As one of the top DAWs available on the market, Logic Pro X certainly has a lot to boast about. With a huge variety of tools and abilities, it’s perfect for recording, beat making, songwriting, mixing, and more. No matter what kind of music you create, here are 30 hacks you can use to get the fullest experience out of Logic.
Table of Contents
Here Are The Best Logic Pro Hacks and Tricks
Control Logic Remotely with Logic Remote.
If you’re recording solo, this could be a serious time-saver. The Logic Remote app lets you use your iPhone or iPad to control Logic on your Mac from anywhere in the room. No more constant moving between Mac and mic!
Use Project Alternatives
Want to create an alternate version of your song without losing your current version? File > Project Alternatives allows you to make a copy of your project, which you can edit to your heart’s content and easily switch back to your other version(s).
Missed a Perfect Take? Use Quick Punch-In
Selecting ‘Allow Quick Punch-In’ from the ‘Record’ dropdown tells Logic to always be listening to inputs. There is nothing worse than nailing a performance and realizing you never hit a record. Before you pause playback, hit ‘R’ and record a few seconds. Now when you expand the recorded region backwards you’ll find your performance right where it should be.
Missed a Perfect MIDI Take? Use Capture Recording
Use ‘Customise Control Bar and Display’ to show the ‘Capture Recording’ button. Logic is always listening to MIDI input, whether you are recording or not. Instead of hitting record as above, pause playback and then hit the new ‘Capture Recording’ button (or Shift-R). A MIDI region with your take will appear right where it should be.
Memorize your Favorite Key Commands
Doing everything with the mouse can massively slow down your workflow. Learning as many key shortcuts as possible will make your process much, much smoother. Find the full list in Logic Pro > Key Commands > Edit.
The Marquee Tool
Possibly the most useful mouse tool, this tool allows you to make a selection from a track in seconds. Set your right-click to the crosshair icon, press command, and highlight the selection you need. Click within the area to create a new region or hit space to play it back.
Organize Projets With the Color Palette
While it might seem tedious at first, color-coding your projects will make them much easier to navigate in the long run, especially the bigger ones. Bonus points if you always use the same colors for the same instruments. Hit Option-C to access the palette.
Organize With Markers
This might seem tedious but makes navigating your project much easier. Hit Option-‘to add a marker and label verses, choruses, etc. You can even color-code them. Hit Option-number to go to the marker of that number.
Make Use of Groups for More Control
Assigning tracks to a group means you can adjust them all at the same time in aspects such as volume, muting, panning, automation mode, etc. Use Shift-G to toggle groups on and off.
Save Computing Power by Changing I/O Buffer Size
The dreaded ‘system overload’ message… The I/O buffer size controls how quickly your computer processes the audio. As a general rule, use as low as possible during recording to avoid latency and as high as possible while mixing to not over-work your processor.
Save Computing Power by Bouncing in Place
Hit Control-Command-B to bounce the tracks in place once you have finished editing your tracks and won’t need to make changes (e.g., tuning the vocals). This way, the processing will be baked into the audio files and won’t cause a system overload later on. Then, drag the old tracks into a folder stack and turn it off, just in case you need to re-access them.
Tidy Up your Project by Hiding Unused Tracks
Hitting’ H’ will bring up a little green H button. With this feature, you can hide tracks you aren’t using but don’t want to delete, so they aren’t taking up space. Hit H again to hide them.
Record Automation Intuitively with ‘Latch’
Clicking on ‘Read’ on your channel strip and changing it to ‘Latch’ will record any move you make on that channel as automation. This allows you to make changes in real-time during playback. EQ sweeps, panning, volume automation, anything which needs to evolve over time! Make sure to change it back to ‘Read’ afterwards to avoid accidentally recording tweaks.
Use an External Device to Make ‘Latch’ Even More Intuitive
Using a device with an adjustable fader or knob makes the above hack even smoother as you can look away from the screen and use only your ears and hand to record automation.
Change Tempo Without Affecting your Tracks with ‘SMPTE Lock’
Right-click > Edit > SMPTE Lock will lock the selected regions, so they keep the same position and length while you adjust the project tempo.
