E-book By Sam Price Haworth Chapter 1 an Introduction to Macs and Logic

Mac Mini (Specs) Mid 2011 Processor 2.5Ghz Intel Core i5 Memory 4GB 1333 Mhz DDR3 Graphics AMD Radeon HD 6630M 256 MB Software Mac OS x lion 10.7.4 (11e53) The Computer Setup: Insert Diagram

Speake r MIDI Keyboard

Monitor

Speake r Mac Mouse

Computer Keyboard
Whats a MIDI Keyboard? MIDI = Musical Instrument digital interface. The MIDI keyboard is the key of any setup. It can be used for playing different instruments on logic through the media instruments. When playing instruments on logic the Midi keyboard can also change the pitch and modulation and the octave in which you are playing. It can also be wired up to play a bass or guitar and can also be used to record voices through a microphone. The Midi keyboard has a few dials which can control the volume of the computer and the headphones.

Main Parts of the Midi keyboard Keys

Jack inputs USB inputs XLR inputs Mini jack input Volume controls Mic gain Headphones volume Pitch/modulation MIDI keyboard cables 2 xs Jack to Jack for the speakers 1x USB to connect to the computer What do I do with the speakers? You turn the speakers on a after you start up the computer and you turn them off before you shut down the computer. This is because if you don't do this the speakers make a loud popping sound which can damage them if this is done frequently. The reason they do this is because the frequency from the computer is too high for the speaker output and it makes a loud pop which damages the speakers. How do I start?

How to open logic To open logic is a very simple process all you have to do is open up your dock which is located at the bottom of the screen. You hold your mouse at the bottom and hold it there and it will come up with the dock. Now to open up logic you click on the logic icon (see picture). Making a new project When you click on logic in the dock it doesn't automatically pop up with a blank project. Although if someone was using logic before you and didnt close it down it would come up with their work, if this happens save it (see saving below) and then close it down. If this hasn't occurred what you need to do is click on the tool bar at the top of the screen, click file and click new. When this happens a box will come up with what type of project you want to make. It is best if you choose a blank project and proceed. Once you have done this you will have a brand new session.

Opening an old project If you want to open up some of your previous work what you have to do is click on 'file' and click on open or open recent. If you click on open it will come up with your documents and you have to select your work. Or if you click open recent it will come up with all the recent projects that have been open on this computer.

Saving - to save your project simply click file in the top left hand cover of your screen and click 'save as' and choose your destination.

Chapter 2 Starting Out

Types of track: When you open up your brand new logic session it will ask you what type of track to select. There is three to choose from:

Audio An audio track is used for recording is real life instruments and vocals. What you have to do is wire in your microphone/ instrument of choice and select the right input. Once you have done this click the little R (see Record) and you should be able to hear yourself. Software instrument A software instrument track is used to play all of the instruments in logics library through a midi controller. I.e. a midi keyboard. External MIDI Tbc

How to choose a Media instrument If you have chosen a software instrument track you will want to browse the media section to find an instrument. Once you have found the instrument you like just click on it and the sound which the midi controller triggers will change. Setup microphone or instrument If you want to record a real life instrument for example a microphone or a guitar you will have to choose audio track on the new track menu. Ensure you are selecting the correct input in which your instrument is plugged into also make sure it is the same as on the inspector. Loops In the media section you will also find the loop tab where you can select different loops and put them together making a piece of music. To get a loop you just drag it

into an audio region, make sure the loops you use are in the same key and bpm. Record To record a certain track you just click the red R on that track, you can then also hear what you are playing. 2 3 1 The ruler 1 The ruler is found at the top of the page and tells you what bar you are on, you can also use it when cutting to measure where you want the cut. Looping sections 2 Looping section can be selected above the ruler, you will find a grey box which when clicked will turn green; you can then drag the box to what part you want looped and drag the side to make it longer or shorter. Play head 3 The needle shows you what part of the track you are at and is very useful in lining up where you want to cut things. Metronom e Metronome A metronome is like a drum kit that you listen to while you plays to keep you in time.

How to set BPM. To set and or change the BPM you have to go to the transport bar (see transport bar) and the normal BPM is set to 120.000. To change this you just click and hold on this number and drag your cursor to the top or bottom of the screen and this will change the tempo up or down to your preference. Or you can just double click on the BPM and type in your exact BPM. Effect Inspector s The inspector is the bar at the left side of the screen. With the inspector you can ask him to check your work, add effects to you tracks put your tracks on busses and pan the left to right. Effects With the effects you can make your tracks sound different for example: changing the pitch, adding reverb, adding a Flanger, delay,

