Radio Advert Write up

In this write you will learn how to use a lot of the logic software including a midi keyboard, and many of the functions featured in logic.

How I made my advert

For my second project, I was given the task to create a radio advert for a made up project. The main focus of this project was the music involved with the advert as well as the arrangement and the syncing of the speaking with the music. The product that I decided to base my advert on was a stick that is basically just a stick that I am making out to be the best thing that mankind has ever made. To make sure we passed this project we had to make three separate adverts, one had to be 1 minute long, another had to be 30 seconds long and the third had to be 10 seconds long. The reason we had to make three separate adverts is because when adverts are shown sometimes they are cut short by channels and various radio stations because of having to fit in other adverts.

The software that I used to create my advert on was called logic express; this is simple and effective to use and it is user friendly. To begin with create a track by clicking on the plus sign on the top left hand side of the screen.

After that a grey box appeared on the screen and I had the option to select the amount of tracks that I wanted to add, I wanted to add one track, and whether I wanted to add an audio track, software instrument track or an external midi track. I selected the software instrument track, as I first wanted to come up with a drumbeat to suit my advert.

Once I the track had been added, I had to select an instrument to use. The instrument was selected from the library on the far right hand side of the screen. There were lots of instruments in the library to choose from, I chose drums and percussion, and this is because I wanted to create a drumbeat. When I clicked on the drums and percussion tap another section opened with a huge selection of various different kits, I picked the rock kit as this suited my advert more.

Once I had selected my kit I pressed the record button, in the bottom left hand corner, I then played in my beat, which would be used as an introduction to the advert before the music kicked in.

One my intro was recorded I had to make sure that it was in time. To do this I double clicked on the area in which my beat had been recorded and a section in the bottom of the screen popped up. When this popped up I had to make sure that the piano roll had been selected.

Once the piano roll had been selected I had to highlight the drumbeat by holding down the left mouse button and dragging the mouse over the section that had been recorded. Once this was done I went to the top of the piano roll section a clicked the Q button next to quantise value. This button made sure that the beat was in time with the BPM (Beat Per Minute) of the track.

Once my intro was quantised, I added in a further three tracks, and selected three different drum kits from the library. These kits were used as a beat for the melody of my minute long advert. I then recorded the beat for my melody and quantised it making sure that it was in time with the BPM.

When the beat had been created, I then added another track and selected the instrument classic acoustic guitar, as this would make the melody catchy and memorable, as well as making the melody sound cheery and up beat. Once the melody was recorded I then quantised the melody so that it was in time with the drumbeat. Once this was completed I then selected yet another track and chose the instrument trance strings this would be playing the same melody as the guitar but obviously with strings instead.

Once the melody and the drumbeat had been created I then inserted another track but this time made it and audio track, this would be used to record the speaking for the advert, which describe the product. This was recorded using a mic in which I would speak the script into. The mic needed to be plugged into the midi keyboard in able for it to work. Once this was recorded this meant that the minute long advert was finished. In the 30 second one, I kept it very close and true to the original song, not only did this save time, but it was a valid option for the middle advert as people usually remember the longest and shortest version of something, very rarely is the middle length remembered so I thought it would be a safe option to keep the 30 second one as close to the original piece as we can. The 10 second one, being the shortest and quickest of the bunch, had to make a bit more of an impact on our audience’s minds so I thought it would be best to put another instrument in, a slightly more aggressive sounding one which is why we choose a bass but a mute bass, I didn’t want anything extreme. This adds that hard-hitting tone we were going for, some more fleshing out of the track and something to make the short 10-second variant a little more memorable. As well as this the base was different to all the other lengthier versions and this meant that this would be more memorable.

I used a midi keyboard to recorded in most of my tracks for all of the adverts this meant that I was able to play my melody and drum beat to my ear. Guide to Logic Pro X

The Inspector

You can view and edit parameters for regions, tracks and many other items in the inspector. The parameters shown depend on the item selected and which working area has key focus. The inspector displays region and track parameters and the inspector channel strips.

Region- The region inspector allows you to view and modify playback parameters, including transportation and quantization, for specific regions. This however doesn’t affect the data in the region. If you change them while the project is playing you can here the changes immediately.

Track- The track inspector allows you to view and edit different track parameters, including transportation, velocity and delay. All the regions in the track are affected by the track parameters.

Channel strips- The left channel strip is for the selected track, and the right channel strip shows the output for the left strip by default, but also shows an aux used by the left strip. You can adjust the level, pan, sends and inserts, change effects, and control audio routing for these channel strips without opening the Mixer.

