Depictions of Sound 17 is online and ready to download. The tracklisting can be found HERE and the mix can be found on the Mixes (Download) section.

I have recently finished a remix of a Vocal track which LOVE and this will be being aired in my next show which goes out on April 19th on ETN.fm Channel 1. So make sure you check that out!

I have also been working on a new Website -
www.logicprohq.com. This is to give tutorials and tips on everything Logic Pro and Express related. So if you have any requests of tutorials you would like to see, head on over there and leave a comment and I will get right on it.

…and lastly I have a March chart out featuring my Top 10 tracks at the moment so make sure you check that out HERE.

Dave

The Site is www.logicprohq.com. It was made for providing Tutorials, Tips and Guide for Logic Pro & Logic Express. I will be also providing tips and reviews for external plug-ins, hardware, midi controllers and all DAWs. So there is definitely going to be something for everyone.

I will be expanding the site rapidly over the next few months and I plan to publish tutorials at least once a week. I have a few other plans up my sleeve which will make some great content, including interviews with some of the top logic users around, so be sure to check out the newsletter for exclusive posts, content and to be kept up to date. It can be found HERE

I am really excited about this website and I hope once you view it, you will be too. If you have a minute, come check it out and say hi or leave a comment.

I hope you enjoy the site and get a lot of benefit out of the tutorials

Buy all songs from the chart HERE

One thing that has always bugged me is that when you open up the synth, the default patch is of little use and has crazy amounts going on, all of which is of little use. So what I am going to show you how to do is create a new default/init patch and make it load every time you load an ES2 (If you are really lazy scroll to the bottom of the post and I have saved the setting for you to download ready for use )

The default setting for the ES2 looks like this -

As you can see there is an insane amount of router settings, so the first thing we will do is set all the sources to ‘LFO1′ (Except the 1st, leave this as Env2) and then set all the targets to ‘Off’(again except the 1st, just set this to b/p). To the right of the 10th router setting, change the Vector Mode to ‘XY’ – this will stop our triangle mixer settings from being messed with.

Next we want to set Volume to 0dB, Sine Level to 0, FX Intensity to 0, Analog to 0, Unison to off and all oscillator cents to 0. We can the switch of Oscillator’s 2 & 3  and set the Triangle mixer to 100% Oscillator 1.

By now the patch will be sounding a lot cleaner and we just have a few more settings to tweak. I like to set the filter to series then move the blend to 50% and open up just the LPF cutoff with no resonance on either filter.

All that is left to do is tidy up the 3 Envelopes. I like to set all to 0 apart from Env 2 Decay to full, Env 3 Sustain to full, and Env’s 2 & 3 Vel to 50%

Here is what it should now look like -

We then just hit Save As… and save the patch as #default. Now every time you load up an ES2 you will have a much better canvas to work with and won’t have so many things to turn off

As promised here is the file I prepared earlier and a small text file telling you where to place it – Logic ES2 Init Patch (85)

One of the things I like to do every couple of months is sit down and open up iTunes and play the mp3 of my recorded idea. Each ideas is then recreated in Logic on a separate midi track.

So if I have thought of a nice melody idea, I will open up a soft synth, pick a preset I like, then recreate the melody using my midi keyboard. I can then copy the track settings to the track below and do the same for all my melody ideas. Then move onto any grooves patterns, basslines and synth sound creations (which I can also add to my patch library).

There are a few great reasons for doing this.

1. When you can’t seem to switch your creative mind on, you have access to all the times when your creative genius was in full flow, which also does the trick of getting your creative mind back into its flow.
2. You can import the ideas you want into your template track and have a track well under way in less than 2 minutes.
3. Batch processing all of these ideas into one track will save you a tremendous amount of time, not only getting these ideas down but also in listening through every one of your ideas.
4. Its incredibly fun …. and a nice change of pace, to say, drawing countless automation lines.

I’m sure there are lots more great reasons too but the most important is, if doing this inspires you to make more music and enjoy it more, then this is helping to fulfill the reasons almost every one who writes & produces music started doing so which makes this a great technique to have in your arsenal.

I hope you enjoyed this article and find lots of use for this technique.

Happy Producing

Dave

The most important and effective technique is to have access to the idea itself and to be able to replay it whenever you want.
To achieve this all you need to do is get out your phone or mp3 player and hum, sing, beatbox, whatever it takes, and record the idea for later playback.

It sounds so simple and requires so little effort that most of the time it is overlooked but once you have the idea as an audio file you can spend as long as you want creating the melody or sound you are after.

Next time I will go through more techniques on ways to help turn ideas into tracks.

Thanks for reading