The Logic Pros: Creating custom-made, tempo flexible Apple Loops

In this week’s episode of The Logic Pros, we are going to be creating our own custom-made Apple Loops. One of the most underused features of Logic Pro X, the Apple Loops browser not only houses thousands of free stock audio and MIDI clips, but also our personal libraries. The elastic nature of LPX’s in-house loop format allows us to create tempo-flexible audio clips that can be used at any time in future projects directly from the built-in browser and more:

Creating Apple Loops with Logic’s built-in Loop Browser can be a very convenient way of storing bits of audio that you would like to go back to in future projects, like say a great snare sound, some vocal clips or some live percussion loops. While at first LPX’s loop browser may seem like it is just for accessing the vast library of samples Apple throws at you, we can just as easily drop our own audio in there, whether it be third party sample libraries or even audio clips we have created ourselves in Logic.

There are several advantages to this outside of the fact that the samples are then right there inside Logic, with full search and drag-and-drop access. We can store tempo, key, genre and style data, to our loops/samples making them easily found even after you may have forgotten they were there. Better yet, audio loops stored in here can become tempo flexible and lock to any given future project’s BPM setting.

If we want to create an Apple Loop that will carry BPM data there are a few things to keep in mind first. We want to use an audio clip/loop that is edited to a whole number number of bars, like for example 4 or 8 bars in length. If you already have this part done, or know how to do that easily you can skip the first step below:

1. Once you have selected some audio to create an Apple Loop from, drop it onto a track on your arrange page in Logic. If it isn’t already, we will need to make a few edits in order to make it a perfect loop (4, 8, or 16 bars for example). In my case I’ll be making a four bar loop. You’ll want to use the Scissor or Marquee tools from the tool box (push the T key) in order to give it a quick trim. We will also need to make sure our current project’s BPM is set to the same tempo as our loop.

It can be a good idea to use the loop/cycle function in Logic by dragging along the top of the screen to give your audio a quick listen. Just to make sure you have it just the way you want it and that it sounds clean when its looping.

Note: You may want to select the “Bars” options in the “Snap” menu seen above in order to ensure a perfect cut, otherwise keep a close eye on the pop-up window that appears when you go to make your edits.

2. Once we have our loop ready to go, all we have to do is drag and drop it to the Loop Browser window. Click O (O not zero), to open the Loop Browser and drop it in.

3. LPX will automatically bring up the Add Region to Apple Loops Library window. From here we can input all of the relevant data for our new Apple Loop. But first we need to deal with the “Type” section. It has two choices: “One-shot” is used for single hits like say a snare and will ignore tempo data, so we will be choosing the “Loop” option.

4. Next you’ll want to give your new loop a relevant name in order for it to be found in the future.

5. And lastly, fill out the scale, genre, and descriptors section for further organization purposes down the line, and hit the “Create” button along the bottom. Trust me, you’ll thank yourself for doing this one day when you stumble upon that perfect percussion or vocal loop because it was stored properly in the first place.

And that’s it, you’re done. Run a quick search for your new Loop or narrow it down into a category using the descriptors, and it will forever be in your personal Apple Loops Library. If you have any interesting uses for the Loops Browser or any tricks for Apple Loops, let us know below:

The Logic Pros is a regular series exploring all of the most interesting gadgets and software for making music on your Mac/iOS devices. If there is any gear you would like us to take a closer hands-on look at, let us know in the comments section below or shoot us an email.

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