Pan- The pan knob defines whether a track can be heard from the left right or middle of the stereo field. Instead of having instruments compete with one another in a mix, you have separate elements by positioning audio and instruments in the stereo mix from left to right. Really you would want to have more important tracks like vocals and drums etc in the middle of the mix and have the less important tracks to the side.

Inserting software instruments- To insert software instruments into logic the first thing that you need to do is click on the plus symbol just next to the copy track tool. Once you click this, a grey box should appear with an option to pick audio, drummer, software instrument, external midi and guitar or bass.

Select the option that says software instrument. Once this has been selected a track should appear with classic electronic piano on it. This is what comes up as

the instrument on your track at first. If you don’t want to have the classic electronic piano as your instrument you can change it easily. This is done by going to the top left hand side of the screen and clicking the button that looks like a filing cabinet draw. This brings up the library, which shows a variety of different instruments.

Lets say for example you wanted to insert a drum kit, you would select the drum kit in the library, this will then bring up an lot of different kits, you then simply select the kit that you want to use and this will then change the original instrument that you had to the drum kit that you selected.

Recording a software instrument- To record a software instrument you use a midi keyboard. To record you have to click the record button at the top left of the screen next to the display.

Once you have clicked this, the play head will move down the workspace. To record the instrument you want to record you would need to play it in through the midi keyboard. Once that you have recorded your instrument you can quantise it by double clicking on the piece of recorded work, this will then bring up the piano roll.

From here you can move around the notes that have been played so that your work is to your specification. To make sure that it is in time you will need to hold down the left mouse button and drag it over the notes you have played. This then highlights all of your notes; this now means that you can quantise it. Quantising is where you put the notes that you have play in time with the BPM of your piece, this is done by clicking the Q button on the left hand side of the piano roll.

Recording and inserting audio- To insert an audio track you have to first click the same tool that you clicked to insert a software instrument, but instead of selecting software instrument, select audio, this then means that you can insert an audio track. To be able to record audio you will need to plug in a microphone, this means that you will be able to record in voice and sound effects into logic.

Metronome- The metronome is one of the most important tools in logic. The metronome is used to help you keep in time with the BPM of the track by making a clicking noise that assists you when trying to keep in time with the BPM. This clicking starts with a high pitch click on beat one and then a lower frequency click on beats two, three and four. As well as this the metronome helps to quantise as well as it keeps your track in time so that quantising is easier.

Ruler- The ruler enables you to see the time divisions in bars and beats or in hours, minuets and seconds. It can also be used for playback and recording functions. The ruler runs horizontally across the top of the workspace. The ruler is also useful as it assists you when needing to position your track by placing them in the correct point of time. Alignment guides appear when you move regions and other items to help you kept them in time with other items in the workspace.

Library- The library allows you to load and save patches, plug in presets, or EXS instruments based on the selected channel strip slot. Loading a patch can have an effect on multiple channel strips. The library also holds all of the software instruments that are used in logic.

Automation- This refers to recording, editing and playing back the movements of faders, knobs and switches. By using automation it allows you to make changes over time to volume, pan and other settings. Automation can be added to any track type. Every track that’s in a project has automation curves for volume and pan, and you can add curves to automate plug in settings.

What tools are used in logic?

Velocity- The velocity tool is a tool used to increase dynamics of the notes played in the piano roll. To select the velocity tool you go to the tool menu and select the velocity tool. This will then allow you to edit the note velocity in the piano roll, to do this you would click and hold the note when using the velocity tool, and drag it upwards to increase the velocity and down to decrease the velocity. This will make the piece you recorded louder.

Fade- The fade tool allows you to create edit or delete fades, or use it to change the shape of fade curves. In order to access the fade too go to the top of the workspace and to the dropdown menu and select the fade tool.

Cut- The cut tool is a very important tool to use. This tool is used to edit your recordings in your workplace. Cut also allows you to move around your recordings into different sections of your workplaces. This could be useful, as it would allow you to cut out any mistakes that you made in the recording so that your work is smooth and professional.

Loop- Looping is used to repeat a recording so that you won’t need to keep recording the same track over and over again. This is useful when creating melodies, as the use of the loop tool would mean that you would not need to keep recording the melody. You can loop by clicking the top of your recording and drag it to the right to the point on the workspace that you want it to go to. You can also loop by clicking the ruler so that it goes yellow and you can drag the yellow bar to the area in which you want to loop.

Pencil- This allows you to create regions as well as edit them by making them longer or shorter. This region can then be used to create a recording. The pencil tool is also used in the piano roll to write in your track instead of recording it through the midi keyboard.

Glue tool- The glue tool is used to glue regions or events together by clicking or selecting them.