New to Logic, need help with adding 3rd-party instruments

[Matthew-BitF]

Hi everyone!

 

I'm an indie video game composer and I've just started writing through Logic Pro X. Previously, I'd just record music live through a keyboard--the upside was that the keyboard samples actually sounded rather good, while the downside was that my human error would inevitably lead to some small rhythm errors here and there.

 

Naturally, the MIDI approach with Logic solves that issue handily (quantization is great), but I find that a new downside is that...frankly, I don't love the instrumentation. I know there are ways to adjust the sound but it's fairly overwhelming even after consulting the manual to get started, particularly for someone like me who's done composition but fairly little in the way of actual editing (I used to use Audition for recording).

 

Anyway, my core question is twofold: I'd like to do orchestral-style songs (horns, strings, etc) with high-quality sound samples--what third-party recommendations would you guys have for adding to my Logic Pro library? I'm on a bit of a budget but not a super-tight one, and if there's a really great-sounding set of instruments that I could use for years, I think it'd be worth the investment. Secondly, how the heck do you add these sounds into Logic? I tried getting a few from the free trial off the EastWest site, but I can't for the life of me figure out how to implement the .ewi files into Logic, and Google has not helped me.

 

So that's why I've joined today. Hope I don't sound completely clueless from this post, but I'd really like the tools in Logic to complement my compositions, rather than hold them back. Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks!

[Eric Cardenas]

Hi Matthew.

 

There a huge variety of 3rd party sample libraries out there.

Here's one example with a mix of orchestral stuff:

ProjectSAM Orchestral Essentials 1

 

Regarding your question about iinstatiating sounds.

Create a new Software Instrument track. Choose Empy channel strip in the new track dialog window.

Then locate the Instrument slot on the channel strip and click on it. Navigate down to AU instruments and you should be able to find the Play engine under the EastWest sub folder.

[Matthew-BitF]

Thanks for the prompt reply! I'll take a close look at your link to find some instruments I'm interested in.

 

I'm still having some trouble though. I followed your directions and made a new track through Play, but it didn't seem to pull from any of the new sounds I got (in this case, a cello). If I record, it picks up my keyboard but no sound comes through on the playback.

 

I feel like I'm missing some important, simple step, so I've included a screenshot of both Logic Pro after I do this and the folder my sounds are tucked away into. "Inst 4" is the new track I made, and it doesn't seem to have any sounds when I play it back.

[Eric Cardenas]

Did you open the Play plug-in (click on the slot) and initiated the Cello instrument?

[Matthew-BitF]

Ah, that helped! Thanks for the heads-up--like I said, I'm new to this and am still learning a lot of the basics. I'll go check out some of those other instrument samples now.

[Eric Cardenas]

You're welcome!

I hope you find something you like.

[Matthew-BitF]

Thanks. I've since picked up the Swing! set of instruments by ProjectSAM, but have run into some difficulty. I've gotten the Kompakt player downloaded so that I can play the instruments through my keyboard, but I can't marry it to Logic Pro right now. Based on how it worked before, the drop-down window should list Kontakt (or Native Instruments) under the AU instruments setting, but all that shows up there is Apple, East West and Garritan. Is there a step I've missed along the way to put the Kompakt player into Logic?