5 Quick Ways To Personalize Apple Loops in Logic Pro X

#2—Change the Sound Source on Green Apple Loops

Let’s go a step further and swap the Guitar instrument for a plucked sound in Logic Pro’s vastly under-utilized Sculpture instrument.

In the screenshot below you can see I have gone into the Plucked Instruments folder and chosen Namaste.

And now it sounds like this:

Very cool!

#3—Change the Quantizing with Flex on a Blue Apple Loop

Blue Apple Loops are audio loops and less easily manipulated than the software instrument based Green Apple Loops. But there is still a lot you can do with them.

Listen to the audio example below and you can hear a nice swingy little loop named Trip Hop Morse Beat 01.

Let’s have some fun. Below, you can see that I have enabled Flex and had the loop analyzed with the Slicing algorithm, the preferred one for drums.

I go to the Region Parameter box and set the Quantize setting to 1/16 Triplet  (1/24) and as you can hear below, now it really swings!

Of course, I could go further and start manipulating the Flex markers in the region to do some very detailed shifting and add some FX, so this is only scratching the surface.

#4—Drag the Apple Loops Into Alchemy 

This new feature in the latest Logic Pro update opens up all kinds of creative possibilities. I have found a nice little Apple Loop named Last Episode Bells that you can hear below.

I create a software instrument channel strip and instantiate Alchemy. Notice that I have gone to Advanced Mode and cleared the default patch. 

I then simply drag it to Source A in the Alchemy interface, as I have done.

It is now a playable instrument, just as it is, but what if I load an additional sound source from Alchemy into Source B, as I am doing in the image below, retune it, pan them, and add a little reverb? You can hear it in the audio example.

Once again, I am just scratching the surface. My own only limitations are my time and creativity.

#5—Combine Altered Apple Loops to Make Your Own Apple Loop

I decide that I can use the flexed Trip Hop loop with the Alchemy part together and it sounds cool, but it needs more. I can drag in some more Apple Loops of course, but hey, I am a keyboard player, so instead I play in a simple bass part and a second Alchemy instrument, add a few mastering plug-ins on the stereo output and the result is:

I can now bounce it with the option to add it to my Project Audio folder and simply drag it into the Loop Browser GUI, and it is mine to use in any project!

You can debate whether any of this was worthwhile and whether my changes to the Apple Loops made them better or worse, but what you cannot deny is, I made them “mine.” 

Have fun!

Learn everything you could possibly want to about Logic Pro X here.