Film scoring Tutorial: How to create a Beatmap with markers in Logic Pro

In this video I want to show you how to create a beat map and markers in Logic Pro which then allows you to write music precisely to picture, just a short film scoring tutorial.
I received an email last Friday informing me about this wonderful Film Scoring Competition from The Cue Tube, Score Relief 2021.
As I'm back to writing music only since a few month after a 20 year long break chances of winning this are quite low, but I see it as one step towards my big dream so hopefully I find the time to finish my track in time.
If you like videos like this and want to join me on my journey, please just subscribe to my channel.
Any questions in the comments are welcome and will be answered :)
Enjoy
PS: If you like my content mostly created in nightshift and would like to support me then a coffee would be much appreciated:
www.buymeacoffee.com/wahey73
From now on you can even support me on Patreon. I will upload exclusive content there which you won't find here on KZbin:
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#FilmScoringTutorial #Howtowritemusictopicture #cinematicmusic

[@nicobogue]

man thank you so much !!! i'am a music composer working for netflix or commercials and i've been looking for this function for ages !!! you saved my life you're dope

[@MartinHeidenreichMusic]

Thank you Nico! I wish you most of success with your scores

[@danielpicard3994]

Good explanations. Highly informative and much appreciated, thank you! Good luck with your scores!

[@MartinHeidenreichMusic]

Thank you Daniel. I'm always happy to hear that my tutorials are helpful for someone :)

[@jmobass]

Thank you for the clear and useful explanation!

[@MartinHeidenreichMusic]

Thanks for your nice words. I'm happy if that tutorial helped you in any way

[@lemonderangello]

Thanks for getting to the point and just giving us the good stuff.

[@MartinHeidenreichMusic]

Thanks for your nice words. Always happy to get a positive feedback. Another film scoring tutorial will be published soon

[@revanaarttisingh6741]

man thank you so much I have been looking out for a good explanation since ages you helped me clear it out

[@MartinHeidenreichMusic]

Thank you so much! Happy if this tutorial was helpful. There are some more already on my channel and way more to come this year

[@ashiqsr5751]

Thank you!Very helpful!

[@MartinHeidenreichMusic]

Thanks for your comment. It's always a pleasure to hear that my tutorials are helpful to someone

[@OlivierHechoGuitar]

Great professor ! thanks !!

[@MartinHeidenreichMusic]

Thank you so much Olivier. Happy if it helps

[@blue-balance]

Well done Martin! Thank you for teaching us your process and helping us all!

[@MartinHeidenreichMusic]

Thank you Steve, I'm happy if I could help

[@jennifermcnuttmusic6353]

Thank you Sir!

[@MartinHeidenreichMusic]

I'm always happy if my tutorials are helpful to someone

[@northernfilmorchestra]

Thanks for putting this together Martin, its always so great to see members of the community sharing information and helping each other out. Beat of luck in the competition! :)

[@MartinHeidenreichMusic]

Thank you so much! It is a great honour to be part of this wonderful community. This is my first competition and I'm really happy to partecipate. Hopefully I can finish my piece this weekend :)

[@northernfilmorchestra]

@@MartinHeidenreichMusic We look forward to seeing your final entry :)

[@himanshugaur3701]

Danke. Das ist sehr sehr hilfreich für mich. Ich konnte es nirgendwo anders finden.

[@MartinHeidenreichMusic]

Ganz lieben Dank, freue mich wenn ich helfen konnte

[@karlaskmusic]

Very helpful, Martin! Thanks for sharing your knowledge. And good luck with your entry in the competition!

[@MartinHeidenreichMusic]

Thank you so much Karl

[@oysterlovers]

So helpful - thank you!

[@MartinHeidenreichMusic]

thank you so much, more videos on the way :)

[@JesseHolt]

Wow. This is great. I'm scoring a short film right now and will be utilizing this feature. Thank you for the video.

[@MartinHeidenreichMusic]

Thank you Jesse for your nice words. Happy if my video could help you. Any chance to see/hear that movie then?

[@ousamanaber]

Thank you ever so much...I've always wondered how this was done to start scenes at the start of beats 🤘

[@MartinHeidenreichMusic]

Your welcome, I'm happy if it helped you. Enjoy scoring moviescenes and keep us posted how it goes :)

[@alexbringmann235]

Thanks for the helpful tip Martin. It helped me out greatly on my score!

