Lesson 4. Produce a Virtual Drum Track
Time
This lesson takes approximately 75 minutes to complete.
Goals
Create a new project with a Drummer track
Choose a drummer and drum kit
Edit the drummer performance
Arrange the song structure
Edit performances in the new sections
Make the drummer play behind or ahead of the beat
Customize the drum kit
Tune and dampen individual kit pieces
In most popular modern music genres, drums are the backbone of the instrumentation. They provide the foundation for the tempo and the groove of the piece. For recording sessions in which the instruments are not tracked at the same time, drums are usually recorded or programmed first, so that the other musicians can record while listening to their rhythmic reference.
To meet today’s high production standards, producing drum tracks usually involves using several techniques, including live recording, programming, sampling, audio quantizing, and sound replacement. In Logic Pro X, you can speed up the process by taking advantage of the new Drummer feature along with its companion software instrument, Drum Kit Designer.
In this lesson, you will produce a virtual drum track to start producing a new imaginary indie-rock song. After selecting a genre and choosing the best drummer for your project, you will adjust the drummer’s performance, making him play busier patterns or simpler ones, louder or softer, and changing his feel, almost like a producer would communicate with a real drummer in a recording session.
Creating a Drummer Track
Drummer is a new Logic Pro X feature that allows you to produce drum tracks using a virtual drummer with his own playing style. His performance is placed in Drummer regions on a Drummer track. You edit the performance data in the regions using the Drummer Editor. The virtual drummer also has his own drum kit loaded in a software instrument plug-in called Drum Kit Designer.
First, let’s open a new project, add a Drummer track, and examine the display of the drum performance in the Drummer region.
1. Choose File > New (or press Command-Shift-N).
A new project opens along with the New Tracks dialog.
2. In the New Tracks dialog, select Drummer, and click Create.
A Drummer track is created along with two eight-bar Drummer regions. At the bottom of the main window, the Drummer Editor opens, allowing you to choose a drummer and his drum kit, and to edit the performance in the Drummer region(s) that are selected in the workspace. The track is named SoCal, which is the name of the drum kit used by the default virtual drummer, Kyle.
3. Press the Spacebar to listen to the two Drummer regions.
In the first region, the drummer starts with a crash cymbal, and plays a straightforward rock pattern. At the end of the first four measures, he plays the simplest of fills (a single tom hit), followed by a crash cymbal that accentuates the first downbeat of bar 5. At the end of the first Drummer region, a drum fill leads into the next section.
In the second region, the drummer switches from the hi-hat to the ride cymbal, and plays a more complex pattern: The kick is busier, and the snare adds ghost notes (very quiet hits) between beats. As in the first region, the drummer plays a fill at the end of the first four measures, followed by a crash. He plays another fill at the end of the region.
Let’s take a closer look at that Drummer region.
4. Control-Option-drag over the first bar of the first Drummer region. If necessary, continue zooming vertically by dragging the vertical zoom slider (or pressing Command-Down Arrow) until you can see two lanes in the Drummer region.
The Drummer region displays drum hits as triangles on lanes, roughly emulating the look of drum hits on an audio waveform. Kicks and snares are shown on the bottom lane; cymbals, toms, and hand percussions are on the top lane.
5. In the top half of the ruler, drag a one-measure cycle area at bar 1.
6. Listen to the first bar a few times while looking at the drum hits in the Drummer region.
Although you cannot edit individual drum hits in the Drummer region, the region display gives you a quick glance at the drummer’s performance.
More Info
At the end of this lesson you will convert Drummer regions to MIDI regions. In Lesson 6, you will learn how to edit MIDI regions.
7. Turn off Cycle mode.
8. In the workspace, click the background and press Z to zoom out and see both drummer regions.
Now you can read the Drummer regions. In the next exercise, you will listen to multiple drummers and several performance presets. Later, you will zoom in again to see the Drummer regions update as you adjust their settings in the Drummer Editor.
Choosing a Drummer and a Style
Each drummer has his own playing style and drum kit, and those combine to create a unique drum sound. Before you start fine-tuning the drummer’s performance, you need to choose the right drummer for the song.