distortion etc. etc. Tools. Pointer Tool The most basic tool, it works just like your normal mouse. Eraser Tool The second most basic tool, it removes parts of tracks you do not want. Text Tool The text tool is used for naming individual tracks. Scissors Tool The scissors tool is used for cutting parts of track that are not needed. Pencil Tool The pencil tool is used for drawing notes onto the piano roll; this is useful for correcting midi notes. Glue Tool The glue tool is used for gluing tracks together to make one. Solo Tool The solo tool is for soloing individual tracks. Mute Tool The mute tool is for muting individual tracks. Zoom Tool The zoom tool is for zooming into a track so you can see it more clearly. Fade Tool The fade tool is used to fade out the ends of tracks or fade them in. Automation Select Tool With the automated select tool you can select the automated and move it along the track. Automation Curve Tool With the automation curve tool you can make curves in the straight lines and make the automation sound a lot smoother. Marquee Tool With the marquee tool you can cut out certain sections of a track.

Flex Tool Tbc Cmd tools. CMD tools are exactly the same as normal tool except that you have to hold down CMD to use them. Zoom tools. With the zoom tool you can zoom in and out of your work so you can see it all or focus on one little it. Its just great. Sample editor. With the sample editor you can edit your audio files and crop parts out very precisely. Piano roll. With the piano roll you can edit your software instrument tracks. It comes down as a piano and you can pencil in notes and quantise (see quantising) everything so it is in time.

Duplicating tracks. To duplicate a track click on the button next to the plus sign on the channel strip, once you have clicked this a duplicate of your track will appear.

Colours. Ever thought of having a project full of wacky colours? Well now you can. Once you select the colour button at the top right hand corner of the page then a palette of colours will appear and you can change the colours of tracks by simply clicking on them and then selecting a colour.

Transport Bar. You can do many things with the transport bar you can record. Play back. Fast forward. Rewind. Pause. And stop. You can change the volume via another master switch. You can also change the tempo and the time signature. You can also select whether you want the metronome on or off.

MIDI Events. You can find MIDI events if you look on the piano roll. Theyre the little rectangles. These represent the different notes you have played and you can move them around and edit your piece of music. The Arrange Page. The Arrange Page is where all the magic happens. This is where you can view your individual tracks and pieces of music and you can arrange them into your song or broadcast etc. you have a perfect view of all of your work.

Chapter 3 Sound Waves

Explanation of sound waves Sound waves exist as variations of pressure in a medium such as air. They are created by the vibration of an object, which causes the air surrounding it to vibrate. The vibrating air then causes the human eardrum to vibrate, which the brain interprets as sound

Compressions and Rarefactions A compression is a region in a longitudinal wave where the particles are closest together A rarefaction is a region in a longitudinal wave where the particles are furthest apart.

Frequency and our spectrum 1 Hertz: 1 vibration/second Our hearing range: 20 Hz to 20 kHz Frequency: this is the number of waves that pass a point in each second. The word that musicians use for frequency is pitch. The shorter the wavelength, the higher the frequency, and the higher the pitch, of the sound. In other words, short waves sound high; long waves sound low.

The speed of sound Speed = distance/time Speed of sound at sea level = 340.29 m / s The speed of a sound wave refers to how fast the disturbance is passed from particle to particle. While frequency refers to the number of vibrations that an individual particle makes per unit of time, speed refers to the distance that the disturbance travels per unit of time. Complex waveforms A complex waveform is a waveform which varies from instant to instant, but can be resolved into a number of sine-wave components, each of a different frequency and probably of different amplitude. Harmonics Harmonics are all of those Sinewaves of different frequencies that make up a Complex waveform. Complex Waveform Pure Waveform

Chapter 4 How to make a Rework

Making a rework is a lot easier that it sounds. It involves a lot of work and a lot of looping. In this chapter I will show you everything you need to know. So lets get started. Ways to record data. There are two different ways to input MIDI data into logic you can either play in real time with the MIDI controller. Or you can Pencil in the notes on the piano roll. There are pros and cons of each. The good thing about pencilling in the MIDI date is that you can be very precise with your music but it does take a lot of time. Whereas recording in is quicker but you can make mistakes but they can also be edited with the piano roll.

Looping. When recording it can be helpful to play to a loop. To add a loop you need to go to the loop section in the media library and drag a loop on the channel strip. Quantising. Quantising is the process of making your music in time. If you open up piano roll (See piano roll) you will see all of the notes in the midi region. To quantise simply highlight the notes you wish to put in time select your time signature of choice and click the Q button. Before Quantisin g After Quantisin g

Finding Sounds. To find my sounds I looped the section of the song that I wanted to get the sounds from. As it was playing on loop I would go through the media library trying each instrument until I found a sound that was close enough to the original.

Copy and pasting. While on the piano roll you can edit and change your MIDI events. You can copy and paste midi events, to do this you have to click and hold on the event you want to copy and drag it to its destination but before you let go you have to hold down alt and it will copy it and paste it there. You can delete MIDI events by highlighting the unwanted events and simply clicking delete.

