Advanced Automation With MIDIFx (even in audio tracks)

If you like being creative, here's a fun way to create a step sequencer automation tool. For those of you who know LFOTool and similar plugins, you know what I'm talking about. The only issue with those plugins is that they have a single wave that loops. There's also the fact that you can't zoom as much as you can zoom with Logic's zoom, which can be very useful. LFOTool also doesn't have an Undo/Redo function (even though a lot of people, me included, asked for that over and over again).

The way I'm about to describe let's you create custom waveforms and assign them to any plugin parameter you want. The advantage of this "technique" vs creating normal Track/Region automation is that you can control the amount of automation, without touching the waveforms

Here we go (for MIDI tracks):

- Once you have your Software instrument, create a new track using the option New Track With Same Channel Strip/Instrument. This is where your automation will be

- On that automation track, create an empty region (Create Empty MIDI Region). For now, make it 1 beat long.

- Turn Automation ON and change it to Region Automation

- Double click the region to open the lower window (Piano Roll).

- Activate the automation on that bottom window

- Set the automation Snap to Snap To Grid and Snap Notes To Absolute Value

- Change the Automation/MIDI on the left side to any MIDI Control number. I choose 111, for example.

- Create an automation node on both left and right edges of the region. Drag the left node all the way up and the right node all the way down, so you have a ramp down.

- Go to the main window and duplicate that region 3 times so you have 4 regions, making it 1 bar long. So now you have your main filter shaper with 4 ramp down automation

- Go to MIDI FX and add a Modifier. Assign the Input Event to 111 and the Re-Assign To to any parameter you want on the software instrument or even an insert plugin you have. It's up to you

- As I said, with this technique you can control the amount of modulation without changing the waveforms so just use the Scale and Add inside the Modifier to achieve the result you want.

- After that, just play with the region automation you created, create new shapes, etc.

- If you want to change the rate (to a faster rate), select all 4 regions, resize them using the resize tool while holding ALT/Option, then drag the 3 right regions to align with the first one (I have a shortcut that does that automatically: Key Commands > Shuffle Left)

FOR AUDIO TRACKS

- Once you have your audio track, create a new MIDI track

- As a Software Instrument, add a plugin that will NOT change the original sound AND has a Side Chain option (Logic's internal side chain that appears on some plugins on the top right corner of the plugin window). In my case, I have a free plugin called Melda MOscilloscope.

IMPORTANT: this plugin needs to be added as AU MIDI-controlled Effects (at least, based on the plugins I have to do the job, that's the only option).

- On the Side Chain, pick the audio track you want to affect. After you do that you can (and should) mute the original audio track (not the region) so the audio goes through the MIDI plugin

- Follow the same instructions as above, step #2

I guess that's it! If you find anything that doesn't make sense, please let me know so I can update this topic.

Here's a project I created. All you need is to install Melda MOscilloscope for it to work with the audio track.

3ple - Step Sequencer Filter.zip

Hope this is somehow useful

TIP: when you create different waveforms, save them as Apple Loops and give them all the same name with just sequence numbers (Waveform 01, Waveform 02, etc). That way, when you import them into your project, you can easily and quickly use the top left corner of the region to pick another waveform.

NOTE: with this technique you can also use the Modulator MIDIFX as an LFO on audio tracks. Just assign it to MIDI CC 111 (or any number you pick for your automation)