In the Drummer Editor, drummers are categorized by music genres. By default, choosing a new drummer means loading a new virtual drum kit, and updating Drummer region settings; but sometimes you may want to keep the same drum kit while changing the drummer, which you will do in this exercise.
1. In the character card, click the drummer.
All the drummers from the Rock category are displayed.
2. Place the mouse pointer over Anders (the first drummer in the second row).
A help tag describes that drummer’s playing style and the sound of his drum kit. It mentions straightforward rock beats, which would work for this song; but for now, let’s get to know the other drummers.
3. Continue by placing the pointer over other rock drummers to read their descriptions. When you’re through, click the last drummer, Jesse.
A dialog explains how to retain region settings when changing the drummer.
4. In the dialog, select “Do not show this message again,” and click Change Drummer.
In the workspace, the two Drummer regions update to display Jesse’s performance.
5. In the workspace, click the first Drummer region (at bar 1) to select it.
The Drummer Editor shows you the settings for the selected Drummer region. A yellow ruler allows you to position the playhead anywhere within the region, and you can click the Play button to the left of the ruler to preview the Drummer region. As in the Tracks area, you can also double-click the ruler to start and stop playback.
6. In the Drummer Editor, click the Play button.
The selected region plays in Cycle mode, and the cycle area automatically matches the region position and length. The selected region is soloed—indicated by a thin yellow frame—and the other region is dimmed. Soloing the region helps you focus on the drums when you have other tracks in the project.
Although you will later fine-tune the drummer’s performance, Jesse’s busy, syncopated drum patterns are not a good fit for this indie rock song. You are looking for a drummer with a simple, straightforward style that more appropriately serves the song.
7. Stop playback.
In the Tracks area, Cycle mode is automatically turned off, the dimmed cycle area returns to its original position and length, and the selected region is no longer soloed.
8. In the Drummer Editor, click the Genre menu at the top of the character card, and choose Alternative.
Drummers from the Alternative category are shown.
9. Click the first drummer, Aidan.
10. In the Drummer Editor, click the Play button.
While the region is playing back in Cycle mode, you can try selecting other region settings presets to explore Aidan’s full range of playing style.
11. In the Presets column, click a few different presets while the region plays back.
When you click a preset, the region settings update and you can hear another performance from the same drummer.
12. Without stopping playback, from the Genre menu, choose Rock.
13. Click the fourth drummer, Max, and listen to a few of his presets.
Although Max’s hyperactive performance is not what you’re looking for, his drum kit sounds punchy. Let’s assign the first drummer, Kyle, to play on Max’s drum set, East Bay Kit.
14. In the character card, click the drummer to display the drummers.
You can Option-click a new drummer to select that drummer while keeping the current drum kit.
15. Option-click Kyle.
Kyle is now playing Max’s East Bay Kit. Let’s make him play a bit faster.
16. In the control bar, set the tempo to 142 bpm.
17. Stop playback.
You have found a drummer that plays the straightforward style you’re seeking for this project, paired him with a punchy sounding drum kit, and set a tempo that will drive your indie rock song. You are now ready to customize the performance.
Editing the Drum Performance
In a recording session with a live drummer, the artist, the producer, or the musical director must communicate their vision of the completed song. They may ask the drummer to play behind or ahead of the beat to change the feel of the groove, or to switch from the hi-hat to the ride cymbal during the chorus, or to play a drum fill in a specific location.
In Logic Pro X, editing a drummer performance is almost like giving instructions to a real drummer. In this exercise, you will play a drum region in Cycle mode as you adjust the drummer settings.
1. In the workspace, make sure the first Drummer region is still selected, and in the Drummer Editor, click the Play button.
Next to the presets, an XY pad with a yellow puck lets you adjust both the loudness and complexity of the drum pattern.
2. As the region plays, drag the puck, or click different locations inside the pad to reposition it.
TIP
To undo your most recent Drummer Editor adjustment, press Command-Z.
After positioning the puck, you must wait for the region to update (update time varies depending on your computer). If you drag the puck constantly, the region will not update.
As you position the puck farther to the right, the drum pattern becomes more complex; and as you move the puck toward the top of the pad, the drummer plays louder. Try placing the puck in the pad’s corners for extreme settings, such as soft and simple, or loud and complex.
