Secondhand, the Yamaha DX100 is great for around £200-ish and has a fouroctave range (mini keys). Also around £200 is the Alesis Vortex three-octave keytar which includes full size keys and the often-missing aftertouch. Then there’s the Yamaha Reface CS w
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Making simple transition sounds/FX
Could you show me a quick way to make simple transition sounds using Logic’s native plug-ins? Transition sounds and spot FX can add sonic interest while also helping to smooth over or punctuate between different sections. Transition FX sounds can easily be created with a bit of noise, resonance, filtering and some delay, so that’s a good place to start. Also, you could try pitchbending swoops (up or down) automated panning, mod delays and tape delays too. Or you could place a high-pass or band-pass filter on your master buss and automate it to cut in and out at key transition points. Here are a few starting points…
Using noise: Here we’re using the noise slider in Logic’s polyphonic synth plug-in, with a little resonance to add some juice! You can sweep the filter frequency up and down to add drama and add some release and delay to the sound so that it tails off naturally.
Using pitchbend or LFO mod: Here we’re using Logic’s ESP again and we’ve played in a long chord to use as a transition sound. We’ve added pitchbend using Hyperdraw and some LFO automation to add more drama while the chord is bending upwards to the next section.
Using panning: The quickest way to use panning in Logic is with the Tremolo plug-in, rather than the time-consuming task of drawing it in by hand. Set the waveshape to a slightly rounded off square, gradually increase the rate using automation and add some ‘verb!
Using filtering or mod FX across your master buss: It’s been done to death but we love putting a filter, flanger or phaser on the master buss and automating away! We’ve added a flanger, put automation into ‘touch’ mode and tweaked speed, feedback and intensity.