Logic Pro #11 - Step Sequencer, Beat Making, Drum Machine Designer

In this video, I demonstrate the following:
1. How create pattern regions for use with the step sequencer
2. How to create drum beats and patterns in the step sequencer
3. How to adjust the pattern length and step rate of the step sequencer
4. How to enter and delete notes, adjust velocity, change step pitch
5. How to use the note repeat edit mode for intricate rhythms
6. How to convert pattern regions to MIDI and visa versa
Support the sponsor of this video, Boombox | bit.ly/boomboxsponsor
For mixing/mastering work, contact me at my website | carneymediagroup.com
Follow MusicTechHelpGuy on Instagram | / musictechhelpguy
Support the channel on Patreon | / musictechhelpguy
#logicpro #logicprox #tutorial
Timestamps:
0:00 Intro + Sponsor Segment
0:55 Load DMD Kit
2:08 Pattern Region
3:12 Step Sequencer
4:21 Pattern Playback
7:08 Hide/Show Step Sequencer
7:57 Pattern Length
8:55 Edit Modes: Velocity, Note Repeat
10:55 Step Rate, More Edit Modes
15:15 Pattern Previews
16:35 Mix DMD Kits
17:28 Convert Pattern Regions

[@MusicTechHelpGuy]

In this video, I demonstrate the following: 1. How create pattern regions for use with the step sequencer 2. How to create drum beats and patterns in the step sequencer 3. How to adjust the pattern length and step rate of the step sequencer 4. How to enter and delete notes, adjust velocity, change step pitch 5. How to use the note repeat edit mode for intricate rhythms 6. How to convert pattern regions to MIDI and visa versa Support the sponsor of this video, Boombox | bit.ly/boomboxsponsor For mixing/mastering work, contact me at my website | carneymediagroup.com Follow MusicTechHelpGuy on Instagram | instagram.com/musictechhelpguy Support the channel on Patreon | patreon.com/musictechhelpguy Timestamps: 0:00 Intro + Sponsor Segment 0:55 Load DMD Kit 2:08 Pattern Region 3:12 Step Sequencer 4:21 Pattern Playback 7:08 Hide/Show Step Sequencer 7:57 Pattern Length 8:55 Edit Modes: Velocity, Note Repeat 10:55 Step Rate, More Edit Modes 15:15 Pattern Previews 16:35 Mix DMD Kits 17:28 Convert Pattern Regions

[@boblatzer]

No one explains Logic better. I look forward to each video.

[@evensbeatz637]

Man you deserve an award for taking your time to explain logic like this in details and thank you for your hard work.

[@Bittamin]

You always remind me there’s 100s of ways to achieve a single goal, and often there is one better than your current flow. These videos are the Bible, there’s a few heros on KZbin doing this for us and we really appreciate it! We know apple couldn’t be bothered to affiliate with yinz ,and pay you for your great efforts, or put out any actual guides for their products 😅 So again thank you!!! 🙏

[@Nickkanalas]

Man I was having such a hard time coming up with beats in time naturally on the MIDI. Thank you.

[@MarkDelsing]

This whole series has been wonderful so far. I’m learning more than I have from any other Logic tutorials I’ve done. Thank you!

[@sebmanmac]

Getting back into Logic after a long hiatus. An incredibly valuable series. Thank you!!!

[@djostara]

I am not consistent about production but every time I come back around and I have something I need to learn you have it covered and always in an understandable way. Thanks for being awesome.

[@thewhitbyfox]

Dito with comments below. This is quickly going to become the 'go-to' Logic Pro tutorial guide. Why, because it is expertly delivered in manageable chunks that are the right length to prevent cognitive overload. Loving it.

[@_CIA]

Step sequencer intimidated me so much I never really got into using it, but after this intro explanation it seems not only doable and user-friendly, but potentially enjoyable as well! These vids are my priority watch each week. Thank you for making this series!

[@nigelbutters5769]

This series is absolutely awesome!! Even though I have been using Logic for a while, I am learning so much. By far the best resource for logic anywhere. Many thanks 😃

[@christophermorrisseystudios]

This is awesome! The last two sections were especially interesting. Thank you

[@tedgotti]

You are the best with the most easy to follow, flow......Bravo Mister MusicTechHelpGuy!!!!!!!!

[@robchristopher7718]

Man... thanks for evertyhing you do. I learn more from you more than any other on YT. Much love and blessings!!!

