Girl DJ From Manchester, DJ L-Roche’s Logic Blog # 1
Girl DJ From Manchester, DJ L-Roche Does Logic Course | Week One Blog
What a great day! Couldn’t have asked for a better introduction to the course… Firstly, what really put me, and the rest of the small group of learners into focus was the studio; located in The Arthaus Building (5 min walk from Hackney Central). It is fully kitted out for us; mac desktop, synth and headphones each, with enough space to do your own experimenting while still being part of the group. Guitars on the walls and for the tutor (Larry) a large speaker system and widescreen monitor connected to his computer so the class could see exactly how Logic works and the steps the tutor was explaining – a brilliant set-up.
The room had a really encouraging atmosphere, a mix of friendliness and ‘we mean business’ – the balance was just right. Having never even opened Logic before I did not know what to expect so entered with an open mind and hoped everyone else attending would too. To my delight everyone did, and the whole group are beginners so we were all feeding off each other and asking lots of questions!
The group were about half DJs and half from all sorts of backgrounds, but all eager to learn how to produce their own music – a natural step. So as we all turned on our studio macs and opened up Logic, we are confronted with the big grey background of the program; the ‘arrangement area’ or – where you compose your music. This was at the same time as being told by the end of the day we would be making our own track! First thoughts were “Wow exciting!” and then “Hang on… HOW?!!”
We were taken through (almost) every function Logic has, there’s so much the program does! The parts we didn’t cover this session will be learnt in the next. Larry explained how important learning all the keyboard shortcuts are because they save you time; e.g. ‘enter’ takes you to the start of the piece your working on rather than scrolling back through. But there are 20+ to know! It’s like learning a whole new keyboard! But it is amazing what the program does; e.g. press ‘x’ and up pops the mixer you worked two jobs to buy!
When it came to learning about Apple loops Larry played us loops that have been used in top chart tunes (I had no idea producers for these artists would use pre-made loops…) these included ‘Umbrella’ by Rihanna and ‘Oh My God’ by Usher. We were then shown the ‘drum sets’, which in all honesty, at first looked like a spaceship but Larry explained its functioning so well so the program isn’t daunting at all, just exciting. The session was so advantageous to us because Larry knows the order in which we need to learn the functions and the sessions gradually build on each other.
After being taught the basics we got a chance to experiment with different sounds – even though they are pre-made loops you are able to change the sound completely i.e. pitch, tempo, distortion, volume… however you want your track to sound like!
I was so eager to have a go; watching Larry use the program with such ease and speed is reassuring that it does become second nature, like anything you practice. Whilst experimenting with everything that had just been demonstrated to us, what music production is became clearer to me: it’s translating an idea into a tangible finished product, and, in my opinion, it has to be worth listening to! Cant wait for next week!
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