Chop MIDI Notes in Logic

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Big.al2626

Big.al2626

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In FL Studio theres a great chop feature when working with midi notes (Alt + U), Its my bread and butter I can't function without it! I was wondering in Logic Pro 9.1 Has any similar feature? Please Help!
 
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What do you need the chop to do? Press escape 5 to switch to the scissor tool...
 
Depending on which version of logic you have and what type of computer you're working on, your key commands can vary. To view/modify what your chop (split regions at playhead) key command is, find it in key commands like I am showing in the first screen shot.

Key Commands.webp

In the piano roll you have a the "Command Click" tool option available (menu open in the bottom right hand corner of this screen shot). When chopping up hats or snares for dirty south fills and such, switch your command click tool to scissors so that you can just hold command and click where you want the midi note to be split.

Command Click Tool.webp

It seriously is simple and really efficient once you get the hang of it.

Danarchy
 
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Scissors tool should work or just drag your notes shorter. Not really sure what the chop tool is in FL since im not a fl user, please be more specific on what it does so I can give you a better answer.

ps I would rather chop up audio rather than midi. You can quickly convert your midi to audio in logic 9 by selecting a region and clicking ctl +b or just right click on select bounce in place.
 
Depending on which version of logic you have and what type of computer you're working on, your key commands can vary. To view/modify what your chop (split regions at playhead) key command is, find it in key commands like I am showing in the first screen shot.

View attachment 35003

In the piano roll you have a the "Command Click" tool option available (menu open in the bottom right hand corner of this screen shot). When chopping up hats or snares for dirty south fills and such, switch your command click tool to scissors so that you can just hold command and click where you want the midi note to be split.

View attachment 35004

It seriously is simple and really efficient once you get the hang of it.

Danarchy
Thanks for posting that. One question, so let's say you're inputting 1/16th notes and then want to go to 1/64 for a few... do you adjust the grid at the bottom? And then input them? Is there a faster way to do this? Thanks a lot.

---------- Post added at 05:57 AM ---------- Previous post was at 05:56 AM ----------

Scissors tool should work or just drag your notes shorter. Not really sure what the chop tool is in FL since im not a fl user, please be more specific on what it does so I can give you a better answer.

ps I would rather chop up audio rather than midi. You can quickly convert your midi to audio in logic 9 by selecting a region and clicking ctl +b or just right click on select bounce in place.

I don't have a lot of experience with chopping audio. Could I ask why you prefer it?

The reason why I don't very much is I like the flexibility of changing the sound/plugins whenever I want. I guess I'm still really experimenting with compressor settings/patches so I like to keep it all flexible.

Oh, and I'm sure you're aware of the freeze feature but if anyone else isn't - that's a good alternative and saves you lots of cpu.
 
Yeah i agree with you that it is nice to have the flexibility to keep changing notes. But once its time to commit to a sound I like to bounce to audio to do my edits. I like chopping audio better because you can visually see the wave form and that makes it easier to know where to cut. Also sometimes midi might have an effect tail on it that when duplicating it sounds bad when overlapped with the next clip. audio doesnt have this, what you see is what you get. So lets say you are building towards a breakdown and you stutter edit your kicks, and you go from kicks that are a 1/4 apart and build to kicks that are a 1/16 or even 1/32 i have always had better sound quality with audio as opposed to midi. Also if you want to use time stretching audio is the way to go.
 
Nice. didn't know there were so many benefits. excited to try that once I get a sound I'm somewhat happy with.

Any tips on time stretching?
 
yeah and after you bounce to audio just mute your midi track and keep it just in case you need to make a change, then bounce again. With time stretching or warping just know that you cant stretch to far cause it will start to sound bad. But that also depends on the algorithm you are using. With Logic you can simply stretch a region by hold option and then dragging it out farther. You can also use the "flex" tool with Logic which is nice but I have found that other programs do this alittle better like ableton and pro tools. Its really nice for a editing a live recording that might be a little off. But if you are using midi to start with you dont really need it unless you are making an effect.
 
yeah and after you bounce to audio just mute your midi track and keep it just in case you need to make a change, then bounce again. With time stretching or warping just know that you cant stretch to far cause it will start to sound bad. But that also depends on the algorithm you are using. With Logic you can simply stretch a region by hold option and then dragging it out farther. You can also use the "flex" tool with Logic which is nice but I have found that other programs do this alittle better like ableton and pro tools. Its really nice for a editing a live recording that might be a little off. But if you are using midi to start with you dont really need it unless you are making an effect.

that's a good idea...
 
Okay guys. The chop function in Fruity Loops allows you to take a MIDI note that has already been drawn into the piano roll of any length, and chop that one note into multiple notes of a smaller size, based on the grid. So for instance, you could take a whole note (note that is 1 bar in length), select "chop" and in the window that comes up, set it to chop into 1/64th notes and viola!, you now have 64 notes chopped precisely to the grid.

So far in my experience there IS NOTHING close to this in Logic, and I've been using logic for about 4 years. I just got Ableton Live, and in Live while drawing MIDI notes (in draw mode) you can click and drag on a note, and it will repeat the notes based on the grid. I want Logic to function like this but so far I have had no luck. When you click and drag in the piano roll in Logic, it ALWAYS changes the note length.

Now, in order to change your grid resolution, you do simply change the division of the time signature in the transport window by double-clicking on it. The division is right under the time signature in the transport window, to the left of the Tempo. It is by default set to /16 which is obviously 16th notes. It maxes out at 64.

IMO MIDI editing in logic is not really designed for hard-programming music (drawing in MIDI notes with a mouse) but is rather more geared towards editing MIDI performances done on a MIDI controller. It can be done, but it becomes pretty tedious quite easily. This drawback is a prime example of that. Unfortunately your only option is to draw in every single note individually rather than chopping. From there though you can quantize to the grid to ensure accuracy, and also set the note length in the "functions menu" all at once.
 
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