Logic Pro X - Video Tutorial 43 - Transposer MIDI FX Plug-in Video Lecture | Logic Pro X: A Practical Hands-on Course - Music

[Music]
hello this is music tech help guy and
welcome to episode 43 of my Logic Pro 10
video tutorial series in this episode
we're going to talk about the Transposer
plugin which is one of the many new MIDI
effects plugins included with logic 10
the Transposer is a really really simple
plugin basically does two things it
allows you to either parallel transpose
here or you can scale transpose here
let's start with parallel transposition
paralleled transposition basically just
means that you can take all of your MIDI
data on the track and shift it up or
shift it down any number of semitones so
let's say that the song you you've been
working on sounds great the chords are
right the rhythm is right it's just not
in the right key for the singer what you
can do is you can drop a transpose or on
all of your software instruments and
transpose them up say three semitones or
five semitones to put the song in a
different key and if you're not really
familiar with what semitones are
semitones are essentially musical
half-steps so a musical half-step is
essentially just you know one note up up
or down to the next note so see the C
sharp would be one semitone C to D would
be two semitones and semitones are also
kind of the derivative of of all of our
kind of musical intervals you know when
you hear people talking about major
thirds and minor thirds when they talk
about a minor third they're talking
about three semitones like C to D sharp
or what I'd actually be C to E flat for
a minor third but D sharp and E flat are
the same note C to E for instance is a
major third so that's four semitones C
to F is five semitones that is a perfect
fourth C to G is seven semitones that's
a perfect fifth and so on so forth if
you're really interested in the kind of
the music concepts behind behind that
and understanding scales and intervals
and things like that I recommend you go
check out a place like music theory net
where they have you know free online
tutorials and quizzes and and guides on
how
understand scales and chords and things
like that so let's take a listen to what
I've got here is just a really basic C
minor piano idea let's say for instance
that I really like the idea I want to
use it but my singer needs to sing in a
hierarchy so what we're gonna be able to
do is we're gonna be able to transpose
this whole thing up into a hierarchy so
here's what it sounds like right now
there you go so like I said the most
basic function of the Transposer
is that you can parallel transpose MIDI
data one thing to keep in mind with the
Transposer is that it doesn't actually
move the MIDI data up or down in your
piano roll editor if you really wanted
to do that you could actually just you
know do a command a to select all you
can hold option and press up or down to
kind of transpose it or you can do shift
option up or down and that'll transpose
it up and up and down by octaves I want
to leave the the MIDI data and my piano
relative there alone I just want it to
play back in a different key and that's
what the Transposer will do for you so
let's say that my singer needs to be you
know in the key of D sharp or E flat
minor not in the key of C minor so we're
gonna need to go up 0 1 2 3 semitones
and when you count up you always start
on on 0 on the key that you're on so if
I need to go from C to D sharp that's
going to be 0 1 2 3 so I'm gonna raise
this up 3 semitones and let's see what
it sounds like now
there you go another one so a couple
important semitone values to keep in
mind like it I was pointing out earlier
three would be am going up a minor third
four would be a major third five would
be a perfect fifth seven is me five is a
perfect fourth seven would be a perfect
fifth eight is gonna be a minor sixth
nine is going to be a major sixth and
another really important one is 12 12 is
up one octave since there's 12 notes 12
note names on the piano if I go up 12
semitones I'm basically going up to the
next C and the piano so you can
transpose a whole track up or down a
full octave and sometimes just you know
if you want to keep the original key of
the song but maybe one instruments not
coming out in the mix better as well as
you want it to a really simple way to to
make it come out in the mix is to maybe
raise it up an octave or lower it down
an octave and if we raise it up an
octave it's gonna be a little bit
brighter the frequencies are gonna be a
little bit hot well are gonna be double
what they were before and so you end up
with something that might cut through
the mix a little bit better or if you
have too much high end you can maybe try
to lower it down 12 semitones lower it
down an octave and maybe it'll come out
in the mix a little bit more so let me
just try this up a full octave 12
semitones
[Music]
and obviously if 12 semitones is an
octave than 24 semitones is 2 octaves
and I can just hold the option and click
on that to set it back to 0 so the other
function is that you can scale quantize
so scale quantize but scale transpose
although it is very similar to using the
