Using Ultrabeat


Ultrabeat's inspiration stems from the drum-machine revolution of the 1980s, as well as the current trend for sample-based hardware groove boxes. Ultrabeat is similar to both in functionality, offering sound generation and integrated step sequencing within the plug-in package.

What truly sets it apart, however, is its offering of multiple sound sources (analog synthesis, FM, audio samples, physical modeling), built-in signal processing (bit crushing, distortion, ring modulation, EQ, and stereo effects), and highly flexible voice architecture.

Loading a Kit

Ultrabeat collects sounds in appropriately named kits that can be accessed via the preset menu. Let's dive right in, exploring the unique functionality and application of Ultrabeat.

1.

Choose File > Open.

2.

In the file selector, open Lesson 05 Project Files > 05_Working with Software Instruments > 05_Working with Software Instruments_Start.lso.

3.

Select the Inst 1 track.

4.

In the channel strip area on the left side of the screen, click-hold in the input field and choose Stereo > Logic > Ultrabeat.

The Ultrabeat interface appears.

NOTE

The Ultrabeat interface follows the common signal-flow arrangement you looked at in the previous exercise. Oscillators are on the far left, feeding into the Filter section (middle), and then into the Processing/Output section on the far right.

5.

If not already enabled, click the Link button in the top left corner of the Ultrabeat window.

NOTE

Having Link enabled allows you to use a single plug-in window to display all opened plug-ins.

6.

Click-hold the preset menu and choose Black Soul Kit.

7.

Play your MIDI controller's keys in the C1 to B2 range to hear the various sounds within the kit.

In addition to two octaves of individually mapped percussion sounds, a kit contains a slot for a sound that is automatically pitch-mapped over three octaves.

8.

Play keys C3 and above on your MIDI controller.

You should hear an analog synthesizer bass sound that changes pitch as you move up and down the keyboard.

Working with Voices

The left side of Ultrabeat's interface contains the Voice section. Each voice carries its own sound and has independent parameters that can be adjusted for volume, solo, mute, pan control, and audio output.

1.

Click a few of the voice names (kick, snare, and so on).

The main section of the interface changes with each selected voice. This is because every voice has its own independent sound-generation, filter, modulation, processing, and volume settings, which are viewed by clicking the voice name.

NOTE

The active voice has a red box surrounding it and its mixer parameters.

2.

At the top left of the interface, click the Voice Auto Select button so that voice auto select is on.

3.

Play a few notes in the C1 to B2 range, as you did earlier.

The interface changes with each new note played. When voice auto select is on, the most current note triggered is displayed.

4.

Select the kick voice by clicking the name or playing the appropriate MIDI note (C1) on your MIDI controller.

5.

In the Ultrabeat window, click the musical keyboard on the screen to the left of the kick voice (C1) to quickly audition the sound.

6.

Look at the top oscillator (Osc1) within the main part of the interface.

It is the only oscillator currently active (the power button is on), so it is responsible for generating the raw sound that makes up the kick drum.

The oscillator is set to Phase Osc, which utilizes the Slope, Saturation, and Asymmetry controls to shape the waveform into almost any basic synthesizer waveform.

7.

Click the Saturation control and bring it all the way down to 0.

The waveform changes slowly from a square wave to a slightly rounded triangle.

8.

Repeatedly press the C1 key on your MIDI controller while you slide the Saturation control slowly upward until it reaches the top (1.00).

You can hear the sound change as you transition toward the square wave.

This kick drum needs less "beater" sound (midrange click) to suit the song we will be working with. You can move to the EQ controls in the Processing section of Ultrabeat to see how you can change the sound.

9.

Look to the right side of the instrument (immediately to the right of the Filter section) to find the EQ controls.

Note that the kick drum sound has a slight parametric dip at 170Hz and a rather large boost centered at 1600Hz.

10.

Position your pointer over the large peak (band 2).

The peak is highlighted, and a dot appears at the apex.

If you are familiar with Logic's Channel EQ, you'll recognize the same graphical controls for adjusting the EQ band here.

11.

Drag the peak to the right.

The peak moves along with the mouse movement.

12.

Click-hold the dot at the apex of the peak, and move the mouse up and down.

The bandwidth narrows and expands accordingly.

13.

Click the band 2 button above to turn it off.

The large peak disappears.

14.

Audition the kick by clicking the musical keyboard to the left of the voices or by playing your MIDI controller (C1).

The kick now has less of a midrange attack.

15.

Select the crash voice by clicking the name or playing a C#2 on your MIDI controller.

16.

Look at the bottom oscillator (Osc2) within the main part of the interface.

