Logic Pro X - Video Tutorial 44 - Velocity Processor MIDI FX Plug-in Video Lecture | Logic Pro X: A Practical Hands-on Course - Music

hello this is music tech help guy and
welcome to episode 44 of my Logic Pro 10
video tutorial series in this episode
we're going to take a look at the
velocity processor which is one of the
many MIDI effects plugins that come with
logic 10 the velocity processor
basically does exactly what it sounds
like it does it processes your velocity
values so what you can do is you can
take an input value of say you know
maybe 64 and then you can process it so
maybe that's it's louder or softer than
64 actually the playback is louder
softer than 64 it doesn't actually
change the MIDI data and your and your
MIDI editor so there's basically three
modes for the velocity processor you
have compression expansion value range
and adds scale so let's start with
compression expansion and actually first
while I have this turned off let me just
play you my musical example it's just a
basic piano idea there's a few varying
velocities in it and overall it's pretty
soft and mid-range velocity wise as far
as the dynamics are concerned
there you go so with the the compression
expansion mode does is essentially it
kind of behaves like an audio compressor
you know where you can you know set a
threshold for compression set a
threshing ratio or the compression
amount and then you can add gain to it
to kind of you know I don't want to say
flatten but you can even out the dynamic
range of audio with a compressor here we
can we can kind of even out the velocity
range of the playback on our instrument
so there's three controls and they
basically behave much like an audio
compressor would the threshold sets
essentially what notes are going to be
processed so if I set this to 74 that
mean that means that velocities higher
than 74 will be processed the ratio is
essentially how much compression you
have so if you pull this up you'll see
that the top the top velocity values are
are pushed down and this is based on
where the threshold is set so if I set
this to something like say 60 that means
that notes above 60 will be compressed
and then notes below 60 will not be will
not be compressed and then on top of
that you can add a gain make up this is
a lot like a you know adding gain back
to your signal and an audio compressor
here we're just adding adding back
velocity value so if I had originally a
softer recording and I've already come
you know compressing a soft recording to
make it even quieter then you can add
velocity back to it to kind of bring it
to a kind of a medium range or a louder
range so let's try this first with the
the make up set at zero
you
so now our our whole recording is very
very quiet but there's still some
dynamic variances from from note to note
if I wanted this to be a little louder I
could pull the gain makeup up and then
I'm going to end up with a much more
much louder recording
so the velocities are a lot higher and
my lower values have also been pushed up
as well now there's there's two modes
for the the makeup knob if you click on
this Auto button basically what it does
is instead of giving you a relative
you know how much are you adding or
subtracting instead of giving you like a
relative value it gives you a fixed
value so it'll physically tell you you
know you can't have any velocity
velocities higher than say 55 here so
you can set that to a to a fixed value
and then no velocities will go above
that value okay so that's the
compression expansion mode I didn't
really show this but you can also expand
your velocity range as well if you want
you can there you go
you can add gain without compression and
then pull your threshold up or down and
you can make more notes go to the
maximum velocity so you can say you know
for this example you know say a velocity
of input velocity of 80 is actually
going to sound like a velocity of 127 so
that's what what that's how it works as
an expander all right let me set these
back to their default values and let's
move over to the value range mode value
range is very simple instead of working
like a compressor it works like a
limiter and there's basically there's
two modes there's range and value value
basically fixes all of the notes in your
recording to a fixed velocity so if I
want everything to be 76 I just move the
slider to 76 make sure I'm on value and
everything will be the same velocity and
every note will be 70 selasa T of 76
or if I want everything to be max
velocity 1:27 I can do that as well
this is particularly helpful with like
synthesizers and like electronic drum
kits and things like that where you want
every note to just going to be the same
velocity just for you know they have no
dynamic contrast range
it still works like a limiter except you
can limit the the highest most
velocities and the lowest most
velocities so if I pull this to a range
of you know fifty seven to ninety eight
what that means is that none of my
velocities that are below fifty seven
are going to be are going to maintain
the original velocity so anything below
fifty seven is going to be is actually
going to be moved up to fifty seven and
anything that's above ninety eight is
going to move down to ninety eight and
so you can kind of again you're just
limiting the the high and lowest range
of your velocity so you can still have a
little bit of dynamic contrast but you
can kind of set how wide you want that
that contrast to be
the last mode is ad scale and basically
what this does is it allows you to scale
your velocities by a percentage so right
in the center at a hundred percent it
means that all the velocities are going
to sound as they were recorded as you
boost this up you can add a percentage
to each to each note in your MIDI region
when I prefers just to use fixed values
when adding them and that's what the add
the add button the add slider does it
adds or subtracts a fixed value to each
note the I guess the advantage of using
scale over add is if you pull down your
values by a percentage you're never
going to end up with notes that are you
know essentially off that are at zero or
one that are going to be either not hurt
at all or barely heard with add if you
if you subtract your values too much
you'll end up with some notes that just
don't even come through
so I'm pretty sure by subtracting by a
larger value like that I'm essentially
getting notes that have velocities of 1
I guess you can't actually have a
velocity of 0 because it would just mean
no sound at all but you know I'm having
notes that are actually a velocity of 1
so but if I pull add up I can you know
if this whole recording like I want to
maintain the the dynamic contrast but I
just want it to be a little bit louder
you can just bump this up a little bit
say 30 the whole thing is going to still
have the dynamic contrast ahead before
but every velocity is going to have 30
added to it
you
and there you go that's the velocity
processor now just a couple things I
want to mention for a wrap up the video
this pretty much is it for the MIDI
plugins at least as far as the
individual tutorials for them a few
people have asked if I'm going to be
showing the scripter plug-in and at
least in the main series I'm not going
to show the scripter plug-in because
first of all the scripture plug-in
basically lets you process MIDI via code
you know you can type in JavaScript and
or copy and JavaScript presets and you
can process MIDI you know by code I do
believe it or not have a little bit of
coding experience but not enough to do
anything useful here so I might later on
show the script er maybe as like you
know like an appendix video or something
like that but it's going to take some
learning on my part I'm in hack actually
have to go learn some of the little bits
of code to show you what you can do with
it so so for now I mean I'm skipping the
script er but that that that's pretty
much all of the MIDI effects plugins now
a lot of people have been asking me
about mixing and mastering techniques
and whether or not we're going to be
covering that in the series and it will
be covered it's still a few of several
videos out because after after this
video then in the next video I'm going
to show you how to use automation in the
MIDI effects plugins and then after that
I'm going to do a basic overview of each
of the more important software
instruments so this includes like ultra
BDS to sculpture exs24 I'll probably do
on just on the retro synth
I'll probably do something on the
drummer plugin because that's new as
well these won't be like full
walkthroughs but more or less just
overviews on how to how to use them
because if you've seen my ES 2 tutorial
that I have it's like a four-part series
or a three-part series and it's long
it's like two hours long and I don't I
don't want to have to do that for each
one of the of the instruments so after
this I'll do a you know a basic overview
of the more important instruments and
then then we'll move on to mixing and
mass
which will take many many many videos so
I hope you enjoyed the video and thanks
again for watching