Intro to Live Loops in Logic Pro for iPad

Live Loops lets you arrange and play with musical ideas in real time in a grid of cells, each containing a musical phrase or loop. You can start and stop cells freely while keeping everything in sync with the beat and the project tempo. Each grid row uses the same signal routing and channel strip settings as the adjacent track in the Tracks area. All the cells in a grid column, called a scene, can be triggered together to act as a musical section. An extensive set of editable parameters gives you full control over playback, recording, and looping, so you can take your music in new creative directions.

Buttons in the far right column show the status of playing or queued cells on each track. You can use the buttons to pause, start, or stop cells individually or all at once. You can also use the buttons to switch playback between cells in Live Loops and regions in the Tracks area. See How the Live Loops grid and Tracks area interact.

You can record to both audio and MIDI cells, add regions or Apple Loops to the Live Loops grid, and record a Live Loops performance as regions to the Tracks area. Logic Pro provides several starter grids containing instruments and prerecorded cells to help you get started.

Figure. Live Loops grid with cells playing.

Editing modes

There is a group of four function buttons in the Live Loops menu bar that you use to switch modes for various editing tasks:

Cell Trigger mode: Tap the Cell Trigger button to turn on Cell Trigger mode. In this mode, tapping cells and scenes triggers them to start or stop playing.
Cell Queue mode: Tap the Cell Queue button to turn on Cell Queue mode. You can queue cells and scenes to start playing when project playback starts or when you want cells in different scenes to start at the same time.
Cell Record mode: Tap the Cell Record button to turn on Cell Record mode. Use this mode to record Audio or MIDI to cells.
Cell Edit mode: Tap the Cell Edit button to turn on Cell Edit mode. In this mode, you can select cells and scenes and edit various parameters for playback and recording.

To momentarily switch to a specific mode, touch and hold a function button with one finger, perform a task with another gesture, and then release the button. For example, while in Cell Trigger mode, you can touch and hold the Cell Queue button with one finger, tap one or more cells with another finger to queue them, and then release your finger from the Cell Queue button. See Work with function buttons.

Show the Live Loops grid

In Logic Pro, tap the Grid View button .

Create a Live Loops project

In Logic Pro, tap the Projects Browser button on the left side of the control bar.
In the Projects browser, do either of the following:
- Tap the New Project button at the top right of the screen.
- Tap “Create Project” at the top of the list.
  Note: This option is not available when viewing Recents in the Projects browser.
In the New Project Chooser, do either of the following:
- Tap Live Loops under the New Empty Project header.
- Tap a Live Loops starter grid under Live Loops Grids.

You can also add Live Loops to any existing project by showing the Live Loops grid and adding cells.

Download this guide: PDF

Helpful?

Logic Pro User Guide for iPad

Intro to Live Loops in Logic Pro for iPad

Editing modes

Show the Live Loops grid

Create a Live Loops project