Programming a beat in the Step Editor

1 Drum up a region

On a new Software Instrument track in Logic, load up Drum Kit>detroit Garage from the library pane. Ctrl-click on the track and select ‘Create Empty MIDI Region’.

2 Open Step Editor

Double-click the MIDI region to open the Edit pane. The Step Editor is accessed by clicking the rightmost of the three tabs at the top of the pane.

3 Select Lane Set

In the Region box in the top left, set the Lane Set parameter to ‘GM Drum Kit’. This will create horizontal lanes for all available drum sounds in the Detroit Garage Kit.

4 Order order

Zoom in and drag the desired lanes around vertically into the order you want them. We’re going to use the Kick 1, SD1, Handclap and Closed HH sounds here.

5 Pencil me in

Select the Pencil tool as the secondary tool. This will be used to enter note events on the grid, and is accessed by holding down the Command key.

6 Kick it

Click with the Pencil tool to enter a kick drum note in the first grid slot. We need the velocity of this note to be high, so drag it up to near its maximum height with the Pointer tool.

7 Ghost rider

Add three other loud kick beats in the positions shown above, then place three softer ‘ghost’ kick beats as shown, to mimic a human player playing double beats.

8 Hats off

Next, place a loud note in the first slot of the closed HH lane, a medium note two slots later, and two soft ones either side. Then copy and paste these four notes to fill the bar.

9 It’s a drag

Add snares and claps on beats 1.2 and 1.4, then switch SD1’S lane grid to 32nd-notes. Create a dragged snare effect by pencilling in soft, 32nd ghost notes in the positions shown.