[@830jkl]

These are simply awesome! Thank you 🎹❤️

[@topacio9326]

Thank YOUU - alot of "teachers" start the video without explaining how to even open the drum kit or where to find it and its so frustrating, so thank you for your thoroughness. you're a great teacher

[@iamjeffsmith8756]

You make everything super clear and easy to understand. Thank you so much for all the hard work!

[@mikevirtualteacher]

Thank you so much for these amazing tutorials!! And good luck with your Boombox promotion, I hope lots of people sign up so you can receive some income for all this hard work you are undoubtably putting into these great Logic tutorials.

[@JTFuller]

Man, this kat teaches new things every video that I didn't now about.. Thanks man.. I've never used this.. OUTSTANDING TUTORIAL..

[@makimarc5929]

Thanks so much!!! Great video with detailed steps. Looking forward to trying out all the functions.

[@russellni9930]

best Logic Pro series on yt!!

[@samanderson279]

Great video, I've been using logic for recording rock music and have been wanting to explore other genres with logic using beats/loops etc, and this was so helpful to get me started instead of trying to build everything in the piano roll

[@greggbucken-knapp676]

This video makes me happy. Thank you.

[@nxn-analogxanalog5739]

Great explanation with a nice demo! Thank you so much, it‘s absolutely motivating 😊.

[@ScreamieBirds]

I love the step sequencer! My favorite part of Logic!

[@von_Apa]

Great teacher! Thank you so much! There is so much to learn in new Logic. And you certainly make the difference.😇

[@stevenmoreno4099]

FANTASTIC SERIES THANKS SO MUCH!!!

[@19501960]

Marvellous uploads on Logic Pro thanks very much.

[@nothought108]

👌 Awesome ! I Always learn something new from your videos. Thank you 👍

[@melbyjeep5592]

awesome vid:) excellent way of teaching man!!

[@ELLEETREX]

Mah man! Thank you for the vid and all this information. I've learn so much! Liked and subscribed already!

[@clearlyepic9958]

Just got Logic after using GarageBand iOS for years… I’m BINGING your content!

[@loveboutcast9894]

Bro you over here doing the Lord's work! Appreciate ya! 💪

[@u2music_1]

you are really great !! you are showing really important stuffs in every video!!!!!!

[@miahorg]

Really helpful info in this video!

[@mjhattan01]

Great video 👍🏼

[@JeffyG]

Glad you tackle the midi to pattern region conversion. I’m taking ‘grooves’ that are midi from other 3rd party sources, and converting them to Step Editor Pattern Regions, so I can save them for future use. Unfortunately, I haven’t found a way to do this in bulk. Maybe in a future Logic release….

[@TheRealJayguar]

well done, helpful.

[@fruskyfrisky]

Muy buena clase amigo!!

[@stevenml5748]

Thank you.

[@Christm76]

As Robert Latzer said, No one! Really no one explains Logic better! thank you !🍺🍻🍺

[@Gio.D.Geo79]

Thank you !! ❤

[@montcoeur_duoacoustique]

Thanks a lot thats amazing

[@pradyumusic]

Thankyou for the knowledge

[@isaacperry1180]

Blessings and more knowledge, Sir!🙏🏿❤

[@kuzeysirinka4265]

You’re the best!

[@biterface03]

Thanks for this.

[@ericedubbswashington1396]

Man, I've been looking for this! I'm old school, I still have an AlesisHR-16B😄 Thank You👍🏾

[@kamikenn26]

Thank you !!!

[@OldGretscher]

Brilliant! TY!

[@ElDannyQ]

Really good video

[@70nikroxx]

awesome! thanks

[@JeffyG]

Hey Josh, this video covers a lot, but you could probably have 4 or 5 videos on just this topic 😏 Just tonight, I was recreating a beat from a late 80s funk song and I noticed with the library open, I could walk through different kits or different kit pieces while the sequence was playing. It was great to try/swap different kit piece in the context of the entire beat. I call it ‘real time DMD’ Until tonight, I had always built my kit in DMD (drag’n drop style) before I start creating patterns. Then I noticed that with the library open, there are drop-down menus to filter the kits and kit pieces, plus next and previous arrows to walk through sounds. You can even filter by the Producer Packs, for just those beats and sounds, kits and kit pieces you might like. All the while you’re building a custom DMD interactively. Once you like the results, you save the kit. No idea why I didn’t try this sooner!

[@redguitar6062]

Excellent video! Have you covered the automation lanes yet? I love this aspect of the sequencer.

[@LuisTorres-qz5kr]

Thank you!

[@nevergone3424]

Liked and subbed, thanks !