The power button is on, and Osc2 is set to Sample. Within the Osc2 section you'll also see a depiction of an audio waveform.

The crash sound within this kit is generated from an audio sample. Oscillator 2 can be configured for all three types of sound generation offered by Ultrabeat: phase oscillator, sample playback, and even component modeling.

17.

Try out the other sound-generation modes offered by clicking the Phase Osc and Model buttons.

18.

Switch back to the Sample mode.

The waveform returns.

The crash sample (Crash 19.ubs, displayed above the waveform) doesn't work for the song you will be building for this lesson. Let's load a new sample waveform to work with.

19.

Click the disclosure triangle next to the sample's name and choose Load Sample.

A file selector window appears, displaying the contents of the Ultrabeat Samples folder.

NOTE

The Load Sample command automatically brings you to the location where Logic Pro installed the default Ultrabeat samples (Library/Application Support/Logic/Ultrabeat Samples). This makes it easy to browse samples specially designed for use in Ultrabeat.

20.

Double-click the Crash Cymbals folder and choose Special Crash.ubs.

NOTE

The .ubs extension signifies a proprietary sample format that has multiple velocity layers built into the file. Although there is no user-accessible way of creating files in the .ubs format, nothing stops you from loading your own audio files into Ultrabeat. Even though these files will not have multilayer capability, Ultrabeat's sound-shaping properties can help you create either realistic or highly creative percussion sounds utilizing your own audio files.

21.

Click the Open button.

22.

Play the C#2 key on your MIDI controller, or click the musical keyboard to the left of the voice to audition.

You should hear a higher-sounding crash.

23.

Click-hold the blue Volume slider around the crash voice and drag to the right until the help tag reads 3.0dB.

This is the volume control for the voice.

24.

Click-hold the Pan knob to the right of the crash voice, and drag down the pointer until the help tag reads0.45.

The voice is panned to the left (about 10 o'clock).

25.

Audition the sound to hear the results.

Working with the Step Sequencer

At the bottom of Ultrabeat's interface lies an integrated 32-step sequencer, which greatly aids in the production of drum loops and beat patterns. These patterns, including any user-created ones, are unique to each of the Ultrabeat presets.

1.

Turn the sequencer on by clicking the power button at the top left of the Sequencer section.

2.

Click the Play/Stop button immediately to the right of the power button in the Ultrabeat interface.

The sequencer starts and Ultrabeat plays a sequenced pattern.

NOTE

Ultrabeat's sequencer has independent playback in relation to the song. As long as Ultrabeat's sequencer is powered on, it will automatically start when the song is played. Ultrabeat will read the song's tempo, ensuring tight synchronization.

3.

Click-hold the "pattern #" menu at the bottom left corner of the instrument window and choose various patterns within the list, listening to the results.

You'll notice that slots with sequence data recorded are marked with "sq" (for sequence). Looking at the pattern list for this preset (Black Soul Kit), we see that there are patterns contained only within the first 5 of a possible 24 slots; the rest are available for user-programmed patterns.

NOTE

Each slot is assigned an associated note value (pitch and octave), that is displayed in parentheses. You will be using these MIDI note values to trigger sequence playback later in this lesson.

4.

Click-hold the pattern # menu and choose "5 (E-1) sq."

5.

Click the Play/Stop button within the Ultrabeat interface to stop pattern playback.

Sequencing Voices

The actual sequencing of a given voice takes place in an area called the step grid. Here, events can be graphically inserted and edited to create each element of the pattern.

1.

Select the snare voice (D1).

The snare voice's sequence is displayed in the step grid.

2.

Click the S (Solo) button to the right of the voice name to solo the snare voice.

NOTE

The "sq" next to the voice name indicates that this voice has a step sequence within the current pattern.

3.

Click the step sequencer's Play/Stop button to play the pattern.

The snare sound triggers whenever an event is displayed in the step grid.

4.

Click the 2 button above the step grid.

This array of buttons is called the trigger row.

The next time the pattern cycles, you should hear a soft snare attack on step 2.

5.

Drag up the event at step 2 in the step grid until the event stretches to the top.

The next time the pattern reaches this step, the event will be louder.

6.

Click the Solo button for the snare voice to hear the entire pattern (with all voices).

NOTE

Step width indicates length (Gate Time) of the notes in the trigger row. In this case, the sound being triggered has an extremely short release, so this parameter does not audibly affect the sound.


Applying Swing to the Pattern

The Swing knob, located to the left of the step grid (see step 3 in "Working with the Step Sequencer"), lets you adjust the feel of the pattern by increasing the distance between notes. Notes on odd-numbered steps remain unchanged, while even-numbered notes are slightly shifted. This control affects all voices that have swing enabled in the pattern (different swing amounts cannot be assigned to voices individually).

