Logic Pro X - Video Tutorial 30 - Continuous Controllers; MIDI Draw; and MIDI Automation Video Lecture | Logic Pro X: A Practical Hands-on Course - Music

hello this is music tech help guide
welcome to episode 30 of my Logic Pro 10
video tutorial series
in this episode we'll continue on from
the previous episode talking about using
continuous controllers for synthesizer
parameters and we'll also start talking
about a MIDI automation function called
MIDI draw continuous controllers are a
bit of a complex and long topic so in
the previous video I only I we only use
just basically faders and knobs on our
MIDI controller but continuous
controllers are actually a set of a
hundred and twenty eight controls
including faders knobs the modulation
wheel general purpose controllers your
sustain pedal is one expression pedals
are another even things like breath
control which is like a little headset
you can wear and you can blow into it
and it senses the wind speed of the of
the air that you blow into it to control
synthesizer function so that's pretty
cool the thing about all of these
continuous controllers is they all send
a common kind of range message they all
send a message between 0 and 127 127
being the controller all the way up and
zero being the controller all the way
down with things like sustain pedal when
you press it it's 127 when you release
it it's 0 so there are there is a way to
automate all of these these controllers
without using them the mix like mix
automation up here like we did last time
and actually using MIDI automation so
we'll get into that in just a moment one
thing I should say about continuous
controllers is that in the hardware
world if you're working with a hardware
synthesizer continuous controllers have
very specific functions you know for
instance think controller number 74 is a
brightness control and in the software
world world just because controller 74
is named brightness doesn't
mean that you have to use it for
brightness so just keep in mind in the
software world for the most part all of
your continuous controllers are
basically general-purpose controllers
you can use them for whatever you want
okay so what I've got here is just a
basic musical idea I've got a piano some
chords and then a drummer plug in down
here on the chord track here it says es
tu because it's the instrument we're
going to use but as you can see right
now there is no instrument on the track
so this track is not going to make any
sound at the moment so this is what I've
got and there you go so what I'm gonna
do is I'm just going to solo the piano
up here because I just want to hear the
piano by itself and first I want to show
you how to get into MIDI draw so you can
either double click on the MIDI region
or you can press command 4 to open up in
its own window which that's what I'm
going to do and you'll see all the MIDI
data up here we've already talked about
how to edit MIDI data and quantize this
has all been edited and quantized and
what we're going to do is we're going to
look at a window here called MIDI draw
and you get get to this by clicking on
this button right here it's called MIDI
draw this used to be called hyper draw
in logic 9 so hyper draw and MIDI draw
are essentially the same thing so I'm
going to click on that what it does is
it opens up an extra window down here at
the bottom of the piano roll editor and
what this window does is it shows you
any corresponding MIDI automation and
continuous controller values associated
with the notes up here now typically the
first value that the first controller if
you really want to call it a controller
that will show up is note velocity no
velocity basically just shows you the
velocity of each note up here as kind of
like a vertical thing here so each one
of these little dots with a line next to
it is showing the velocity of that note
and also the length of the note
so if I were to grab one of these and
pull it down there we go
if you grab it right on the little
circle there the little dot and pull it
down you're actually individually
controlling the velocity of the note you
might be asking well what's what's the
point of editing velocity that way when
you can just use the velocity tool up
here to you know to kind of better
expedite that process because it's a lot
faster to use the velocity tool up here
then is to mess around this stuff here
there is one little extra control down
here that you can't really do up here
very well and that is the line tool and
the line tool basically appears when you
click somewhere
actually it's click and hold there you
go click and hold and drag somewhere
else you get this little green line what
this green line does is it will make all
of the MIDI notes that you drag over
it'll make their velocities change to
the velocity of that that line that
we're creating and so we can create kind
of like velocity fade ins like this so
it's a little different from a volume
fade in volume you know with the volume
fade you're just you know in slowly