[@learnwithsalim1228]

THANK YOU JOSHHH

[@petegreenfield8366]

Fantastic video! I’m still trying to figure out how to use drum sequencer with compound times.

[@cankaankck]

thank you bro LETS GOOOOOOOOOOOOO

[@Jantonov13]

I’m making my way through this whole series and it’s fantastic, you deserve so much credit ❤ My question is with the step-sequencer, are you able to have different steps/quantisation for each element of the kit? i.e. you want the hats in 8th note triplets but the rest of the kit in straight 16th notes.

[@bassManDavis1953]

Nice! I haven’t used this yet, but man! I could have some fun with the step sequencer? But would I get anything else done? Probably and have a lot of fun doing it. Thanks, as always for a brilliant tutorial, better get drumming 😀😀😀😀😀😀

[@vewilli]

Completely new to me. Never worked with this step sequencer before, but it‘s a very well explained first insight into this topic. I‘d like to know if I could use this step sequencer for the „traditional“ drummer, where I create a drum pattern, too. I mean when I‘ve created a rhythm by a drummer (e. g. Rock), if I can show that rhythm in the step sequencer to add drum sounds, etc.. (hope you understand what I mean).

[@bobbyodell8676]

Wow. Blown away here. Can you load 3rd party drum AU stuff into this?

[@mattmore9223]

Great video, super helpful; wish I'd learned this years ago. I'm using Logic Pro 10.6.3 and I don't have the Analog Drive kit, nor do I have Dark Arts, which you use in Logic Pro #47 - Drum Machine Designer. Why? Do I need to upgrade or download updates? Thanks MusicTechHelpGuy!!

[@danielwmwolf]

Kinda does what it says it does. And that's beyond cool. Thx man.much appreciated.🏆

[@830jkl]

Would you please do a video on using Komplete Kontrol on multiple midi channels with 1 instance in logic, or have you already?

[@JeffyG]

I gotta say, the Logic Step Editor is the best sequencer available! I’ve tried 10+ 3rd party drum plugins and some have great sounds or a nifty sample browser, but none have a sequencer as powerful. In fact, I almost never use the patterns and sequencer that come delivered - I always end up with Logic. Don’t waste your time with 3rd party drum sequencers, in my opinion. 😊

[@striderQED]

Dude, killer presentation, great content, and dare I say, to the point. Thanks

[@markreid3929]

Love your vids, legend. When I hit command 3 to open the step sequencer in a separate window, it opens the smart controls in a separate window instead...

[@Rockstarsf]

Can we have one piece of the kit set to triplets and the rest set to regular 16th notes?

[@leroyprc]

Holy sh.. I thought at first look Logic Pro 11 was released.

[@BenedictusEsDomine]

Can you use the sequencer with acoustic drum sounds?

[@Giannboy1]

Hey Josh, At 2:17 of the vid I see text to the right of the Piano Roll keys presumably showing what keys will activate each drum part. How do you display that? Thanks!

[@adrianalback5085]

what about recording a sequence of scenes and bouncing them out ?

[@ContentScientist]

Is there a way to make a "Drum Template" for using this with Stylus RMX?

[@jamieally]

The layout is all different on my Mac. Can you share the project settings please?

[@birdsiview6845]

You should just mix and eq each drum channel to your taste and then bounce it in place. And it would be great if it could bounce every individual channel and to give you all 12 or 16 drum sounds or whatever you used, as wav files all on their separate track.

[@MatthiasReinelt]

Does anybody know a way of prelistening sounds in DMD without loading them (like in battery)?

[@matthewblue7839]

Why would analog drive not load all its pieces ? How do you get the instrument splash page rather than just select create software instrument ? thx!

[@stephen6415]

I don't have the option to create a pattern region, in which version of logic did this option become available

[@jeremsh]

im on logic 10.8.1 and i dont have the step on/off and the velocity/value buttons and i cant find out where they are anywhere online

[@gianni1646]

Josh, was “bass hit” already on by itself? I was playing in my Sequencer the other day and I scrolled down and saw a “lone” box outline near the bottom. Is that normal?

[@paddyconn3344]

Can you use your own samples for this or is that only on the drum designer?

[@MusicTechHelpGuy]

You can't add sample directly in the step sequencer, but you can easily drag and drop samples into Drum Machine Designer. If you add Drum Machine Designer directly on a tracker rather than choosing a library preset, the DMD instrument will be blank and you can drag and drop in any samples you like. Then program the beats in the step sequencer.

[@pianow_tutorials]

1:34 awesome video, but unfortunately when i open up an empty channel and choose eletronic drum kit, i have to choose again between "drum machine.." - and the next problem is, that I cant create a pattern region, just midi. Do you know why?

