Q: What will this month's Logic Notes article be focusing on?
My previous two Logic Notes articles were targeted at 1st year ICOM students. Although I do know of some senior students who have downloaded the Logic song template, I haven't yet written any Logic article with them in mind. As such, this month's article will focus on a tool which the senior students especially, may find quite helpful (of course, it is also applicable to the 1st year students.)

Senior students are not easy to impress. A year ago, when ICOM started its m-Mobility laptop package, I found that one of the biggest attractions to these students is Logic's support for Apple Loops. It is an instant gratification tool that requires minimal effort (hint, hint) to add professional sounding beats and instrument parts (more hints) to a commercial audio production or a school music project.

Q: What are Apple Loops?
Apple Loops are musical phrases that can be repeated seamlessly. They are pre-recorded, ready to use phrases that are typically between 1 - 4 measures in length. These audio and software instrument loops cover a variety of styles and various types of musical instrument phrases.

Q: How are Apple Loops different from other generic loops?
The Apple Loops file format contains tags which provide information about the loop's tempo, key (not applicable to drum beats), instrument, genre, mood, etc. This information can be read by compatible audio production software such as Logic 7 and GarageBand. This compatibility enables the Apple Loops to follow the song's tempo, key and chord progressions with automatic pitch shifting and time stretching "corrections" in real time.

Meanwhile, the categories in the Apple Loops tags provide a convenient way to search for the desired loops (by instrument, genre, mood, etc.). By only listing the matching loops, the search process will narrow down the choices, from the thousands to a much smaller and easier to manage size.