Logic Pro X - Video Tutorial 54 - EXS24 Sampler Tutorial (PART 1) Sample Management and Automap Video Lecture | Logic Pro X: A Practical Hands-on Course - Music

hello this is music tech help guy and
welcome to episode 54 of my Logic Pro 10
video tutorial series in this episode
we're going to take a look at the exs24
which is a sampler included with logic
10 the exs24 that we have in Logic 9 and
10 is the mark 2 version of the exes 24
there was a mark 1 version in earlier
versions of logic I think back in logic
7 & 6 maybe even earlier than that
before we go into how to use the sampler
what I want to talk about first is
proper sample management because if you
don't if you don't manage your samples
you don't manage your sample files
properly you're going to end up with
instruments that when you open them up
for the second time or the third time or
later in the future they don't work
because you've kind of misappropriated
your samples so so I'm going to do real
quick is just um minimize logic what I
do with my samples is I keep them on a
secondary hard drive I have this second
hard drive installed in my computer it's
a the Macintosh HD is the one I'm
booting my operating system off of in
all my apps the media drive is the one I
keep files and sessions and things like
that on you don't have to have two
different drives just find a central
location for your samples make a samples
folder there and don't don't move it
just leave it there never move it
because if you move your samples then
your sample instruments aren't going to
work anymore
so I save mine under my media drive
under an audio folder and then I have a
folder labeled sent zze sample library I
only put the Z's there just so it
appears at the bottom of the list so in
my sample egg library I've got my
samples kind of organized by you know by
just kind of what instrument they are by
type the ones we're gonna look at first
are right here and I by the way each
instrument i also categorize so each one
of these could be built as a different
instrument so I'm going to open up this
one here called
Coris sawtooth and you'll see that they
are organized and named by their pitch
you want to make sure that you name your
sample files in one of two ways one like
this alphabet alphabetically so
basically like a sharp one
so like the pitch the accidental whether
it's sharp or flat and then the octave
octave identification the other thing is
you can't really use flats when you name
sample files because if I just said a
lowercase B one the sampler is going to
be confused as to what pitch it's it's
trying to figure out where to you know
where to put this if you say a sharp one
it knows that the pound signs of sharps
so if you have a sample that say e-flat
go with the N harmonic note of D sharp
as opposed to a flat so I always use
sharps when naming my naming my samples
as opposed to flats so if I go down the
list you can see basically we've got
cdefg all the way up alphabetically
there's five octaves of each and I'm
only using sharps no flats
if you don't name your samples that way
the other way to name them would be to
name them like this just numerically and
numerically in chromatic order so you
know oh one could be like c 102 could be
c-sharp one you know oh three could be d
one so forth going all the way up to
chromatic scale unless you're working
with just like loops or like drum
samples like if you're working with
instruments that are kind of tonal
instruments this is pretty much the way
you want to name your samples because
the exs24 sampler and many other
samplers out there in the market have
the ability to auto map samples so
that's what I'm going to show you today
is just to kind of how to get started
using the exes 24's auto map features
let me get logic back up here another
thing I'm going to do is let me save
real quick and when you go to save or
save as the first time if you're working
with the exs24 most of the time you want
to make sure you check this exs
instruments and samples checkbox if
you're working with ultrabeat you can do
the same with ultra v what this does is
it
or is a copy of the exs24 instruments
and samples from your sample library in
the project folder now you don't have to
do this if you only work on your
computer at home then there's no need to
check this because exs24 is going to
reference the instruments and samples
that we create from that folder wealth
at least the samples from that folder
that I that I have mine mines labeled
sample library the exs24 also
automatically saves all of the
instruments you create and another
folder in logic sort of media library if
you will so if you only work on one
computer at home there's no need to
check check this box if you take your
session around from computer to computer
then you definitely want to make sure
you check this box because again it
saves a copy of all of your instruments
you've created and all your samples in
your project folder and if you try to
take a session to another another
computer and that computer doesn't have
your instrument that you've made or your
samples that you that you have on your
computer then your instruments not going
to work so sorry for that long
introduction about sample management but
it's it's necessary because I can tell
you right now a lot of people will have
this problem if they don't if you don't
follow these just basic rules of sample
file management ok so let's get the XS
the X is 24 up and running just go to my
instrument tab here let's choose the
exs24 and like ultrabeat there's kind of
multiple modes you can load it in has
multi output mode you can also load it
in surround sound we're just going to
use stereo here's our exs24 and the main
window here is basically your main sort
of synthesis and modulation window it's
only going to really do do anything if
you have samples loaded into it which we
don't have any samples loaded right now
but you will notice a lot of these
