Overview of Drummer in Logic Pro

Drummer allows you to add virtual drummers to your project, using Drummer tracks. You can create as many Drummer tracks as you like per project. You can choose drummers from different genres—Rock, Alternative, Songwriter, R&B, Electronic, Hip Hop, and Percussion. Each drummer comes with its own acoustic kit or electronic drum kit and a distinct playing style.

You can change the drummer’s playing style by choosing different presets, tweaking the generated pattern using various settings, or having Drummer regions follow the rhythm of another track in the project.

Note: To edit Drummer regions in the Piano Roll Editor, Event List, or Step Editor, you first need to convert them to MIDI regions.

You can further influence the sound of the drums and percussion by choosing patches in the Library or by exchanging drums and editing the settings of individual kick pieces in Drum Kit Designer or Drum Machine Designer. For details about Drum Kit Designer and Drum Machine Designer, along with usage tips, see Drum Kit Designer overview in Logic Pro and Drum Machine Designer overview in Logic Pro.

If you have a device with a Touch Bar, you can edit Drummer parameters using the Smart Controls screen and play the selected drum kit and percussion instruments using the Drum Pads screen.

Figure. Shows a Drummer track containing Drummer regions, and the Drummer Editor.

When you add a Drummer track to your project, a drummer and a default patch associated with that drummer are loaded. The default patch is based on a stereo mixdown of the full, multi-miked acoustic or electric drum kit or percussion mix. These patches are optimized for performance and recommended for uses with the Drummer Editor to compose and edit the performance.

Once you’re happy with the performance of an acoustic drummer and want to fine-tune the actual drum kit or percussion mix, you can replace the stereo mixdown with the original producer patch (Producer Kit), offering full access to all mix options. When you use electronic drummers, a track stack automatically loads with the selected drum and percussion instruments, so you always have full access to all mix options. See Logic Pro track stacks overview to learn more about track stacks.

Add a Drummer track

In Logic Pro, do one of the following:
- Click the Add Tracks button above the track headers.
- Choose Track > New Tracks (or press Option-Command-N).
- Choose Track > New Drummer Track. (If you use this method, you can skip steps 2 and 3.)
- Use the New Drummer Track key command. (If you use this method, you can skip steps 2 and 3.)
- If you have a computer with a Touch Bar, tap the Add Drummer track Touch Bar shortcut. See Overview of Touch Bar shortcuts in Logic Pro for more information. (If you use this method, you can skip steps 2 and 3.)
In the New Tracks dialog, select the Drummer track and choose a genre from the Genre pop-up menu.
Click Create.
- If the project doesn’t have arrangement markers: A Drummer track containing one 8-bar region is created.
- If the project has arrangement markers: A Drummer track containing as many regions as there are arrangement markers is created. The length and name of the Drummer regions correspond to the existing arrangement markers.

Create an additional region on a Drummer track

Yellow drummer regions contain all the performance information necessary for generative instruments such as Drummer. You can change the artist and parameters in the Drummer Editor to change the sound of the region.

In Logic Pro, do one of the following:

Move the pointer past the end of the final Drummer region in the track. Click the Add (+) button that appears.
Control-click an empty area of the Drummer track, then choose Create Drummer Region from the shortcut menu.
Click with the Pencil tool on an empty area of the Drummer track.

A new 8-bar yellow drummer region is created at the downbeat that precedes the clicked position. However, if an arrangement marker exists at this position, the region matches the length and name of the marker.

Note: You can also Option-drag an existing drummer region to create an exact copy of the original region.

Fill the entire Drummer track with regions

In Logic Pro, Control-click an empty area of the Drummer track, then choose Populate with Drummer Regions from the shortcut menu.

The Drummer track is filled with regions up to the project end point. Gaps are filled with 8-bar regions as much as possible, without overwriting existing regions. Any gaps smaller than one bar are not filled; the expectation is that such gaps were created for short pauses, for example. If an arrangement track exists, as many regions as there are arrangement markers are created, with the length and name of the regions corresponding to the markers.

Download the guides:

Logic Pro User Guide: Apple Books | PDF

Logic Pro Instruments: Apple Books | PDF

Logic Pro Effects: Apple Books | PDF

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