As the drummer plays softer, he closes the hi-hat and switches from hitting the snare drum on the skin to playing rim clicks (hitting only the rim of the drum). As he plays louder, he opens the hi-hat and start playing rim shots (hitting the skin and the rim simultaneously for accent).
Let’s make the drummer play a solid, straightforward beat in this first Drummer region, which will be used for the first verse of the song.
3. Settle for a puck position where the drummer plays a rather simple and fairly loud pattern.
You can still hear a lot of syncopation on the kick drums. To the right of the XY pad, you can choose from several Kick & Snare pattern variations.
4. Drag the Kick & Snare slider to position 2 (or click the second increment on the slider).
The drummer now simply alternates kick and snare on every beat. If you don’t hear the drummer play the snare on beats 2 and 4, slightly readjust the horizontal position of the puck in the XY pad so it’s in the same position as in the figure following step 3.
Listen to the hi-hat: It is currently playing eighth notes.
5. Click the first increment on the Hi-Hat slider.
The hi-hat now plays only on the beat (quarter notes), which works well for up-tempo songs.
The drummer is playing a fill in the middle of the region (before bar 5) and another at the end (before bar 9). Let’s get rid of the first fill and keep only one at the end.
6. Look at the region in the workspace, and drag the Fills knob down until you see the fill before bar 5 disappear. You should still see a fill at the end of the region.
NOTE
Clicking the small lock icon next to the Fills and Swing knobs locks the knob into position as you preview presets or drummers.
TIP
Each time you adjust a setting in the Drummer Editor, the selected region is refreshed and the drummer plays a new subtle variation. Dragging the Fills knob by a tiny amount is a quick way to refresh a region. You can also click the Action pop-up menu next to the Presets menu, and choose Refresh Region; or Control-click the region in the workspace, and from the shortcut menu, choose Edit > Refresh Region.
You now have a very straightforward beat. Because the drummer plays less now, he can make the hi-hat ring a bit more.
7. In the Drummer Editor, click the Details button to display three knobs.
8. Below the Hi-Hat knob, deselect the Automatic option.
9. Drag the Hi-Hat knob up to open it a little bit.
This verse drum pattern now sounds great, so let’s move on to the second Drummer region, which you’ll use for the chorus.
10. In the Drummer Editor, click the Details button to hide the three buttons.
11. Stop playback.
12. In the workspace, select the second Drummer region.
The Drummer Editor updates to show the second region’s settings. On the drum kit, the hi-hat is now dimmed, while the cymbals are highlighted in yellow. The drummer no longer plays the hi-hat, but instead plays a ride or crash cymbal in that region.
13. In the Drummer Editor, click the Play button.
You can hear the second region in Cycle mode. The drummer is playing the ride cymbal on every eighth note. For a more powerful chorus, you instead want him to play crash cymbals on every beat.
14. Click the first increment of the Cymbals slider.
You now hear crash cymbals on every beat. Even for a chorus, the beat is a little too busy.
15. On the XY pad, drag the puck toward the left to create a simpler beat, while the kick drum still plays some eighth notes.
Let’s listen to the verse going into the chorus.
16. Stop playback.
17. Go to the beginning of the song and listen to both Drummer regions.
You now have a simple, straightforward beat for the verse, and then the drummer switches to the crash cymbal for the busier chorus pattern.
You have carefully crafted two eight-measure drum grooves: one for the verse and one for the chorus. They are the two most important building blocks of the song that you will now start arranging.
Arranging the Drum Track
In this exercise, you will lay out the whole song structure and continue editing drum regions for each section, still using the two Drummer regions you edited for the verses and choruses.
Using Markers in the Arrangement Track
Using the Arrangement track, you will now create arrangement markers for all the sections of your song. You’ll adjust their lengths, positions, and order, and fill all the new sections with Drummer regions.
1. At the top of the track headers, click the Global Tracks button (or press G).
The global tracks open, with the Arrangement track at the top. You won’t need the other global tracks, so you can hide them.
2. Control-click a global track header, and choose Hide Marker. Also Control-click the Signature and Tempo tracks, and hide them.
The Arrangement track is now closer to the regions in the workspace, making it easier to see their relationships.
