Wow. Just wow.
I’m astounded to share with you today that WLPR has exceeded 10,000 subscribers on YouTube! And honestly, it’s hard for me to believe. But thanks to YouTube’s subscriber button – I know it to be true.
WLPR has become so much more than some blog on the internet. And for that, I want to thank you.
- Thank you for the comments and emails.
- Thank you for checking out WLPR and subscribing.
- Thank you for being a part of the WLPR tribe.
The WLPR website and YouTube channel truly relies on you for guiding what gets published. Your questions, comments and requests are crucial to WLPR.
It’s been awesome to meet so many of you through email and comments. And it’s been a joy to connect with so many brilliant creatives and Logic users.
Because WLPR hit the 10k milestone, it felt only right to come out from behind the screen and express my gratitude.
Thanks so much again. And keep making awesome music!
Hi Chris.
Thank you once again, you certainly produce and deliver an aw sum product.
You take the time to really explain and make LPX so much easier to get around.
By watching your videos, I ditched both SONAR and Adobe Audition.
I am busy with my third album using LPX and it has been going a lot faster.
A have a few songs on soundcloud/sundays ay 11
Anthonyg
That’s awesome Anthony! I’m thrilled to know WLPR has helped you become prolific with Logic 🙂
Hi Chris, the worry is that the channel will grow too big. At the moment we have a lot of useful info and the opportunity to ask specific questions in an interactive way. Many of us [I guess] are amateurs and part time muso’s who like to dip in to solve specific problems, often at a very basic level. Logic is quite a complicated tool, but a brilliant one too.
Thanks for a great service.
Pete
Hey Pete – thanks for the feedback! I think that’s a very reasonable fear. I’m figuring out how to keep it personable as the website grows.
Hi Chris
Congratulations on 10k. What an achievement. WLPR is wonderful and I look forward to the YouTube videos in my mailbox. Thanks for being not only a great producer but a great communicator as well.
What would I like to see? Well I’m an older guy and a career musician. One thing everyone always comments on in any home production is the drums. They know they are loops and especially older musicians resent them. Hard to get them to listen to the song when they are dissing the drums.
Most of us can’t track drums in our small studios. The vast majority of even pro loops are for hip hop or pop. Even Logic’s loops don’t have cool fills or interesting intros or turnarounds. We have to hand roll them which takes a lot of time.
I know your videos are normally after the recording but could you share some ideas, techniques or voodoo you might have?
Thank You
Jimmy
Hey Jimmy, thanks for the feedback! I can empathize for sure. For me Logic’s Drummer and Drum Kit Designer have bridged that gap considerably. I’ll add your request to my list of topics to hit.
Hey Jimmy,
Im not sure why youre using loops if youre trying to go for a more realistic drummer vibe. Heres something you might try if youre open to using a 3rd party drum software.
I love LPX’s Drummer. I use it in a lot of my daily production work. It comes in super handy for creating drum parts for song demos, which is a part of daily life here in Nashville. I use it to dial in the parts and regions of the song. I wont ever use a long loop to make a drum track., that would be too boring. So after I determine the style or genre the song is going to be in, I use Drummer to dial in the beat.
For me Drummer is all about the beat, and at its core, thats what it does best. While I do like the sounds of the drum kits in LPX, I dont use them as often as I do Superior Drummer 3’s drum kit sounds. So I’ll use Drummer to dial in the beats for the intro, verse, chorus, bridge and outro regions, and then copy them down to a SD3 track and use those sounds to play the beat. So Drummer is the beat maker, and SD3 is the sound. Depending on the track, I might also use Native Instruments drum sounds instead. Either way, Drummer made the beat.
Although I have a ton of loop and midi drum parts within SD3, I still use Drummer more than anything else. SD3 also contains a lot of fill parts which I might use in a hybrid type long loop like track, if I am using loops, just to make it less monotonous. I would own LPX if it were only for this one feature–Drummer. Its the best live drummer app I know of and by far the easiest to use.
If you spend a little time dialing in Drummer, it will play the fills you need to have it sound like a real, live drummer–the Artificial Intelligence factor of this app is amazing, especially the more you dig deeper into it, the details, the push and pull of the rhythm, etc. Try and use a separate region for each part of your song, double click that region only, and experiment with different kick and snare settings, different patterns–move the ball around. Split the region of an 8 bar loop at the 7th bar if you need more fills, or even at the 4th bar, and turn up the fill knob. I work these digital Drummers every day and they deliver over and over again.
Because Drummer regions can be converted to midi data just by Option–Click– Drag to a software track, your individual kick, snare, etc midi is ready to trigger SD3’s sounds. And the midi data is not all red in color, cause its got different velocities in the hits just like a real drummer.
