Realtime Loop Making in Logic Pro #2

Realtime Loop Making in Logic#1

Just thought I’d do this for fun…. No idea what Im doing or where I am heading but its maybe fun to see the work flow.

Learning to mix… by focusing on EQ.

The instrumentals are ready… I want to share them… but I need to mix them so they sound ‘OK’…. right?

The mixing end of making music, is for me, the toughest step to complete. I always get this stage where Ive made some songs… they sounds OK… but i know they are going to sound pretty bad when I play them on a laptop or normal household speakers.

Well I think I’ve finally worked out how to get over the finish line!!

Im was determined to find a process and win-over my weakness in this area of music… so Ive come up with a few things to help me out.

What I am not going to focus on

• Compression (I am pretty used to using compression for recording and shaping sound. I am not so skilled when it comes to compression in mixing. I’ve decided not to focus too much on compression for this stage of the project)
• Reverbs (As you know if you have read my previous posts I am using synths from Logic X on the project… you load them up… they have reverbs on them. I have decided not to focus too much on the verbs for the mixing right now)

What I am going to focus on

• EQ. I am not going to do any super-major re-shapping of individual sounds, but I am going to be focusing my energy on trying to get good sound placement of the instruments in the song. So for me this means… working with the kick and bass drum… and avoiding clashes of sounds in the upper mids and high end.
• Stereo Image. Creating a good balanced sound stage for the instruments in the song.
• Overall EQ of the song. This is a part of the mastering process I guess. But basically I will aiming to get the overall song sounding ‘strong’ and ‘clear’ EQ wise.

I will put up a few before and afters in the next couple of days… lets see if I am winning!! 🙂

 

Visually inspired

Over the last couple of days I have been writing some new loops, but also playing with mixing some of the existing songs.

I want to upload the songs at this stage and share them… before I move on and develop them further (maybe add additional instrumentation or vocals?). So it got me thinking about doing quick videos for the songs…. then I thought about ‘TraceLoops’… an amazingly talented artist based ‘somewhere in the world’!

I came across his/her Instagram account a few weeks ago… really nice, loops of hand painted animations. So I thought “I’m gunna just contact them and see if it works”.

Heres the TraceLoops facebook page… check it out!

Here’s where I am at… I did a screen grab of a loop from instagram and added one of my instruments. Currently uploading it to Youtube, then I’ll contact them and lets see how it goes! 🙂

Wish me luck.

Rough mixing time

Now I’ve transferred the sessions onto the studio computer and started listening a few of the songs through the studio speakers… just working through and making some basic mix fixes with EQ, compression and levels.

Heres a video from today. Again its a realtime thing showing my work process.

As I’ve posted before, this is my first Logic Pro project… I’ve always worked on Pro Tools before now so finding some of the functions is sometimes a little long winded!! (like finding specific UAD plugins!! Nightmare!)

Logic Pro X -Using arrangement feature

Yesterday I finished roughly arranging all 14 song ideas…. after a quick listen back some are sounding great… some are terrible and most are in the middle somewhere.

Today I have been reapproaching some of the arrangments on the songs, I came across a nice feature in Logic where you can label the various sections of the song and then just move duplicate them or move them around.

As you can see on the top of the main window there is an ‘arrangement’ row running across the timeline. I have only worked on a couple of songs… but it proving to be a great way of working quickly and getting to level 2 with the arrangements.

Here is the video I found that helped me out with this feature.

 

Building rough song arrangments

I have just finished arranging song eleven of fourteen. Slowly getting there! Trying not to think too much about when the next stage is right now, just getting some sort of rough arrangements in place for the songs.

In the back of my mind I am starting to think about the next stage… adding other instruments? adding vocals or voices? adding live samples? who knows. I will set those boundaries when I have completed all the songs. For now I am just focused on getting all the songs into an arrangement for the next stage of the process.

Here is a real-time video (around 10 minutes) of how I have been arranging the songs from 8 bar loops into 2-3 minute compositions.

I am not sure where this song will go… I am just trying to stick to the rules of my previous post and trust the path! Fun.

 

Building loops into arrangements

Today I have been contemplating how to progress with this project. In the pervious post I wrote how I’d created some song ideas using Logic instruments and forming loops of 8 to 16 bars… but now its all about turning those short loops into a song… of some kind!

This evening I’ve been working on a couple of songs ideas. I decided to just mark up the layout of the song on the timeline (intro, verse, chorus etc) and then loop all the tracks to the end of song. From this point I simply soloed various instrument tracks to see which sounds/loops worked well together for various sections of the song. It was then just a case of deleting all the unwanted sounds in those sections where they were not needed.

Creating a framework to make progress

As in the pervious stage, I again set rules for myself at this stage of the project. This helps me to move on and work productively…. otherwise my mind can wonder and I can end up beginning to go round in circles. The rules were:

• no adding of new instruments or loops
• just get the basic layout of the song done
• no EQ’ing or advanced mixing at this stage
• work fast! each arrangement should take no longer than 45 minutes
• Don’t judge the sounds or choices made at the pervious stage. Just trust what you have.

It feels good… I’ve got 2 songs arranged. It was painless. It was fun. Lets see how the other 9 ideas come together.

“Curves” A new music project

Since finishing the Grenna Bluegrass Project I have been working on a little project which I’ve called ‘Curves’.

The project is all based around embracing my current time limitations to make music. I recently had a new baby and, as those with children will know, it means there is not much free time around at the moment!

Exploring

Whenever I start doing something new with music I have to set myself something new to learn otherwise I feel like I am repeating myself…. which leads to bordom and frustation. So i decided to set out some fun ground rules

• Only use Logic Pro
• Only use my MacBook Air
• Only use MIDI instruments
• Dont use any external MIDI controllers

The reason for using Logic Pro is simple… I dont know how it works. Ive been a Pro Tools worshipper from its first release and never understood how people could use Logic… It was unlogical! In my mind.

But Logic offers a different way of working. A method for making music. A new process and something to explore.

The other three ground rules basically forced me to work mobile. It ment I could just open the laptop and start writing… I didnt need to be in the studio and I didnt need to lock myself away… just work whenever the moments appeared!

This is a screenshot I just took of how I am working. I use the typing keyboard to record in the notes and all the instruments are just from the many presets in Logic Pro.

As you can see I am working in loops. I tend to create a 8 or 16 bar looped section. I start from the first track and then just layer up the loop with whatever pops into my mind. At the end of this process the loops are really intense and have around 15-20 different parts going round.

Right now I have around eleven ideas that are ready for the next stage of development (whatever that might be!?)