increasing the or decreasing the output
volume of the track with MIDI velocity
or actually we can kind of change the
tone or the character of each note by
increasing or decreasing the velocity
especially in these sampled instruments
like the the piano here because the the
piano has multiple samples and a per key
that is and the harder you hit the key
the you'll actually hear a different
sample and the softer you hit the key
you can actually hear a softer sample so
that's just one thing you can do I'm
going to go ahead and not do that so I'm
just going to hit command a up here and
I don't know if you guys remember this
but if you hold option while using the
velocity tool you can set all of your
velocities to the same value so I'll do
that another controller option down here
is volume
volume is just MIDI volume is all it is
so if I click somewhere on the little
line here create a breakpoint envelope
here create like a fade in just like so
you'll see that volume fades in and just
like if we were to do this with say mix
automation the fader down here will
actually follow that automation that we
drew in the difference from mix
automation is that if I hit a to open up
my automation view here you see nothing
on the volume control it's just because
the MIDI automation is just on a second
I on a different level than mix
automation is so there there is a
difference at least here the volume
there's not much of a there's not really
much of a difference but as we'll find
in just a moment there are some things
that you can do in the MIDI draw editor
that you can't do up here so you'll also
see that on the track you get these
black bars they'll actually be black or
white bars depending on depending on the
actually the color of your of your
region so but but that that's basically
showing you the MIDI automation that's
over in the the MIDI draw editor here so
I'm just going to double click on these
points here just to get rid of them
actually no this is this is a perfect
chance to show you guys a new tool here
there's two tools down at the bottom of
your piano roll editor tools one's
called automation select one's called
automation curve with automation select
you can take existing automation drag
over it and you can move it around you
can also hold option and you can
duplicate the automation so if you want
to create like a repeated effect you can
just create the the you know the
automation once and then copy and paste
the automation over just by holding
option
the other tool is the automation curve
tool and this basically allows you to
create kind of logarithmic and
exponential shapes and if you and that's
Jeff you drag up or down you get
logarithmic and exponential and if you
drag left and right you can actually get
S curve shapes the other thing that you
can do with automation select is you can
drag over your automation and you can
hit delete if we don't want any
automation there all right the next
control is panorama pan basically pan
with all the way basically all the way
up is all the way left all the way down
is all the way right so you can mess
with pan here just like you could in the
mix window out here actually at the mix
window the with mix automation so I'm
not going to mess with that it's going
to keep it where it's at one control for
piano here that's particularly useful is
the sustain pedal also knows a damper
pedal sustain pedal is a little
different than the other controls in
that it's a switch it's either on or
it's off and as you can see in my MIDI
data up here it's kind of I want I
wouldn't say staccato but it's
definitely not legato sounding you know
what if I wanted that those notes to
kind of hang on I've got to set my pan
back there we go it's definitely like I
said it's definitely not staccato but
it's also not like legato I want maybe I
want these notes kind of to attach to
the next note one way to do it would
just be to edit the MIDI data but if you
want it to sound more like a the way
like a sustain pedal on a piano would
work you can actually draw in sustain
pedal automation but like I said sustain
pedal is a little different because it's
essentially a switch it's either on or
it's off so when you click in here to
create automation for the sustain pedal
all the way up at 127 is on and all the
way down at 1
are actually zero is off and actually
you'll see on the left side here there's
a range from 0 to 127 anything above
like 64 is going to be interpreted as on
and anything below 64 is going to be
interpreted as off so um so what I'm
going to do is over the over each
section that I want to be sustained I'm
going to make sure that I have a zoom in
just a bit here to see this better for
each section
that's essentially every bar that I want
sustained I'm going to make sure that
it's up just like I would be holding
down the piano and when we get to the
first note of the next kind of phrase
their next bar I'm going to very very
quickly release the pedal and then pull
the pedal back pull the pedal back up so
it's click to create a point and pull it