If you dont want to get into a 3rd party drum software, try using the Drummer on a stereo track (not with separate outs) with a Compressor on the track and use the mix knob to create some parallel like drum bus compression. You can also use the Phat FX plugin and dial in the mix setting of the drum accentuate preset. This single plugin can take some ok sounding drums to huge sounding in seconds. While this might not be typical of a true parallel drum bus compression track, it works well and sounds great, and is especially quick and handy when you need to crank out a song in hours, not days.
Using Drummer to play louder or softer, simple or complex parts will instantly create a live feel to your track. Its mind boggling how it adjusts between regions and loudness. Zoom in on the region and you can see what I mean. I havent had anyone complain to me that the drums sound like a loop or lack cool fills and turnarounds. Theyre too busy fixing their hair after its been blown back from the huge drums I got going on in the track thanks to Drummer and SD3. Even session drummers I work with are floored by what Drummer does. The kits in SD3 are world class, some sampled from Blackbird Studios right here in Nashville, and you can dial in their presets to create some of the biggest sounding drums you could ever want.
Even when I track real drummers, they play on an electronic kit I have using SD3’s drum kit sounds. But that happens less and less these days and that kit sits in the studio now more for show than go. These days the drum samples and sounds are there from a sound perspective, and theyre nothing short of fantastic, and you need not worry that not having real drummers and drums in your studio is going to result in home-studio sounding drum tracks. Ive been engineering for over 30 years now, 26 of those years in the digital realm, and Im not even the slightest bit interested in going back to the old way of doing things.
Using Drummer, I can also provide 2 or 3 different genre styles of drummers on a song really quickly. I can mix alternate versions, which we do a lot when trying to target a song for a specific pitch opportunity.
I hope this inspires you to put one of LPX’s many Drummers to work for you. This feature in Logic is unfortunately way, way underrated by most users.
HI Chris,
I totally agree about Drummer. I did watch you video on Drummer and my biggest production effort yet uses Drummer. I use the Producer Kits and I also midi the tracks and edit at will. The latest edition features more brush kits and side stick, too. Big fan, here. I’ve even learned how to load the EXS24 with sounds from Apple and third party loops.
Things are better on the drum tracks. But I still have trouble getting it to sit in the mix and ride that fine line between wimpy and overpowering. The usual overthinking and my own worst enemy scenario. That’s why your videos are so essential to my learning curve. You are not just giving information. You are showing how that information translates between the speakers. Very inspiring!
Thanks Again,
Jimmy
Congratulations, but more importantly, Thank You for sharing your gifts and passion, I really, really appreciate you. The curriculum approach is a great idea, designating specific focus of LPX, prerequisites, skill level, etc. helping both the novice and professional alike. Perhaps someday you’ll have more insight into your core subscribers from which to take a lead. Again, super material and appreciate.
Hey Rick, thanks for the good vibes and kind words! I appreciate your thoughts on the more curriculum approach 🙂
Great channel and it has really got me going on LPX. I’d like more info on the stuff that home producers find more difficult like getting a pro drum sound for a range of genres (EDM, R&B, gospel, etc.) by using a combination of session drummer and loops as most of us cant track drums in our studio. Also how to get great electric guitar and acoustic guitar tracks and mixes. Finally, examples of how to add ear candy to mixes to beef up interest.
Hey Errol, thanks so much for the feedback! Your recommendations are right up my alley. Adding them to my list!
Thank you and congratulations.
What is next and What do I need from you? Well, it’s often said you don’t know what you don’t know, BUT here are a few items that I would like to see fully explained:
>>>Exactly when and why are digital overs (on individual tracks AND on busses) going to cause distortion/problems? Not on the Stereo Output. Including a chat about gain staging in the digital realm. Certain plugins expect to see certain amounts of gain, etc.
>>>I have a precise system for setting my pre-delay (click-speaker-record-measure-adjust). Mostly set and forget, but I always check it before tracking sessions. I wish some of my remote clients had a WLPR video so that they could set it properly.
>>>Understanding and dealing with output level targets, inter-sample peaks, True Peak, LUFS, clipping and limiting.
>>>Using multiple external midi controllers as automation and plugin controllers. fader banks, are they worth it?
>>>Re-amping audio properly.
Cheers and good luck!
Thaddeus
Jaguar Recording Studio
Las Vegas
Hey Thaddeus! Thanks for the good vibes and recommendations. Love them. Can you elaborate a little more on your pre-delay request? I’m a little unsure of what you mean.
Thanks Chris, I really enjoy your videos and how you get right to the point. I bought that vintage eq you’re always using and, man, it’s LEGIT. You’re doing the lord’s work.
Thank you so much for your work!
I love the idea of in depth video series.