Apple Logic Express 9 - Manual (Page 754)

Stage 1: Making Preparations
Take some time to prepare and preview your arrangement before you start mixing.
• Preview the tracks in your arrangement to see if you can group some of them in a
logical manner. If you have lots of drum tracks, for example, it can be useful to group
these tracks and link some of their parameters, which you can then adjust for the whole
group at once. For details, see
Working with Mixer Groups .
• Preview the tracks in your arrangement using the mute and solo functions. See Muting
Channel Strips and Soloing Channel Strips .
Stage 2: Setting Volume Levels
Set the relative levels for each channel strip, to control the volume relationships between
your project’s parts. See
Setting Channel Strip Levels .
Stage 3: Setting Pan or Balance
Set the pan/balance for each channel strip, to control their positions in the stereo field.
See
Setting Pan or Balance in the Mixer .
Stage 4: Adding and Routing Effects
After the basic sound and levels are the way you like them, you can add some effects,
such as reverb or chorus, to your musical parts. You also need to look at how you route
your audio to these effects. See
Adding and Routing Effects in the Mixer .
Stage 5: Controlling Signal Flow
There are many ways to control the signal flow in your mix, using inputs/outputs, aux
channel strips, output channel strips, multiple instrument outputs, and so on. See
Controlling Signal Flow in the Mixer .
Stage 6: Automating the Mix
Some parts of your project may benefit from real-time changes to levels, effects, or
instrument settings. This is best achieved with track automation. See
Working with
Automation .
Stage 7: Bouncing the Project
The last phase—which is not a mixing task, per se—is to render or bounce your project
to one or more files. See
Bouncing Your Project .
Working with Mixer Groups
Prior to mixing, you may find it useful to define some logical channel strip groups.
Logic Express allows you to create a maximum of 32 groups and it’s possible for a channel
strip to be a member of multiple groups. You could, for example, group all drum channel
strips under one drum group. This would enable you to control the group meters (volume,
pan, and so on) using a single control, while still maintaining the relative parameter values
of each channel strip.
754 Chapter 27 Mixing