controls look very similar to the es es
the s2 that we looked at before there's
a filter there's some pitch controls
volume controls there's some modulation
routers LFO S&N
lopes we're not going to mess with those
too much right now because well we're
just building our first instrument so
the window that we want to open up is
called the Edit window and you can get
to it by clicking right here but one
thing you want to maybe double check
before you get into the Edit window is
go to your options and go to the
Preferences and the options and make
sure that the read route key from file
option here is on file name file I've
just found that with that selected the
exs24 properly Auto maps more correctly
so so I'm going to click on the Edit
window and this is the Edit window this
is where you can load in all of your
samples now yes you can drag and drop a
sample right in here and then move it
wherever you want on the keyboard but
just to make it easy for ourselves today
we're going to use the auto map feature
which automatically puts all of the
samples in your sample library in the
correct place on the keyboard and that's
what we want so to auto map you go up to
this many or this menu option this is
zone and you go to load multiple samples
or you can use the key command command
or control Oh rather click on that and
then what you do is you go find your
sample library so mines on my media
drive under audio and under my sample
library and then I'm just going to go to
synths and the first one we looked at
was called chorus sawtooth so I'm gonna
click on that click over here in the
window and then all you get what all you
have to do now is you can just hit add
all and it'll add all of the samples
from that for that instrument into this
little loading window if you want to
kind of audition them you can click on
them and hit play and it should play it
so that's not playing it I'm not sure
why then you hit done down here and this
menu will pop up this is the auto map of
menu or the wooden auto map window
so it says adding 61 samples please
choose how to build the map so we are
going to going to map these samples to
particular zones or keys on our MIDI
controller so for for when you have your
samples named this way where you have
the pitch name the accidental the sharp
if needed and then the octave
identification you're going to want to
use the auto map option and what that
does is it reads the root key from the
name of the file and places it on the
correct key so that that first sample
that was named c1 will automatically map
to the key C 1 and C sharp 1 and D 1 and
so forth all the way up the keyboard so
we just choose on a map and then hit OK
and as you can see it's placed one
sample per key all the way up the
keyboard now if you're working with an
instrument where you'd only have like
every other note in the keyboard like c
d e F sharp G sharp but not you know the
notes in between it'll actually
automatically extrapolate the pitches in
between the samples that you have so you
don't actually have to sample every
single note from an instrument to to
build a full instrument like this it'll
like I said it'll extrapolate the
pitches in between and I'll show you
that just in a moment but let's double
check just to make sure everything works
basically this view down here is just
sort of like an interface so you know
GUI view just sort of like a more visual
view of what's going on the list up here
is essentially just a list view of
everything that's going on so you can
see all of our samples all the sample
names the pitch key column is where it's
mapped the route tuning - and then the
key range is physically where the sample
is located on the keyboard so everything
should match up a sharp one has a root
key of a sharp one and it's located on a
sharp one so that's what we want so let
me just play this and let's see if this
let's see if this works
I don't have a MIDI controller hooked up
so I'm just going to open up my musical
typing keyboard by pressing command K
and that sounds terrible but it works
let me bump up the octave I'm in here
there we go so we have a working multi
sampled instrument now after you load in
your samples and maybe you want to go
back to the modulation window here and
tweak a few things out of some you know
add a filter cutoff to it or maybe some
effects to it what's going to happen is
when you close out this window it's
automatically going to ask you do you
want to save the changes that you've
made to this instrument and you always
want to say yes because if you say don't
save we're going to lose all this sample
loading that we just did so I'm going to
hit save and then give this a name I'm
just going to call it chorus sawtooth
because that's the name of the samples
that I load it in now if you checked
that checkbox you showed I showed you in
the save as dialog it's going to save
this to actually it looks like it
already does music logic exs24 sample
instruments but it should also make a
copy of it actually note this yeah the
name of my folder was exs24 so yeah if
you check that it's going to save it
inside your session folder inside
another folder called sampler
instruments if you didn't check it it's
actually going to save it to a different
location on your computer's hard drive
where all of your sample instruments are
located on your hard drive so it's up to
you which way you do it
I like checking the box just to kind of
guarantee that it works so so I'll hit
save there we go and now I can kind of
tweak this any way I want out here to
kind of alter the instrument I can hit
our arm it for recording our to record
and I can record this record this
instrument so I'm going to set that one
aside I'm just going to call it chorus
sawtooth I want to build another
instrument just to show you that you can
indeed extrapolate notes in between
pitches and pay no attention to me
adding this send here it's just so that
you can hear this instrument in the in
