Chapter 7: Logic Pro's Drummer

I am not prone to hyperbole, nor am I a fan of marketing hype, but I truly believe that Drummer was and continues to be a game-changer for beginners.

Do you know what a real drummer actually plays? I did early on, because my dad was a drummer and my first gigs were with him, but if you don't: your Drummer has arrived!

Specifically, this chapter covers the following topics:

• Drummer and the Library
• The arrangement global track
• Customizing a Drum Kit Designer drum kit
• Drum Machine Designer
• Drum synth
• Drummer loops

Getting familiar with Drummer and the Library

Open a new project and select Drummer from the New Tracks Dialog window to create a Drummer instrument. While it defaults to the Rock genre, if you hold the mouse down on that field, you will see that there are other choices. For now, let's go with Rock with Open Library checked.

What you now have is a Drummer region, with the Drummer editor open, and in the Library, you will see the genre choices and multiple drummers within each genre with descriptions of the drummers, and in the Sounds section, a bunch of different drum kits:

Figure 7.1: A new project with a Drummer created

NOTE

The "hipper than thou" crowd made merciless fun of the descriptions when Drummer first appeared, but they are accurate and helpful.

The default Rock drummer is Kyle, and he plays a kit called SoCal and a preset called Half-pipe. Notice that with this choice, Drummer changes the project tempo from 120 bpm to 110...

Arrangement Global Track

If you go under the Track menu to Global Tracks, or press G, you can toggle Global Tracks on/off. If you press option + G, you can configure them, and the only one we need for these tasks is Arrangement Global Track. Dragging the bottom line of the track allows you to enlarge the field, making it easier to see.

Now, we are ready to use Arrangement Global Track to create Drummer regions. Delete the two drummer regions so that we can create regions from scratch:

1. Click the + sign in Arrangement Global Track, and by default, it creates an 8-bar-long intro Arrangement marker.
2. Repeat that process and now it creates an 8-bar verse. I decide that I only want a 4-bar intro, so I grab the lower right-hand corner and resize it to 4 bars, and now the Verse Arrangement marker goes to bar 5.
3. Repeat this process 8 more times, and you will probably have Intro, Verse, Chorus, Bridge, Outro, Outro, Outro, Outro, Outro, and Outro, which is not at all what...

Customizing a Drum Kit Designer drum kit

Now that you understand how Drummer works, let's explore all the ways you can change the drum kit itself.

The East Bay preset in the Library opens a drum kit with an EQ, compressor, and bus send to a reverb. If you press the letter B, the Smart Controls for this preset open.

Here, you will see an easy way to adjust levels within the kit, turn off kit pieces, and adjust the amount of compression or turn it off. The Tone knob relates to the EQ, and the Room knob affects the amount of bus send to the reverb.

I suggest you cycle a Drummer region and click on the FX plugins to open them, then resize them on your screen by grabbing the lower right-hand corner. Now, adjust the Smart Control knobs in real time, listening to the changes in the sound and observing the changes you see in the plugin windows. Fifteen minutes of doing so will teach you more than I can about processing drum kit sounds in 200 words in this book:

...

Drum Machine Designer

Logic Pro long ago added their software instrument emulation of a classic drum machine called Ultrabeat. Ultrabeat in turn became the engine of Drum Machine Designer. Drum Machine Designer has received a significant upgrade in 10.6, with a lot more kits, some of which even include guitar, piano, and bass sounds, and now it uses Logic Pro 10.6's Quick Sampler as its basis rather than Ultrabeat, which is a significant improvement in capability, so you are getting on board at the right time:

1. Press Shift + Command + N to open a new project, and again create a Drummer channel strip, this time with Hip Hop as the genre.
2. Everything you learned with Drum Kit Designer in terms of the Library, Drummer region, and Smart Controls applies with DMD as well.
3. Let's go with Anton and change Electronic Drum Kit to Hybrid Knock.
4. Press Y to close the Library and X to open the mixer.
5. In the Mixer, under the View menu, uncheck Follow Track Stacks....

Drum Synth

Then there is Drum Synth, another playable software instrument:

1. Click the + at the top of the track list and choose Software Instrument | Drum Synth with Open Library checked.
2. Here, you will see your choices for playable electronic drum sounds.

Combining drummers and playable software drum sounds gives you an incredible ability to quickly create fantastic drum and percussion sounds for almost any genre once you are proficient with the workflow.

Drummer Loops

Finally, we have Drummer Loops in the Loop Browser. If you open the Loop Browser, you have the ability to filter in/out the type of loops you see listed. Here, I have unchecked all but Drummer Loops:

Figure 7.10: List of the different loops

As always in the Loop Browser, you can winnow it down even more by choosing a genre and a descriptor.

With Drummer Loops (and other drum loops), you can create an entire song's drums and percussion quickly and easily by dragging them into the Tracks area as well.

So much power, so much flexibility, so easy to use. Ladies and gentlemen, Logic Pro 10.6!

Summary

In this chapter, you were introduced to Logic Pro's amazing Drummer and the drummers and drum kits in the Library.

You have learned how to customize the drum kit and now know why I recommend you use the Producer Kits. Yes, you have percussionists to play with your drummer. When you want to add Hip Hop and EDM drum machine sounds, Machine Drum Designer is just the ticket, while the playable Drum Synth option allows you to play in your own parts. Also, as you learned, in the Loop Browser, there are drummer loops for drag-and-drop drum part creation.

In the next chapter, we will become familiar with 10.6's brand-new Step Sequencer and how to creatively use it. Also, you will learn how to integrate it with Drum Machine Designer. Pattern Browser gives you a place to alter existing patterns, or create your own, and save them. The latest additions to the Apple Loop Browser are Pattern Loops, which, like all Apple Loops, you can drag and drop from the Browser for part...