Adding a Session Player is covered in the Logic Pro course. This is the part where you stop taking what you are given and direct the player.
Double-click a Session Player region to open the Session Player Editor below the Tracks area. Everything here applies to the selected region, so you can direct each section of the song separately.
The two faders
- Complexity - how much the player puts in. Left is the bare bones of the part, right is everything they know.
- Intensity - how hard they hit it. Affects dynamics and, on the drums, which parts of the kit get used.
Both are per-region. Dropping complexity for the verse and pushing it for the last chorus is the single fastest way to make a Session Player track stop sounding generated.
Presets, patterns and Manual
The Preset menu at the top browses whole editor states - pattern, fills, swing. Under it sit three tabs:
- Main - the controls above, plus the per-player ones below.
- Details - the fine settings for the current player and style.
- Manual - draw your own rhythmic pattern instead of picking one.
Per-player controls
This is where each player stops being interchangeable:
- Drummer - Fill Amount and Fill Complexity as separate dials, Swing, and the kit-piece selection for the style.
- Bass Player - Melody (how far from the root it strays), Octaves, Phrasing, and a Lowest Note limit so it never drops below what your speakers or your bass player's instrument can do.
- Keyboard Player - left and right hand voiced independently: Voicing and Style for the left, Voicing and Movement for the right.
Bass Player also has a slide mode setting for electric and acoustic styles, which controls how slide information is sent - relevant when you swap the Studio Bass plug-in for a different instrument and the slides stop behaving.
Regenerate
The Regenerate button rewrites the performance from the current settings. Same settings, different take. Use it when the part is nearly right but one phrase keeps annoying you - it is faster than hunting the parameter that caused it.
Follow another track
A Session Player region can take its rhythm from another track in the project. Lock the bass to the kick pattern you have already programmed and the two stop fighting each other.
Synth Players
The Synth Player styles run on Alchemy rather than Studio Bass or Studio Piano, and bring their own parameters into the editor. Modulated Pad and Rhythmic Chords for keys; Pump Bass, 808 Bass and Sequenced Bass for low end. Treat them as instruments in their own right - they are not the acoustic players with a different sound.
Committing the part
Control-click the region and convert it to MIDI or a pattern region when you want to edit notes directly. You get the performance and lose the generator, so do it last - and duplicate the track first if you are not certain.