3. In the Arrangement track header, click the Add Marker button (+).
An eight-measure arrangement marker named Intro is created at the beginning of the song. By default, arrangement markers are eight bars long and are placed one after the other, starting from the beginning of the song. Let’s rename the marker.
4. Click the name of the marker, and from the menu, choose Verse.
5. Click the Add Marker button (+) to create a marker for the chorus.
An eight-bar marker named Chorus is created.
You will now create a marker for a new intro section and insert it before the Verse and Chorus markers.
6. In the Arrangement track header, click the Add Marker (+) button.
An eight-bar marker named Chorus is created.
7. Click the name of the new marker, and from the pop-up menu, choose Intro.
A four-measure intro will be long enough, so you can resize the Intro marker before moving it.
8. Drag the right edge of the Intro marker toward the left to shorten it to four bars.
9. Click the marker away from its name (to avoid opening the Name pop-up menu), and drag the Intro marker to bar 1.
The Intro marker is inserted at bar 1, and the Verse and Chorus markers move to the right of the new Intro section. In the workspace, the Drummer regions move along with their respective arrangement markers.
As with regions in the workspace, you can Option-drag a marker to copy it.
10. Press Command-Left Arrow to zoom out horizontally and make space to the right of the existing song sections. Option-drag the Verse marker to bar 21, right after the chorus.
The Verse marker and the Drummer region are copied together.
11. Option-drag the Chorus marker to bar 29, after the second verse.
The Chorus and the Drummer region are copied together.
The song is taking shape. You will now finish arranging the song structure with a bridge, a chorus, and an outro section. As you place the last three markers, continue zooming out horizontally as necessary.
12. In the Arrangement track header, click the Add Marker (+) button.
A Verse marker is created after the last chorus.
13. Click the name of the new marker, and from the pop-up menu, choose Bridge.
14. In the Arrangement track header, click the Add Marker (+) button two more times to create markers for the Chorus and Outro sections.
15. Click each one of the last two marker names and choose the correct names, Chorus and Outro.
Let’s shorten the outro section a bit.
16. Resize the Outro marker to make it four bars long.
The song structure is now complete, and you can add Drummer regions to fill out the empty sections.
17. On the Drummer track, Control-click the background, and choose “Populate with Drummer Regions.”
New Drummer regions are created for all the empty arrangement markers.
18. Listen to the drum track, focusing on the new sections.
New patterns were automatically created for each new Drummer region.
Amazing as his playing is, Kyle (the drummer) might not have guessed what you had in mind for each section. You will now edit the new regions to finish adjusting the drummer’s performance.
Editing the Intro Drum Performance
In this exercise, you will make the drummer play the snare instead of the toms. Later, you’ll cut the Intro region in two and make the drummer play the snare only during the first half. Then you’ll add the kick and hi-hat in the second half.
1. In the workspace, click the background to deselect all regions, and click the Intro region to select it.
The Drummer Editor shows its settings.
Throughout this exercise you can click the Play button in the Drummer Editor to start and stop playback, or you can navigate the workspace by pressing the Spacebar (Play or Stop) and the Return key (Go to Beginning).
2. Listen to the Intro.
Let’s mute the toms.
3. In the Drummer Editor, click one of the toms.
The toms are dimmed to indicate that they are muted. In the Intro region, the toms disappear from the top lane.
4. Click the snare to unmute it.
In the Intro region, snare hits appear next to the kick hits on the bottom lane.
To play the kick in only the first half of the intro, followed by the kick and snare in the second half, you will cut the Intro region in two.
6. Hold down Command to use the Marquee tool, and double-click the Intro region at bar 3.
The region is divided into two two-measure regions. When a region is divided, the drummer automatically adapts his performance, and plays a fill at the end of each new region.
7. Select the first Intro region.
8. In the Drummer Editor, drag the Fills knob all the way down.
Notice how the crash disappears from the first beat of the following region. Even though it is in another region, the crash is actually a part of the fill.
9. On the drum kit, click the kick drum to mute it.
In the first two measures, the drummer will be playing only the snare. Let’s have him play the snare very softly on every beat, as if he’s counting in the band.
10. In the Kick & Snare slider, click the sixth increment.
The snare plays every beat.
