Logic Pro X - Creating Soundscape Soundtrack Music with Alchemy + EXS24 Video Lecture | Logic Pro X: A Practical Hands-on Course

hello this is music tech help guy
welcome to this Logic Pro 10 video
tutorial on creating sort of an ambient
atmosphere a group of synthesizers using
alchemy and exs24 so the goal here is to
create something that's very ambient
very soundscape II something that you
might use say in a I don't know a video
game soundtrack or a film soundtrack or
TV soundtrack just something that's just
some really dark sort of Spacey ambient
background music and the way we're going
to do that is we're going to basically
use three stock settings from alchemy
actually we're going to use two samples
from alchemy and two stock settings
within the exs24
and we're just going to apply you know
different types of sound design to it
including delays and we use the delay
designer a bit and space designer as
well as a few other things to sort of
sculpt that sound the way we want it so
I'm going to first start with alchemy of
alchemy up here on my first instrument
so let me just load alchemy how can be
tends to load a little slow so we'll
just take a moment here to wait for it
and we're not going to use one of the
stock patches we're going to clear this
patch we're going to use a setting
actually we're going to build a setting
in our first source here we're going to
say import audio and this is going to be
based off of the alchemy factory samples
so go to strings go to real strings and
group it sacado so just these two sort
of plucked violin tones we are going to
use granular mode so you can repeat
these samples and make sort of like a
moving effect import those and then
we're going to go to source a here under
the granular tab and I'm going to play
these knobs a bit just to sort of get
the sound we're looking for so pull our
taps up a bit
actually tell you what let's make sure
this is armed there we go
pull the the taps up again pull the taps
spacing actually all the way up is fine
pull the density up a bit and the size
up a bit the art time up a bit there you
go in the our pan well you'll hear it
sort of makes the sound sort of
oscillate back and forth so that's
really cool I'm also going to pull the
release time up on my main ahd sr there
we go I'm just doing that so I have to
hold the key down I'm also going to pull
the attack time up a bit just to blur
the attack of the the pluck just a bit
you already have something that's kind
of cool sounding the only little thing
I'm going to do within alchemy is I'm
going to go to the arpeggiator section
and I'm going to turn this on random and
pull your rate to an eighth note just
where it's at so whatever chord I play
it's going to play random notes and it's
going to sound maybe a little less
awkward when we add some delay and
reverb to this will sound more like a
soundscape and less like just random
notes actually let's pull the up we'll
keep the octave at one lastly when I'm
through just as a safety is I'm going to
pull the number of voices up to the
maximum number just in case we get some
voice getting voices getting cut out so
I'll just call this alchemy pit strings
there you go all right two things are
going to add to the south of me track
we're going to a delay designer and
we're going to use a setting called it's
under complex filtered it's called ease
in and out for now it's very cool but
the grid the movement of the taps are a
little too fast for my liking I do want
to do something musically with this but
I don't want the the taps to be that
quick so I'm going to change the grid
from a sixth sixty-fourth note to a
sixteenth note there you go
and we are clipping a little bit there
let me just pull down the main volume in
here
there we go I'm going to pull the dry up
a bit and pull the wet up a bit that's
what happens when I play a chord now and
let's make this even more ambient by
throwing space designer on there and the
setting we're going to use here it's
under uh large spaces warped spaces
we're going to use one called deep space
still clipping just a little bit so I'm
going to go back to the the root plug in
the synth here and pull that down a bit
there we go
I am going to pull the dry signal down
to touch so if I just play some chords
this is this is what we have now
so that's really cool sort of like
ambient sort of our pegging sound if
you're hearing some clicks in there
that's just because my buffer size is a
bit low and I'm trying to do a screen
capture while running alchemy has you
guys have probably found it some of my
alchemy videos is a seems to be a
running problem there
okay the next instrument is going to be
the exes 24 so throw the exes 24 on
their stereo we are going to load one of
the stock settings just click right here
and you go to factory and we're going to
go to synthesizers synth strings we're
going to use the one called matrix 12
strings it's just a sort of a stock
synth string patch first things first
I'm going to turn off the LFO here
completely I'm going to pull the cutoff
frequency down quite a bit to filter it
out a bit
there we go and maybe a little bit more
there you go now it's a bit mid-range II
what I want is I want I want the
high-end cut out but I want more of the
mid mid-range to come out as well so I'm
going to load up on the insert here on
the load up the channel EQ and we're
going to sort of notch out some middle
frequencies but I'm also going to boost
some of the low mids I'm also going to
scoop out a bit more highs and let's
just go ahead and boost sort of like the
mid highs it's this mid this mid band
here so I want to take out and go then
next thing we're going to do is we're
going to throw the pitch shift plug-in
on here I like using the pitch shifter
to bump things up or layer things in
octaves if you put this on 12 semitones
you're going up an octave
as opposed to just playing two notes
when you actually do a pitch shift that
actually affects the tone of the
instrument a bit more it get produces
some artifacts from the the pitch
shifting which is it's cool sometimes it
sounds like garbage other times it
sounds good so our mix is going to
determine how much of the octave and how
much of the fundamental we hear
that sounds nice let me just go ahead
and pull down the volume of the exes 24
bit we're going to throw the tremolo
plugin on here
it's under modulation we're just going
to use a preset on this one called deep
