Cirencester Deer Park School - Music Technology

Midi Sequencing in Logic

This page is aimed at showing you how you can set up and create the building blocks of a project.

Step 1- Setting up a Virtual Instrument

Set up a virtual instrument track and choose the Retro Synth.

To do this you can select the + icon shown below and then select the Retro Synth from the instrument option.

Step 2- Creating a chord sequence

Record one of the chord sequences from the options below (chord sequence 1-4) . Each chord should last for 1 bar as shown in the diagram opposite.

Once this chord has been programmed you need to program in the rest of the chords. There are some alternative sequences that work quite well below.

Once you have inputted your chord sequence repeat it at least 4 times.

Chord Sequence 1

Chord Sequence 2

Chord Sequence 3

Chord Sequence 4

Step 3- Making your chords more interesting

To make your chord more interesting, you could add another track, duplicate your chords and then try to change the rhythm of the chords, so you have a balance between long chord sounds and rhythmically interesting chords.

Adding a bit more interesting rhythm, the notes are now not a whole bar long.

On the ruler you can see the individual beats, 1.2, 2.3, 1.4

The middle chord has the notes in a different order. It is still the same chord.

In this picture, you can see the notes are repeated and are much shorter.

Step 4 - Adding a Bass Line

The purpose of a bass line is to add depth to your piece. At a basic level it can move with the chords. Bass instruments usually only play one note at once. They quite often play the root note of the chord.

In this picture you can see the bass is playing a C2 note, this is the same note as the lowest note in the chord above, which is a C3.

This isn't the most interesting bass line, but would add a bit more depth to the sound than just having the chords.

Here is a way of making the bass a little bit more interested. Notice now that the bass line is moving faster than the chords.

The next step could be to try and change some of the bass notes to try and make a bit more of an independant part out of them.

Step 5 - Adding a Riff Part

The purpose of the RIFF part is to add some melodic interest in to your piece. A RIFF is a repeating pattern of notes. Notice how the track below has a repeating pattern that repeats 3 times before changing at the end.

The notes selected have mainly come from the chords already used in the piece, using chord notes is a good place to start.

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