Welcome to Day 2 of 10.5 Week here at WLPR! Today we’re going to dig through my favorite new feature of Logic update – the Step Sequencer.
The Step Sequencer heralds back to a time of hardware drum machines of the 70s and 80s. Audio is played on a loop, and you input Steps for when each instrument or pitch should be played along a repeating grid.
And to me, it just makes way more sense to write percussion and drum parts with Patterns instead of the Piano Roll.
In fact, I believe the Step Sequencer is a tool for everyone who writes their own drum parts. Whether for rock, electronic, or hip hop.
Drum transients are short compared to the sustained notes of a piano or synth. So a Step-based grid adds a ton of value for writing drum parts.
But the Step Sequencer isn’t just for drums. It’s just as useful for writing Patterns for pitched-based instruments as well!
So if you’re ready for the low-down on how to get to work with the Step Sequencer, check out today’s video.
Chris, thanks for your great walk through of the step sequencer. I wonder if there is a way to apply swing to a dedicated row. So for instance you want straight 1/16 notes for kick and snare but swing 1/16 for hihat … did I miss something ? Thanks and keep up the good work,
Alex
My only problem here is the dilemma presented by an upgrade to 10.5
To upgrade, I must also upgrade my operating system from High Sierra to Catalina, which apparently has to many bugs at this time to consider an upgrade.
Additionally, if and when the bugs eventually get fixed, then there is the problem is that Catalina won’t support some of my older programs that I love. This is a vicious circle, and I see a point where I am going to have to spend some big bucks along the way, just for everything to stay in sync. In fact, some of my programs may not even have an update that is compatible.
All of these things bring forward the following question (my technical savvy is limited, so that is why I am reaching out with a question):
Is there a way to partition my Macbook Pro in such a manner that allows me to keep my old operating system?
I will need some good advice (with hand holding) on this one…
Hi Bill, although the upgrade to Catalina and beyond is inevitable, at this stage you can upgrade to the latest version of Mojave (I think you can still download it from here https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT210190), which should still run your older apps as well as Logic 10.5. Eventually you may have to look at Parallels or Fusion to run older programs in a virtualised older version of OSX, or hang on to an older device for that purpose.
Thank you , Tom I will take note of your reply and see how I can work with it. Apple seems to be hell bent on built-in obsolescence, which may prove to be a destructive move on their part one of these days. Meanwhile, I will look into these options to see if I can squeeze another year or two out of my current hardware – a late 2013 Macbook with a 13″ display and a SSD. It originally started out with a Maverick OS, and it has been really good to me. In 2018, I updated/upgraded my internal drive from what I believe was 140 GB to 480 GB (I may have my numbers wrong there). Anyway, I was a bit nervous at first, but after watching how-to videos and printed material over and over, I somehow managed to successfully make it through the process. As I mentioned, I don’t have a lot of tech savvy, but I was in serious need of drive space.
Thanks, again for your expertise!
Upgrading to Catalina is not inevitable since many of us still have the MacPro 5.1 tower which as I understand is not compatable with Catalina. In order to use the new Logic upgrade 10.5 a metal capable graphics card is needed and then an OSX upgrade to Mojave{maybe will work with High Sierra but I doubt it). One other caveat that I ran into was the Apple 27″ cinema display that came with the Mac back in 2010 only has a mini display cable which needs an adapter to a regular size display port in order to plug the monitor in to the the upgraded metal capable graphics card. I can’t find a suitable adapter anywhere that will actually work. If anyone has a solution, I would appreciate the feedback.