Inject More Life into MIDI Regions with ‘Humanise’
If you’re stuck without a MIDI controller and are drawing notes in with the mouse, you can use ‘Humanise’ to make it sound more like a real performance. Hit Command-9 and pick it from the dropdown menu. This will slightly randomize the note position, velocity, and length, so it feels less robotic.
Edit MIDI Notes with Ease
Those who produce electronic music will especially know the importance of getting every MIDI note in the perfect position for a synth to sound its best. Select notes and use ‘/’ to remove overlaps or Shift-/ to remove all gaps between notes.
Organize MIDI Notes by Color
MIDI notes are usually colored according to velocity. Still, by selecting them and picking ‘region’ color from the right-click dropdown, they will become the same color as your tracks. This is really handy when editing notes of multiple instruments at once.
Convert Audio into MIDI Notes
This is a surprisingly simple process. Use Flex Pitch to analyze your file, followed by Edit > Create MIDI Track From Flex Pitch Data. This will create a new track with the default MIDI instrument.
Tighten up a Performance with Flex Time and Quantise
Pick an appropriate Flex Time algorithm, and Logic will analyze an audio file to find the transients. Slicing is best for drums, monophonic for single lines, polyphonic for chords, etc. Now, you can use ‘Quantise’ in the Region menu area. According to the project tempo, it will move the transients to the nearest note value you pick (according to the project tempo).
Group Editing for Seamless Time Quantizing
When editing an instrument with multiple mics (e.g., drums), it is vital that each track is lined up perfectly to avoid phasing. Turn on ‘Editing’ and ‘Quantise Locked’ in group settings, and any Flex Time editing will automatically affect all tracks.
Check Your Mix in Mono With one Simple Plugin
The gain plugin (found under ‘Utility’) is surprisingly versatile. Add it at the very end of your signal chain before the master output, and you can toggle mono on and off to check compatibility and make mixing easier.
Use Channel Strip Presets to Get Working Instantly
Have a favorite instrument? Save time by saving the channel strip setting as a preset so you can instantly load in the instrument and plugins on that channel whenever you start a new project.
Use Project Templates to Get Working Even Faster
Suppose you often write in the same genre. Why not create a whole project template with all your favorite instruments, effect buses, and plugins already set up? Avoid starting with a completely empty project and get straight into writing. Simply use File > Save As Template.
Speed Up or Slow Down Audio With a Fade
As well as fading in and out with volume, the fade tool can also be used to change the playback speed. Create a fade, and simply right-click to select speed up/down and adjust to taste.
Make Your Own Loops
Easily save a region to use as a loop in future projects by right-clicking and selecting ‘Add to Loop Library’ and picking the appropriate instrument descriptors. This will add it right in with all the other Apple Loops.
Build Your Own Pitched Instrument with Sampler Optimized
Simply drag your files into the plugin, and Sampler will analyze each file for its root note and assign it a key. Choose ‘zone per file’ to analyze the whole file or ‘zone per note’ to separate each detected note. If multiple samples have the same note, they will be triggered by one key at different velocities! Quick Sampler will be a better option if you just want to use one audio file.
Build your Own Non-pitched Instrument with Sampler Chromatic
Drag your files in, and they will each be assigned a key, either by file or by detected sound. Drum Machine Designer is also excellent for this, though it has fewer options for editing your files.
Create a Sampler Instrument With Transients
Analyze your audio file for transients in the editor (making sure it puts them in the right place) and use Convert > Convert to Sampler Track to map each transient to a separate key in Sampler! This is a super-easy way to make vocal chops.
Use Smart Controls to Change Multiple Effect Parameters on one Simple Control Panel
For example, open Smart Controls with ‘B,’ and there will automatically be some plugin parameter controls on the panel. You can change which controls are there, set limits for them, and even assign multiple parameters to just one control. This is excellent for more organic automation, just like with ‘Latch’.
Top 30 Logic Pro Hacks and Tricks – Final Thoughts
Logic Pro is undoubtedly full of surprises, and there is always more to learn. While it’s unlikely you’ll need to use every single hack out there, having some of these in your tool belt will drastically improve your workflow and, hopefully, your enjoyment in making music.
Leave a Reply