up sustain proper sustain pedaling is is
a little difficult if you've never
played the piano before just because
there's a very there's a very specific
way you're supposed to sustain and and
it basically ends up being like this
when you get to the next note where you
want to pedal you quickly release and
then quickly press again so what I'm
going to do is I'm going to take
advantage of my automation select tool
that I just used before to drag over
that shape and then hold option to
duplicate it so I'm just going to
basically do this on every bar just the
very beginning of each bar it'll take a
quick minute here but when I get done
it'll sound nice and legato each measure
will kind of blend into the next a
little bit but because of the way I'm
entering in this automation here it's
not going to it's not going to sound
like there's a bunch of notes you know
overlapping you know the the bad way
that with just to use the sustain pedal
would be to like just hold it down and
then play for you know
thirty bars before you actually let up
on the bond on the pedal because then
everything is going to just sound drown
out and you're going to have notes and
co and different chords that don't match
up and that are gonna sound kind of
dissonant you know here's here's another
trick I should be using but I'm not if
you want to copy like once you create
like two or three of these you can
actually drag over them all like all
four of them here with the automation
select tool and you can duplicate those
as well as a group I should have done
that
to begin with but well now you know
there we go so I'm going to delete these
last two here now the only thing you
want to make sure you do is you want to
make sure you release the pedal one last
time after all of your pedaling x'
because if this is like a like some
strings or something this notes just
going to continue on forever until you
basically press stop on your playback
with the piano at least that the note
will actually naturally die off with a
synthesizer it may not so somewhere out
here I'm just going to create another
off pedaling and there we go and what
you'll see is back in the arrangement is
these little black bars here once again
showing the the MIDI automation showing
the sustain pedal so let's see what this
sounds like now
yeah that sounds really nice so now
we've got this nice kind of sustain
pedal sound without actually having to
go in and edit the MIDI automation okay
next let's take a look at our ES 2 track
here I don't actually have an es 2 on it
yet so let's go ahead and do that the
reason why I'm using the ES 2 is because
the es to allow has its own the s 2
along with other instruments has its own
MIDI controller learning kind of built
into it so you can internally within the
plug-in learn a continuous controller
rather than having to map it with the
controller assignments window like we
did in the previous window and while
we're while we're talking about the
controller assignments when I remember
that shift option K and it's probably a
good idea when you do this to make sure
that you don't have any controls learned
what I'm going to do just so we don't
actually ask the accidentally double up
any controllers so one of the things
I'll say about the es too is that this
is in no way a tutorial for the es 2 you
know you kind of have to know a little
bit about what you're doing here and a
lot of this this stuff I'm doing right
now is kind of standardized and other
synthesizers too you know other since
even third-party since we'll have a
their own kind of MIDI controller
assignment learning you know built into
it so what we can do in the es 2 is down
on the bottom here there's a MIDI button
you click on that and what it does is it
has its own controller assignments it
has six of them control a through F and
what you can do is click on one of these
click on one of these controllers go to
learn and then move the controller that
you want to learn and so I just moved my
very first fader on my MIDI controller
which happens to be CC 74 which is a
brightness control like I talked about
earlier and then what you can do is you
can internally within the the synth say
I want controller a to control the
cutoff or the resonance or the FM knob
here
whatever you want it to do what I'm
going to do is I'm gonna start with a
preset just so you guys can kind of
follow along with me if you want to the
preset I'm going to use is under synth
pads and it is called dark pad 2 and
dark pad - sounds like this so just a
very warm synth pad what I'm going to do
is now that I've learned my controller
down here well I suppose I don't have to
go back to macro I can keep it on MIDI
there what I'm do is I'm going to tweak
this patch just a little bit to make it
more like what I wanted what I want it
to sound like first and foremost I am
going to go to the MIDI routers here not
the mid the modulation routers here the
modulation routers essentially allow
things on top here to be controlled by
things on bottom or by controllers or by