the screen capture so I'm going to go
ahead and load another exs24 here in
stereo go back to the Edit window zone
load multiple samples just like we did
before and this time there's an
instrument
and I have that I know I know that not
all of the I don't have the full
chromatic scale sampled so let me just
go in here since I think it's the one
trance base here it is I have C 1 C 2 C
3 C 4 C 5 and then G 1 through 4 so
basically I have a pretty wide gap
between all of my samples so let's go
ahead and add all again because they're
named properly I'm just going to use
choose the auto map feature hit OK and
as you can see it has automatically
extrapolated the pitches in between the
keys so my sample you know c2 has a
center tuning a route tuning of c2 but
the actual key range for it is wider
than c2 it goes from a sharp 1 to d
sharp tune if you click on a sample up
here you'll see where that sample is
located so when I play c2 I here c2 but
it also will up tune or down tune that
sample so I don't have you know
so it basically fills in the gaps
between the samples
so we don't lose any samples or any
sounds in between the keys and I have a
playable instrument again alright so let
me just close this one out and save it
I'll call it trance bass there we go
close that out and let's build one more
instrument and then I'll show you just a
little musical example that I've built
with this so let me just kind of
minimize these call this trance bass and
let me build one more for this for this
instrument I want to use that other set
of samples or they were just labeled one
through you know 64 whatever so zone
load multiple samples again this
instrument was located under what's
called fuzzy strings I think fuzzy
strings there we go so these ones are
just labeled a 1 through whatever and I
just happen to know that the very first
note oh one is c1 so I'm going to add
all of these get done and we can't use
auto map here because auto map as we
said before looks for the root key of
the name of the file we have to use
instead for this a feature called
contiguous zones which basically starts
on sample one and builds the map
chromatically or what the you know a set
zone with what I happen to know offhand
is that set of sample starts on c1 and
then I have every single note going
chromatically up so the sample that was
labeled oh one is C 102 is c-sharp one
and so forth all the way up so what I'm
going to do is I'm just going to say
zone with one note because it's
chromatically if you had every other
note you choose two notes zone wit or
don't start note is C 1 because that's
where the first sample is so I'll just
hit OK as you can see it's built the map
up chromatically now in the previous the
previous mode in the auto map mode it
actually took our lowest note and our
highest note and kind
stretch them all the way down and all
the way up and you can do that yourself
just by hovering over the right side of
the of the sample here and pulling all
the way up or pulling it all the way
down so now I have notes across the
entire keyboard the only tricky thing
with contiguous zones is that it
automatically turns on this one shot
option which is good for drums because
it plays the whole sample regardless of
how long you hold the key down for this
instrument since it's just like a synth
patch we don't need that on because
otherwise if I hit a key on my keyboard
now you probably can't hear that very
well because it's a haven't set up my
send here let me pull that in there
let's try that again
so if I hit a key I'm not holding the
key down right now I just played the key
once and it's playing that whole sample
so that's what the one-shot option does
it's good again good for drums not good
for synths like this so I'm just going
to hit command a to select everything in
here and uncheck one shot close the
window out hit save I'll call this
called this one buzzie strings and close
that out and then also rename this buzzy
strings
okay so I've built three sort of synth
instruments one's a bass one sort of a
lead and one's a string instrument what
I'm going to do is I'm going to cut the
video for just a moment tweak a few
things come for the basic musical
example and I'll be right back and I'll
show you what I did alright I'm back and
what I did is I just composed a basic
sort of sixteen bar idea here it's
basically just a four bar loop that I
looped four times I've got my three exs
instruments that I built
I just put nice little icons on them and
I just added a just a stock ultra beat
pattern in there so let's see what the
sounds like
all right so it's a might be a nice
little idea to start off a new song but
the instruments are kind of bland you
know because they're basically just
using the samples as is we're not you
know we're not we haven't tweaked them
at all there's no effects on them
we haven't processed them in the
instrument at all so let me just show
you a few little things you can do to
kind of tweak these instruments a bit
let's start with the car the chorus
sawtooth by itself by itself it sounds
like this very dry it's a polyphonic
instrument as well often times I'll make
my leads legato for this reason let me
just open this up in piano rule on
purpose I kind of made all the notes
overlap each other a bit because if I
make this legato and then pull up the
glide I can get a little bit of sort of
like pitch drift or glide between
between the notes so that's that's what
I want to do and that's why I've left it
that way and in polyphonic mode that
really doesn't do anything for us
because we can have multiple notes
playing at the same time so I'm going to
do is turn legato on the envelopes
between notes aren't there anymore it's
a little softer but what I really want
to do is pull up this glide feature just
a bit to give it a little bit of a sort
of drift between notes
so the other thing I do is down here
envelope number two controls the volume
of the output volume of the synthesizer
