Introduction
If you’ve picked up this the book, you’ve probably already figured out that it deals with Apple’s Logic Pro X digital audio workstation. This book takes a different angle than most others, however. In general, books written about Logic tend to be geared toward beginners and consist of a few hundred pages of incredibly basic information. If not, they are geared toward specific features of Logic and not the whole application. This book takes on a fairly ambitious task: to be a complete introduction and reference for Logic Pro X! It’s a goal that no other Logic book really attempts, and although I make no claims of objectivity, I think this book achieves it nicely. I don’t attempt to write everything about everything, but I make sure to cover those things that you are likely to run into while using Logic to make music and to explain them simply and thoroughly. Moreover, I attempt to go into the philosophy behind why Logic works the way it works. Hopefully you will not simply learn the mechanics of how to do something, but you’ll really understand what you are doing so when you want to explore on your own, you’ll be fully prepared—and successful!
Who This Book Is For
Who is this book for? Well, the glib answer is, “Anyone who owns Logic!” I’m sure some of you with older versions of Logic, Windows versions of Logic, different levels of Logic (Logic, Logic Silver, Logic Audio, Logic Gold, Logic Platinum, or Logic Express), and so on are wondering how much use you can get out of a book focused on the Macintosh OS X–only Logic Pro X. This is covered in more detail in Chapter 1, “Introducing Logic Pro X,” but I’ll quickly say this: Logic Pro X is one of the most incredible updates Logic has seen in a very long time. It offers many new and updated features, particularly with regard to audio and the fact that Logic is now a 64 bit–only application. Nonetheless, the basics of how Logic works have not fundamentally changed since the earliest days of Notator Logic for the Atari. Features get added and the look changes a bit, so the older your version, the fewer features your Logic version may have compared to this one. But the basic operating procedures and features in your Logic version should be covered here in a way that will help you. So if you’re looking for help with Logic, this book can provide it.
As for what level of user this book is aimed at, really, I took pains to include everyone—from people trying to create music on a computer for the first time, to longtime GarageBand users, to experienced Logic users. The book opens with very basic information aimed at novices and beginners. The bulk of this book continues with more intermediate reference information, with expert tips and tricks sprinkled throughout. The final chapters discuss more esoteric, “expert” functions, but hopefully in a way that is accessible to intermediate users. If you are a beginner, don’t feel that only the beginning will be appropriate for you; the chapters are written to bring you up to speed in no time! Intermediate and advanced users, don’t feel the beginning of the book is wasted on you, although you’re welcome to skip it. It’s good stuff, with lots of historical and architectural information you may not be familiar with even if you’re already fast and efficient with Logic and are just looking for a good reference book. My goal was to start simple, get more advanced, and hopefully leave nobody behind. This book really does try to offer something for everyone.
How This Book Is Organized
Every book on computer software starts with a number of assumptions and organizes the chapters accordingly. For this book, I start with the assumption that the reader has a very basic knowledge of sequencing and recording and little else. The beginning chapters are introductions—to digital audio, MIDI, sequencing, and Logic. From about Chapter 4, “Global Elements of Logic,” onward, the book becomes far less basic. At that point, as I start getting into the meat of Logic Pro X, the thought is that you have a working knowledge of the basics and general layout discussed in the previous four chapters, that you have set up your template (don’t worry, you’ll know what that is soon!), and that you want to start composing, recording, and editing music.
The general flow of the chapters follows a Logic project. After setting up Logic, you’ll need to learn about the Transport and the main window. Then, you’ll want to record and edit audio and MIDI, mix down your project, and finally save your project and organize your files. The final chapters are about more advanced, esoteric features of Logic that, as you create more complex compositions and build a more involved project studio, will become more important.
As for each chapter, there is no single model to which I adhere regarding the subdivisions of sections. It is the content that determines the organization of each individual chapter. One thing I do want to mention, however, is that every time a new Logic window or editor is introduced, we discuss each local menu in that window or editor. This gives you the advantage of getting an overview of many of the functions available in a window or editor before we go deeper into using those functions.
One More Note on Logic Pro X
Logic Pro X is an application in a state of flux, but in a great way. From Logic Pro X 10.0, to Logic Pro X 10.0.1, to the most recent release at this moment, Logic Pro X 10.0.4, features have been added and refined again and again, with each update improving Logic immensely. As a result, there may be things that are covered in this book that work differently because of an ensuing update. Therefore, it is important that as you update Logic, you pay attention to the release notes for each version of Logic Pro X to help you keep track of these changes.