the XY pad they're basically just
sources and targets for MIDI for
synthesizers or modulation so what I'm
going to do is just to kind of get rid
of all these these modulation routers
I'm going to turn them off and the way
you turn them off you just hold option
and click on the target value and it
basically turns the router off and so I
can do that across the entire set of
routers here and we'll probably end up
with something that's a little more
simple sounding now
yeah it's a little more plain now the
other thing I'm going to do is in my
third envelope down here which is
hardwired to volume which basically
means that this envelope only control
well you can use it for other things but
it uh it's hardwired to be control
volume I'm gonna pull the attack time
down just a bit I'm gonna pull the
release time down just a bit so it's not
so ambient sounding there we go and I'm
also going to pull up the cutoff and the
filter cutoff frequencies in the the
filters here to brighten up the sound
just a bit there we go and actually
there's no need for me to even use
filter one up here so I'm just going to
pull the blend down to filter two so I'm
just using filter two I'll go ahead and
pull the resonance down as well let's
pull that cutoff up a little bit more
there we go now we get a little more
plane patch but it's something we can we
can work with so the first thing we can
do is we we can make controller 74 just
directly control say the cutoff up here
the cutoff for filter two and the way
you do that is with one of your
modulation routers so what we'd say is
you say okay the target that's what's
being controlled is going to be cutoff
number two so it's the cutoff frequency
for filter two and the source is what's
controlling it is going to be control a
which happens to be after we assigned it
of course happens to be controller 74
which again is a brightness controller
but on a hardware synthesizer it would
be a brightness control but for for this
it's it's whatever we want it to be so
the other thing we have to do is this
little green arrow here is the depth of
the modulation so if we pull that all
the way up we're going to be able to
hear a very drastic difference between
fader down and fader up so with fader
down the cutoff frequency is probably
going to be closed
and then and the cutoff is going to be
more closed the filter is going to be
more closed and if I pull it up it's
going to be more open so here's down
and then open right after it I'm just
going to pull the resonance down a bit
turn the fat off and then I'm also going
to make the slope a little less drastic
sounding
sometimes this works fine just doing
this what you can actually do instead is
make the source max and then make the
control the via parameter and when you
make the controller the continuous
controller be the via parameter it lets
you choose a range between basically
fader down and fader up and so the
little green arrow is now fader all the
way down and the orange arrow is fader
all the way up and so you can kind of
set a range now for all the way up and
all the way down and so now we get this
basically the same effect that we that
we got before now the difference the
difference here is that now I can put
something else in the source though
besides max I can put like an LFO there
or an envelope and I can make the
controller my fader control that effect
so for instance if I change the source
to LFO number two then go over to LFO
number two change its shape to like a
square wave here and then change its
rate to something that's like a synced
rate like a like a synced eighth note or
something like that with the fader all
the way up we're going to hear like this
sort of like filtery stutter effect with
the fader down you're not going to hear
that effect at all
so this is the advantage of doing this
this way as opposed to doing it the way
we did in the previous video is that we
can not wit now not not only can we just
you know control individual controls in
the synthesizer we can control whole
effects like a stutter effect or a
vibrato or a filter sweep or something
like that so that's one thing that we
can do here now so what I'm going to do
is I'm going to keep that effect as is
I'm going to pull the top down just a
little bit so it's not so drastic I'm
going to pull the bottom up just a
little bit too so it's not always at
it's never at zero and so now I have a
range between this and that
there we go let's go ahead and try a
different shape - let's try the triangle
wave it will be a little less drastic
sounding
yeah I like that one okay so now instead
of having to you know hit a turn on live
automation you can actually just record
in playing the keyboard and moving the
control or you can actually just play in
the control on top of our pre-existing
MIDI region here so what I'm gonna do is
I'm going to mute the piano I'll keep
the drums and just as a timing reference
and I'm just going to play in the
controller and record in the controller
on top of on top of this alright one