Panning. Panning is where you can change what speaker your music comes out of. There is a few different ways you can pan your tracks. You can pan your tracks on the inspector, there is a little circle which if you click and drag you can change how much it goes to each speaker. Although there is a much more efficient way to pan your tracks. Automation. With automation you can make your track pan from left to right at different parts of the song. To do this you have to click 'A' on your computer keyboard and the look will change. on the left hand side you can see it says volume, click on that and change it to pan and now you can make dots on your track and change how much it pans, to pan to left you drag it to the top and to pan to the right you have to drag it down.

Mixer. A mixer works just like a real life mixing desk you use it to level all of the sounds of the individual tracks. On the mixing desk at the far right you have the master channel with this you can change the volume of the entire project. You would do this if you music was too loud and was distorting. With the mixer you can see all of the individual channels and change their volume. You can have a lot of fun mixing al of your channels till they're perfect.

Buses. With busses you can send different tracks to different busses. What this means is that if bus 1 has reverb on it you can send your track on bus 1 and it will get reverb on the channel. Mute. The mute button is an M next to the R this will mute a track so it is not heard when you press play. Solo. The solo button is also found with mute and record, this is displayed as an s and will make the track select the only one you can hear. Bouncing. Bouncing a track is where you export your logic project to a file. For example. Mp3, Mp4 etc. etc. Buses

Chapter 5 Listening Back

The Ear

How the ear actually works. The inner ear is called the cochlea, because of its spiral shape. It is two and a half times rolled and filled with fluid. It is about four inches long in total. This liquid is moved by sound vibrations from the "base plate" of the stapes. In the cochlea is the basilar membrane, which holds for about 20,000 hair cells. The basilar membrane is wider at one end than at the other. This gives the membrane a stiffness that varies with the length. This in turn means that the hair cells in different positions on the membrane respond to different frequencies. These hairs are connected to the auditory nerve that carries signals to the auditory centre in the brain. This is the auditory nerve action and is transmitted to the actual sound perception. Psychoacoustics - The cocktail party effect The cocktail party effect is a phenomenon where if you go to a cocktail party for example you can zone in on peoples conversations and when you do this you zone out of all the other conversations. Hearing stereo with two ears Hearing stereo with two ears is where you can differentiate where sounds are coming from in a room Dangers and prevention of loud noises The dangers of loud noises are that long exposure to it can permanently damage your hearing. You can go slightly deaf or even go perfectly deaf. To prevent this if you are working in an environment with constant loud

noise you may need to wear ear protection. For example if youre working on a loud building sigh you will probably be given noise cancelling headphones. Or if youre working in another area with loud noises you might even be given ear plugs. The Principles of Musical Instruments Woodwind Instruments
Wind instruments got their name because they use human breath to generate sound. The vibrations caused by your breath is picked up by the instrument and is amplifies by the instrument. Wind instruments use either a cylindrical or a cone shape to produce their sound. The instrument is able to hit different notes through the holes or keys on the instrument. Covering or pressing these hole or keys produces different notes. By opening and closing these holes, the tube is made longer and shorter and changes how far the vibrations have to travel to escape the instrument. Wood instruments are generally more complicated than other instruments and can have more than two dozen different keys to choose from and different types of reeds.

Stringed instruments
Stringed instruments produce sound when their strings are caused to vibrate. The strings can be bowed, plucked or struck. Keyed instruments, such as the piano are composed of a series of hidden strings that are struck by small hammers when the appropriate key is pressed. Instruments such as the cello or violin can be bowed to produce sustained notes or plucked to produce shorter notes, depending upon the piece of music. The guitar and similar instruments are generally plucked, either by a musician's fingers or by a plectrum. The pitch produced by a vibrating string can be altered by shortening or lengthening the

amount of string made to vibrate. The higher up the fret board the higher the note is.

Percussion instruments
A percussion instrument is any instrument whose sound is made by being struck, shaken, rubbed or scraped. Drums are the most common percussion instrument. A drum is made of a tightly stretched, flexible material of synthetic fibres or natural animal skin placed over a hollow frame. A drum is played by striking the head, creating vibrations that are amplified as they echo throughout the hollow chamber below. The smaller and tighter a drumhead is, the higher the pitch it produces, since it will vibrate at a faster speed.

Evaluate the process The process of making a rework was quite fun and quite challenging as well. From reading the above you know how I made my rework so I wont repeat that here. The most difficult part for me was getting the drums down, they were ridiculous. I had mat help me with getting the drums for the verse and with those I was able to make the drums for the rest of the track. Apart from the drums the song was quite simple to put together apart from figuring out the occasional trumpet solo. Overall I found it quite fun and I learnt a lot about logic in the process and have come out with a better understanding of logic and macs as a whole. By Sam Price Haworth