X from the dock and it opens up my PROJECT
CHOOSER. If yours opens your most recent project, just click the FILE menu and click CLOSE PROJECT,
and then click FILE > NEW PROJECT FROM TEMPLATE.
Running down the left hand side bar we have a few options.
NEW PROJECT will display Logic's default project TEMPLATES.
RECENT will display a list of your most recently saved PROJECTS.
And MY TEMPLATES will display your custom templates. As I'm yet to create any, it's
blank.
Let's select NEW PROJECT in our side bar to show Logic's TEMPLATES. If we click on each
TEMPLATE icon once you will notice that it gives us a short text description - here.
Now these TEMPLATES do not just contain a selection of software instruments and audio
tracks, they also contain pre-defined PROJECT PROPERTIES that include things like PROJECT
TEMPO, TIME AND KEY SIGNATURES and your PROJECTS SAMPLE RATE.
Whilst these PROJECT PROPERTIES can be changed later, it's best practise to define at least
some of these before you start, especially the SAMPLE RATE, as if you start recording
at one sample rate and decide to change it later, you will have convert your previously
recorded audio regions to match your new sample rate.
To edit PROJECT PROPERTIES just click the DISCLOSURE ARROW next to DETAILS if it is
not already revealed.
With our PROJECT PROPERTY DETAILS visible, if I click through the TEMPLATES you will
notice that the only property that actually changes is the TEMPO value, with all other
settings being exactly the same.
Let's go through each of these settings and look at exactly what it does.
At the top we have the USE MUSICAL GRID checkbox that is enabled by default for all of these
templates. When checked, the RULER in Logic Pro X shows the time format in beats and bars
and is probably the most intuitive time format when working with musical compositions.
If we turn it off, Logic Pro X instead shows the time format in minutes and seconds.
Next we have our TEMPO slider which we can drag to decrease or increase our BPM which
is short for beats per minute. We can also highlight the numeric field and type an exact
BPM or we can click the tap tempo button repeatedly in time to set it. The higher the numeric
BPM value the faster the song and lower the value the slower.
Below this we have the key signature where we can set the tonic or root note for our
composition as well as the scale as either major or minor. Whilst you might be wondering
why you would need to set this at all, it is used for automating tasks such as pitch
quantisation which needs to know the key and scale in order to auto-tune to the correct
scale.
Below the Key Signature we can define our projects Time Signature with 4/4 being the
default as it's the most common time signature for most popular music including hip-hop,
rock and country to name but a few.
The first numeric value, in this case 4 - indicates that there are four beats in a single bar
and the second numeric value indicates the length of each beat as a quarter note. So
a 4/4 bar would be counted as 1, 2, 3, 4, 2,2,3,4 etc.
We can change our Time Signature by clicking the up and down arrows to adjust the beats
per bar, or we can position our mouse over either value which reveals a small blue arrow
over it and drag up and down to adjust. Finally we can double click the numeric field and
type in a time signature.
Below this we can to select our audio input and output. If you have a compatible external
sound card connected it will appear in the drop down menu or I can use my iMac's internal
microphone.
Clicking the AUDIO OUTPUT drop down menu allows us to choose a device to play our audio through
and as I'm using speakers connected to my computers speaker jack I will choose Built-in
Output.
Next we have the sample rate which determines the number of samples Logic uses for audio
playback. Probably most common is 44.1kHZ which is used for audio CD's where as 48kHZ
is used for film and television productions.
Next we have the frame rate and this really only needs to be set if you are composing
or editing for a film or television production as it will affect the SMPTE timecode and ensure
your sound and video stay in sync.
Finally if you are going to be mixing in surround you can choose your format from the drop down
menu here.
Let's select the ELECTRONIC TEMPLATE and double click it to open it.
As you can see it comes with 10 software instrument tracks with different patches inserted. If
you have a MIDI Keyboard connected you could instantly start selecting a track by clicking
the TRACK HEADER and playing to hear how the software instrument patch sounds.
If you don't have an external MIDI keyboard, you can still start playing the software instrument
tracks by using Logic Pro X's own software based MIDI keyboard. To open this click WINDOW
> SHOW MUSICAL TYPING to open it.
This allows us to use the keys on our keyboard to trigger the corresponding notes on the
MUSICAL TYPING window. Note you can use the Z and X keys to change our octave. Once you
have an idea of the sounds available in the ELECTRONIC template, let's close it by going
FILE > CLOSE PROJECT and I won't save this. Then choose FILE > NEW FROM TEMPLATE.
Let's double click the HIP HOP template to open it. If I play through some of these software
instruments you can hear it's more suited to this genre of music and provides a quick
and easy way to start composing.
Of course we can change any of our software instrument patches by selecting an INSTRUMENT
type in our library and choosing a patch.
After using Logic Pro X for a while you will probably find some software instrument patches
that you use a lot as well as identify the perfect number of software and audio tracks
that you typically use in a project but manually adding them every time you start a new project
can be time consuming. This is where saving your own CUSTOM TEMPLATES is a really great
idea.
Let's close our current project by clicking FILE > CLOSE PROJECT or use the short cut
key COMMAND OPTION W. Choose DON'T SAVE.
Now instead of using the FILE MENU to open the PROJECT CHOOSER let's use the shortcut
key COMMAND N.
Let's select EMPTY PROJECT and then set some PROJECT PROPERTIES in the DETAILS area. Let's
say for example I want to create my own HIP HOP TEMPLATE. Well a typical TEMPO would be
88bpm which I can set with my slider.
I also like to work in the key of E Minor so I will set that as well and all the other
settings are fine so I will click CHOOSE. As soon as Logic's Main Window is launched
we instantly get the NEW TRACKS DIALOGUE pop up window as your project has to have at least
one track in order to be created.
I'm going to start with a SOFTWARE INSTRUMENT and in the DETAILS section I will check OPEN
LIBRARY so I can instantly load a patch, then click CREATE.
I will choose DRUM MACHINE > BOUTIQUE 808.
To add some additional tracks I can click the ADD TRACKS + button above the TRACK HEADER
area and this time I will change the number of tracks from 1 to 4 and click CREATE. Now
I can assign patches to these and finally let's add two audio tracks for the
vocals in the same way.
Click the ADD TRACKS + button, click AUDIO and set the track number to 2 and click CREATE.
If I wanted to I could apply relevant patches for my vocals from the LIBRARY
under VOICE.
Now that I have a project created with my PROJECT PROPERTIES and TRACKS set with relevant
PATCHES selected, I can save this is a TEMPLATE by clicking FILE > SAVE AS TEMPLATE.
This automatically opens the PROJECT TEMPLATES FOLDER that Logic checks for custom templates
which is actually stored under USERS/MUSIC/AUDIO MUSIC APPS and we can give this a name and
click SAVE.
Now if I close this project with the shortcut key COMMAND OPTION W - I can select FILE > NEW
FROM TEMPLATE and if I click MY TEMPLATES in the sidebar we can see our custom template
with the PROJECT PROPERTIES we originally set, and opening it restores all our tracks
and patches ready for us to use.