HOW TO Loop in Logic Pro and export to Ableton

1 Prepare your project

You can access Live Loops from within an existing Logic Pro X project or you can start a new one via the Choose A Project window. There’s also a good Live Loops tutorial in the Tutorials section here. Let’s start a new Live Loops project.

2 Add a loop

The grid in the centre is where loops live, organised by instrument just as tracks are in a normal Logic Project. This time, though, they’re also organised by columns. To add a loop, drag it from the Loop Browser to the appropriate square.

3 Add some variety

Each column can contain multiple loops, so you might have the first for your intro, the second for your verse, and so on. You can adjust how loops behave – so if you want to reverse a drum loop, for example, ≈-click it and choose Reverse.

4 Record a new loop

You can import existing audio files to the Live Loops view or record your own playing. We’re playing some live bass guitar here: just add and record-enable a new track, select the box you want to record into and click Record.

5 Add the live bits

In a live performance, you can now trigger individual loops by clicking them or an entire column by clicking the footer. You can also set up a new track such as a vocal mic, enabling you to sing over the top of whatever loops you’re playing.

6 Bring the band

What if want to export a backing track to play along to? No problem. Open your project, make sure that the yellow Cycle bar at the top runs from the start to the end and then select the track(s) you want to export.

7 Sort out stems

To export tracks as stems (individual audio files), select File > Export > X Tracks As Audio Files (or as MIDI if exporting for use in a MIDI app). You can also extract individual regions to add them to the loop library for future loopiness.

8 Label everything

This looks a bit complex but it’s quite simple: it enables you to set how Logic names each exported track – for example, here we’ve got the project name, the BPM (which we’ve entered manually), and the name of the track.

9 Import the audio

Once you’ve exported your stems, you can drag and drop them into a live app such as Ableton Live, shown here, and organise them into songs. You can also add effects such as compression to ensure consistency across your set.