scale quantize feature in the piano roll
editor except again it doesn't actually
change the the the notes in your piano
roll editor in your MIDI region it just
again it just transposes the playback so
what you can do with this is you can
omit notes or you can completely change
the scale you know you can say instead
of C minor like I have here I want to go
to C major or maybe you know a klezmer
scale or a modal scale mode like
mixolydian or Lydian or something like
that so you can alter the scale and
notes that don't fit the scale will be
transposed down and my my experience
with this it almost always and I think I
think always transposes notes down so
I'm there is there is a disadvantage to
this that I'll explain in just a moment
but if I want to go from minor to major
in my case C minor is actually C D E
flat or D sharp F G a flat B flat and
again a sharp and G sharp or the same
thing as B flat and a flat they're just
enharmonic notes this would be our C
minor scale if we transpose this whole
thing to C major what's gonna happen is
d sharp is actually all d sharps are
gonna end up going down to D I really
wish it would be smart enough to
actually transpose them up to E because
that's actually the 3rd in C major
whereas the e-flat D sharp is the 3rd in
C minor so I would really I would like
it to transpose up but it doesn't that
extra transpose is down and the same
thing is gonna happen for our G sharps
and a flats they're gonna actually be
transposed down so let's see what this
sounds like
and it's not bad sounding there's one
weird chord in there but it just doesn't
Tran like if I were to if some were to
say play this in C minor now play it and
C major that's not how I would have
played it that's not how I would have
transposed if it meant you know maybe
maybe that's the beauty of the plug-in
it creates things that maybe we wouldn't
have thought of
let's try another scale let's try a
major blues scale
yeah that was a little strange sounding
let's try harmonic minor harmonic minor
is the same thing as natural minor this
the scale I'd the C minor scale that I
drew up here earlier except that a sharp
is gonna be altered to be basically as a
raised seventh in it
you
so only only chords with that had a
sharps in them are gonna be they're
gonna be changed so we're gonna if you
diminished chords and don't quite sound
right let's try a Japanese scale and
that many notes in this and only five
notes probably not gonna sound too good
now uh in all these examples I've been
playing I've basically been going from C
minor and trying to alter it to
something else in most cases this
actually this works a lot better if you
start in a major key cuz a lot of the
notes like that the third the the sixth
and the seventh are all raised so when
you transpose to other Keys those notes
will get lowered down to say minor or
whatever so I find that I'm starting
with a major example usually works
better when you're trying to play chords
like this and transpose chords let's
take a look at kind of a more melodic
example as opposed to a choral example
what I've got here is just a kind of a
basic sixteenth note melody that I just
kind of step in put it in and it's all
it's all C major it's all white keys on
the keyboard let me just turn off the
Transposer for a moment
[Music]
there you go with this because I'm
already starting in major I'm using all
the way keep all white keys on the piano
just see major it's gonna it's going to
transpose better than the minor the
minor key example I showed you so let's
say you know we're starting in C major
let's say we want to go to C minor so
I'll choose natural minor and let me
turn the Transposer on let's see what
this sounds like now
[Music]
so it works a lot better for melodic
examples than it actually than it does
for choral examples let's try harmonic
minor same thing as natural minor just a
sharp is raised to be or b-flat in this
case is raised to be
[Music]
let's try maybe a klezmer scale
[Music]
so you can see it's like I said it's a
it's much more useful for melodic
examples that it is for for quartel
examples another thing you can do with
this I don't have an example for this
but another thing you can do with this
is if you're working with something
you're not even even if you don't know
what the key is you can look at you know
if you're trying to kind of match the
tonality of two regions together and
play them at the same time one thing you
can do is go go look at one of them and
figure out all the notes that are being
used type those into the Transposer and
put that Transposer on your second track
and you can kind of key like note limit
your second region to only use notes
that work and we're contained within the
first region so you're able to kind of
make sure that you don't have any
dissonant tones that don't you know that
just don't match the key of the original
region and you really don't even need to
understand you know what chord or what
scale or what key you're using all you
have to do is just basically count the
notes and then type them into the
Transposer
all right so that's Transposer in a
nutshell I hope you enjoyed the video
and thanks again for watching