In this tutorial we are going to cover Logic Pro X's interface and learn how it is laid
out and what each area does. In-depth familiarity with Logic's interface will mean increased
productivity when recording and composing, and make following later tutorials much easier.
Let's launch Logic Pro X from the dock. Now what happens after launching Logic Pro X will
depend on your currently selected Startup Action which we will learn to configure in
a later tutorial, but most likely it will launch this window here which is called the
Project Chooser with a selection of Templates ready for you to use or it will open your
most recent project.
If you get the Project Chooser select the Hip Hop template and click CHOOSE.
As you can see it launches a project with a number of tracks already created for us,
made up of software instruments including a drum kit, some synths and a string ensemble
— however the first time your launch Logic Pro X it actually uses a striped back interface
designed more to mimic GarageBand rather than provide the professional features we want
to be using throughout this video tutorial series — so the first thing we are going
to is enable the ADVANCED TOOLS.
To do this click Logic Pro X in the upper left of the MENU BAR > PREFERENCES > ADVANCED
TOOLS then click the checkbox next to SHOW ADVANCED TOOLS to enable the advanced features.
This will quickly refresh Logic's interface and not only do we get additional features,
it also removes the wood finished side bars found in the BASIC MODE and as you can see
in our ADVANCED TOOLS preference window we get the ability to enable ADDITIONAL OPTIONS
but for now we can leave as is and close and start learning about Logic Pro X's interface.
Now what we see in Logic Pro X taking up the whole screen in a single window is called
the Logic Pro Main Window. In order to maximise screen real-estate I like to hide my dock
by clicking the Apple icon in upper left of the screen, select DOCK then click TURN HIDING
ON or you can use the shortcut COMMAND - OPTION - D to hide and show the dock. Then just click
the green jewel to have Logic fill the entire screen.
Alternatively we can use Logic in full screen mode by click the full screen icon in the
upper right of the main window. This hides the menu bar but mousing over it will reveal
it. To exit we can press the escape key on the keyboard or mouse over to reveal the menu
bar at the top and click the exit full screen mode in the upper right. I prefer to have
my menu displayed at all times without having to mouse over it.
As we haven't recorded anything our project looks very bare. To get more of an idea of
what a professional project looks like we can load the Foster The People demo project
that comes with Logic Pro X. Simply click HELP in the menu bar, then LOGIC PRO DEMO
PROJECT.
Click CLOSE and DONT SAVE as we didn't make any changes and it will start to load the
demo project. Now that this looks a bit more serious, let's delve into the interface.
The largest part of the Logic Pro's Main Window is the TRACKS AREA, and this where you record,
arrange and edit the audio regions that makeup your project.
Audio regions are laid out horizontally with the playhead which is the vertical white line
with the v-shaped head at the top, moving from left to right as it plays.
You can click anywhere along the ruler to have the PLAYHEAD jump to a particular location
within the song or it can be dragged.
We can use the vertical and horizontal zoom sliders in the upper right of the TRACKS area
to zoom in and out or use the short cut keys COMMAND - LEFT/RIGHT ARROW to zoom horizontally
or COMMAND - UP AND DOWN ARROW to zoom vertically.
Each individual track is stacked vertically with each row representing a track and it's
audio regions. As you can see in this demo project we have three different track types
that make up this song.
We can see by the waveforms that Lead Vocals A & B as well as Distorted Guitar represent
audio tracks that have been recorded into Logic Pro X.
If we look at the BACKING VOCALS STACK track, you will see in the audio region multiple
rows of stacked lines and if you look at the TRACK HEADER, you will notice a disclosure
triangle next to our track icon. If we click this it reveals the contents of the folder
which actually contains multiple tracks.
If we click the disclosure triangle next to the SYNTH STACK you will notice that TRACK
STACKS can contain both audio and midi regions and we will learn how to create, manage and
automate these in a later tutorial.
Our final audio region type which we can see on the BASS CUT UP track is graphically represented
by blocks of MIDI data and these tracks are whats known as software instruments inside
of Logic Pro X.
Now to the left of the TRACKS AREA we have the TRACK HEADER CONTROLS which allow us to
name each track, quickly mute or solo a particular track, and if I drag this out a little I can
reveal individual volume sliders for each track.
