Composition Studio: Logic Pro

Getting started with Logic Pro in the CompS 

This guide is mainly for those who want to take advantage of the CompS supplemental sampled sound libraries rather than relying only on the sounds that come bundled with Logic Pro.  

1. Before starting plug your personal USB storage device in the User Storage Hub  

2. Click on the Logic Pro icon on the toolbar at the bottom of the screen 

3. If you have already saved a Logic project to your USB drive, you can open it, or select Create a new empty project.

4. If you select “Default Patch” it will load Logic’s “Classic Electric Piano into a track and all of Logic’s library will display on the left pane.  For accessing the 3rd party sample libraries, click on the up/down arrows on the Default Patch bar to open a larger selection. 

5. Hover your mouse over “AU instruments”.  From here, you can navigate over to other sample players and sound libraries.  For orchestral libraries you will navigate to the right and click on: Native Instruments - Kontakt - and then choose an output option (for simplicity - choose Stereo) 

NOTE: You can also choose Ample Sound which will load Ample Bass Upright (plucked bass for jazz, etc - or Spectrasonics Keyscape (sampled acoustic and electric keyboard sounds) 

Then click on the blue Create button. 

6. Clicking on the two green eighth notes or the blue Kontakt button will open a scrolling selection of software libraries which will play through the Kontakt sample player which you have installed on a track.  If you don’t see these options, click on the file tray icon near the top left corner and/or the “i” inside a circle icon beside it. 

7. You should now be able to open any of the Kontakt sample player’s installed libraries by clicking on the “Instruments” bar just below the names of the libraries.  To select a specific instrument or technique - double-click 

For orchestral sounds - select any of the Spitfire libraries 

Other Kontakt libraries include Swing More, The Gentleman (upright piano), Voxos epic virtual choir, West Africa (drums and rhythms) 

NOTE: Because they use their own company’s sample player - Ample Sounds (Ample Bass U) and Spectrasonics (Keyscape) user interface will look different than the libraries installed into the Kontakt sample player With Kontak 

8. If you want to experiment with different sounds and libraries on the same track in Logic - you must exit the patch before loading a new sound  (Click on X in top right corner)

Apple’s Logic Pro website 

Apple’s Support and Learning Resources page 

david.bindle@usask.ca