Logic Pro X - Video Tutorial 22 - Varispeed Video Lecture | Logic Pro X: A Practical Hands-on Course - Music

[Music]
hello this is music tech help guy
welcome to episode 22 of my Logic Pro 10
video tutorial series in this episode
we'll take a look at varus speed and how
we can use it to play with the tempo and
pitch of an entire project
now varus speed actually comes from the
tape world varus speed is a tape
playback function that allows you to
increase or decrease the playback speed
of tape and essentially as I said in a
previous video when you decrease the
playback speed of tape what happens is
the tempo goes slower and the pitch also
drops when you increase the playback
speed of tape pitch goes up and so does
the tempo so in the digital world ver
speed essentially does the same thing
except there's a few other parameters
that we can play around with that we
couldn't do in the tape world so before
we even start working with it I want to
show you guys something that I should
have showed you in the previous one of
the previous videos and that is to go to
Logic Pro 10 preferences advanced tools
now this option here opens up a window
that allows you to hide or show your
advanced tools and cause some confusion
some of the previous videos because
people were saying hey music tech help
guy don't see that option in my in my
version of Logic well this is how you
can turn it on for some reason the
advanced tools are turned off for some
people when they purchase logic I don't
know why for me they were always on so I
never had to turn them on but when you
turn this off it essentially turns logic
into a glorified version of GarageBand
so yeah you want to make sure those are
on for all of my videos including all of
the additional options down here make
sure those are all on ok so now that
that's on Ferris speed will actually be
a function that we can use next we're
going to go up to our display up here
and we're going to change it to the
custom view and next we are going to
show ver speed up here by right-clicking
somewhere on the
a on like next to the control bar here
and say and choose customize control bar
and display and what we're gonna do is
under the Elsa LCD column here we're
gonna make sure Vera speed is on and I'm
actually gonna turn off a few things
here just to clear up some space and
then hit OK
and what you should see is you'll see
something that says speed only and then
0% this is these are your verus speed
controls also on the right side here in
the control bar you'll see a button that
we can toggle on or off Ferris speed so
I'm gonna turn that on and you'll see
speed only here turns to orange for us
now before I start playing around Vera
speed let's listen to this the song as
is and then we'll change the tempo of
the song and the pitch of the song so
here's the song at the original tempo of
85 bpm
[Music]
all right so you can see there that it's
a combination of audio there's a vocal
par cousteau guitar and MIDI there's a
just a MIDI bass and some MIDI piano
down here now
what this speed only option up here does
is it allows us to change the playback
speed of our song without affecting
pitch
there's actually three modes for verus B
if you click on speed only up here
you'll see this menu pop up and you can
choose speed only verus speed and verus
speed and midi with speed only again
like I said it affects the tempo of our
project but doesn't actually affect the
speed of our project so let's go ahead
and turn that on and we're given a
percentage here so let's bump this up by
10% and what will happen is the song
will playback 10% faster
[Music]
we can also double-click and type type
in a negative value as well let's try
negative 10%
[Music]
another way we can change this is
instead of in percentages if you click
right here on the percentage you can
change the vert speed unit to something
else so let's click on that and we're
going to choose resulting tempo and this
allows us to basically pick a specific
tempo in contrast to the original tempo
of 85 bpm so if I just double click on
this let's make it go a little faster
let's make it go like a hundred bpm
[Music]
and likewise you can double-click and
choose a lower BPM maybe like 70 now
what this is really useful for is if you
are trying to maybe Creek there's really
two two useful functions here here that
I can see emit there's probably others
as well that are people use but these
are the two things I use it for the
first is to slow down the the the in you
know globally the tempo of the entire
session without having to use flex time
like we did in last video so that a
musician can maybe practice the song at
a slower BPM maybe they're having
trouble playing in a certain lead or a
certain chord progression or a certain
drum part you can slow down the BPM for
them so they can practice at a lower
speed and slowly increase the tempo
