Logic Pro X 10.5 - Step Sequencer Workflow and Shortcuts

Here are some workflow tips Im using with the step sequencer. As usual, I talk quite a bit about shortcuts.
Enjoy!

[@BESEENGETHEARD]

Thank I just bought Logic X Pro & you are helping me tremendously. I’m a long time Cubase user the switch has been really eye opening

[@18Everything]

Smh the man literally teaches us a whole lotta secrets about logic and the least we can do is share his video and run up his views. Common ppl. I’m sharing this with 5 ppl to start the ball rolling

[@JakeMasca]

Hey man i really appreciate it. Views are great but its comments from you and others like this that keep me going. I feel so fortunate to be able to connect with people from all over the world in such a niche topic and software. Makes me less lonely!

[@BESEENGETHEARD]

Everything18 me too

[@goerfton77]

I like this approach of working through practically and overcoming problems in real-time, cheers for the vid.

[@theolschoolblues]

OMG YOU ARE A LIFE SAVER! i swear i tried everything to use my own samples but couldn't figure it out. i feel like an idiot for not trying the ol' drag and drop!

[@otisflick]

Very well explained! Like an actual teacher and not some guy looking for hits. Bravo.

[@BehradDavoudi]

i love it when secret keyboard shortcuts are taught. thank you so much.

[@bvlvncemusic]

You’re the man for making this video. Real practical and usable tips

[@junruihe8647]

So much knowledge packed in just 14 minutes, even hi-hat rolls, absolutely wonderful, thank you so much!

[@snoman5618]

Liked and subscribed, easily the best 10.5 tutorial I’ve come across so far, thank you for taking the time to make it 🙏

[@830jkl]

Thank you so much Jake, you’ve got another new subscriber my broski. Really digging your tutorials and vibe. Please continue to dig below the surface and share you knowledge and findings with us. We truly appreciate you 🎶 Peace

[@rovch_]

I absolutely LOVE you for including key commands and workflow integration! Subscribed!

[@colinsnape]

Thanks Jake, quick, informative, intelligent. All killa no filler!

[@rickdomina]

Awesome tutorial. Thanks Jake!

[@BehradDavoudi]

these were some very useful tips! thank you so much

[@MrBlueHaze]

Most in depth tutorial so far on the step sequencer! Thank you!

[@JakeMasca]

Thank you for taking the time to comment Mr Blue Haze =). Your profile picture is very catchy

[@seangarland]

Jake - I appreciate you taking the time to learn some of the key shortcuts and tips & tricks, rather than rushing out a "I'm first!!!" video. These are very helpful!

[@JakeMasca]

Thank you Sean. I will confess - i felt a bit of pressure to be “first” but took a step back to remember that all of this should be fun and helpful. I’ll continue to take the necessary time and do my best not to waste anyone’s time!

[@nicklaskragbe1075]

@@JakeMasca This review helped me the most out of the others. Thumbs up , well done ! thanks

[@supermaui1]

agreed!!

[@grambience3139]

yep, i had to watch about 5 very generic overviews before this one. super helpful man, always quality.

[@830jkl]

Sean Garland Great point.

[@drgigglesvinyldjsets-kruto1080]

This is great! One of the best tutorials on KZbin. I used to use both live and logic but with 10.5 and the step sequencer Logic is King

[@CRYPTONINJASAMURAI]

Awesome! Looking forward to more advanced tutorials! Thank you so much💪🏻🙏

[@Jime0326]

Thank you for making this video. You're a great teacher. Peace and blessings to you and your entire family.

[@JakeMasca]

DJ SemaJ - thank you for your kind words. I really appreciate it

[@VickersDoorter]

I like the Step Sequencer page. Reminds me of my Fairlight III days back in the late 1980s. A great way to compose.

[@elicuellar623]

This is an excellent resource thank you! Really good tips here, but I think the most eye opening thing to me was figuring out just how important shortcuts are for improving workflow and speed.

