Chapter 10: Working with Live Loops

All of the major digital audio workstations err…borrow from each other. 10.6's new Live Loops feature clearly owes a debt to Ableton Live. Live Loops is a way to create music in a non-linear fashion, organizing cells in a grid. If you are familiar with Ableton Live, then you already know about the concept of composing by triggering cells and scenes.

Specifically, this chapter covers the following topics:

• Starter Grids
• Understanding Cells and Scenes
• Editing cells
• Creating scenes from cells
• Playing cells and scenes live
• Recording cells and scenes into the Tracks area
• The new Remix FX multi-effects plugin

As with the other new features, 10.6 includes a tutorial for Live Loops that you may well want to spend some time with. For now, though, let's begin by employing one of the many starter grids that are provided for you.

Understanding Cells and Scenes with a Starter grid

Open Logic Pro and choose New from Template, and you will see 17 starter grids. You can choose any one you like, but I am beginning with the starter grid named Elevated Beats:

Figure 10.1 – The Elevated Beats starter grid

Well, this looks like nothing I have ever seen in previous versions of Logic, and when it was leaked on social media, I made a fool of myself by saying that I thought it was created in Photoshop!

Here, you can see six tracks in the track list. Each track has 12 colored cells that are organized into 12 scenes, which are horizontal columns of cells that can be triggered together. The numbered scene trigger buttons are at the bottom of the grid. In the preceding screenshot, below them, you can see the Smart Controls, with a new group of plugins named Remix FX.

Sometimes, the best way to learn about something is to just try it. Let's listen to some cells:

1. Mute tracks...

Editing cells

Open the Inspector and select a cell, and now you will see the Cell inspector:

Figure 10.4 – The Cell inspector

Wow, that is a lot of control! We will cover these briefly, as you will find experimenting with them more informative than what we can cover in this book.

For Play Mode, you have three choices:

• Start/Stop: Clicking a cell starts and stops playback.
• Momentary: Cells play as long as you click and hold them.
• Retrigger: Clicking an additional time starts playback from the beginning of the cell.

Quantize Start can be set globally in the Quantize Start menu at the top right of the Live Loops grid, or for a scene by Ctrl + clicking the Scene Trigger buttons, or for individual cells. Selecting a specific Quantize Start value allows you to determine, if the cell is not triggered from the beginning, where it starts. Quantize Loop Start only matters if you have Play Mode set to Start/Stop.

Reverse, Speed, the...

Creating scenes from cells

I think we will be better served by creating a new Live Loops project for this:

1. Go to New from Template and open a new Live Loops project.
2. With both the Live Loop grid and the Tracks area open, you can see that I have added a bunch of Apple Loops to the Tracks area that I like:

   Figure 10.5 – Apple Loops added to the Tracks area

3. Add the Apple Loops to empty cells in the Live Loops grid by dragging and dropping them in, and try out different combinations in the queue; I arrived at the following:

Figure 10.6 – Apple Loops added to the Live Loops grid

I have four scenes ready to be triggered. I can move or copy cells from one scene to another the same way I move and copy regions in the Tracks area, either dragging them to move or Option + dragging them to copy. If you drag a cell on top of another, it replaces it. I can now delete the Apple Loops from the Tracks area since I no longer need them if I choose...

Recording into cells

I decide, crazy guy that I am, that I want to record hand claps into a cell through Amp Designer:

1. Create an audio track in the track list.
2. At the desired location, create a cell by Ctrl + clicking the empty cell space.
3. Again, Ctrl + click the cell and choose Record Into Cell, then clap your hands repeatedly for as long as you like.

Yes, it is that easy. I now decide I want to add a Vintage Electric Piano cell. It's the same process:

1. Create a Software Instrument track in the track list with Vintage Electric Piano.
2. At the desired location, create a MIDI cell by Ctrl + clicking the empty cell space.
3. Again, Ctrl + click the cell and choose Record Into Cell, then play your electric piano part for as long as you like.

Now that I have all my cells and scenes to my satisfaction, I want to record a performance to the Tracks area. As you will see, it isn't difficult, and you can even do this by triggering cells or...

Recording a performance to the Tracks area

I have Grid Quantize Start set in the Quantize Start menu to Cell End. Right above the first cell in the first track is the Enable Performance Recording button, which if you click, turns a bright red:

Figure 10.7 – The Enable Performance Recording button

Let's begin recording:

1. Press Option + Return so that no cells or scenes are queued.
2. You can set your Count-In and Metronome settings to whatever you prefer.
3. Press the Record button in the Transport Bar or R on your keyboard.
4. If while it is recording you select a cell, Shift + select, or rubber-band over some cells and hit the Return key, it will record them as regions in the Tracks area.
5. If while it is recording you select the Scene Trigger button, it will record the cells in the scene as regions in the Tracks area.

Once you have completed your performance recording, right at the top of the divider line is a double-arrow icon...

Remix FX

In addition to its Phat and Step multi-FX, we now have Remix FX, which you will find in the Multi Effects folder. It is designed to be used on the stereo output, but you can use it on individual tracks or auxes as well.

Those of you who have used GarageBand for iOS will already be familiar with it. Unlike most of the Logic Pro FX plugins, these are designed to be used live, DJ style.

Overview

There are seven areas in the Remix FX plugin that you can utilize:

• Filter
• Gater
• Reverse
• Stop
• Scratch
• Downsampler
• Repeater

They are controlled by two XY pads, buttons, some faders, and sliders. There are dedicated Smart Controls mapped to it. If you open the Smart Controls, though, I notice that they look quite different if Remix FX is on the stereo output or on a track, but more on that in a while.

To the left side and the right side are the two XY pads, assigned to Filter and Repeater, but if you click on the words Filter and Repeater...

Summary

You have now seen the power of the Live Loops grid as a creative tool for modern composing in styles such as EDM. By using fully editable cells, assembled into scenes, recording your own audio and software instruments cells, and dragging in existing audio or Apple Loops, you can create a unique performance, and then record it into the Tracks area. Spice it up with the new Remix FX and capture your real-time performance with them with latch automation. This may totally change the way you work.

In the next chapter, we will learn how to record without a click, yet create a tempo map, affect the timing of imported audio with relation to the project tempo, and adjust the tempo of the audio regions to match the project tempo. We will fix the timing of audio parts with Flex Time and the pitch with Flex Pitch, and use the classic technique from the tape recorder days of Varispeed to speed up or slow down a whole project.