[@MartinHeidenreichMusic]

I'm happy that I could help. Good luck!

[@JackChen1]

Amazing

[@MartinHeidenreichMusic]

Thank you, glad if it helped!

[@francoisdentremont2743]

So clear and concise; great video!

[@MartinHeidenreichMusic]

Thank you so much. I hope it was helpful

[@dafingaz]

Whoa. Thanks!!

[@MartinHeidenreichMusic]

You're welcome. Happy if it helped a little

[@TheJerry2912]

Funny how I was just about to score this movie for my portfolio as I was looking for a Beat Mapping tutorial and I found this! Great Tutorial, Thank you! :)

[@MartinHeidenreichMusic]

Thank you :) I had a great time scoring this wonderful animation. Curious to hear your score once it's done. I'm about to publish another real cool cue from the Cue Tube later today: "Tears of Steel". Anyhow I saw that Bryan added a lot of cool new movies on the site, always worth having a visit there

[@TheCueTube]

Just found this! Very cool indeed...thanks for doing it and being part of Score Relief! Best of luck to you :)

[@MartinHeidenreichMusic]

Thank you, I hope i will finish my entry this weekend, nearly done :)

[@TheCueTube]

@@MartinHeidenreichMusic Awesome! I look forward to it :)

[@JenniferMcNutt-rb3wc]

Really like learning from you! Trying to figure out how to end the marker...I will get it

[@MartinHeidenreichMusic]

Thanks Jennifer for your nice words, I'm always happy to hear that my videos are useful to someone. What precisely do you mean by "end the marker" ?

[@raghothamans]

Really helpful, thank youu!

[@MartinHeidenreichMusic]

thank you for your nice words, glad it helped

[@akash.s.manikandan9724]

Sir you are absolutely God send...✨ Thank you soooooooo much...❤️.i've been lookin for this for a long while now...plese do more film scoring videos....🙏🏻

[@MartinHeidenreichMusic]

Thank you so much Akash for your kind words! Don't worry, there will be more videos :)

[@pezolaga8436]

Thank you so much for the information to composed

[@MartinHeidenreichMusic]

you are welcome. I'm happy if it might help you

[@simonleesax4788]

Brilliant thank you.

[@MartinHeidenreichMusic]

thank you so much

[@shironperera6635]

I like your videos and I found them very helpful. Especially you are a Logic pro boy!

[@MartinHeidenreichMusic]

Thank you Shiron for your kind words. I'm always happy if one of my videos was helpful to someone

[@emanuelpusztai2337]

super useful. Thanks!

[@MartinHeidenreichMusic]

Thank you so much. I'm happy if it helps

[@josefinberger]

Thanks a lot! exactly what I needed. :)

[@MartinHeidenreichMusic]

Thank you Josefin! I had a look at your channel, you really have some lovely music over there

[@josefinberger]

@@MartinHeidenreichMusic Really glad you watched and liked my music!🤗🎵

[@MartinHeidenreichMusic]

whenever you want to do something together...I'm always up for a good collab :)

[@josefinberger]

@@MartinHeidenreichMusic How nice😊🎵 Let’s keep contact.🤗

[@flowstatetheory]

Well done Martin

[@MartinHeidenreichMusic]

Thank you so much

[@hunghoangmusic]

This is game a changer! Thank you sooo much for sharing

[@MartinHeidenreichMusic]

Thank you so much Hung! Happy if it helps you. I try to make more of these tutorials soon

[@hunghoangmusic]

@@MartinHeidenreichMusic Yes please! Thank you!!!

[@PocketSunlight]

Good luck in the competition

[@MartinHeidenreichMusic]

Thank you so much

[@Rockhopper1]

thank you thank you thank you

[@MartinHeidenreichMusic]

You're welcome. I'm happy if this one did help

[@StergiosNikolaouofficial_]

I am a student in music productions and i found you video very useful as i start this journey as composer for movies and tv.Thank you mate

[@MartinHeidenreichMusic]

Hi Stergios, thanks for your kind words, happy if it helps. Stay tuned...I'm preparing a course at the moment how to score to pictures for beginners 😊

[@StergiosNikolaouofficial_]

@@MartinHeidenreichMusic I will definitely check it out and when i finish the practice on this clip from cue tube i will send you my music.I would like a reference from you.

