Music Producing & Engineering
Course 2: The Daw

Digital Audio Workstations (DAW) played a big part in expanding the role of a producer from someone that gathered musicians together for a single, perfect take to the multi-faceted Swiss Army Knife of today. With the ability to shrink almost an entire studio into a computer or laptop, making music has never been more accessible.

And Logic Pro X is one of the most established DAWs on the market. In this course, you’ll learn a little bit of Logic Pro (and general DAW) history, how to prepare your Mac (it’s an Apple-only system) for the software, and final installation. You’ll then get an in-depth look at the Logic Pro interface and all of its capabilities.

Course 2 will cover all–or at least most–of the Logic Pro features, including the number of tracks you can work with, installed instruments, and plugins, patches, and loops. You’ll learn how to access these features in the interface and how to begin a session. There’s a reason Logic Pro has been a mainstay in the music industry for decades: it’s so versatile!

Finally, you’ll learn how to import audio and Apple Loops so you can begin to use some of the powerful tools in Logic Pro. Your assignment for the course will be to create a two-minute song using Apple Loops. Don’t overthink this assignment–it’s a fun exercise to give you some familiarity with the DAW. The course review, quiz, and blog entry will also be completed.

Objectives

• Understand the basic functions of their DAW and its layout.
• Be able to identify the different tools available in the DAW.
• Demonstrate basic ability to navigate the functions within the DAW.
• Be able to construct artistic ideas within the DAW.
• Be able to communicate the basic functions to others.