Logic Pro X - I/O Plug-in - Using External Hardware for Audio Processing and Mixing Video Lecture | Logic Pro X: A Practical Hands-on Course - Music

hello this is music tech help guy and
welcome to this video tutorial on using
the IO plug-in for external hardware
processing and hybrid mixing in Logic
Pro 10 in this video I'll show you how
to use the IO plug-in to process your
audio tracks with external audio
hardware like EQs and compressors this
plug-in basically works like an effect
send or insert that you can send signal
out of logic into an external unit for
processing and then send that signal
back into logic to be captured and
monitored on the track it's basically
like using hardware like a plug-in I
should mention though that if you're
looking for how to use external MIDI
gear like a hardware synth with logic
this is not the right video for you this
specifically has to do with using audio
processing units like EQs and
compressors in this video we're going to
use a manly very mu compressor to
compress some lead vocals and drum room
mics in tandem with my focus right
interface so at this point I'll cut to
some iPhone video where I explain how
the wiring and patching works alright so
what we're working with today is we're
working with my main audio interface
it's a Focusrite Saffire
56 liquid sapphire 56 that is going to
be the device that outputs signal from
logic and also inputs the signal back
into logic and then for compression
we're using going to use this manly
stereo very mu compressor there's a
great compressor we're going to use it
where you use just one of the channels
on vocals and then we're going to use
use it we'll also use it in stereo for
something else maybe like the the drum
overheads or the drum room mics or
something so let me just explain how the
the wiring works in the back let me just
flip this around
so my audio interface the Focusrite has
eight microphone inputs that's the T the
TRS or TRS the XLR jacks those accept
mic level signal from a microphone and
then it has eight TRS inputs or sort of
like quarter-inch jacks and those accept
line level inputs but these aren't your
normal buck TS jacks these are TRS jacks
because they have a tip a ring and
asleep so you see those two black
spacers there's a tip a ring and a
sleeve so these are meant for balanced
connections balanced line level
connections not not something like an
instrument cable instrument cables are
only TS they have a tip and a sleeve and
they're unbalanced and maybe I'll do a
video later and explain they're staying
balanced and unbalanced but for now just
know that I have eight line level inputs
I also have ten line level outputs
there's the main two that are meant for
the speakers and then eight additional
so basically I can use all eight of
these I can't use these because they're
giving they're going to be used for my
speakers but I can use all eight of
these to use the i/o plug-in in logic to
route signal out of logic and then back
into logic so I can actually have
simultaneously eight different i/o
plugins running in mono and then I can
have the signal go back to all these um
it will basically return back to those
so we're creating sort of like an effect
send and return so we're going to do is
we're going to connect output three and
that's going to go to input one on the
Manley so we're going to take output one
from the Manley and return that back to
line input three so three is going to
the Manley channel one and then back to
three
same thing with channel two we're going
to take output four out of logic into
channel 2 in the Manley the output of
channel two and the mayor is going to go
back to input 4 on the focus right
we're creating like this sort of effects
loop where if we pass signal through
output three it's going to go through
the Manley and come back to three and
likewise four will do the same and we
can also use them in stereo that way now
you can do it this way where you've got
you know you've got everything sort of
hardwired in in the back of you know in
the back of the gear but really the way
most professional studios are doing and
even good home studios are doing it is
with a patch Bay you just connect all of
your gear every single output and every
single input of all of your gear to a
patch space so that that's that way in
the front of your rack you can patch
everything together that's the same
thing I do even in my home studio so I
just wanted to give you guys a simple
example just to show you what's going on
in the back in the back here and in the
back of my rack normally every single
one of my mic line in line outputs are
all hooked up to the patch bay as well
as the both of the manly ins and outs
and therefore you can just patch them in
from the front of the patch Bay rather
than having to do it this way but if you
just have one piece of gear you're
working with like we're doing today
there's really no need to have a patch
Bay all right so we'll get back into
logic and I'll explain how to set this
up okay so the first thing we're going
to do is we're going to use the manly to
compress these lead vocals these were
recorded with no EQ or compression so no
effects whatsoever on input there's also
no effects plugins on the effects insert
and logic so let's take a listen to what
this sounds like in the mix one of these
days I will finally get
just to give up now you nothing
okay so that's very dry very boring what
we want to do is we want to thicken up
the lead vocal quite a bit so it stands
out in the mix better so to do this with
our i/o plugin we're going to add it on
an insert by going to utility and then
i/o you'll also see that there's a mono
and stereo option for this because it's
just a mono vocal track will use the
mono setting which means we'll only be
using one channel on the Manley so the
i/o plugin is pretty simple it basically
allows you to output signal off the
track to one of your interfaces physical
outputs and then allows you to receive
processed signal back into one of its
physical inputs earlier I already set up
three and four as an output and input on
my focus right so for this mono vocal
I'll output on three and input on three
to send the signal to channel one on the
Manley I'm also going to avoid using one
and two as an output because that's
where my main signal to my monitors is
going you can also adjust the output and
