My New Favorite Way to Incorporate the Chord Track | Logic Pro 11

Use a previously recorded MIDI track to populate the Chord Track!! This is my favorite bandaid until Apple fixes the Chord Track. If you know a better way to do it then tell me in the comments!

[@davidharrington1133]

Scalar 2 is great for chord generation and can write directory to the chord track.

[@alekjwrgnwekfgn]

I think he is demonstrating that the feature Scaler 2 uses to write chords to the track is a Logic feature, and any midi track plugin (or instrument) can be recognised by the chord track as input. But yeah scaler 2 is a must-have (and Reason sucks)

[@drvoodoo3073]

Yup, tabbing through and waiting for the correct chord to pop up is definitely a fast way of doing this without having to stop for every chord. As I mentioned in the previous live stream I just Tab to the next chord box and hit Play for a few seconds until all the chords are detected. Not sure which one is faster though! If you don't want to stop playback your method is definitely preferable.

[@Bittamin]

This is why I subscribed, to put it simply, you rock!🎉 I’m going to be using chord track to help self teach myself more theory! 😊

[@jimrogers7425]

Great video! Cheers!

[@Johnnylaurelli]

I’m not a keyboard player and it’s very simple to do the same with chord generator plugins like scaler. Best way to use this feature until logic implements a way to import midi into the chord track

[@st.vitus-tv2475]

Great videos. Thanks. I would like to use the session bassist (Prime Bass, etc.) with the chord track. But it doesn't work. I've already extracted the midi track. Do you have any ideas?

[@hankfowler8194]

When you start bringing in 3rd party plug ins I get lost.

[@BrentBerman]

Ditto. I'm trying to grasp the base features of the Logic 11 upgrade. Tossing in plug-ins loses me.

[@bjamminsincebirth3494]

Wish we didn’t have to tab. I wish it just recognized the chord and automatically place it.

[@rome8180]

I wouldn't trust it to identify my chords from a Midi input. For simple straightforward chords it'll get it right, but it starts getting confused by inversions, spread triads, chords with notes omitted, upper extensions, etc.

[@Bittamin]

Hopefully that can be addressed!!

[@hammerpocket]

I can see how it might misinterpret the name of the chord, but since it's still based on the notes you played, could it still work musically? It's worth testing.

[@djerikfox]

...it would be amazing to have an option to drag midi or audio into chord track and to be able to analyze the chords...cubase does this very good, I hope logic will have this in some near future....regards

[@davidharrington1133]

Like Cubase

[@jamesnyers1721]

It's coming for sure. Logic already recognizes midi chords on midi input and displays them.

[@davidharrington1133]

@@jamesnyers1721 definitely playing catch up with Cubase in this area

[@jamesnyers1721]

@@davidharrington1133 Nah. It's iPadOS. I need many resizable floating plugin windows open at the same time. Just like on the Mac version.

[@WEFslayer]

I use Scaler 2 for that.

[@musicproductionvideos5019]

Can Logic "punch in" audio (while playing along) and have it loop record? Every time I try... it stops recording on the next loop. Thanks

[@74dange]

Conver midi to session player region seems not working can you please check if possible? I was wondering if it is just me thank you~~!

[@alekjwrgnwekfgn]

Can you automate the changes in the players? How do you have changes in intensity, etc on one track?

[@HellbellyUK]

Chop the regions up and vary the settings by region.

[@Jim_Thomas_Draper]

@@HellbellyUK This. If you need more fine control you can convert it to midi and edit the velocity afterwards. Alteratively, you can add a velocity processor midi plugin and automate that.

[@skirmantasstankevicius458]

Man... You are overcomplicating things so much :D I've noticed watching your videos that you dive almost at mathematical, engineering level at the DAW.

[@LogicProLife]

I prefer to understand it all and then work at a much simpler level… probably because I’m a university professor. 🤣

[@skirmantasstankevicius458]

@@lNowHerel True.

[@mcylinder]

@@LogicProLife I'm grateful for your concise explanations, relevant details and overall context. this was a great tip BTW.

[@bogusdogus]

Sorry, not getting it. If you are a keyboard player, why not just play in everything you want? That way you get exactly the part you want without wasting time creating a ton of nuance and trying to get settings right.

[@LogicProLife]

Legit question. I’m only a mediocre keyboard player and so I’m curious to see if the session players can bring things that I’m not personally capable of playing. I won’t use the chord track on every song for sure but I like knowing if/when/how I can use it.

[@dakotamartinez9152]

As a keyboard player and arranger who mainly sings, I gotta say it’s extremely useful to be able to sketch out the feel of what the rhythm section would be doing section by section. It’s less about whether you could play it yourself or not and more about how quickly you can try out ideas. I’ll end up playing the part that’s the keeper, but for songs I wrote on another instrument it’s been really nice to be able to essentially re-record any of the sections of the song at will and try out new ideas. Playing these instruments well is hard, I look at the session players mainly as a songwriting tool that gets demos of songs ready to show to real players who can then bring them to life and put their own spin on them in a way that will be closer to what I imagined than had I not had a tool like this to begin with. Gotta say, I’m kinda floored by this update! The stem splitter is awesome, works super well and it’s so fast! It’s been awesome for taking practice tracks from rehearsal and removing my part to practice to. I imagine apple will add the ability to connect one of the normal midi tracks to the chord track so we don’t have to hack our way to this. I definitely found this to be a pain point in my workflow and I ended up inputting most of the chords manually. The chord track really is a great feature because it also allows you to essentially give the band a chart and have them play it. You can program the dynamics and feel (complexity) from the individual session player regions and even manually assign the rhythms you want them to emphasize (a huge improvement over drummer in earlier versions) and then the chord track will tell them all to play the changes together. For me, it’s not about whether I could do it all myself or not as much as how much time it saves me. I don’t want to have programmed drums bass and keys on my record, but I do want to have a demo that accurately represents what I’m going for that I can give to my musicians as a starting point. As a songwriter these tools are priceless. ❤ I’m still kinda shocked that it’s a free upgrade. I would have paid for it!