TIP
In multi-track projects, when you click the Follow checkbox, a pop-up menu appears instead of the Kick & Snare slider that lets you choose a track to influence what the drummer plays on the kick and snare.
11. In the XY pad, drag the puck all the way down and to the left.
Now the drummer plays rim clicks at the beginning of the first Intro region, and hits the snare a few times at the end.
12. In the workspace, select the second Intro region.
13. In the Kick & Snare slider, click the second increment.
14. On the XY pad, drag the puck toward the upper left.
The drums play a straightforward beat with a fill at the end. Let’s add an open hi-hat to inject some energy.
15. On the drum kit, click the hi-hat to unmute it.
16. In the Hi-Hat slider, click the first increment.
Now you will open the hi-hat to add energy to the end of the intro.
17. In the Drummer Editor, click the Details button.
18. Below the Hi-Hat knob, deselect Automatic.
19. Drag the Hi-Hat knob up nearly all the way until the hi-hat sounds really open, but you can still clearly hear the individual hits.
20. Click the Details buttons to display the drum kit again.
21. Listen to the whole intro going into the first verse.
Your have a short two-part intro. The drummer plays the snare on the first eight beats, and then a basic rock pattern with a very open hi-hat adds energy. At bar 5, a crash punctuates the fill at the end of the intro. The straightforward groove continues in the Verse section with the hi-hat a little less open to leave space to later add a singer.
Editing the Bridge Drum Performance
In a song, the bridge serves to break the sequence of alternating verses and choruses. Often, the main idea of the song is exposed in the choruses, and verses help support or develop that statement. The bridge can present an alternate idea, a different point of view. Departing from the main idea of the song increases the listener’s appreciation for returning to the chorus at the end of the song—almost like taking a vacation can increase your appreciation for going back home.
For this fast, high-energy indie-rock song, a quieter bridge in which the instruments play softer will offer a refreshing dynamic contrast. Playing softer does not mean the instruments have to play less, however. In fact, you will make the drums play a busier pattern during this bridge.
1. Listen to the Bridge region.
TIP
When pressing the Spacebar to play a section, you can use Cycle mode to ensure that playback always starts at the beginning of the section. Drag a section’s arrangement marker into the ruler to turn on Cycle mode and create a cycle area that matches the section.
The drummer plays at the same level as in the previous sections, but he plays more here. You need to bring down his energy level.
2. Select the Bridge Drummer region.
3. In the XY pad, position the puck all the way down and to the right.
The drummer is still playing a lot, but he’s much quieter. He no longer hits the snare’s skin but plays rim clicks instead. However, rim clicks are not the type of sound you’re going for; you want Kyle to play toms.
4. On the drum kit, mute the snare, and unmute the toms.
When you click the toms, the hi-hat is automatically muted. Aside from the kick and snare, the drummer can focus on the toms, the hi-hat, or the cymbals (ride and crash).
Let’s choose a busier pattern for the toms.
5. On the Toms slider, click increment 3.
Kyle is now playing sixteenth notes on the toms, which create a mysterious vibe similar to tribal percussions. You will make him switch from the toms to the ride cymbal in the second half of the bridge to brighten things up.
6. Command-double-click the Bridge region at bar 41 to cut it into two four bar regions.
The drummer now plays a different fill at the end of the first Bridge region.
While the second Bridge region is still selected, you can adjust the cycle area.
7. Control-click the cycle area, and choose “Set Locators by Regions/Events/Marquee” (or press Command-U).
8. Unmute the cymbals.
The toms are muted, and the drummer now plays the ride cymbal. However, the groove still seems to be missing something.
9. Unmute the snare.
You can hear rim clicks.
10. In the XY pad, drag the puck up just until Kyle switches from hitting the rim to hitting the head of the snare (about a quarter of the way up).
11. On the Cymbals slider, click the third increment.
The drummer hits the ride cymbal differently, giving it more of a bell-like sound. He plays a crescendo, thereby building up energy to lead into the next chorus.
Kyle plays slightly ahead of the beat during the bridge. However, the timing nuance is subtle, and difficult to hear without any other instruments to compare with Kyle’s timing. Let’s turn on the metronome and experiment with the feel of his performance.
