Logic Pro’s Environment is a source of confusion, frustration and even fear for many users. However, for the most part, it isn’t really that complicated. The Environment provides a powerful, modular system for realtime processing of MIDI messages. All the work is done by a small group of specialized objects that you connect with virtual cables, similar to a modular synthesizer. Most tasks require nothing more than a (very) basic understanding of MIDI.

If you’re new to the Environment and/or MIDI, you might find this project a bit ambitious. Don’t let that discourage you. Each step will be explained in detail, and along the way you’ll learn several tricks that you can use to make your own Environment projects more powerful and easier to use.

Download the Logic Pro 9 project archive for this tutorial here.

1. Getting Started

If you haven’t done so already, launch Logic Pro and create a new project. Choose Window > Environment from the main menu bar to open the Environment window. If you can’t see the Inspector panel on the left side of the Environment window, choose View > Inspector from the menu bar at the top of the window.

At the top of the Inspector, you’ll see a text field and a button marked with a disclosure triangle. Click the button to open the Layer menu, and choose Create Layer (Figure 1). This gives you a blank layer to work on, which will help you stay organized. Click the text field and rename the layer Step Sequencer. Your Environment window should look something like Figure 2.

Figure 1: Creating a New Environment Layer

Figure 2: Blank Step Sequencer Layer

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12