1.

While the sequencer is in play, click-hold the Swing knob, dragging the pointer up and down to adjust the value.

Listen to the results.

2.

Click the Swing button to the left of the trigger row to turn off swing for the snare part.

The snare drum sequence's "feel" changes in relation to the rest of the voices in the pattern.

3.

Click the Swing button to enable swing again for the snare voice.

4.

Click-hold the Swing knob, setting the swing value back to about 58%.

5.

Stop playback of the pattern.

Copying a Sequence Part from One Voice to Another

The pattern you are working with utilizes a different kick drum sound (A#2) from the one you edited in an earlier exercise (C1). In this exercise, you want to use the same sequence part but have it trigger the kick you edited. You can do this by copying and pasting the sequence data from one voice to another.

1.

Ctrl-click the kick drum voice (A#2).

A menu appears with voice-editing commands.

2.

Choose Copy (Voice & Seq).

3.

Ctrl-click the kick voice at the bottom of the track list (C1) and choose Paste Sequence > 5.

4.

Click the M button next to the kick voice that you just copied from A#2 to mute the original kick drum sequence.

5.

Play the pattern.

The kick drum sequence now triggers the kick you want, in addition to the original voice (which is muted).

TIP

The same technique can be used to copy and paste voice settings from one voice slot to another; you choose Paste Voice instead of Paste Sequence on the destination voice.


Triggering Patterns via MIDI

Now that you have done some work on an existing pattern, let's incorporate it into the song. Each pattern in Ultrabeat can be triggered via an incoming or recorded MIDI note; this allows the starting and stopping of patterns on the fly (especially advantageous for performance).

1.

Click the Pattern Mode Off button, located at the bottom of the window.

The button now displays the On state.

This enables Ultrabeat to receive incoming MIDI data as pattern triggers.

2.

Click-hold the triangle button for the pop-up menu to the immediate right and choose Sustain.

This menu lets you choose how the pattern will trigger with incoming MIDI notes. Since you have selected Sustain, the pattern will repeat as long as you have the key depressed.

3.

Play the C-1 through E-1 keys on your MIDI controller, holding down each for a short period of time.

NOTE

The specific trigger notes were chosen because they are located far below the most commonly used range on a MIDI keyboard. You may have to transpose your MIDI controller (using its octave buttons) to activate the pattern triggers. You can double-check your octave range in the floating MIDI Activity display in the bottom left corner of the screen.

A different pattern triggers for each key depressed.

Look at the pattern # menu, which you accessed earlier. Each pattern has a number designating the slot, as well as a MIDI note number (within parentheses) next to it. The MIDI note number indicates which incoming MIDI note will trigger which pattern.

Recording with Ultrabeat

Now you can create a drum track utilizing pattern triggers in conjunction with individual voice triggers.

1.

Close the Ultrabeat interface.

The Inst 1 track that has Ultrabeat instantiated has a blank MIDI Region that you will use for your part.

2.

Select the blank MIDI Region on Track 1, and choose Windows > Matrix Edit.

A Matrix Edit window opens.

TIP

You can set a preference that allows you to open the Matrix Editor (or any other editor) by double-clicking a MIDI Region; choose Logic Pro > Preferences > Global > Editing, and go to the "Double-clicking a MIDI Region opens" menu.

3.

Zoom out horizontally so that you can see about 16 bars in the timeline.

4.

Select the Pencil tool and draw in a D#-1 note starting on measure 1 and lasting for eight bars.

This triggers pattern number 4.

NOTE

When the MIDI Out button is active (by default), Logic will send data to the track instrument.

5.

Draw an E-1 note at measure 9 lasting four bars.

This triggers pattern number 5, the one you edited.

NOTE

Logic automatically inserts a note with a length based on the last note entered. However, you can create a new note of any duration by selecting the Pencil tool and dragging the note horizontally until the correct length is reached.

6.

Draw a C#2 note at measure 13 for four bars.

This is the crash cymbal you edited earlier.

TIP

Logic should create another note whose length is equal to the previous one (four bars). Logic always inserts events by using the last created event as the length and velocity default.

7.

Close the Matrix Edit window.

8.

Play the song.

You just created a drum part stringing together two patterns (D#-1 and E-1) and a triggered voice (crash cymbal).



Apple Pro Training Series Advanced Logic Pro 7
Apple Pro Training Series: Advanced Logic Pro 7
ISBN: 0321256077
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2004
Pages: 166
Authors: David Dvorin

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