12. In the control bar, click the Metronome button (or press K).
You will be editing the feel of both Bridge regions simultaneously.
13. In the workspace, select both Bridge regions, and press Command-U to set the locators.
At the top of the Drummer Editor, the ruler, Play button, and playhead are replaced by the message Multiple regions selected. You can now adjust the settings of all the selected regions at once.
NOTE
When adjusting a setting that is set to different values in multiple regions, the value offset between the regions stays the same (wherever possible).
14. In the Drummer Editor, click the Details button to display the three setting knobs.
15. Try setting different positions of the Feel knob and then listen to the results.
Both regions change their “feel.”
As you experiment with different feels, listen to the way the drums play compared to the steady, precise beat of the metronome. Don’t be afraid to drag the Feel knob all the way up or down to hear the effect of extreme Feel settings.
Dragging the Feel knob toward Push makes the drummer play ahead of the beat. He sounds as if he’s rushing, thereby creating a sense of urgency.
Dragging the Feel knob toward Pull makes him play behind the beat. He sounds as if he’s lazy or late, and the groove is more relaxed.
Settle on a Feel knob position more toward Pull to realize a reasonably relaxed groove.
16. Click the Details button to hide the three setting knobs.
17. Turn off Cycle mode.
18. In the control bar, click the Metronome button (or press K) to turn it off.
You have radically changed the drummer’s performance in that region. Kyle now starts the bridge with a busy pattern on the toms, and then moves on to a bell sound on the ride. He uses restraint, hitting softly and behind the beat, with a slight crescendo toward the end. The quiet and laid-back yet complex drum groove brings a welcome pause to an otherwise high-energy drum performance, and builds up tension leading into the last two sections.
Editing the Chorus and Outro Sections
You will now finish editing the drummer’s performance by adjusting the settings of the last two Chorus and Outro Drummer regions in your workspace.
1. Select the Chorus region after the bridge and listen to it.
That Chorus region was created when you populated the track with Drummer regions earlier in this lesson. It doesn’t have the same settings as the previous two choruses and sounds busier, except for Kyle playing the ride cymbal instead of the crash.
2. On the Cymbals slider, click the first increment.
The drummer now plays the crash, and this last chorus is more consistent with the previous two choruses.
3. Select the Outro region at the end of the track and listen to it.
The drummer plays a loud beat, heavy on the crash, which could work for an outro. You will, however, make him play double-time (twice as fast) to end the song in a big way.
4. On the Kick & Snare slider, click the last increment (8).
Now it sounds like you’ve unleashed Kyle! Playing double-time at that fast tempo makes the sixteenth notes on the kick drum sound ridiculously fast.
5. On the XY pad, drag the puck toward the left until the drummer stops playing sixteenth notes on the kick drum.
The performance now sounds more realistic while retaining the driving effect of its double-time groove.
Let’s finish the song with a longer drum fill.
6. Drag the Fills knob all the way up.
The drum fill at the end of the outro is now longer. However, raising the number of fills has the undesirable effect of adding a new fill in the middle of the outro. To remove that fill, you will cut the Outro region in two.
7. With the Marquee tool, double-click the Outro region at bar 55.
You now have two two-bar Outro regions.
8. Select the first Outro region.
9. Drag the Fills knob all the way down to remove the fill in the middle of the Outro section.
10. Listen to the last chorus and the outro.
The outro has the required power to drive the last four measures; however, it seems like the drummer stops abruptly before he can finish his fill. Usually drummers end a song by playing the last note on the first beat of a new bar, but here a crash cymbal is missing on the downbeat at bar 57. You will resize the last Outro region in the workspace to accommodate that last drum hit.
11. Resize the last Outro region to lengthen it by one beat (until the help tag reads Length: 2 1 0 0 +0 1 0 0).
A moment after you release the mouse button, the Drummer region updates, and you can see a kick and a crash on the downbeat at bar 57.
12. Listen to the outro. The drummer finishes his fill, punctuating it with the last hit at bar 57.
NOTE
The final crash cymbal continues ringing until its natural sustain fades out, well after the playhead has passed the end of the last Outro region.
You’ve laid out the entire song structure by creating section markers in the arrangement track, populated each section with Drummer regions, and edited each region’s settings to customize its drum pattern. You are now done editing the drum performance and can focus on the sound of the drums.
