Reply To: Nothing I Can Say - Logic Template

[Guido tum SudenKeymaster]

Okay, let's start (it may be, that some of the terms I use are not the right ones, because I will translate them back from German to English).

Logic has mainly four types of tracks and so four types of different channel strips.
- Audio Track
- Sofware Instrument
- Bus or Aux Channel
- MIDI Track (which you only need when you use the sounds of external MIDI instruments)

Each channel has some typical components
- Input: This is a signal going into the channel
- Insert: Here the signal leaves the channel, goes through another device (usually a plugin) and goes (changed) back into the channel. You can use 15 inserts (plugins).
- Send: Here you grab the signal and send it somewhere else without the signal leaving the channel. You can have 8 Sends. If you so want, you could say you make a copy of the signal and send it (usually) to a bus or an aux-channel, which is the same for our purpose. The copied signal will then be on another channel (a bus), which is what you did in your template. This just makes the signal louder and only has a purpose if you change the sound in the copy (by inserting a plugin for example). But you still have the sound from the original channel.
- Output: Here the signal leaves the channel and you tell it where it goes. In Logic "Stereo Out" means the signal goes directly to the last "channel" in your mixer which has the main outputs of your audio interface.

The differences

- Input
- Audio Track: The input of the channel is one of your audio interfaces' inputs
- Software Instrument: The input is a software instrument plugin (like one of the many from Logic or maybe the Kontakt sampler or something else.)
- Bus: Important! The Input is either what you get from a Send or an Output of an Audio Track, a Software Instrument or another Bus.

- Insert
- in all channel types you insert a plugin here. This can be an EQ. If the plugin doesn't have a mix knob it will alter the signal completely.

- Send
- in all channel types you make a copy of the signal and send it, usually with a different volume, to the input of a bus.

- Output
- in all channel types you determine where the signal of that channel goes. This can not only be an Output but also a bus. If the outputs of more than one channel (e.g. all drum channels) go to one bus this is called "summing".

So, in your template you shouldn't have used Sends to feed busses. You should have changed the outputs of the channels to the inputs of the appropriate busses and only let the outputs of the busses go to the "Stereo Out" which essentially is a bus, too.

So, this was the first part. If you have questions, just ask. 🙂
If you want to change your template and show the outcome, please remove not only the tracks but also the audio files from the audio browser and see, that the actual audio files are no longer part of the Logic file. You can find them in the "Audio Files" folder. If you only have one file, you have to right-click it and open the content to find the Audio Files folder.

Guido