Work with Live Loops cells in Logic Pro for Mac

In Logic Pro, do one of the following:

• Drag a region from the Tracks area to a cell of the same type in the Live Loops grid.

• Drag a region from the Tracks area to an empty area of the grid, below the existing tracks.

  A new track of the appropriate type (audio or software instrument) is created, and the cell is added to the new track. The new track has the same channel strip settings as the original track.

When you drag a region from the Tracks area to the Live Loops grid, Logic Pro places a copy of the region in the cell. The original region in the Tracks area remains unchanged. If the cell already contains a region, it is replaced with the new region.

When you drag multiple items (for example, cells, regions, Apple Loops, or files from the Finder) to the empty area below the Live Loops grid, you can create a new track for each individual item.

• Press Shift when dragging the items to the empty area below the Live Loops grid.

The items are arranged vertically and a new track is created for each individual item when you drop them below the Live Loops grid. Press Shift again before you drop the items to arrange them horizontally and add them to a single new track.

1. In Logic Pro, select one or more regions in the Tracks area, then choose Edit > Copy (or press Command-C).

2. Select a cell.

3. Choose Edit > Paste (or press Command-V).

If you copy one region, you can paste it only to a cell on a track of the same type. If you copy multiple regions, you can paste them only to cells on the same tracks where the original regions are located.

• Control-click the cycle area and choose Copy Cycle to Live Loops Scene from the shortcut menu.

Using the Copy to Live Loops Scene key command in Logic Pro, you can copy various combinations of regions to new scenes, depending on what you have selected in the Tracks area. This is especially useful for populating a Live Loops grid in an existing project containing many different regions, sections, or markers. You can copy any of the following to Live Loops:

• Marquee selection: Copies the content on each track between the left and right edges of the marquee selection to the first empty scene.

• One or more regions: Copies the selected regions to a single cell in the first empty scene.

• Cycle range: If the cycle area is on and nothing is selected, copies the section between the locators to a single cell in the first empty scene.

• Markers: If Cycle mode is off and one or markers are selected, copies the regions between the start or end points for each selected marker to a new scene. Arrange markers have priority over normal markers.

• All Arrange markers: If Cycle mode is off and nothing is selected but the project contains arrange markers, copies all arrange markers to new scenes. This is a good way to quickly create a Live Loops scene for each section of a project.

1. In Logic Pro, determine what you want to copy to Live Loops (marquee, region, cycle, or marker).

2. Choose Edit > Copy to Live Loops Scene or use the Copy to Live Loops Scene key command (Command-Home or Command-Fn-Left Arrow).

   The exact wording of the command in the menu changes depending on what you select.

• In Logic Pro, Control-click an empty audio cell and choose Add Audio File (or press Shift-Command-I).

  A new audio cell is created containing the audio file.

You can convert Session Player cells and pattern cells to MIDI cells, to edit individual notes of a Session Player performance or to perform edits not possible in Step Sequencer.

• In Logic Pro, Control-click the Session Player or pattern cell you want to convert and choose Convert > Convert to MIDI Cell.

Logic Pro can analyze the musical and sonic characteristics of a longer audio file in an audio cell and extract the best sounding loops to empty cells (up to 10) on the same track. You can choose the length of loops you want to extract, or let Logic Pro extract the best loops of any size.

By default, Logic Pro examines only the detected downbeat positions for potential loop start points. However, you can deactivate this setting to let loop points be set at other musically meaningful positions. You can always manually change the resulting loop points, if necessary.

To work effectively, loop extraction requires audio containing repetitions and accurate tempo information. To get the best results, check the cell in the Smart Tempo Editor before extracting loops and determine whether they show accurate beat mapping.

The loop extraction algorithm looks for loop points that deliver a smooth transition from loop end to loop start. Those loop points may not necessarily coincide with the musical structure of the analyzed audio.