We can also configure what is visible in the TRACK HEAD CONTROL by right clicking on a
track header, selecting TRACK HEADER COMPONENTS and for example, turning on SHOW PAN/SEND
and if you don't see it straight away, you can drag it out to reveal it.
If I start clicking the TRACK HEADERS to select different tracks you will notice that the
area on left changes. This part of Logic Pro's interface is call the INSPECTOR and it lets
you view and edit the parameters associated with a certain track.
At the very top of the INSPECTOR you will notice we have the QUICK HELP area which can
be hidden and revealed by clicking the disclosure triangle. If you don't see this make sure
the ? icon is turned on in the CONTROL BAR.
This is a really neat feature for users new to Logic Pro X as it will offer help as you
move your mouse over different areas. For example if I mouse over the track name it
tells us we can double click it to rename. If I mouse over the H button it tells us it
is the HIDE BUTTON and explains how it works. This is great if your not sure what a certain
button does.
Below Quick Help is the REGION INSPECTOR and this will change to reflect your currently
selected audio region. If I click the BASS CUT UP audio region it updates and you will
notice it allows to view and adjust the quantisation or transpose the track.
I'm going to pass over GROUPS and the TRACK INSPECTOR for now but we will look at these
in more detail later.
In the lower part of the INSPECTOR we get two channel strips: The channel on the left
adjusts the selected track and one on the right adjusts the MASTER OUTPUT CHANNEL.
Above the volume slider and pan control, you can view and open the AUDIO EFFECT SLOTS with
their inserted PLUGINS.
Running across the top of Logic Pro's Main Window is the CONTROL BAR and you will notice
that on the far left of the CONTROL BAR the INSPECTOR BUTTON is highlighted light blue.
If we click this, it hides the INSPECTOR and is greyed out again. Let's open the INSPECTOR
again and let's also click the LIBRARY BUTTON to reveal the LIBRARY which contains all our
instruments patches and presets as well as the TOOLBAR BUTTON which reveals additional
edit buttons. These are grouped above the left region of Logic's interface as they directly
affect the area of the screen below them.
If we look at the next grouping of buttons in the CONTROL BAR you will notice one is
already selected and this is the SMART CONTROLS BUTTON which opens the SMART CONTROLS at the
bottom of Logic Pro's Main Window.
In effect SMART CONTROLS allow you to quickly modify properties of the currently selected
patch and you can see that it will change if I start clicking through my tracks depending
on the track selected and the plugins or patches inserted on that particular track.
If we go back up to the CONTROL BAR, next to the SMART CONTROLS BUTTON we can display
the MIXER or EDITORS in it's place, but unlike our side INSPECTOR and LIBRARY, we can only
display one in the lower region of Logic Pro X at a time.
Next in the CONTROL BAR we have the TRANSPORT CONTROLS that allows us to GO TO THE BEGINNING
OF THE PROJECT, PLAY FROM SELECTION, REWIND, MOVE FORWARD, STOP PLAYBACK AND RECORDING,
PLAY FROM CURRENT PLAYHEAD POSITION, PAUSE and RECORD.
The middle area of the CONTROL BAR is the LCD which allows us to view our current playhead
position in BARS, BEATS and BEAT DIVISIONS as well as set our projects TEMPO by BPM as
well as the projects Key Signature and Time Signature.
In the far right of the CONTROL BAR we can reveal our right region interface elements
starting with the LIST EDITORS BUTTON which will allow you to browse all the elements
contained within your project and can be used to make precise edits using numeric values.
Next along we have the NOTE PADS BUTTON and this allows you to make notes on the entire
project or on individual tracks and is ideal for collaborative sessions or reminding yourself
where you left off on a project.
Next we have the APPLE LOOPS BROWSER BUTTON which allows us to search for and preview
all our Apple Loops and drag them into our current project.
Finally we have the BROWSER BUTTON in the far right which allows us to view all the
elements in the current project, access audio elements stored in your iTunes Library as
well as your hard drive or external drive. This is Logics file browser.
Well that is Logic Pro X's interface and we will delve into how you actually use all these
tools in later tutorials but once you understand how Logic Pro X is laid out, it's not as complex
as it looks and is incredibly powerful and easy to use. Anything we didn't cover here
will be featured later on, so now that we have a good understanding of the interface
let's get into the really cool stuff.