Chopping And Playing Sample Pieces In Logic Express Options

[rabblerouser]

I've looked around a bunch and can't seem to find a clear answer to this question, which makes me think the answer is no... Here's the deal.

I have played with Reason and Recycle to chop and play samples of drums, melodies, etc. and it's okay. I really like the GarageBand interface and think I would like Logic even more. Also, I think the Apple Loops Utility kicks all kinds of ass over Recycle. Can I set transient chops in the Loop Utility and trigger those as individual sample pieces in Logic Express? I understand this is not possible in Garage Band, but what about Logic Express? If not, I may end up getting an MPC.

Any direction/comments are much appreciated.

[Brian Stone]

I've looked around a bunch and can't seem to find a clear answer to this question, which makes me think the answer is no... Here's the deal.

I have played with Reason and Recycle to chop and play samples of drums, melodies, etc. and it's okay. I really like the GarageBand interface and think I would like Logic even more. Also, I think the Apple Loops Utility kicks all kinds of ass over Recycle. Can I set transient chops in the Loop Utility and trigger those as individual sample pieces in Logic Express? I understand this is not possible in Garage Band, but what about Logic Express? If not, I may end up getting an MPC.

Any direction/comments are much appreciated.

I wish I could say YES, but the Apple Loops Utility doesn't do what you think it does. Those markers are not chopping points, they are there to give the time stretching engine in Logic and GarageBand and Soundtrack Pro 'hints' on what parts of the loop to "protect" from the effects of time stretching. The net effect is that snares and kicks, hats, etc, sound more natural if their tails are stretched but the transients (the first few samples at the start of each sound) is left untouched.

So - to be clear, you cannot do anything like what you want with Apple Loops. You can open Apple Loops into slicing tools like Recycle, but it doesn't bring anything useful to the process. For example, the markers are not read by ReCycle for example.

Anyhow, what you really want is an amazing 3rd party application called Phatmatik Pro. This is an instrument audio unit that works in GarageBand and Logic which allows you to do what you do in recycle, but right inside a cool little sampler.

http://izotope.com/products/audio/phatmatik/

You won't find an easier, or fast or higher quality way to slice up audio and trigger the pieces.

They have some decent videos, shame that they picked such a poor example file to operate on. I promise this plug-in has great precision and timing. (no I don't work for izotope)

I've seen hip hop kids flip out when they see this tool.