quick thing to remember before we start
recording in that that controller
automation is you want to make sure
there's actually two things you want to
do first go to file project settings and
then go to recording chances are it's
already set to this but make sure your
overlap MIDI overlapping recordings is
set to join when cycling this basically
means that in cycle mode it's going to
join together your MIDI regions but when
cycle modes off like I have it turned
off now it'll actually just overlap my
automation on top of my my MIDI notes
there but like I said by default I think
by default this is the setting so it
should be set that way already and again
just make sure that cycle mode up here
is off you can either just click on it
to turn it off or press C in the
keyboard and make sure it's turned off
and the other thing you want to make
sure to do is make sure that your
dragged mode is set to overlap not to no
overlap if it sets a no overlap what
will happen is everything you play will
replace what you have there and so
you'll have a bunch of MIDI automation
but you have lost the notes that we have
so make sure you have it on overlap
there so now what I can do is just press
R to record and I can play in that
controller I'm not playing any notes I'm
just playing the controller and just
layering this with MIDI automation
now what I did there is I just as you
can see I've got my MIDI data here my
notes and then I have my controller data
what I'm going to do the cool thing
about this is that it's saved to a MIDI
region it's you know if I hit a you're
not going to see that MIDI automation
like we did before the cool thing about
this is I can trim it up just going use
my marquee tool here and bar mode I'm
just kind of trim this up a bit and what
I'm going to do is just hold option and
duplicate this so you actually very
easily duplicate the automation because
it's all contained within just the MIDI
region and then what you can do is drag
over all of this everything on the track
go to the tool bar here this extra
little toolbar by clicking here and then
choose join and this will join and merge
the MIDI automation into the previously
recorded chords there so now what we can
do I mean we can just hit play and we'll
see that we'll hear this play
the stutter effect gets a little harder
at the top of these little Peaks here
and it gets a little softer toward the
bottom of these now if I want to go in
and further edit this you can actually
just open it up in the piano roll editor
like we did before
and let me just do that so we can see
the chords a little better and we can
actually find the controller down here
in the in the controller list so if you
click here and then go to other you'll
actually get a list of all 128
continuous controllers the only thing we
have to remember is what was the one
that we actually used and the one that
we used was brightness and you can click
on that and brightness will show up but
there's actually another little trick
you can do if you click on this button
right here it'll pull up one of the
controllers that you've used even if you
use multiples you can click on this and
it'll jump back and forth and jump
around between the different controllers
that you've used so that's just two
different ways to to get it and you'll
see here it says it's a controller
number 74 so and if I press play
we can hear that automation that we drew
in and just like we did before if we
want to we can actually take our
automation select tool let's say we
didn't really like the way this turned
out you can hit delete and you can also
just draw in your own controller
automation so you don't actually even
have to play this you don't actually
have to record this in like I did if you
don't want to so maybe I'll just do
something like this so I just want like
a slow fade in at least the stutter a
slow fade in for the stuttering effect
and then I'll duplicate it by holding
option look that is not what I wanted to
happen let's try that again I'm not sure
what that was
sometimes my there we go sometimes my
well if you haven't noticed find out
sometimes my screen capture software
slows down and messes up some of the
things I do in logic there you go so I
can copy this over again I'm just
holding option to duplicate is that it
yeah I think that's it and we'll see a
new shape out here oh we need one more
that's ok I'll leave it that way so
let's just hear it all this sounds like
together
and there we go so the song is a lot
more interesting now that we've added
that that controller information so
that's the end of the video I hope you
enjoyed it in the next video we'll
probably continue on with MIDI in some
form or fashion I'm not really sure what
direction I'm going to take it next I
know I need to do a few quantization
videos to kind of further cover
quantization and we haven't talked about
external instruments yet so there's a
lot there's a lot of topics that we can
we can I can cover from here so so I
hope you enjoyed the video and thanks
again for watching