Think of this as counting quarter notes “one, two, three, four”. You’ll now see each quarter note beat labelled, 1, 12, 13, 14, 2, etc. Slide this to the right to zoom in on the grid a bit. Now go to the slider all the way to the right, just above the grid. When you’re done, the grid should look like this. The 1st and 3rd beat (assuming 4/4 time) lines up with the 1 and the 13 (which also is sometimes shown as 1.3) which means the 3rd beat in the measure.) If you divide that into 4 parts, you can see a slightly stronger line where the quarter notes would be. Notice that the region is currently 1 bar. You can move the notes around by clicking on them, and then dragging. As you do this, you should hear the drum sound play. To create a note, you can either command-click on the grid where you want the note, or right click where you want the note and select create note. The nice thing about the Drum Kit Designer is that Apple has labelled the piano notes for you, so you know which key is assigned to which drum. Go to the Piano Roll below and add in a Kick on the 1 and the 3. Now double click on the green region, or alternatively, you can go to View, Show Editor. Now you want to right click on the first track and select Create Empty Midi Region.
Go to File, New, Select Software Instrument, then under instrument, select Drum Kit Designer. We’ll create a simple rock pattern with the built in “Drum Kit Designer”.
To learn some of the basics of Logic Pro X Beat Making, let’s start with a traditional “acoustic drum set”. Heartbeat Drum MachineĪdditionally, you can also use Logic Pro X’s built in EXS24 Sampler, or use something like Kontakt, to import samples, and play a beat using the keyboard. When ready to go to the next level, Native Instrument’s Battery is a decent option (but again, get Komplete as it’s a much better value, and also includes Drum Lab for hybrid Electronic/Acoustic kits.) I’ve also been playing with Softube’s Heartbeat lately, which is a bit of a hybrid unit that has a hodge-podge throwback look.
Its interface is that of a Drum Machine, for the other styles, Drummer’s interface is a Drum Kit. Also Native Instruments has Studio Drummer and few other options (but buy Komplete for that as you get a ton of useful tools for every style.)įor Hip-Hop and EDM, the built in Drummer is also a good place to start. If you are trying to emulate more traditional acoustic drums for Rock, Jazz, Country, then the built in Drummer is a good place to start, and EZ Drummer 2 might be a good consideration when you’re ready to go to the next level.
If you are just starting out, invest your time elsewhere. Some people love it, but I think that’s because they’ve been using it forever and are just comfortable with it. One thing I’d say is to just stay away from Ultrabeat.
It’s really not that big of a deal to learn a trap pattern, jazz pattern, rock pattern, as they are all slight variants of the same thing. I’m not saying you have to take drum lessons god forbid ? but learning a few different patterns that you can pull out of your bag of tricks (just like the professionals) isn’t a bad idea. Then it sounded like someone’s first (maybe 2nd) drum lesson. I could do a basic kick on the 1&3 and snare on the 2&4, and it sounded great! For about 2 minutes.
Not being a drummer, I also struggled with how to make a beat. Drawing MIDI for lots of tracks seemed like a lot of work, surely one track is easier to deal with? Surely there must must be an article on how to make a beat on Logic Pro X! How are other people doing them? Should I just use the built in Apple drummer? Should I use Native Instrument’s Battery? Should I bang out my own pattern on a midi controller? Should there be one track for all the drums, or should each drum get a track. When I started using Logic Pro, I really struggled with finding the best way to do the drum tracks. Secret to Getting the Pro Sound Quickly.How to Make a Beat on Logic Pro X for Beginners