[@MusicTechHelpGuy]

If you don't see pattern regions, you are probably on an older version of Logic. I believe pattern regions came out with version 10.5.

[@igorvashkov8821]

Hey Josh, I've got Logic 10.4.4 and when I right-click on the grid there's only an option to create a MIDI region, so how do I create a pattern region and open the Step Sequencer?

[@MusicTechHelpGuy]

You need Logic 10.5 or higher to access the step sequencer. It was a new featured added in 10.5.

[@forcetheedges]

Is there a way to change the default velocity value of the Step Sequencer, from 100 to something else, like 75?

[@MusicTechHelpGuy]

Not that I'm aware up. But if you go into Velocity Edit Mode before you start entering notes, there is a velocity down/up control on each channel, and also for the entire pattern. Before you start entering notes for a pattern, pull down the velocity for the entire pattern to the start value you'd like, and then all notes created will be at that starting velocity. The option to control the velocity for the whole pattern is directly in the upper left corner of the pattern editor.

[@iandoh5521]

Genuinely need help with sequencer playback. I could be missing something but I followed all the same steps in this tutorial. For some reason when I playback my patterns it will play through the whole pattern once but then on the second loop it will play back to about half way and then jump to the beginning or the pattern again. It's extremely frustrating because It completely ruins the workflow. Anyone have any tips or ideas as to what could be causing this? I may just be missing something obvious.

[@conspiracyjournals8828]

I’m confused on why we converted to midi then back to the step sequencer again , also , why wouldn’t we just convert it to separate Audio clips to mix ? Isn’t it better converted to audio so we can mix?

[@MusicTechHelpGuy]

It's a tutorial. So it's a demonstration of a feature, not necessarily "best practice" or what you would need in your situation. I was just demonstrating that it's possible to convert MIDI regions to Pattern Regions, and that they don't always convert back properly. If you need to covert to audio just click on a region and press Control B to bounce in place as audio.

[@LennardHarders]

For me CMD 3 doesn't open a separate Step Sequenzer window but the smart controls (in this case for DMD). There is no Shortcut for the separate Step Sequenzer window assigned.

[@MusicTechHelpGuy]

Go to the "Window" menu at the top, and see what your assigned key command for the Step Sequencer is. It's Command 3 for me. You might be on an earlier version, or you may have changed the shortcut for it at some point. If there's no shortcut for "Open Step Sequencer" you can assign your own key command by pressing Option K to bring up the key commands assignments.

[@LennardHarders]

@@MusicTechHelpGuy You were right. Apparently I assigned CMD 3 to Smart Controls at some point. Don't remember doing that and don't know why I would but it said so in the shortcut menu. So now Smart Controls is the one that doesn't have a key assigned. Thank you!

[@A.JayWeber]

Command 3 keeps pulling up the smart controls for me. Logic 10.7.4

[@DreamDeepCR]

Really helpful, thank you!

[@mrchampion671]

One problem. I can’t select more than one note in the same column

[@geraldmixer]

What if you want to build the whole song? If I change one of the copied patterns they all change.

[@MusicTechHelpGuy]

Use command R or hold option while clicking and dragging to move your pattern regions around. This will make a copy of them, rather than looping and you will be able to edit each one individually.

[@conspiracyjournals8828]

Decent video but I’m confused as to how I build out my beat/song if I want to drums to be constantly changing every couple bars

[@MusicTechHelpGuy]

Create multiple pattern regions. Each pattern region can have a different pattern programmed into it. Also if you program a pattern into one region, and then copy/paste it, it will not link the two patterns, so you can use the 2nd region as a starting point for a new beat/patter. I do the same thing, I'll have 3 repeat pattern regions, then a 4th one, where I add a fill or something different than the other 3.

[@Abd-kb7tr]

ive made 10 tracks writing the midi for the drums manually i feel so dumb lmao

[@divemusick]

Drum Machine Designer is taking a lot of CUP Power FR!!!...Instead I use multi sampler drum kits

[@DragDealer]

10Gb for free more like 4 😢

[@MYLIFE-hq7je]

Hi! is it possible to set a range for random velocity in step seqwencer?

[@MusicTechHelpGuy]

You could try using the Velocity MIDI Fx plugin, and set a velocity range to limit the randomization.

[@MYLIFE-hq7je]

​@@MusicTechHelpGuy Thanks a lot.

[@MYLIFE-hq7je]

@@MusicTechHelpGuy Your advice didn't work. Is there any other option?