[@MartinHeidenreichMusic]

@@StergiosNikolaouofficial_ that would be lovely, once you done it just send it to me

[@hunnibunni1725]

Wonderful video.

[@MartinHeidenreichMusic]

thank you so much. I hope it was helpful

[@dofcomposer]

Merci Martin

[@MartinHeidenreichMusic]

Thank you

[@LuwySoundtracks]

Very good Martin !! I leave everyone my "like" for the effort and time put into work. Good luck with your music! last week I made my entry, greetings from Argentina! Where are you from?

[@MartinHeidenreichMusic]

again, thank you :)

[@MattMaloneMD]

Superb.

[@MartinHeidenreichMusic]

Thank you so much

[@adrianravel]

Sehr hilfreich!

[@MartinHeidenreichMusic]

Danke, freut mich wenn ich helfen konnte 😊

[@valentinonicastro1411]

Thankss!

[@MartinHeidenreichMusic]

Grazie a te Valentino. Spero che era utile per te

[@valentinonicastro1411]

@@MartinHeidenreichMusic absolutely!

[@MartinHeidenreichMusic]

@@valentinonicastro1411 great! I'm always happy if I can help

[@MartinHeidenreichMusic]

If you have questions just feel free to leave them here in the comments. And if you haven't already, please just subscribe to my channel. It's free and you won't miss the next tutorial 😊

[@cinemamusings2]

great video. got a question- after you did all this, now lets say you want to change the tempo of the first scene. can you do it without changing other cues?

[@MartinHeidenreichMusic]

Hi there, thanks for your nice words. Not sure if I understood your question right but anyhow, you need to work from left to right. If you change anything at the beginning (left) then obviously all the following (right) will be affected. You could prevent this from locking the regions to the SMTP but they would then anyhow beeing out of grid. Hope that helps

[@cinemamusings2]

@@MartinHeidenreichMusic yeah you understood my question. Is there a way out of this problem? What if the director asks us to change the tempo of the first cue (on the left) after we are done with the whole reel?

[@MartinHeidenreichMusic]

@@cinemamusings2 What I would do in that case is render/bounce everything that is fine into or different stems or one audio File (upon what's requested) and then make the beginning again slower importing that bounces where needed.

[@mrmatthews3749]

Hi Martin. Thanks for a great video which has answered a lot of questions and will help my workflow so much! Can I just ask if for example I have 3 markers all of different tempos will I be able to compose 3 pieces of music within each marker and will all the notes line up in the regions/piano roll. Or when I set a marker can I reset the timeline to zero at that point? I'm sorry if this doesn't make sense!

[@MartinHeidenreichMusic]

Hi Mr. Matthews, not sure if I understood your question right: at the end, the only thing the beatmap does is calculating the time necessary to fit the markers. The Piano roll continues, to the regions can continue/overlap or you can end them at the markers. You can even set markers manually and then set the tempo manually without the help of Logic but again, you are just changing tempo within the Piano roll. Attention to work always from left to right, as soon as you touch something "earlier" (to the left) then the rest gets screwed. Hope that helps

[@dominicmatthews5504]

@@MartinHeidenreichMusic Hi Martin. Thanks you for taking the time to get back to me. It’s really appreciated. If I can start a new cue on at the beginning of a bar it is easier for me to work with the midi in a region. 👍👍

[@MartinHeidenreichMusic]

@@dominicmatthews5504 ok, just like me 😊 then, yes, if you let logic do the magic of beatmapping then a new bar can start at the markers

[@blancafe6071]

Hi. The tiny line of the marker in the beat mapping doesn't appear, what can i do? i've tried to select the marker but it doesn't work. Thanks for this great content!!

[@MartinHeidenreichMusic]

Hi Blanca, thanks for your nice words. Try to click on the name of the marker in the Markertrack. That should display the tiny line for that specific marker

[@PippoAuge]

Hey, thanks for the video! I have a question: Is it possible to do beat mapping without tempo changes? I want to stay on the same bpm, but just insert silence at one point that can be faster than the rest. I have already recorded audio and this messes up the whole recording...