Customizing the Drum Kit
When recording a live drummer in a studio, the engineer often positions microphones on each drum. This allows control over the sound of each drum, so he can individually equalize or compress the sound of each kit piece. The producer may also want the drummer to try different kicks or snares, or to experiment with hitting the cymbals softer before he begins recording.
In Logic, when using Drummer, the sounds of each drum are already recorded. However, you can still use several tools to customize the drum kit and adjust the sound of each drum.
Adjusting the Drum Levels Using Smart Controls
Smart Controls are a set of knobs and switches that are premapped to the most important parameters of the plug-ins on the channel strip of the selected track. You will study Smart Controls in more detail in Lesson 5.
In this exercise, you will use Smart Controls to quickly adjust the levels and tones of different drums. Then you’ll open Drum Kit Designer to swap one snare for another, and fine-tune the crash cymbal sound.
1. In the control bar, click the Smart Controls button (or press B).
The Smart Controls pane opens at the bottom of the main window, replacing the Drummer Editor. It is divided into three sections: Mix, Compression, and Effects.
In the Mix section, six knobs allow you to balance the levels of the drum. To the right of each knob, a button lets you mute the corresponding drum or group of drums.
2. Position the playhead before the first chorus and start playback.
3. Turn the cymbals down a bit by dragging the Cymbals knob.
Even with the Amount knob turned all the way down in the Compression section, the compressor is still slightly processing the drum sound. Let’s turn it off.
4. In the Compression section, click the On button.
On the left channel strip in the inspector, the Compressor plug-in is dimmed, indicating that it is turned off.
5. In the Effects section, drag the Tone knob up.
As you drag up the knob, the drums’ sound changes timbre and becomes brighter. On the left channel strip in the inspector, the EQ curve on the channel strip’s EQ display reflects the changes made to the Channel EQ plug-in.
6. Drag up the Room knob.
As you drag up the knob, you will start hearing the subtle reverberation of a drum booth. In the inspector, you can see the Bus 1 Send knob move along with the Tone knob.
More Info
You will learn how to use bus sends to route an audio signal to a reverb and to change the character of the reverb in Lesson 9.
7. In the control bar, click the Editors button (or press E) to open the Drummer Editor.
You have adjusted the levels and timbres of the drums, and you’re now ready to fine-tune the sound of the individual drum kit pieces.
Customizing the Kit with Drum Kit Designer
Drum Kit Designer is the software instrument plug-in that plays drum samples triggered by Drummer. It allows you to customize the drum kit by choosing from a collection of drums and cymbals and tuning and dampening them.
1. At the bottom of the character card, click East Bay Kit to open the Drum Kit Designer.
TIP
To have the Drummer regions play a different instrument, you can choose another patch from the Library or insert another software instrument plug-in on the channel strip. You can also drag Drummer regions to another software instrument track, and they are automatically converted to MIDI regions. (You will learn more about MIDI in Lesson 5.)
2. In Drum Kit Designer, click the snare.
You can hear the snare sample. The snare stays lit while the rest of the drum kit is in shadow. To the left, a Snares panel contains your choice of three snare drums, and to the right, an Edit panel includes three setting knobs.
The left panel shows only a limited selection of snares. To gain access to the entire collection of drum samples included with Logic Pro X, you need to choose a Producer Kit in the Library.
3. In the control bar, click the Library button (or press Y).
To the left of the inspector, the Library opens, listing patches for the selected track. The current patch, East Bay, is selected.
4. In the Library, select Producer Kits, and then select East Bay+.
The Drum Kit Designer window is reset. The East Bay+ kit sounds the same as East Bay while allowing a wide array of options to customize the drum kit and its mix.
More Info
In the track header, you may have noticed that the drum icon is now framed in a darker rectangle with a disclosure triangle: The track is now a Track Stack that contains one track for each microphone used to record the drum kit. Clicking the disclosure triangle displays the individual tracks and their channel strips. You will use Track Stacks in Lesson 5.
5. Click the Library button (or press Y) to close the library.
6. In Drum Kit Designer, click the snare.
This time the left pane displays a choice of 15 snare drums (use your mouse to scroll down the list). The current snare, Black Brass, is selected.
