Want to add a cool slow-down effect to your music? Learn how in this Logic Pro tutorial from Brevard, NC teacher John C…
Head Start Lab Series by the Recording Connection: Here's a cool audio effect for Logic Pro X. It adds color and character to any sound. It can do anything from deep low-end isolation, juicy wah-wah to growling sweeps and waveform sculpting.Watch the video to see and hear what it does. Logic Pro Training and Tutorials. Learn how to record music and make an album with Logic Pro. Our expert-taught tutorials explain how to record audio and MIDI tracks with both Logic Pro and Logic Pro X, make beats and creative tones with software instruments, and mix your multitrack recording sessions. Presenting full coverage and in-depth Logic Pro video tutorials from industry experts, Groove3 has a diverse catalog of lessons that cover all aspects of production with Logic Pro for every type of user — from beginner to advanced.
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If you've listened to popular radio in the past several years, and I'm guessing you have, you've heard either a vocal melody line or an instrumental part of a song make a particular effect. Listen to the following Fall Out Boy song and pay attention to the music in the background at 00:27 seconds, again at 1:27, and once again at 2:27:
Did you hear it? That's the effect I will be teaching you how to do in this article.
How to Get the Effect
Before we jump in, let's get a couple things out of the way.
First, I want you to understand that this is not the only way you can go about making this effect happen, but Apple has made it easy for us Logic Pro users. This effect we are trying to accomplish is a type of 'fade' in Logic, and there are two different areas in Logic where you can accomplish it. One way is with Automation. To get to the automation area in Logic Pro 9 or X, simply hit the letter A on your keyboard and the editing area will change to look something like this:
Automation allows you to draw lines and basically tell the computer when, how fast, and from and to which points to turn a particular knob. That knob could be something as simple as the volume knob on a particular track or something more advanced like the frequency knob of the single band EQ plugin on the track pictured above.
But I'm going to stop there because we are NOT going to use automation to do this effect! Thank goodness, right?
Instead, Logic has something called the Region Inspector. So what on earth is a region? Well, it's quite simple, really. These little boxes all over the place in the picture below… those are regions.
When you select one or more of these regions, the Region Inspector shows the settings applied to those regions.
The Region Inspector is on the left side of the screen and looks like this:
IMPORTANT NOTE
There is a distinct difference between some of the regions shown above. The ones with the dashed lines are MIDI regions. The others are audio regions. These are the only types of regions. The effect we are trying to accomplish in this article does NOT work on MIDI regions.
Final Steps
- Select one of the audio (not MIDI) regions in your project.
- Then, in the Region Inspector, expand the 'More' section and click on 'Fade Out' and change it to 'Slow Down'.
- Double click the zero and type 250 into the field next to 'Slow Down' and press Return.
Congratulations, you did it! Now listen to your audio and you'll hear that audio slow-down effect.
Bonus
Now adjust the 'Curve' by dragging up and down on the number next to the word 'Curve' (below the 'Slow Down' area in the Region Inspector) and notice how the curve of the slow-down effect area changes. Listen to the difference, and then try different combinations of the amount of the slow-down fade and the curve. Have fun!
Oh, and what do you think might happen if you click on the word 'Fade In' in the Region Inspector? What's that you say, a 'Speed-Up' effect? Oh yea!
You've just learned a pro producers trick. Now… use it with caution.
John C. teaches Logic Pro Software in Brevard, NC. He earned his degree in Songwriting from Berklee College Of Music and is also an Apple Certified Master Pro in Logic Pro 9. Learn more about John here!
Photo by Miguel Mendez
There exists a type of channel strip that's well known to veteran Logic users but perhaps not so much to relative newcomers. And this channel strip can't be created by any other means than going into the Environment and..Now, wait a second. Are you about to click away from this article because the word 'Environment' fills you with fear? Well, I'll let you in on a secret: did you know that each and every single time you create a Logic project you're working with the Environment?