[@RobertMichael]

Jaaake - been following you for a minute, glad to see you're still creating solid content. Thanks for this! Super helpful

[@mecdot525]

This is probably the best Step Sequencer workflow for Logic Pro 10.5 existing right now. Thanks a lot Jake. Well done

[@ranceriley15]

Best video I've seen so far on the new Logic 10.5 step sequencer

[@JakeMasca]

Thank you so much for taking the time to write this. I really appreciate it

[@pavelmadzharov7631]

Great video, Jake! Great help!

[@dev6179]

This is brilliant jake, and so early as well, i'd like twice If I could. Thank you!

[@meeks3671]

letsss gooo first tip was already crazy helpful APPRECIATE YOU!!

[@tomiokadreamers]

You're the best. I realy hope you come back soon!

[@PankajChoudhury]

Boy, you are just awesome. Thanks for such a nice tutorial.

[@driftingskymusic351]

Awsome tutorial brother! Thanks

[@chotobiral]

Thanks a lot, Jake... this is gold, man! the shortcuts will come handy!

[@JakeMasca]

Thank you so much Tarun for taking the time to comment. Took me awhile to remember these shortcuts!

[@jayproducer80]

Love that you show the key commands

[@gustaflembre4191]

Super thankful for this one, great instructions man! Also loved those mysterious marimba chords😁

[@MusicalTactics]

So many shortcuts in one video! Great content, instant subscriber here!

[@uglyfingersmusic]

I appreciate this tutorial. Thx bro. Love the key commands

[@MessyBeatz]

great video Jake... thanks a lot.

[@MikeMadari]

Mate, this was so, SO helpful! Cheers!!! You’ve definitely earned a sub 👍🏼

[@riktascale4]

Very helpful. Thanks!

[@MRKrabs-xb1ym]

thank you so much Love from Turkey ❤️

[@smackdammit4266]

Great vid and greater info,thanks bro..

[@Ardspans]

Very nice, thank you.

[@AndrewDorsett]

Awesome tutorial Jake. Thanks for sharing! Subbed

[@sowhat3536]

Great video!! well explained and very clear, I appreciate that. I also love that you made it at 2:20am LOL

[@lorenzowoodmusic]

Amazing tutorial. thank you, bro

[@AceArty23]

very grateful for your gems

[@arunsenev]

subbed as soon as i heard the first tip, thank you

[@JakeMasca]

Hahahahaha ha thank you arun*

[@sonnybrix77]

Bruhhhhhh! Mind fucking blown! Do you know what jewels 💎 you just dropped????? You saved the whole day

[@binkam]

Hi brother, thanks a lot for this tutorial. I am new to logic x pro. I started my experiments with 10.4. But new step sequencer was confusing me... This tutorial is really awesome... I learnt the right tips today... I will try it 👍🏻

[@issiewizzie]

Great video this Straight to the point I learnt a lot

[@JakeMasca]

Thank you Issie

[@buckybarz3779]

Thank you for getting to the point.

[@kylebeckx]

You have a really good teaching style :) keep up the great videos they are always a treat.

[@JakeMasca]

Thank you for taking the time to comment to me daily patcher. I really appreciate it

[@Meekismwisdom]

THis is so cool. YOu are a great teacher

[@MDSeldome]

Thanks for this tricks🙌

[@grahmododnel5371]

really helpful my guy thank you

[@stevenhyde5841]

Wow thank you so much man I honestly had no idea that all of this was possible💯🙏🙌🏽 Just Subscribed thanks again😁

[@onairmastering]

Hell yeah thanks for this.

[@itsjustkian]

Hands down you have the best tips on workflow! I watched a video of yours way back that assigned key commands to the hihats and that shit changed my life😂 thank you for the videos🙏

[@JakeMasca]

Hahaha thank you Kiian. Your profile picture is very catchy!

[@itsjustkian]

@@JakeMasca hahaa I appreciate it

[@vayabahia53]

Excellent video, thanks.

[@JakeMasca]

Nice to see you again Vayabahia!

[@phoenixdaradia5897]

Great video - very helpful starting from "you've probably already figured this bit" and moving beyond the obvious! Key shortcuts were super useful. Some similar help with automation would be great, especially the 'smooth' automation, which I haven't figured out yet from Logic's cryptic help menu.

