>Step by step

How to get the most from Logic Pro X’s Drummer

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Our starting point is a pre-composed track or just a recorded MIDI track, eg, bassline, lead or melody. Click to add a new track and select Drummer from the options available to you. On the bottom left, under Genre, you’ll be given a dropdown list of different base genres to choose from. Select the style appropriate to your track. 2

Note that you can change genres later on if you need to, but after pressing Create, Logic will create a new track populated with formulae drum patterns. The first thing to do is obviously give the pattern a listen and see how Logic has interpreted your track. You might be surprised by the results as a starting point! 3

If you use arrangement markers (and I recommend that you do) the drum patterns will adapt to each different part of your composition from the start. Press the Plus marker that appears to the right of the initial pattern and it will fill the next few bars automatically. But don’t worry, you can change everything to suit your own taste and vision. 4

Now take a good look at what’s available to you for controlling the drum track. Make sure your Library panel is set to visible. In the panel (left-hand side) you’ll see that different styles within your chosen genre are available to you. Each style of drum is given a name. You can set your project to loop while testing out the different kits available to you. 5

Beneath the Drummer style you have the additional option to change the sound of the drum kit. There are many kits available to just help you tweak the sound even further. And if you look back to your timeline, you’ll see that the pattern changes with your every move. 6

Next we’ll look at your Drummer editor panel. This is one of the most exciting parts of the tool as you get to tailor the sounds to your liking. There are even more beat presets to choose from. At different points in your track you may want to use any one of these presets to add some variety to your drum tracks, much like a real drummer would.

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You have an X-Y matrix ranging from simple to complex and soft to loud to really improve the dynamics of your drums. The Drummer tool is smart and will react to your song. If instruments drop out at a pre chorus, it’ll create a fill; if there’s a big hook, the tool adapts to add more parts of the kit like a cymbal ride. 8

The last part of the Editor panel gives you complete control over the amount of kit features that will be in any one part of your composition. There’s a dial to adjust the amount of swing on the drums. You can even control the amount of drum fills at the end of a four or eightbar section. 9

If you want a different feel, make use of the kit sliders. Elements are split by Percussion; Cymbals, Shaker, Hi-Hat; and Kick, Snare, Claps. The sliders go from 1 to 5 to allow you to control the amount of any of these elements you want in a region of the drum track. Items that are greyed out aren’t included, so click on any instrument you want to add or remove. 10

It’s important to note that the Drummer tool isn’t MIDI information. There may come a point where you’ll want the same level of control over each part of the drums that you’d want with MIDI information. Thankfully that has been taken into account and you can convert the Drummer tracks you’ve created into a MIDI region.

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Just right-click on the track and select Convert to MIDI region. Now you’ll see that the Drummer notes are all MIDI, fully customisable in the edit panel at the bottom of the timeline. You can move the notes to any position you like, change their velocity etc, just like you would from your own MIDI-recorded performance. 12

Even though you’ve converted the Drummer track, the kit and genre options are still available. This level of flexibility makes the Drummer tool one of the most notable in Logic. Even if you’ve programmed your own drums, there are additional percussion options available to you by adding a Drummer track that could enhance your overall sound.