so I just pulled the attack time up a
bit just to soften the front end of each
note and I pulled up the release time of
it so each note doesn't just immediately
cut off there's a little bit of a sort
of a little decay in the way it's uh in
the way it kind of releases so I'm also
going to get rid of this modulation here
by default the X is twenty-four turns on
our automatically has a modulation
router setup for vibrato pitch being
controlled by an LFO via control number
one which is the modulation wheel I
don't want that so I'm going to option
click on it the sample select velocity
we'll talk about that later we can leave
it alone for now it's not really going
to matter whether or not we turn it on
or off another thing I'm gonna do is I'm
going to add sort of I'm gonna add like
a high-pass filter to this this is the
filter module has all the same controls
we've seen before
you know filter cutoff frequency
resonance Drive like sort of drive unit
don't worry about the key a key tracking
mode yet we'll talk about that another
time I'm just going to turn the filter
on pull the cutoff down a bit and you
try a high-pass filter there we go
Oh
after remember a high pass filter cuts
out the lows whereas a low pass would
cut out the highs all right so we've got
that kind of the way we want it let's
move to the next instrument the buzzy
strings here you can hear there's a
little bit of a gap between each chord
so what I'm going to do with the whoops
make sure I open up the right instrument
there you go what I'm going to do with
this one is I'm going to pull up the
release time significantly
so it allows the tail under the courts
to linger a bit the only thing I'm gonna
do this is I want to create sort of like
a stutter effect with it you know like
almost like a like a stutter effect and
what I'm going to do is I'm going to
make my destination or target it was as
we learned in the es - I'm going to set
that to volume and then I'm going to get
rid of the via except I have to choose a
source first the source I'm going to
make LFO number two the LF all three LFO
s and the exs24 can be synchronized to
Hertz or to the beat clock kind of like
we just discussed in the es two video so
you can synchronize them to the rate of
your tempo so what I'm going to do is
I'm going to make LFO to control volume
at a eighth notes pace so just pull this
down till it says eighth note and I'm
going to choose I'll start with triangle
wave we'll see if that sounds like and
pull the amount up a bit see that sounds
like
so it's sort of a pulsing effect all
right that's all I want to do with that
let's go to the base now the sample
itself already has sort of a filter
sweep in it but I'm going to try to give
it sort of like a wobbly effect so my
destination I'm going to turn on the
filter use a low pass filter pull it
down a bit I'm going to turn the fat
button on which basically just adds sort
of like a low frequency boost almost
like a low frequency shelf which can
kind of boost the low frequencies which
we'd want to do with a base and I'm
going to make the destination the filter
cutoff so it's going to control this
cutoff knob and then I'm going to make
the source LFO to get rid of the via
parameter there and let me try this at
an eighth note as well let's try quarter
note first pull the amount up a bit
strike different shape so that's what
the sawtooth there I could do it a
reverse sawtooth and
oops for a verse saw - then we need to
pull this up I think our down actually
but pull up the drive knob as well just
to give it a little bigger sound let's
see what all those sound like together
okay the feel the bass sounds cool it
just just sounds more distracting than
anything to me so let me try the
forward-facing sawtooth we just solo
that again yeah I like that more than
the kind of the one that's on the
offbeat let's pull everything in there
Oh
Oh
you
mr. a little delay on the Sawtooth just
some compression in a reverb on the the
strings
and maybe just a little EQ on the bass
maybe make it sound a little more subby
sounding alright let me play this whole
thing one more time and then and then
we'll be done
here you go
cool so we've got a pretty nice start to
a new track the thing I really love
about sampling in this way as opposed to
using just relying on the ultra beat or
relying on buying more synths or using
presets is it lets you kind of build an
instrument from the ground up so you can
truly say this is an instrument that no
one else has you know this is an
instrument you know that other people
might have the samples too but this is
an instrument I designed myself I
tweaked and synthesized myself and
although yes there's similar instruments
out there it's just it's something that
I did myself so to me it's it's
something that's more creative than
simply opening up a preset and turning a
couple knobs here you're building the
preset and then turning a few knobs so
um the a lot of people are probably
gonna ask about drums yes you can sample
drums in the exes 24 but it honestly
it's probably more intuitive to work
with drums in the ultra beat than it is
with the X is 24 if you're looking to
reproduce electronic drums that is if
you're looking to reaper to create like
hyper realistic acoustic drums then the
exs24 is actually the way to go and we
will do a we'll do a video or two on
that as well so and I should also bring
up that this exs24 video is going to be
a this is a multi-part video it's a the
exes 24 is one of the deepest most
powerful instruments that comes with
logic and a lot of people just don't
know how to use it properly so that kind
of you know just use its presets and
that's pretty much it but when it comes
down to it's a very very deep instrument
and it takes a long time to to learn
everything that it does so this will
probably end up being a four part series
just for this one instrument alone so I
hope you enjoyed the video and thanks
for watching