[@drgigglesvinyldjsets-kruto1080]

Smooth automation...Have you tried mapping to a knob on your controller instead of using the mouse?

[@shad99xx]

This one help me! thank you jake

[@JakeMasca]

Glad it was helpful Shad!

[@Legaceybeats]

great video bro. i just got back into logic.

[@Wiley224]

Very informative

[@anthonyjgabriel]

amazing

[@analogkid1261]

This is so going to spoil me from using all my other step sequencers! Thank you for the tips!

[@JakeMasca]

Thank you for giving me of all people the time of day

[@eternalglow6483]

Are there any good 3rd party step sequencer plugins? I’ve always assumed they existed but never seen one

[@reezyyy8800]

Just deleted Fl haha.

[@Martin16707]

@@reezyyy8800 you’re using this instead of fl? I’m also on Logic Pro x I think I might start using this step sequencer more than the midi

[@dirtyoliver1180]

great video! i always said logic just needs that FL style piano sequencer and a much quicker way to sample and this update definitely delivered those! excited to make melodies in the step sequencer with those scale templates

[@JakeMasca]

Finally right?!?!?!

[@Martin16707]

How’s it goin with making melodies on the step sequencer?

[@bhupendrashastri5775]

Thank u so much sir for dis video

[@flatfishstudio]

by far, this is simply the best tut on Logic's Step Sequencer ... Jake, any chance in making a vid on working the Step Sequencer on iPad using Logic Remote?

[@LacklusterOfficial]

This was really interesting. What I would've liked to see would have been this though: can you arrange with these step sequencer regions, so that you make a copy of the first stepseq region in the arranger, drag it after the first one, and then reverse the second one's playback? and how does it deal with noteoffs, and especially midi notes. i'd prefer to be able to write really long chords at 1/4 or 1/1, and then see/hear how they play. but i'll have to check those out myself. thanks for the shift-to-maintain-row, that was good too.

[@QuickmixProductions]

Great!

[@themixnerd]

Excellent tutorial!!! Really helpful. Thanks. Just subscribed

[@JakeMasca]

Mix Nerd, I appreciate that you subscribed, and i will do my best to provide value where i can (while enjoying the content creation side of things of course). Thank you so much for taking the time to comment

[@themixnerd]

Of course. I watched the ads too. $$$

[@bixbox3202]

THANK YOU SM

[@FluffHead]

Thank you

[@oshanemusic]

Hey Jake, I just discovered your channel and you really give useful tips and to the point, thanks a lot! By the way, is there any way in the step sequencer to control the panning of individual notes? This can be done easily in FL Studio for example

[@dreamfighter3254]

Thanks Jake, one thing I can't figure out is if it is possible to join multiple notes together to make a longer note kinda like the piano roll.

[@meBrokenBody]

Hi Jake. Thanks for that. However, did you know you can do: Convert to midi region on your drum pattern, then do right-click->midi->separate by note pitch? By doing so you split all drum instruments in one shot which saves you the copy/pasting. I find that very useful!

[@amiramor1315]

How do you nudge individual tracks on the step sequencer - i.e to create your own grooves / shuffles? For example I want my Hi hats to be sluggish while the rest of the beat stays on the grid. Thank you for this great video btw, the shortcuts are super handy!

[@fromoutwest]

Keep up the good work Jake, enjoying your vids. One thing I'd like to find is a fast workflow for using NI Battery with the new step sequencer. In an ideal world, all of my expansions would magically show up converted into DMD kits ;-)

[@JakeMasca]

Holy shit this sounds brilliant. I’m gonna try this out. And thank you Jason K. It’s really nice to see you again!

[@fromoutwest]

Figured it out. After adding Battery and creating a pattern region, turn on "learn" (under the + button). From there, use your controller to cycle through all the sounds you want to sequence and voila, all mapped. Between this, live loops and the enhancements to the Logic Remote, I can finally punt Maschine and stay 100% in Logic Pro.