until you get to the actual tempo of the
song the second function here is to
maybe be able to match the tempo of a
session to maybe another session maybe
you're trying to take a session that you
have bounce it out at a different tempo
and then match it up with maybe another
song as a sample or a loop or whatnot
and maybe another option could be to
slightly bump up the tempo a little bit
maybe hear from 85 to 90
just a slight tempo change to maybe
create like a like a radio version of
the song a radio cut of the song that's
a little bit faster and therefore the
songs gonna be a little bit shorter
alright our other options here under if
you click again if you click on speed
here you can choose various speed now at
various speed this affects both the
tempo of the project and the pitch of
the project so if I choose that and what
I'm gonna do is you can use the
percentage and resulting tempo for this
as well let's make it go a little bit
faster let's make it go 90 BPM well
let's make let's go 100 100 BPM so not
only is the song gonna play back 15
beats per minute faster it's also the
pitch is also gonna be shifted up so
let's listen to what this sounds like
[Music]
so this is an example of a playback
speed change where both the tempo of the
project and the pitch of the project is
shifted up or down from the resulting
tempo you can also change this in with a
detuning option and are tuning reference
option now when you use the detuning
option it shows you specifically how
many semitones up or down you are
bumping up the music or bumping down the
pitch as if you don't know a semitone is
a semitone is essentially just a musical
half-step so if I like for instance if
this song was in the key of C and I said
let's increase it by one semitone you're
now in the key of C sharp and if I were
to you know double-click and say
negative one well you're gonna go one
key back on the piano so instead of
being in the key of C now you're gonna
be in the key of B so you can adjust the
songs tuning to any key like here so
again I don't know what the the the the
tuning of this song is with the key of
the song is offhand but if I were in C
and I say let's add three semitones to
it now we're in the key of D sharp or E
flat so you can pick a specific tuning
option here and not only will the tune
play up or down it also increases or
decreases the tempo
[Music]
or maybe we want to go down and say two
semitones a whole step down to b-flat or
whatever
[Music]
now from a vocal standpoint it's really
gonna make your vocals sound chipmunky
if you push him up a lot it's really
gonna really change the quality of the
person's voice so I wouldn't recommend
using this for music with vocals in it
but one thing you can do here is you can
force a song to match maybe the key of
another project you know so you can
bounce it out and drop it in as a loop
so that's one thing you can do with it
so again
véra speed from a pitch standpoint is
more of a transformational thing it's
not a functional it's not a functional
option to use within a song especially
when you're again when you're working
with the various speed option as opposed
to the speed option the only thing we
can do here is instead of choosing a
semitones reference we can choose tuning
reference now what this does is it
references the standard tuning of a 440
so when basically when various speed is
off or set to its default value your
reference tuning is 440 Hertz so if
you're not familiar with the
significance of 440 Hertz 440 is the a
above middle C on the keyboard and it's
essentially the standard tuning scale or
this nut scale the tuning system that
we've used for at least in the US for
the last 80 or 90 years prior to that
they were tuning systems at 442 443
little higher and also systems a little
lower like 432 so what this does is it
shifts the entire song up or down in
Hertz rather than in semitones so let's
say that we want to shift our song down
to kind of 432 and you know if you're if
you want to know the significance of 432
just do a simple YouTube or Google
search but 432 is seen to be a more
perfect tuning system I don't know if it
actually makes the music sound any
better or worse some people would say
yes some people would say no but we can
shift the music down to 432 if we want
to but again keep in mind we're not just
adjusting pitch here
we're also adjusting to playback speed
so the song is going to playback a
little slower as well as playing playing
back a little lower and we're hardly
going to be able to tell the difference
here
there's only an 8 Hertz difference here
so let's try something more drastic like
for at 420 Hertz a full 20 Hertz lower
[Music]
to busy
maybe let's try going a little higher
like 490
[Music]
so that's very speed in a nutshell
alright now the last varus speedin mode
is called varus speed and MIDI now
before I even start talking about this