tremolo so we've got that now and then
we're going to follow up with delay
designer and with delay designer I'm
going to go back to complex filter it
again and I think we're going to use the
the ease in it out for again I'm gonna
pull the dry down a bit pull the wet up
a bit
we'll change the grid to 16th note again
that's cool let me try a little slower
let's try an eighth note just hear a
little bit more of the wet and then
we're going to follow up by putting
space designer on there again and we're
gonna use the same reverb we did before
I'm going to use large spaces Warped
spaces deep space and I'm going to pull
the dry down a bit pull the reverb up a
bit now I like that sound that we're
getting that pulsing effect that was
produced from the delay and the tremolo
is being softened a lot here but what
I'm gonna do is I'm going to pull the
sample rate down to half what that does
is sort of it extends the reverb tail
and also deepens it in the tone so it's
not such a bright reverb tail
so you really kind of have to hold a
note for a while to get the full tone
out of it alright so that's it for that
one i'm going to call this ambien two
strings and then for our third
instrument pretty simple we're going to
load up the exs24 again this is going to
be like a sort of like a bass ish
instrument we're going to use one of the
factory settings
it's acoustic pianos grand piano now
we're not really going to use the piano
like a piano though we're going to use
it and go down an octave I was like a
bass instrument let me go ahead and turn
this mod wheel stuff off here we're
going to throw the channel EQ on here
and filter out quite a bit of the high
end
I really don't want it to sound like a
piano anymore let's boost the bass up a
little bit
scoop out the sub lows not too much
though just the mid highs are the mid
lows scoop out the middle Oh steer at
200 like almost like a bass instrument
now and then we're going to follow up a
delay designer again I'll use that same
setting I've been using the whole time
under complex filtered ease in and out
or ease in for there you go we'll make
this sixteenth note actually let's go
with the 64th on this one love it a
little bit let me just go to the
instrument here and pull the volume down
so don't clip there we go and let's
throw space designer in again and as
we've done the previous two instruments
are in use that exact same setting large
spaces work spaces deep space this time
we're going to bump the sample rate down
twice to one quarter pull the reverb up
quite a bit and pull the dry signal down
the reason why I keep using the same
reverb is I kind of want the same
ambient background tone to be similar I
don't want to use too drastically
different reverbs sometimes you can come
up with some cool sounds that way but
I'm not gonna do that so I'm just going
to call this uh you know ambient bass
even though it's technically a piano
sample let's see what this sounds like
here we go
all right you know I'm going to use a
little bit more dry and in the delay I'm
going to use just a little bit less wet
there we go so what I'm going to do is
I'm going to intentionally play in
something that it's plate to the grid
you can choose not to play the grid with
music like this but I'm going to choose
the plate of the grid but I'm going to
create an off sort of an off phrasing
I'm going to create a 5 bar phrase with
my strings in my base and then with the
pizza kado strings I'm going to play in
like sort of a repeating 4 bar phrase so
I have this sort of like five against
four thing going on which again makes it
even more sort of random and more
ambient sounding so let's give this a
shot
there we go so hit this four bar five
bar idea now go ahead and quantize that
looks like I need to quantize to a half
note there we go doesn't really matter
whether I I well kind of actually you
know since this is a piano instrument
let me pull the reverb or that the
reverb the release time all the way up
so these notes ring a little bit longer
let's give that a shot
cool I'm just going to duplicate this by
hitting our our command our four times
let's try our strings not the strings
these are going to be sort of like our
pad instrument I'm just going to play
some chords on top of this piano idea
just sort of stick within my key pretty
strictly regions all I'm going to do is
going to play the one in the three chord
any flat minor
all right click track is getting a
little annoying but we'll deal with it
for now
quantize this to a whole note not that
it really matters let me go ahead and do
the the old backslash shift backslash
trick to get all those notes lined up
and then I'm gonna just use my marquee
tool to trim that up hit command R
repeat that and then with our with our
ambient strings I'm going to fade them
in I mean use automation a just to pull
up automation we're going to fade in
that first set of chords just like so
and the bass also will sort of fade in
but not quite as drastically so like
that and let's try our little pizza kado
idea here I'm basically going to play
the same four bar idea this time it'll
go
it's the same idea twice really it's
eight bars with one time having a little
bit different little extra note on the
bottom there
there we go so we have this 8 bar idea
and I'm going to quantize that to looks
like a half note again there you go and
let's repeat that and I'm just going to
align this at the end because we don't
want the idea to immediately come in and
then we'll fade in this idea a bit as
well oh there we go turn my track
automation on there we go fade that in
and not quite as much all right so now
without our metronome in there let's
hear what our little soundscape sounds
like
all right so that's great it's very
haunting very Spacey very soundscape
eeee
this would be great this is even better
if you took this as like a soundscape
like sort of like the body or like the
the bass of the song and then mix it
with some real instrument something
that's maybe a little bit more fit for
like a film score you could maybe layer
some some real strings on top of this
soundscape to create something really
really cool so I hope you guys enjoy me
doing these short little sort of
synthesis and sound design videos I
really like them that that's kind of
cool to just sort of sit down and create
a sound for the sake of creating the
sound for the sake of an experimentation
so I hope you guys enjoyed the video and
thanks for watching