Yup, it's true. The channel strips you see in the Inspector and the Mixer page are all Environment 'objects', as they're officially called. Instruments of all kinds (plugins and external MIDI) and auxes are Environment objects, too. And there's this one particular object, the Bus Channel, which is so extremely useful that it shouldn't be given short shrift just because you have to (brace yourselves) go into the Environment to create them. Really, it's quite easy to do. So please, stop digging your fingernails into your mouse at the thought of having to open the Environment window, take a deep, relaxing breath, and read on to find out how Bus Channels are created, as well as to get some insight into the types of control they offer.
Creating The Monster
Open the (not scary) Environment window and select the Mixer layer from the menu if it's not already selected. Then choose: New > Channel Strip > Bus
Figure 1: Creating a Bus Channel from the Environment's 'New' Menu.
Oh, and don't let the nomenclature of 'Bus' 'as seen in the menu in Figure 1 above'confuse you. When you perform this operation you're not creating a Bus. Working backwards through that menu, you're creating a Bus Channel (strip). And that begs the question..
Logic Effects Tutorial Powerpoint
Is a Bus Channel the Same as a Bus?
Nope. A Bus is like a virtual wire that's used to send audio signal from one channel strip (the source) to another (the destination). A Bus Channel is used to control the level and, if desired, add insert effects on the Bus itself, all to be described below. But first, let's continue with a closer look at Logic's Busses.
Logic has 64 permanent Busses; in other words, all 64 of them are available at all times. They don't need to be created individually like channel strips and auxes. And you can see the list of Busses whenever you click and hold on a send slot to create a new send. What comes up? A list of Busses! Digital or virtual 'wires'. Audio pathways.
Logic Effects Tutorial Project
Figure 2: The Bus Menu.
After choosing a Bus for your send, Logic automatically creates an aux, and the output of that Bus is automatically selected as the input to the aux. Add an effect plugin to the aux, turn up the send, and you're now tapping the signal from the originating channel via this virtual wire to the aux. Simplicity itself (see Figure 3).
Figure 3: Bus Signal Flow from Send to Aux.
Notice how, in Figure 3, the level of signal from the send (set to 0 dB) is also reflected in the aux channel strip. Which starcraft character are you. We use the term 'unity gain' to describe this situation, where the level of a signal at the destination equals the level of the signal from the source.
Conclusion: Busses carry signal from source to destination at unity gain, i.e., no change in level. If we were to turn down the level of the send to, say, -6 dB, the aux's level meter would reflect -6 dB as well. Again, unity gain. Or, to put it another way, 'no difference in level from source to destination'.
However, there are times when you might want to change the overall level of the signal on that Bus, or add a common effect to all signals flowing along the Bus. And when such situations arise, Bus Channels come to the rescue!
Taming the Monster
Logic Effects Tutorial Prezi
A Bus Channel is a volume control for the output of a bus, and it's also a way to insert effects directly on the Bus! In Figure 4 we see several interesting things, starting with the signal flow. The Bus Channel is positioned at the end, or output, of the Bus itself, and here we see it acting as a volume control for the Bus:
Figure 4: Bus Signal Flow with a Bus Channel Added.
Imovie effects list. The signal emanating from Send 1 on the channel strip is at a level of 0dB, but the fader on the Bus Channel reduces it to -7.3 dB. This level reduction is reflected in the level meter of the ultimate destination for Bus 1's signal: Aux 1. As you can also see, I've also inserted an EQ on the bus itself, thereby 'conditioning' any signal being sent along Bus 1 to have a little bit of a low end roll-off before the signal is received by the Space Designer reverb, hosted in the Aux.
There are many highly useful applications for Bus Channels, including the little-appreciated concept that they can also be used as master group or trim controls for groups of audio and instrument channels. This application alone provides the long sought-after 'Trim' function missing from Logic's palette of track automation functions. And like all channel strips, Bus Channels can be automated.
I hope this brief article has stimulated your interest in the possibilities for using Bus Channels. If you'd like to learn more, please post your questions in the mPV Logic Forum or here at the end of the article. Interested in more? Let me know and I will do a follow-up article showing additional, real-world applications for Bus Channels.
In the meantime there's a whole lot to learn about Logic, and you can find out more with these Logic Video Tutorials and do check out Peter's MIDI 101: MIDI Demystified tutorial for an entertaining and educational unveiling of MIDI, what it is and how to use it better.