[@supermaui1]

thank you!!

[@JakeMasca]

Absolutely welcome. And thank YOU

[@Sentientfx1]

Cool. I'm not sure why you decided to leave out the random step facility on the sequencer though. Some of us like that sort of of thing :-). Thanks for posting though.

[@jeremysmith9696]

Turing off the midi out was worth the entire video!

[@JakeMasca]

Hahahahaha

[@CobraRohit]

mazaa aaya

[@AirFamilyMusic]

thank you!!!!!

[@JakeMasca]

Very welcome =)

[@travisk3831]

Great vid! Anyone aware of any hardware thats integrated with this tho?

[@jonathancasanova3029]

Yo this was a great tutorial! The shortcuts you outlined were working for me really well and then all of a sudden, they stopped working. Like the shortcuts just didn't do what they were doing. I didn't touch anything in the key configurations. Has anyone else experienced this?

[@mattsteinfeld]

Can you replace the individual instruments (kick, snare) with your own samples or one-shots from a file? Or do they have to be their own track and therefore have their own sequencer? Thanks for the video!

[@KhmerKingg]

1:35 in you've already solved one of my biggest complaint when hearing the sound before it passes through the note region. Ok, now back to the content...

[@JakeMasca]

I got so triggered when i first used the step sequencer because of this haha! Hope you enjoyed the rest of the content. It was a pleasure for me to produce.

[@Hermiel]

5:23 The squiggly line is called Tilde

[@rspatel9655]

I've watched almost every tutorial on KZbin about LOGIC 10.5 UPDATE, This is the best tips and tricks Tutorial for this Update. by the way U can change the Key of SEQUENCER PATTERN TEMPLATE by going to the (i) button in Te Sequencer Window.

[@JakeMasca]

Thank you RS Patel. Just tested this out. Love it! Btw the shortcut is Shift+Option+I to open the pattern inspector view =)

[@KoRnithemasterr]

Hey Jake, thank you very much for this video! I have one question: how can you make a hi hat pattern (same line/sound) that has triplets, let's say 24ths, AND 16ths on the same track?

[@MorningsideBeats]

Super helpful, I've noticed that the majority of my drum samples don't preview from the "All Files" tab and am wondering how you have it so they are all triggered.

[@ranceriley15]

They are prob the wrong file type. Want an easy workaround? -Use the Free ADSR Sample Manager Plugin and use that instead of file browser. Way better.

[@JakeMasca]

Hi Morningside Beats, This is a known “issue” in Logic Pro X. I made a video solving exactly this. It’s called “How To Fix Broken Samples in the EXS24”. If you follow the steps in that video you should find that the samples can be played back in the “All Files” section. This is because us logic users need to convert our 32 bit audio samples into 16 bit samples. Let me know if you are able to solve it. If you don’t want to go through this method, then Rance Riley offered a great suggestion - consider using the free ADSR sample manager plugin. Keep in touch!

[@diazzable]

You can pitch hi hats in sequence with note pitch

[@JakeMasca]

Hey Diaz Ramo, you may know something I don’t know yet. As far as i know, the drum machine designer note pitch (annoyingly) isn’t chromatic. Rather, the note pitch designates to other samples within the drum machine designer instrument since the samples are mapped to a “pitch”.

[@jared4559]

do you know how to select all active steps in one track/row? thanks!

[@walterparker9500]

I’m having an issue with the step sequencer when I load up the drums and start to put together a beat I all of the sudden loose sound when I hit play back Andy solutions?

[@xyadxyad1168]

Is there a way to swing the notes in the sequencer? Or do you have to convert everything to a midi file first before you add swing?

