How To Edit Audio In Logic Pro | Learn The Basics

Producing music, podcasts, or any other form of sonic expression has become more accessible than ever, thanks to the incredible tools and software available for the masses today. Among the world’s most popular Digital Audio Stations (DAWs), Logic Pro stands out as a user-friendly powerhouse that both beginners and seasoned musicians, producers, and sound engineers can take advantage of.

One of the pillars that holds any DAW up is its arsenal of tools for manipulating audio files. Thankfully, Logic offers a vast array of methods and strategies that you can use to edit audio in your projects based on your goal and workflow.

In this post, I will guide you through the best audio editing methods in Logic Pro, from importing, recording, and organizing audio files to advanced production techniques to make your audio tracks sound professional. But before we get into that, let’s see what an audio track is in Logic and how it differs from other tracks.

Difference Between Audio And MIDI Tracks

Logic generally allows you to work with two essential sources for creating music: audio and MIDI. Understanding the differences between these track types is critical to creating music efficiently and reaching your creative goals.

Audio Tracks handle captured or imported audio waveforms. These files represent recordings from microphones, live instruments, or prerecorded sounds such as samples and loops.

When working with audio tracks, you can edit and make adjustments to the waveforms. This includes cutting, splitting, copying and pasting, and applying various audio effect plugins.

On the other hand, MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) tracks consist of certain information that determines the characteristics of musical notes, pitch, duration, and other parameters. In other terms, MIDI is a language form that allows you to play software instruments in Logic.

You have much more room to play around and adjust different characteristics when editing MIDI. Changing note pitch, velocity, note duration, and complex MIDI effects are only some of the abilities Logic grants you when working with software instruments and MIDI in general. For instance, Logic gives you various tools to help you manipulate MIDI to make it sound more human and natural.

You have to keep in mind that your moves are more limited when working with audio compared to working with MIDI in Logic. So, make sure you’ve finalized your sound and made the final adjustments to your software instruments before bouncing them in place as a way to reduce stress on your computer’s CPU.

Main Editing Tools In The Primary Workspace

Upon opening a new Logic project, you’ll notice that the main workspace dominates most of your screen real estate. This is where you can see where your tracks fall on the grid and arrange your audio, MIDI, loops, and drummer regions.

Fundamentally, you have two ways to add new audio regions to your project: Import pre-existing files or record new ones.

You can access your file browser to look for audio files on your computer and import them to Logic. Moreover, you can access Apple Loops and find desired sounds from an extensive list of license-free loops and samples. Both of the options are on the top-right of your screen.

If you add unwanted regions on the grid, you can select them and press “backspace” or “delete” on your keyboard to remove them. If you select and drag your pointer, you can move them horizontally across the grid.

Moving audio regions vertically will make Logic play them back according to other audio track parameters. For instance, if you have a recorded guitar line and two audio tracks with different guitar effects, you can quickly drag and move your audio region between the two to figure out which sounds better.

Moreover, you can access more editing options by control-clicking selected audio regions. Copying, cutting, splitting, trimming, and bouncing tools can all be accessed from this menu.

You can also access folders and coloring tools by control-clicking regions, which are vital for keeping your projects well-arranged and organized.

Most basic adjustments, such as splitting and copying, have dedicated shortcuts and key commands. Learning these key commands can be an invaluable investment in the long run and help you streamline your workflow. In another post, I have listed the most essential key commands every producer must learn in Logic Pro.

You’ll find additional editing options at the top of the main workspace. Logic allows you to assign different editing tools to your primary and secondary clicks (1). Secondary pointer clicks (Holding “Command” and clicking) as a fade tool save me a lot of time. I recommend utilizing that in your workflow. You can also define how regions behave when dragged to overlapping positions (2). I always choose X-Fade, which makes the two overlapping regions smoothly fade into one another.

Advanced Editing Tools In The Inspector Menu And The Editor Window

Now, let’s take a look at other audio editing sections besides the primary grid. By pressing “E” on your keyboard, the Editor window pops open at the bottom of your screen. The first thing you’ll notice is that it allows you to look at selected regions and apply trims and cuts with much more precision.

What’s more, the editor menu lets you add audio effects to selected regions of a track:

•  Click “Functions” from the top-left corner of the editor menu.
•  Select “Selection-Based Processing…”

However, if you want to apply effects and add plugins to all regions of a track, you should use the Inspector menu. Two Inspector channel strips open at the left side of your screen when you press “I.” By default, the one on the left showcases your track, whereas the other one is for your project output.

At the top of the inspector menu, you have the “Region” drop-down menu with quite a few useful tricks up its sleeve. You can use this menu to transpose a region (change key) or to put the playback in reverse.

At the center of your track’s inspector strip, you have your “Audio FX” slot. This is where the magic happens in music production. Click it, and a menu containing all available plugins shows up. A significant chunk of the learning process in using Logic Pro is how and when to use audio effects to get desirable results, so don’t expect to become a pro at it overnight. To get started, check out my extended guide on Logic’s most important stock plugins that every producer must know how to use.

Final Thoughts On Editing Audio: There’s Much More

Most of your time as a producer or a mixing and mastering engineer will be dedicated to editing audio files. It can be anything from cutting a file in half to applying the most complex sound effect to making specific frequencies cut through the mix.

It’s not possible to explain everything in a single post. However, this guide should work as a solid cornerstone to get you going in the right direction in your music-making journey.

If you need more lessons about producing, mixing, mastering, and songwriting, check out my Free 6 Pillars On How To Learn Logic Pro Faster guidebook.