Music Production Using Logic

Learn the essentials of mixing and producing music for digital media

Digital audio programs like Apple Logic can be your one-stop shop for mixing and producing songs, voiceovers, grooves, or movie scores—whatever your heart and ears desire.

This 6-lesson course teaches you the fundamentals of recording, mixing, programming, and editing in Apple Logic through real-life music production scenarios. Guided by pro producer Mike Pandolfo, you'll gain technical confidence in the art of mixing, learning how to apply such techniques as panning, compression, EQ, and reverb to instruments and vocals. You'll also learn how to arrange songs in Logic by cutting, editing, merging, and looping tracks to create extended pieces.

Working in MIDI, you'll learn how to assign software instruments, manipulate notes using the Matrix editor, and quantize and humanize tracks to improve the feel. Working with Apple Loops, you'll learn how import loops into your projects and adjust them to different tempos and key signatures. Finally, so you can really let your creativity loose, you'll learn the basics of recording audio and MIDI.

Whether your goal is just to mix some grooves for media projects or shoot for Grammy, this class will help you make music from the get-go. Class projects required working with a variety of different instrumentals and songs. By the end of the class, you'll have worked in a variety of musical genres and mixed an entire song.

Important: Students who have digital audio editors other than Logic, such as Pro Tools or Cubase, are welcome to join this class but will be expected to have basic proficiency in their program upon entering the class. Please note that good headphones are a class requirement.

Tuition:	$900 US
Enrollment Options:
CEU Value:	3
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Course Instructor(s):

Mike Pandolfo is a music producer and creative director.

Course content developed by Mike Pandolfo.

Requirements:

To take this course you'll need:

Computer with Internet connection (broadband recommended).
Apple Logic Express or Apple Logic Pro or equivalent digital audio program.
Computer that meets your digital audio program manufacturer's system requirements.
Pair of high quality stereo headphones.

Course Objectives:

Students learn how to:

Develop an understanding of how Apple Logic is used in music production.
Navigate the Logic interface and use important key commands.
Select, solo, mute, and loop audio tracks and regions.
Develop a basic understanding of editing and arranging in music production.
Edit tracks and regions by cutting, resizing, merging, copying, and moving them or looping them.
Use the Mixer to set levels and apply panning, compression, EQ, reverb, delay, flanger, chorus, and doubling.
Bounce a finished mix to standard audio formats.
Use auxiliary buses to route several tracks through one plug-in.
Develop an understanding of the challenges in mixing vocals.
Select good vocal takes and comp several vocal takes into one.
Clean up clicks and pops and other noise by editing waveforms.
Apply pitch correction and create fades and cross-fades.
Develop a basic understanding of the role of MIDI in music production.
Record basic MIDI tracks using a MIDI controller keyboard or Caps Lock keyboard.
Select MIDI software instruments and edit MIDI tracks using the Matrix Editor, Hyper Draw, the Piano Roll, and the Score Editor.
Edit note velocity and duration and humanize or quantize a MIDI track or region.
Import and edit Apple Loops, adapting them to different tempos and key signatures.
Prepare a track for audio recording, controlling levels, using compression, and managing multiple takes.

Course Outline

LESSON 1 Into the Mix

Lesson One begins with an introduction to music production that explains how Apple Logic is used by the pros. You'll learn how to set up a project, load in audio content, and navigate the complex Logic interface using time-saving key commands. To gain full control over your content, you'll learn how to select, solo, mute, and loop audio tracks and regions. Then you're ready to mix, exploring how to use the Mixer to set levels and apply panning, compression, EQ, and reverb. In the exercise, you'll demonstrate your mixing mastery by applying these techniques to a short composition and bouncing the finished mix to mp3 format.

LESSON 2 Arranging and Mixing

Lesson Two gives you more control over your content by showing you how to edit audio in Logic. You'll learn how to cut, copy, move, and loop tracks to create an arrangement of a song, using timecodes to position tracks precisely. You'll also deepen your mixing skills by exploring some more important techniques for mixing instrumental tracks: delay, flanger, chorus, and doubling. Finally, you'll discover the beauty of using auxiliary buses to apply plugins and post fx to several tracks at once, an approach that can make your mixing more consistent and efficient. In the exercise, you'll arrange some instrumental material and showcase your burgeoning mixing skills.

LESSON 3 Editing and Mixing Vocals

Lesson Three explores the specifics of editing and mixing vocals. First you'll address the unique challenges of working with vocal takes. You'll explore how to select good vocal takes and combine the best of several vocal takes into a composite or "comp" take. Next, you'll learn how to interpret a track's waveform and use it to clean up common problems like clicks, pops, and noise. You'll address when (and when not) to apply pitch correction to a take, and how to create fades and cross-fades. The lesson will wrap up with an examination of which mixing techniques are particularly important for vocals. The exercise will be a vocal editing and mixing project.

LESSON 4 Programming and Editing MIDI

MIDI format is an outstanding creative asset to any music producer, and recording and editing MIDI files is surprisingly easy in Logic. In Lesson Four, we'll define what MIDI is and explore its role in music production in Logic. You'll learn how to select software instruments and edit MIDI tracks using the Matrix Editor. Since a particular concern with electronic instruments is making them sound natural, you'll investigate how to edit note velocity and duration using the Matrix Editor and examine how to quantize and humanize tracks to incorporate different "grooves" or "feels." To give you taste of other ways of editing MIDI, you'll also briefly explore the Hyper Draw, Piano Roll, and Score Editors. In the exercise, you'll assign software instruments to a MIDI project, edit the tracks to improve the groove, and mix the project using everything you've learned so far.

LESSON 5 Working with Apple Loops

Lesson Five introduces the answer to budget cuts and unreliable drummers—Apple Loops. Apple Loops are short rhythmic or instrumental tracks (in both audio and MIDI format) that come with Logic. You can plug in these tracks to your projects and edit them however you wish to add dimension to your mix. The lesson shows you how to audition Apple loops, import them into a song, and trim and loop them to your nefarious desires. You can even adapt Apple loops to different tempos and key signatures. You'll demonstrate your skill with this flexible creative tool in the assignment, in which you'll build a song practically from scratch.

LESSON 6 Recording and Production

The focus of this Logic course was on mixing and production, and not recording. Nevertheless, no music producer should be without a basic understanding of recording in audio. Lesson Six show you how to set up audio tracks for recording, discussing how to control levels, use compression, and manage multiple takes. You'll explore a case study on recording and mixing and pick up pointers on developing your art as a producer. A hotlist of creative producers will give you some ideas for developing your influences beyond the course. Your final assignment will build upon everything you know as you arrange, mix, and produce an entire song working with just guitar, vocal, and keyboard tracks.