- Select a Drummer Style
- Edit Session Player Regions
- Arrange the Drum Track
- Key Commands
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
Arrange the Drum Track
To continue arranging your drum track, you’ll create more Session Player regions to add sections to your song and continue editing their performance to produce different drum grooves for each section.
Create the Intro
To create an intro, you’ll create a copy of the Session Player regions in the workspace and edit the first copy to create an intro.
Choose Edit > Repeat > Once (or press Command-R).
In the workspace, a copy of the Session Player region is created at bar 9.
Click the first Session Player region at bar 1.
The region is selected, and you can edit it in the Session Player Editor.
Drag the Complexity and Intensity sliders all the way down.
The Drummer is much quieter in this new intro, playing side sticks (hitting the rim of the snare to create a softer sound, almost like a woodblock). At bar 7, the Drummer switches back to hitting the center of the snare and progressively raises the intensity to reach the level required to play the second region at bar 9.
Let’s use the Marquee tool (your Command-click tool) to split the first region into two regions of equal lengths so you can make the performance evolve during the intro.
Command-double-click at bar 5.
The region splits in two. Let’s edit the first region’s custom pattern.
Click the region at bar 1 to select it.
In the Session Player Editor, click the Manual button.
Click the Length pop-up menu and choose 4 Bars.
To the right of the Length pop-up menu, four overviews allow you to access the 16 steps in each one of the four bars.
At the upper right, click the action menu and choose Reset.
The kick and snare rows are emptied. To start the song, you’ll create a simple pattern without kick drum.
In the snare row, in each of the four bars, click the first steps of beats 1 and 2.
In bar 4, beat 4, click steps 1, 3, and 4.
Click the Details button.
Drag the Ghost Notes knob all the way up to 100%.
The Drummer plays many more side-stick notes, which adds complexity to this part of the intro. Let’s make the hi-hat ring a little more.
Click the Hi-Hat pop-up menu and choose Open.
Now you’ll work on the second part of the intro.
Click the second region at bar 5.
At bar 7, the Drummer starts playing regular snare hits; however, you want to keep side sticks throughout the entire intro.
Click the Details button.
Click the Snare pop-up menu and choose Side Stick.
Now the Drummer plays the side stick throughout the entire intro. Let’s add some shaker to this second half of the intro.
Click the Percussion pop-up menu and choose Shaker 3.
The shaker is very quiet; let’s turn it up.
In the control bar, click the Smart Controls button (or press B).
In the Smart Controls pane, turn up the Percussion knob to about 3 o’clock.
You can now better hear the shaker, which adds a nice texture to this second part of the intro.
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You’ve used the Session Player Editor to adjust the complexity and intensity of the Drummer’s playing. You’ve selected different drum kit pieces, added hand percussions, and adjusted the number of fills and ghost notes in different regions. Now that you have a good grasp on the Session Player Editor, you’ll add a few more regions to continue building the drum track.
Create Markers for Song Sections
To make it easier to navigate the arrangement and identify song sections, you’ll create markers for the intro and verse you’ve already created as well as for the remaining sections you’ll create later.
At the top of the track headers, click the Global Tracks button (or press G).
The global tracks open. You need to see only the Marker track.
Control-click a global track header and choose Configure Global Tracks (or press Option-G).
Turn on Show Single Track and select Marker.
To create markers for the existing song sections, you can drag your regions into the Marker track.
Click the Smash track header (or press Command-A).
All the regions on the track are selected.
Drag the selected regions to the Marker track.
Three markers are created. They have the same color and name as the regions you dragged. Let’s create more markers for the remaining song sections.
Click the background (or press Shift-D) to deselect the markers.
You can copy and resize markers in the Marker track the same way you edit regions in the workspace.
In the Marker track, Option-drag the marker from bar 9 to bar 17.
Resize this new marker so it’s 4 bars long.
Option-drag this new 4 bar-long marker to bar 21.
Option-drag this last marker to bar 25.
Resize this marker at bar 25 to make it 8 bars long.
Now that you have all the markers you need, let’s rename them and give them custom colors.
Double-click the first marker, enter Intro 1, and press Tab.
The marker is renamed, and the text field opens on the next marker.
Continue this procedure to rename the following markers:
Marker at bar 5 = Intro 2- Marker at bar 9 = Verse
- Marker at bar 17 = Bridge
- Marker at bar 21 = Rise
- Marker at bar 25 = Outro
Choose View > Show Colors (or press Option-C).
The Color palette opens.
Choose different colors for your markers.
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Adding markers helps identify song sections and later will help you navigate the song. Your song structure is now complete, and you are ready to start working on the Bridge, Rise, and Outro sections.
Convert Session Player Regions to MIDI Regions
Now, you’ll create a new Session Player region for the bridge. After you start editing the new region and realize that your edits affect how the Drummer plays the verse, you’ll convert the verse region to MIDI to prevent it from changing.
