#128: 3 Essential Logic Pro X Music Production Workflow Tips

Ever faced the frustration of finding a decent Logic Pro X tutorial on music production workflow tips or even just how to use Logic Pro X for beginners? Then check out EP 128 of the Inside The Mix podcast.

Ever wonder how the pros get that flawless, seamless sound in their productions? Prepare to up your Logic Pro X game as I take you behind the digital curtain to reveal my top three Logic Pro music production workflow strategies. With over 15 years in the game, my battle-tested tips and tricks are yours to command. From the MIDI Chase function that will keep your playbacks smooth, to multi-tool editing that'll have you slicing and dicing with ease, this episode is your invitation to master the tools that make music production an art form.

This time, it's just you and me- no guests, just pure, distilled knowledge from the front lines of audio engineering. Discover how to leverage Logic Pro's features to automate fader levels like a pro, ensuring your auxiliary sends are nothing short of perfection. Whether you're a Logic newbie or an old hand looking to refine your craft, my insights will transform your workflow, skyrocket your efficiency, and infuse your creative process with magic that listeners can't get enough of. Tune in and take your music production prowess to the next level.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:01

You're listening to the Inside the Mix podcast with your host, mark Matthews. Hello and welcome to the Inside the Mix podcast. I'm Mark Matthews, your host, musician, producer and mix and mastering engineer. You've come to the right place if you want to know more about your favorite synth music artists, music engineering and production, songwriting and the music industry. I've been writing, producing, mixing and mastering music for over 15 years and I want to share what I've learned with you. Hello folks, welcome to the Inside the Mix podcast. If you are a new listener, make sure you hit that follow button on your podcast player of choice and if you're watching this on YouTube, make sure you hit subscribe and that notification bell so you get notified of any new episodes. And, as always to my returning listeners, a big welcome back.

Speaker 1: 0:48

So, at the point of recording this episode, it is exciting times, as always here at Inside the Mix Towers, I have just reopened the doors to the 90 day producer bootcamp, so I've got three spaces available for anybody who wants to jump on that. Head over to synthmusicmasteringcom and click on the link for coaching and you can learn more and you can watch a lovely video I put together which explains it all and why you need to get involved. And whilst you're there, click on the Free Bees page and download my free producer growth scorecard and take on the 28 day challenge and gamify your music production, songwriting and mixing and absolutely boss it this year in 2024. And, like I say, even better, it's 100% free and it 10xed to my results last year and resulted in the EP release Lost and Found. So, folks, you know me, I'm all about efficiency and doing things right first time. So this episode is dedicated to Logic Pro, but the ideas in this episode you can take into other DAWs and this episode is my top three essential Logic Pro workflow tips.

Speaker 1: 1:59

So workflow tip number one here we are in Logic Pro and we are in the piano roll here, and when I play back this MIDI sequence I'm halfway through some MIDI notes here. I don't get any sound until a new MIDI note is triggered from the beginning. As you heard then, there was a bit of silence at the beginning, right for those of you listening. So what we can do is if we go up to File and we go to Project Settings and then MIDI, and then we go to Chase and toggle notes, what happens now is I'm going to play it from the same place halfway well, probably a third of the way through these two MIDI notes and listen as if magic. My problem has been solved is now triggering halfway or whatever point through a MIDI note, and that is MIDI Chase. Folks use it. I introduced this last year. For so long I wasted time waiting to get to the beginning of a MIDI note, but no longer give it a go. So here we go.

Speaker 1: 2:59

Tip number two, and this is an editing tip. Now, when it comes to editing, I like to use multiple tools, as I'm sure you do as well. We've got the pointer tool, the marquee tool, the gain tool, the scissor tool, et al. All right, there's a lot of different tools available and by default in Logic Pro you've got two that you can immediately access. We've got the left click and we've got the command click, and you can see if you're watching this, my left click is just a pointer tool and the command click is the marquee tool. But what we can do is we've got a third tool. So if you press command and comma, it will take you to the settings menu and then we have general and then if you click on editing, you'll see it says right mouse button, and I'm gonna change this to is assignable to a tool. And now if you're watching this, you'll see at the top of the timeline I've now got three tools. So my right click is now a gain tool. So when I right click now in an audio region, you'll see I can now adjust the gain of that audio region, and I use that a lot specifically in podcast editing, but also when I'm editing vocals, just as I've shown you here. So that is tip number two and that is the assignable right click tool.

Speaker 1: 4:11

So here's my third and final logic pro workflow tip. So here we are in my session here and I've got this vocal distortion auxiliary send and I wanna automate the fader level of this auxiliary send. Yes, I could automate the level going to it from the actual vocal track, but this time I want to automate the actual fader of this particular send. And to do that it's really simple. I need to right click on the label for the auxiliary send itself in the mixer window and click on create track. Now if I press X, you'll see I've got this vocal distortion track appear in my timeline. I'm just gonna drag it down underneath my vocal stack and if I press A now I can then just click to create a volume automation lane. Well, it's already in the volume automation lane and now I can automate that fader. So there we go, folks. Really quick, that is how you can automate the fader of an auxiliary channel in Logic Pro.

Speaker 1: 5:08

So there we go, folks, my three top Logic Pro workflow tips. Give them a go. They're transferable to any DAW and their likelihood is it probably already exists in a DAW and it may well be easier. But you know what. You choose your DAW, you pick your poison right and before you go, make sure you head over to synthmusicmasteringcom. Forward, slash free and download my producer growth scorecard. Take on the 28 day challenge and gamify your music production, songwriting and mixing as well. I did it and it 10 X'd my output. So head over to synthmusicmasteringcom, forward, slash free. Alternatively, you can click the link in the episode description.