[@MartinHeidenreichMusic]

should be possible. Just tell your audio tracks to don't follow the tempo. Set your marker, let the tempo change where you want the silence. Then set another point in your tempo track and get your tempo back to where it was before. I hope that helps

[@victorgoemans8644]

Thanks for this video! When I open Logic and ctrl+click a track however, it doesn't display the possibility of creating a beat mapping track. Any idea as to why this could be? I'm using the latest version of Logic (trial version, but I believe it includes all the features that come with Logic).

[@MartinHeidenreichMusic]

First you must open the global tracks where you see tempo, meter, arrangement....and if you don't see marker in there then just right click and enable it from the pop up menu. Hope that helps

[@victorgoemans8644]

@@MartinHeidenreichMusic Thanks for your reply. I'd already done the steps you described, to no avail. However, I found out what was wrong - apparently beat mapping tracks can only be displayed when the 'Show Advanced Tools' box in preferences is ticked. Thanks for the video!

[@MartinHeidenreichMusic]

@@victorgoemans8644 happy that you resolved and thanks for your nice words

[@thierrycluacompositeur1917]

I 'm not working in Logic pro but you video is interesting !

[@MartinHeidenreichMusic]

Logic is phantastic, not only for film scoring :) What are you working with?

[@thierrycluacompositeur1917]

@@MartinHeidenreichMusic Cubase pro.. I used Logic in the past in studio. And I compose not just for film scoring.... classical/jazz/pop/rock and so on... (I stopped music during 20 years before coming back 4 years ago... just for pleasure now...

[@MartinHeidenreichMusic]

@@thierrycluacompositeur1917 that sounds familar. I'm in a similar situation. So may the inspiration and the fun and love for music always be with us :)

[@oscargoestogravel]

Hey Martin! Thanks for the great video about beat mapping! I do exactly the same thing you do in the video, but in my project, the tempo changes, it doesn't stay constant. Also, the scenes are shifted. Is there a point I missed or the settings? I'm using 10.5.1 version.

[@MartinHeidenreichMusic]

Hi Orhan, thanks for your nice words. Did you lock your markers as scene marker? (lock smpte does the same)

[@oscargoestogravel]

@@MartinHeidenreichMusic Yes! I try the same things you do, in the same order but the tempo does not stay constant and the scenes shifting. I don't understand what's going on :/

[@MartinHeidenreichMusic]

@@oscargoestogravel Sorry, I guess I don't understand: what do you mean the tempo changes? Are you working on the tempotrack or does it change all by itself?

[@oscargoestogravel]

@@MartinHeidenreichMusic it is changing all by itself. For example.. You start the 95 bpm but when you make the beat mapping in 8:16 and then your start tempo changing. Same for the second marker align. Your bpm was 105 before that move but it's changin again. I think I don't understand this point.

[@MartinHeidenreichMusic]

@@oscargoestogravel One thing that is really important: once you have locked your markers (smpte/scene) you can't work from right to left anymore. You need to work striktly from left to right. Once you touch a tempoint which has others to it's left you force them to adopt to fit everything into the new timeframe given. Hope that makes sense and answers your question.

[@scacs73]

Hello Martin! First of all thank You very much for this fantastic tutorial! You know? I'm working on the same video just to practise! I love it and that's why I've choosen it! Question: when I need to put a highpoint at down beat, I do all You are explaining on Your video but my tempo in between the bar I want to transport the mark and the position of beat map line, after I connect the two points my tempo line changes! So I can put those points at the begin of the bar I really want but, with this little change of tempo between the to lines. Could be cause I've some problems with setup? Thanks a lot again! Love Your videos!!!

[@scacs73]

Dear Martin I do realize that I had write before measure changes ( 3/4, 4/4, 5/4...) I took all of it away! Also, the tempo I choosed was much fast thant the one you have... I did use a beat tempo map, but the tempo it gave to me was really much faster... How can I learn to choose a really good tempo? Thanks again and thank You once more!

[@MartinHeidenreichMusic]

@@scacs73 Dear Susanna, for your first question: it's normal that the tempo changes if you create markers and the beat map as the bar needs to begin/finish where the marker is. Important that you always work from left to right, so you can choose the new tempo yourself. As soon as you go backwards (from right to left) crazy tempo changes will happen, so please always try to work from left to right and start writing music only once the markers and tempo is set up right, otherwise you might loose a lot of time. For your second question: the more you score the more you get a certain feeling on what music and what tempo would fit. What I do normally when I watch a cue is just tap an imaginary tempo that I "feel inside" into my masterkeyboard (or if you prefer a cell phone app) so I have a good starting point. Hope this helps

[@scacs73]

@@MartinHeidenreichMusic Many, many thanks!!! Tomorrow I'll follow all your tips!!!