Position the pointer to the right of the last Session Player region and click the + sign that appears.
A new 8-bar Session Player region is created at bar 17.
Resize the new region to a length of 4 bars.
Double-click the new 4-bar region (or press E) to open the Session Player Editor.
During this bridge, let’s make the Drummer perform a simple and quiet pattern.
In the Session Player Editor, drag the Complexity slider all the way down.
Drag the Intensity slider all the way down.
Listen to the transition from the verse to the bridge and look at the regions. At the end of the verse, the Drummer progressively lowers his intensity to ensure a smooth transition to the bridge. However, for this song, you want an abrupt transition from the intense groove in the verse to the quiet bridge.
Press Command-Z.
The Intensity slider goes back up, and the Drummer performance stays intense until the end of the verse. To prevent that Session Player region in the verse from updating when you edit other regions, you’ll convert it to a MIDI region.
Control-click the region in the verse and choose Convert > Convert to MIDI Region (or press Control-Option-Command-M).
The Session Player region is converted to a MIDI region that plays the same notes. At the bottom of the main window, the Piano Roll shows the MIDI notes inside the region.
Click the Session Player region in the bridge to select it.
In the Session Player editor, drag the Intensity slider all the way down.
Now the Drummer keeps the intensity up throughout the entire verse and suddenly shifts to play a quiet pattern in the bridge.
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A Session Player region can sometimes update its performance to adapt to other Session Player regions immediately before or after it on the track. Converting the region to MIDI allows you to keep the performance intact no matter how you edit other regions around it.
Complete the Bridge
Let’s continue editing the performance in the bridge to make the Drummer play a softer, more open part and give that section more space.
In the Session Player Editor, click the Main button.
Click the hi-hat Pattern button and choose pattern 4.
To make this bridge breathe and create an impression of space, you’ll remove all ghost notes to make room for the reverb tails of the remaining notes.
Click the Details button and turn the Ghost Notes knob all the way down to 0%.
Now, you’ll make the Drummer play a tom rather than a snare.
Click the Snare pop-up menu and choose Tom.
To really give a different color to this bridge, let’s add a shaker and close the hi-hat.
Click the Percussion pop-up menu and choose Shaker 3.
Click the Hi-Hat pop-up menu and choose Closed.
The hi-hat notes no longer ring as much, which leaves more room to hear the shaker. Increasing the volume range between the softer and louder notes will open this quiet section even further.
Drag the Dynamics knob up to 130%.
Let’s edit the custom pattern to get a simple, straightforward drum beat.
Click the Manual button.
Edit the pattern so that the kick plays beat 1 and 3 and the snare plays beat 2 and 4.
In bar 1, beat 1, make the kick play step 3.
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You’ve created a quiet part for your bridge, where the Drummer plays the tom instead of the snare. The pattern is sparser, and a shaker adds texture to this section. All these edits produce a striking contrast with the verse before.
Complete the Rise and Outro Sections
To end the song, you’ll make the Drummer switch from the toms back to a snare, and progressively bring the intensity back up.
Choose Edit > Repeat > Once (or press Command-R).
The Session Player in the Bridge section is copied to the Rise section.
Drag the Complexity slider a third of the way up.
Drag the Intensity slider halfway up.
Click the Details button and set the Ghost Notes to 20%, Snare to Automatic, and Percussion to Off.
The Drummer plays a more complex and more intense groove with a regular snare. Let’s add a very subtle drum fill at the end of the Rise section.
Click the Main button and drag the Fill Amount knob up to 1%.
A fill is added at the end of the region; however, it’s way too busy.
Drag the Fill Complexity knob all the way down to 1%.
Now the Drummer simply hits the toms a couple of times at the end of the region. Let’s move on to the Outro section
Move the pointer to the right of the last region in the workspace and click the + sign.
A new 8-bar region is created with the same subtle fill at the end. To end the song, you’ll add a more complex fill.
Drag the Fill Complexity knob up to 50%.
Drag the Intensity slider almost all the way up.
Click the Details button and from the Percussion pop-up menu, choose Claps 2.
The hand claps in this section really help lift the groove and give it a human feel. It almost makes you want to get up and clap along!
Let’s add one last Session Player region and make it small to end the drum track on a downbeat.
To the right of the region in the Outro section, click the + sign to create a new region.
Resize the region to shorten it so that it contains notes only on the first beat.
To resize the region, you can pick one of two methods:
- Use the Help Tag to make sure the length of the region is 0 0 1 0.
- Work in broad strokes, resizing the region, zooming in, and repeating the operation until you see notes only on the first downbeat.
Save your project and keep it open for the next lesson.
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You have previewed different drum styles and produced a variety of patterns for the different sections of a funk rock song. With Drummer, Drum Kit Designer, and Drum Machine Designer, Logic Pro allows you to quickly lay down a rhythmic foundation for a wide range of modern music genres. In the next lesson, you’ll continue building upon this foundation by adding a bass track to your song.
