Logic Pro and band in a box.

Logic Pro and band in a box make a wonderful combination. There are a few glitches in my workflow, but I have found an easy way to fix them. If you use band in a box to make a song and then export the MIDI into Logic Pro, the MIDI tracks always need some adjusting. Until recently Logic Pro did not have a drum set with brushes, but now they do. In fact, all of Apple's DLS music device did not have a GM to MIDI brush kit; one would have to download that from somewhere. Band in a box includes one with the high quality MIDI samples starting last year or so. However, logic Pro has even better MIDI sounds.

How to get them?

What I have done is create a project template, or two, which uses a MIDI mapper. The MIDI mapper allows you to select any MIDI sound and map it to whatever you want. For instance, the band in a box drum brush kit uses note 39 for a brush slap. GM MIDI uses note 39 for a hand clap. So if I import a MIDI drum track which is supposed to use brush slaps I wind up with a lot of handclaps. In Logic Pro use the MIDI mapper to map note 39 to a brush slap.

So let's make a project template or two:

First, create a new blank project.

Next, add two software instruments.

For the second software instrument, go to the library and select the speakeasy producer drum kit. The producer drum kits are, of course, of very high quality and allow great flexibility. They have mics above the snare, at the bottom of the snare, and in general all over the place. Each mic can individually be compressed, EQ’ed, level adjusted, etc.

Next we add the MIDI mapper in the chain. Open the MIDI environment window. What I do is rearrange the channel strips in the environment mixing layer. Create a space before the Overheads. Notice that the Overheads have the drum kit. You can change to whatever drum kit you want by clicking on the Overheads and selecting a new drum kit. Now under the menu “new”, create a new mapped instrument. A pop-up window ask if you want to change some things, say no. A window which shows the input/output mapping pops up. We will adjust the mapping shortly. I dragged the newly created mapped instrument in the space we just created right before the Overheads. Now drag from the right edge of that mapped instrument to the Overheads. This simulates plugging a cable from the mapped instrument into the Overheads. Below shows how I mapped the incoming MIDI notes into the speakeasy producer drum kit. Now fix up the mappings; D#1 is note #39 in Logic Pro.

The Brush Kit is usually the same as the Standard Drum Kit with the following three exceptions:
• Note #38 is a Brush Tap instead of a Snare Drum.speakeasy = note F#-1
• Note #39 is a Brush Slap instead of a Hand Clap. speakeasy = note F-1
• Note #40 is a Brush Swirl instead of a Snare Drum. speakeasy = note A-1



Next go back to the main window and control click or right-click on instrument one, and reassign its track to the mapped instrument. I also renamed instrument one to MappedDrumTrack.

Save this as a template for new projects, but before you do you may want to adjust other things, windows, colors, etc. for your new project template.

You may want to create a normal mapped producer drum kit as well. This would allow you to go into the mapped instrument and change the sounds. 99% of the time you wouldn't do that, but your project would be ready to change some sounds, for instance change the cowbell to something else.

Now when you want to import a new BIAB song, use this template for a brush drum kit, import the midi file, and drag the drum track to the “MappedDrumTrack”. Now the brush sounds play with a highly adjustible drum kit, much better than the Grand Piano track.

Also, I find the instruments need to be adjusted. Choose a library instrument next to the one of your instrument track, then choose back. For instance, choose Yamaha piano, the choose Steinway. This will setup reverb and other things in the channel strip.

This is inspired from a YouTube video, but I think he made it a little too complicated. Check it out:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wo_w9b3LbQ

Biab, Logic Pro, Mac