[@digitaldroo]

There's an issue that isn't quite addressed at around 2:17, when you change the Step Rate of the hi-hats from /16 to /8. You effectively have turned the sequence into a polyrhythm, albeit a simple one. If you notice, after you change the hi-hat from /16 to /8, every hi-hat hit is now playing at half the speed (you can see them highlight as the playhead moves through the sequence). What is effectively happening by changing the Step Rate is you are making the playback of the hi-hat Row *independent* from the other Rows. This is why, when you change the 3rd hi-hat hit into a roll at 3:05, you *see* the edit happening on the 3rd 16th note, but the sequence doesn't actually play that roll until the 2nd quarter note. What you see isn't exactly what you hear. As a test, create a new pattern of 4 kicks on each quarter note, then change the hi-hat Step Rate to something like 4T. Then as you play the sequence, draw in the hi-hat beats on the same beat as the 4 kicks. Although you see that the hi-hat and kick patterns are *visually* aligned, the hi-hats are doing their own, independent thing. I just felt this was important to bring up. The best course of action if you just want to change the 16th note hi-hat pattern into an 8th note pattern is to keep the Row's Step Rate at /16 and manually click off every other 16th note in the sequencer, otherwise, if you decide to change the hi-hat's pattern later, you may get unexpected results.

[@pianoyan]

Digital Droo great point

[@JakeMasca]

I agree that what is effectively happening is that the hi-hat row is becoming independent of the other rows. The issue I learned is that you do not see what you hear (as you’ve said). What i failed to mention is that i use the length mode of the step editor to match things up. I just use the 8th division in order to be able to “swipe” 8th notes instead of clicking 8 times in between 16 note steps. Nevertheless, I’m a bit dyslexic / i have a weakness in learning so the step editor will still take me awhile to grasp.

[@digitaldroo]

​@@JakeMasca If you have the time and energy, there's the possibility of a follow-up video on the Step Sequencer (perhaps a "workflow tips part 2"), in which you can demonstrate what you can do with Rows, given the idea that they can be manipulated independently of the rest of the pattern. For instance, you use the Row Playback Mode to make the hi-hat pattern go backward, or maybe forward/backward, or even randomize the pattern. You can offset the pattern row by pushing them forward or backward. You can dig into the Step Sequencer's Inspector to change the start/end time of row and do something really weird like having a hi-hat pattern loop at the 16th beat so every time the loop repeats, the hi-hats are offset by a 16th note. Speaking of the Step Sequencer's Inspector, you can do certain things at the Pattern, Row or Step level. This method of creating beats allows for some experimentation and "looking beyond the grid." It can get pretty deep, but it opens up a whole new world of working with patterns. Oh, two more things. If you pack the Pattern region into a folder (highlight->right-click->Folder->Pack Folder) you can drag that folder to the Finder and that'll create an audio file of that track, which you can then use as a drum loop, say, in Logic's new Live Loops. Or you can right-click a Pattern Region and Export that as MIDI to reuse that pattern with other kits, or even other DAWs. Sorry, as I researched this, I fell into a rabbit hole of features in the Step Sequencer.

[@chaosme1ster]

This issue makes the step sequencer almost unusable AFAIC, except when doing simple straight 16th patterns. Mixing 16th, 8th and/or triplets immediately makes it a visually confusing and unworkable mess. When I ran into this I couldn't believe this is how it's supposed to be... How hard would it be to visually adapt the display to the beat-division? Crazy interface error. And (now that I'm ranting anyway :) why the 16-24-32... limitation on pattern lengths? We're not all making four to the floor EDM, right? I hope a new update brings a slider to set any length from 2 to 64... (and preferably a slider *per lane*, so you can do actual polyrhythms, 5 against 7, etc).

[@drgigglesvinyldjsets-kruto1080]

@@chaosme1ster What if you had multiple channels running the step sequencer, one for each different time signature? That might work.

[@RedCloudServices]

man I just purchased a Polyend Play and LogicPro has all the same features. Can you make a video doing polyrhythms with 2-tracks of step sequencer?

[@dantepl1237]

I hope they do an update that would auto write it as midi region as well so you could just click between the piano roll and step sequencer. It would speed up the hi hat work flow even more

[@JakeMasca]

Oh that would be nice. I’d like to toggle back and forth the midi region and step sequencer pattern mode

[@ARPMAN]

How can I trigger external gear with step sequencer & midi?

[@8waveproductions401]

Can save patterns in the the template folder ?