I'm just gonna let you know that in my
opinion I frankly think that this mode
is completely useless
so I mean you'll never use it so if you
decide to stop the video now and move on
to the next episode
you'll be fine you're not really missing
out at anything however if you want to
see me break character and rant for a
few more minutes well you can keep
watching the video so various speed and
MIDI which I never use I never use this
mode if you go and read the logic mute
user manual says Ferriss speed and MIDI
is used to emulate classic tape Varys
speed and simultaneously transpose non
drum MIDI tracks quantized to semitones
so when I read that statement what I
think is Oh as opposed to the very speed
mode this mode just moves MIDI data up
and down rather than shifting the audio
output of instruments up and down at
least non drum MIDI tracks so if I had a
MIDI piano track it's just gonna shift
the MIDI input up and down rather than
the audio output up and down which that
could have an advantage you know when
you move MIDI data up and down you're
not having to transpose the audio of
that synthesizer which is gonna result
in a better quality playback now that
would be great if it was actually true
in all actuality I cannot hear the
difference between verus speed and verus
speed and MIDI and keep in mind before I
made this video I went through at least
50 or 60 examples trying to hear the
difference between Varys speed and Varys
speed and MIDI and I just cannot hear it
and keep in mind I think I have a pretty
good ear I have a master's degree in
music I've been playing music and
playing the piano since I was 8 years
old so I've been doing this for like 20
years and I think I have a pretty good
ear and I cannot hear the difference
between the two so okay so let me just
show you what I mean
what I've got out here is just a drum
track it's an ultra beat preset even the
pattern is a preset and then down here I
have a piano instrument just a simple
little C minor piano melody so let's
listen to what this sounds like without
Vera speed on okay that sounds fine let
using Vera speed and MIDI let's bump
this up five semitones so it's gonna
happen
what should happen if I'm interpreting
the definition from the logic manual
correctly which I'm probably not what
should happen is that the audio output
of our drum instrument should be shifted
up five semitones and the MIDI input of
the Steinway grand piano track should be
shift shifted up five semitones let's
listen to what it sounds like okay it's
in fact higher but let's try just
regular old Vera speed there's no
difference I cannot hear the difference
between the two of them even if I just
solo out the Steinway here let's let me
just zoom in a bit I'll solo out the
Steinway put us on Ferris speed and I'll
do this without even talking in between
I'll switch from Vera speed of air speed
and MIDI so here's Vera speed
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
[Applause]
there's literally no difference between
them even if I really really increase
this to like 12 semitones up that's
bumping it up an entire octave we really
should hear some obvious digital
artifacts here on the speed and pitch
option that we shouldn't hear in various
speed and MIDI again if I'm reading the
definition correctly again I don't hear
the difference
so now trust me I understand the
difference between transposing drums and
transposing you know non drum
instruments you know on a drum
instrument like this you know if you're
looking at a piano roll editor in the
sense of what key is what drum you know
for instance see one in most drum kits
is a kick drum now I realize that when
you transpose a kick drum up to maybe e1
you're changing it to usually some sort
of a snare drum or a clap or something
like that so you don't want to transpose
the MIDI data of a drum instrument
because it's all the notes the voices
aren't going to be in the right place
whereas you know if you take something
like the Steinway here and just shift it
up you know three steps up to E minor
instead of C minor you're just putting
it in a different key so I understand
the difference between you know pitch
shifting and transposing drums versus
non drums but according to at least the
way I'm interpreting the the definition
it's not doing what it says it does so
so that's my little rant on Varys speed
and MIDI I never use it and I'll
probably never use it and if anyone
knows exactly what this does please
contact me and let me know send me a
private message I'll do an addendum to
this video I'll even give you credit for
the addendum video I I mean I do want to
know what it does but I just can't hear
any difference and I
searched apple's website i've searched
through google i cannot get a good
answer on what the difference between
varus being and midi and verus speed is
so i hope you enjoyed this video and
thanks again for watching