[@scacs73]

@@MartinHeidenreichMusic Dear Martin, thanks a lot for your tips! I followed step by step all the points You told me and it went perfect! I've another question, now, which isn't to much related with this video but it is important for me at the moment of composing. How can I change tonality? I see at the begin it says C major. I've tryed to create a tonality map, but actually I didn't figure out how to do it! Many, many thanks in advanced!!!

[@MartinHeidenreichMusic]

@@scacs73 Sorry, but I guess I don't understand the question: what do you mean by changing tonality?

[@user-xs3db6ox3q]

Would like to see it in at least 1080p but helpful!

[@MartinHeidenreichMusic]

thank you. didn't have the money at that time to invest a lot in the video production. Bought a new camera, new pc, new lights recently so yes, now my videos are in 1080p. if you would like to support me (as 1080p seems to be important for you) you are always welcome to buy me a coffee or support me on Patreon

[@user-xs3db6ox3q]

@@MartinHeidenreichMusic you don't need a new camera to screen capture and put it in 1080p timeline...

[@MartinHeidenreichMusic]

@@user-xs3db6ox3q true, but would be a silent movie without audio capturing and a video having only a captured screen and audio still quite some boring i guess, but thanks anyhow for your suggestion and your support

[@leodebatin2667]

When I try to do the beatmapping thing at 8 minutes in the video, it says "Setting this beat would have caused the corresponding tempo value being too low. Try to insert bars." do u know how to fix this?

[@MartinHeidenreichMusic]

Sorry, no, never happened to me. Are you creating the beatmap in an empty project or are there already midi or audio regions?

[@inarell84]

When I change the beat map all my midi items go off grid. What's up with that? I'm using a marker that is smtpe locked but the regions aren't locked.

[@MartinHeidenreichMusic]

You could try to smtp lock the regions too...it might help your problem

[@inarell84]

@@MartinHeidenreichMusic I want the opposite of smtpe locking the regions. I want the midi to stay on grid as I adjust the beat map. I found the answer. There is a drop down menu and you can select "protect midi"

[@MartinHeidenreichMusic]

Good you found the answer yourself. Maybe I didn't understand what you were looking for. In your question above you said the smite is locked but the regions not and then you wrote you wanted the opposite of locking the regions.

[@inarell84]

@@MartinHeidenreichMusic yes, the problem is that they beat mapping locks the midi in place so as you change tempos the midi moves off grid (as if it's smpte locked).

[@noizepark8533]

Please sir help me! If m done with all beat mapping, tempo changes, music arrangements....all done! But then the video director said there will some correction...and the video length changed (say....previous vdo was 10:30 and the new vdo is 11:45)!!! Now how to handle this! How do i adjust all the previous things in new duration!!! Please help! N sorry for my horrible English 🙏

[@MartinHeidenreichMusic]

Sounds like a big problem to be honest. Where was that 1:15 minutes added? If from a certain moment on, keep everything done until now and do the rest new...if all over the place...do it new from scratch....just hope you get paid for all that extra work

[@noizepark8533]

@@MartinHeidenreichMusic Thanks a lot sir! Im from Bangladesh. Here in our country maximum video directors send a vdo cut for bgm, in the mean time when the music director composing the music...the vdo director cross check n finalised the vdo...so, there have some new cut or add scene which was not in the previous vdo! So...sometimes the final cut has shorter lenth or longer lenth! It is so much painful n we dont get any extra singel penny for the corrections! So here,this is so tough for scoring in bgm! M again sorry for my horrible English! N again thanks a lot for ur valuable rply. Stay blessed.❤️❤️❤️

[@TheCueTube]

You're happy for me to take a section and share it in a video and direct people to your video? :)

[@MartinHeidenreichMusic]

Wow, that would be wonderful! Of course you can, thank you so much

[@TheCueTube]

@@MartinHeidenreichMusic Thanks so much, Martin!