input volume so if the signal going to
are coming from your hardware isn't loud
enough or is too loud you can add or
reduce gain there's also a latency
detection option if you click the ping
button it sends a short pop through the
signal path and extrapolates what the
total round-trip latency is to send the
signal out of the digital to analog
converters and then back through the
hardware and then back into the analog
to digital converters so for us there's
36 samples of latency and logic has
offset that latency by basically
adjusting the playback by 36 samples so
that our vocals don't fall out of time
with the rest of the song
so let's give this a listen normally
what you do is you take some time to
dial in a setting that sounds good
I already dialed this setting in in
advance and I know it sounds good so
let's give this a listen one of these
days
we'll finally but today is not I'll put
you all just to give up now you would be
nothing if you can't
you're walking blind living day-to-day
there's no soul your staff
every day is just another way stop
when will you scrape your soul
awesome that sounds a lot thicker and
fuller and the dynamics seemed to be
even and leveled out quite a bit not to
mention that the Manley has four tubes
per channel so we're getting a nice
little analog warmth on the vocals as
well so the next thing we're going to do
is we're going to print the process
signal from the Manley down to a new
mono audio track you could just keep
this right here and bounce the mix in
real time and you'd be fine but we want
to reuse the Manley for something else
so one way we could print the signal
onto this new mono audio track is to
just make the input input three just
like the i/o plug-in is inputting
however when you do that it doesn't take
into consideration the latency
compensation on the i/o plugin so
actually gonna do this a different way
which I'll get to in just a moment also
I want to add a bit of EQ to the signal
before the Manley just to brighten up
the high-end a bit and also scoop out
some of the sub low-end so I'm just
going to put a high-pass filter at about
40 Hertz and a little high-end boost
around 10k so now all you have to do is
make the output of our main vocal tract
bus one and make the input of the print
track bus one as well you can actually
use any bus you want as long as it's not
being used for something else just keep
in mind that you may want to also option
click the fader of the main vocal track
to make a unity gain again otherwise the
bus will print the volume reduction from
the fader as well so now all we have to
do is our our print track and hit record
one of these days I will finally give
but today is not that day
I look too hard just to give up now your
words mean nothing
you can't
you're walking blind living day-to-day
there's no soul every day is just
another way stop
when will you scrape your soup
all right that sounds great next let's
compress the drum room mics with the
Manley and use the Isle plugin in stereo
mode this time so we can actually use
both channels on the Manley one thing I
really like to do with the drum room
mics is really squash them with some
heavy compression to bring out the tone
of the room I'm also going to add a
little low-end boost and a slight
high-end boost with EQ and also because
the track is stereo this time we'll use
both three and four as the output and
input off-screen I hit the ping button
to detect the latency it was the same as
last time thirty-six samples I also took
a few minutes to turn on the stereo link
mode on the Manley as well as tweak the
settings quite a bit I also switched
from the compressor mode to the limiter
mode to really hit the room mics hard so
let's print down this signal the same
way we did the vocals but I'll put you
all just to give up
watch me nothing if you can't
you're walking blind living day-to-day
there's no soy you're stamping
every day is just another waste of time
when will you scrape your soul
that's great the room mics really have
some nice warmth and body to them now
alright so before I wrap up the video
there are a few things I want you to
take into consideration number one out
bored or out of DAW processing isn't for
everyone it takes quite a bit more time
and effort to process audio this way but
in my opinion certain key instruments
like vocals really benefit from running
through a great tube or even a great
solid state analog compressor number two
small studios and home studios really
aren't going to have the amount of
hardware that pro studios will but it
doesn't mean you can't still hybrid mix
like a pro if you invest in a few key
pieces of analog gear you can really get
some great hybrid analog and digital
tones you just print the signal down
after its processed like I showed in the
video and then reuse the piece of gear
for another track and then repeat number
three I generally try to record with
analog EQ and compression on input so
that means that the mic goes into the
preamp the preamp goes into the EQ and
the EQ goes into the compressor and then
the compressor finally goes into logic
into my audio interface but a lot of my
clients record their own music and don't
use any sort of analog processing
they're going straight from mic to audio
interface so using the i/o plug-in
either in logic or Pro Tools
yes Pro Tools has the same thing the i/o
plugin is a great way to utilize your
hardware after recording number four you
may find that logics latency
compensation isn't always 100% correct
when you print the signal to a new track
although I haven't had any issues
playing it back live in the past I've
sometimes had to nudge the printed
signal over a few samples to match the
original signal this is particularly an
issue with multitrack recordings like
live drums however if your vocal track
is three samples off you're probably not
going to even notice it and finally
number five you can use this for
mastering too I get a lot of clients who
just want their music mastered they like
the sound of their own mix instead of
just having one piece of analog gear in
line I'll have a two or three Hardware
units
in the chain to give the music an
analogue vibe and warmth and then use
that in tandem with plugins to achieve a
nice balance between the analog world
and the digital world
so I hope you guys really enjoyed this
video and thanks for watching