• In Logic Pro, Control-click an audio cell and choose any of the following from the Extract Loops submenu:

  • Set Optimal Full Loop: Extracts the longest loop within the selected cell.

  • Extract Best 2-Bar Loops: Determines the best two-bar loops and copies them to the next empty cells to the right.

  • Extract Best 4-Bar Loops: Determines the best four-bar loops and copies them to the next empty cells to the right.

  • Extract Best 8-Bar Loops: Determines the best eight-bar loops and copies them to the next empty cells to the right.

  • Extract Best Loops of Any Size: Determines the best loops of any size throughout the audio file and copies them to the next empty cells to the right.

  To consider all musically meaningful positions for potential loop start points, not just downbeats, make sure Limit Loop Points to Downbeats is turned off in the Extract Loops submenu.

Loop extraction is disabled if:

• The cell is empty or contains multiple regions.

• The region in the cell is shorter than two bars.

• Flex & Follow in the Cell inspector is turned off.

• The cell contains Apple Loops or untagged loops.

• Multiple cells are selected.

You can create new cells and then edit them in the Cell Editor or record audio and MIDI. Software instrument tracks can contain MIDI and pattern cells.

• In Logic Pro, do any of the following:

  • To create an audio cell: Control-click an empty cell on an audio track, then choose Create Cell.

  • To create a MIDI cell: Control-click an empty cell on a software instrument track, then choose Create MIDI Cell.

  • To create a pattern cell: Control-click an empty cell on a software instrument track, then choose Create Pattern Cell.

  • To create a Session Player cell: Control-click an empty cell on a software instrument track, then choose Create Session Player Cell.

In Logic Pro, do one of the following:

• Drag a cell to a track of the same type in the Tracks area.

• Drag a cell to an empty area of the Tracks area, below the existing tracks.

  A new track of the appropriate type (audio or software instrument) is created, and the region is added to the new track. The new track has the same channel strip settings as the original track.

When you drag a cell from the Live Loops grid to the Tracks area, Logic Pro places a copy of the cell as a region in the Tracks area. The original cell in the Live Loops grid remains unchanged. If a track already contains a region at the position where you place the cell, it is replaced or overlapped with the resulting new region.

1. In Logic Pro, in the Tracks area, set the playhead at the position where you want to paste cells in the scene as regions.

2. In the Live Loops grid, Control-click the scene and choose one of the following:

   • To shift the content of all tracks right of the playhead position by the length of the inserted scene: Choose Insert Scene at Playhead (or press Command-End or Command-Fn-Right Arrow).

   • To copy the scene to the playhead position: Choose Copy Scene to Playhead.

     WARNING: When you copy a scene to the playhead position, any existing regions are overwritten or overlapped.

You can create Apple Loops from your own audio and software instrument cell recordings. When you create an Apple Loop from a cell, it’s added to the Apple Loops library and appears in the Loop Browser, so that you can use it in other projects.

• In Logic Pro, do one of the following:

  • Control-click a cell, then choose Export > Add to Loop Library from the shortcut menu.

  • Select a cell, then choose File > Export > Region to Loop Library.

The Add Region to Apple Loops Library window opens, providing several options for the Apple Loop. See Create your own Apple Loops.

You can split an audio cell such as a band recording into separate stems. You can extract stems for vocals, bass, drums, and other instrumental parts.

Stem Splitter is available on Macs with Apple silicon. See Extract vocal and instrumental stems with Stem Splitter.

1. In the Live Loops grid in Logic Pro, Control-click the audio cell, then choose Stem Splitter.

2. In the Stem Splitter dialog, checkboxes for all four stems (Vocals, Drums, Bass, and Other) are selected by default. Deselect the checkboxes for any stems you do not want to extract.

3. Click Split.

A summing stack is created below the track with the selected audio cell. The subtracks of the summing stack contain cells with the extracted stems. You can solo individual stems using the Solo buttons in the subtrack headers, and you can move, copy, or edit each part in the same way as any audio cell.