7. Click another snare, and then click the Info button next to it.
A description of the selected snare opens.
Continue previewing different snares and try listening to a verse or a chorus to hear your customized drum kit in action.
8. At the top of the left pane, click the Bell Brass snare.
9. In Drum Kit Designer, click the kick drum.
The info pop-up window updates to show you information on the selected kick drum.
Listen to the kick drum. This kick is the right choice for your song, but it has a long resonance. Typically, the faster the tempo of the song, the less resonance you want on the kick; otherwise low frequencies build up and could become a problem during the mix. You may have seen drummers stuff an old blanket in their kick drum to dampen them. In Drum Kit Designer, you only have to raise the dampening level.
10. In the right pane, drag the Dampen knob up to about 75%, and click the kick to listen to it.
The kick’s resonance is shortened.
You will now tune the toms, which are mainly used in the bridge section.
11. In the workspace, select the first Bridge region.
12. In the Drummer Editor, click the Play button and mute the kick.
You can hear only the low and mid toms.
13. In Drum Kit Designer, click one of the toms.
The Edit panel opens with four tabs: All (for adjusting settings of all three toms in the kit together); and Low, Mid, and High (for adjusting settings of each individual tom).
14. Click the Mid tab and raise the Tune knob to around +156 cent.
You can hear the mid tom being pitched up as Kyle continues repeating the first half of the bridge.
If you want, feel free to continue exploring Drum Kit Designer and adjusting the sound of the hi-hat, ride, and crash cymbals.
15. Stop playback and close the Drum Kit Designer window.
You have exchanged the snare for another one that sounds a little clearer, dampened the kick drum to tame its resonance, and tuned the mid tom to pitch it a bit higher. You have now fully customized both the drum performance and the drum kit.
Converting the Drummer Performance to MIDI
Now that you’re happy with the bulk of the drummer’s performance, you will go further and gain complete control over each individual drum hit by converting the Drummer regions to MIDI regions.
1. Click the background of the workspace and press Z to see all the regions.
TIP
To select all regions on a track, make sure Cycle mode is off, and click the track header. If Cycle mode is on, only the regions within the cycle area are selected.
2. Make sure Cycle mode is off, and click the East Bay+ track header to select all the regions on the track.
3. Control-click a region, and from the shortcut menu, choose Convert > Convert to MIDI Region.
The Drummer regions are converted to MIDI regions. At the bottom of the main window, the Piano Roll opens, showing the contents of the selected regions, ready to be edited. Individual drum hit are represented by note beams on a grid, making it easy to select, move, or delete any of them.
You have produced drums for a whole song, and learned many ways to edit the drummer’s performance and change his feel. You also customized the drum kit to get your desired sound. With Drummer and Drum Kit Designer, Logic Pro X allows you to quickly lay down a rhythmic foundation for any new song.
Lesson Review
1. How do you choose a drummer?
2. How do you choose a new drummer while keeping the current drum kit?
3. Where do you edit Drummer regions?
4. How do you mute or unmute drum parts?
5. How do you make the drummer play softer or louder, simpler or more complex?
6. How do you access the Feel knob to make the drummer play behind or ahead of the beat?
7. How do you open Smart Controls?
8. How do you open Drum Kit Designer?
9. When customizing a drum kit, how can you access all the available drum kit pieces?
10. How do you dampen or tune an individual drum?
11. How do you convert Drummer regions to MIDI regions?
Answers
1. Click the drummer in the character card, or from the Genre pop-up menu, choose a genre, and then click the desired drummer.
2. Option-click the desired drummer.
3. In the Drummer Editor at the bottom of the main window
4. Click the drum parts in the drum kit that is displayed in the Drummer Editor.
5. Move the puck on the XY pad.
6. Click the Details button at the bottom right of the Drummer Editor.
7. Click the Smart Controls button in the control bar, or press B.
8. Click the drum kit at the bottom of the character card.
9. Select the appropriate Producer Kit in the Library.
10. In Drum Kit Designer, click a drum and adjust the settings in the Edit panel.
11. Select the regions, Control-click one of them, and choose Convert > Convert to MIDI Region.
