The book is designed to guide you through the music production process as it teaches Logic. The first lesson is an overview of the production process in Logic. You’ll get familiar with the interface and the various ways to navigate a project while building a song from scratch using Apple Loops, then arranging, mixing, and exporting the song to an MP3 file. In the Recording and Editing section, you will go deeper into the stages of music production. You’ll learn how to come up with the raw material that will be the building blocks of your musical project. The Producing section will show you how to take those building blocks and make sure their tempos match, then how to arrange and mix them into your final project. Finally, you’ll learn the basics of scoring movies and become familiar with troubleshooting techniques to solve problems common to software composers.

The lessons are grouped into the following categories:

The exercises in this book require that you install Logic Studio along with all the Logic Studio Content included on the installer. To install Logic Studio, insert the first installation DVD in your computer, double-click the installer and follow the instructions until you reach the step Installation Type. Then make sure you select Logic Studio Content to get a solid checkmark in that checkbox, not a – (minus sign). Then continue following the installer’s instructions to complete the installation.

All the instructions and descriptions in this book assume you are using the default set of preferences (unless instructed to change them) and the default keyboard shortcuts installed with Logic. If you have changed some of your preferences or key commands, you may not get the same results described in the exercises. To make sure you can follow along with this book, it’s best to revert to the initial set of Logic preferences before you start the lessons. Keep in mind that when you initialize your preferences, you will lose your custom settings, and later you may want to reset your favorite preferences manually.

If you are using a small screen resolution, some of the project files may appear different on your screen than they do in the book. When you open a project, if you can’t see the whole Arrange window, move the window until you can see the three window controls at the left of the title bar, and click the zoom button (the third button from the left) to make the window fit the screen.

When using a small screen resolution, you may also have to zoom or scroll more often than instructed in the book to perform some of the exercise steps. In some cases you may have to temporarily resize or close an area of the Arrange window to perform an action in another area.

On the DVD, you’ll find a folder titled Logic 8_Files, which contains three subfolders: Lessons, Media, and Apple Loops for Logic Express Users. The first two folders contain the lessons and media files for this course. (See the section “Instruction for Logic Express Users” for an explanation of the third folder.) Make sure you keep these two folders together in the Logic 8_Files folder on your hard disk. If you do so, Logic should be able to maintain the original links between the lessons and media files.

Each lesson will explain which files to open for that lesson’s exercises.

If you’re using Logic Express 8, most of the instructions in this book are exactly the same as those for Logic Pro 8. When there are differences, you’ll find a note in the exercises addressed specifically to Logic Express users. Keep in mind that Logic Express doesn’t come with the same instruments, effects, and sound library as Logic Studio, and sometimes your screen may look different from the pictures in this book (for example you may see different settings in the Library, different Apple Loops in the Loops Browser, and different names on tracks and channel strips).

To install files from the Logic Pro 8 and Logic Express 8 DVD, follow the instructions in the previous section and then install the additional Apple Loops as explained in the steps below.