WORKING WITH VIDEO IN LOGIC

Step 1: Import movie le to your Logic project. Simplest way to do this is click + drag a video
le to your Logic session.

Step 2: Here, you might get a series of warnings:

- “This movie contains an audio track:” If the video you are importing has an
audio le, Logic will ask if you want to separate your sound from the movie le. This is a good
idea, because you might want to adjust the balance between the movie sound and your tracks.
Keep these selected, and click OK.
- Sample Rate: If the imported movie has a di erent sample rate than the
project, Logic will want you to make a choice. For working with audio, a sample rate of 44,100
Hz is adequate; however, when working with video, for issues of syncing, it is advisable to use
a higher sample rate, 48,000 Hz.
- Frame Rate: If the imported movie le and your project have di erent frame
rates, Logic will want you to make a choice between the two. It is usually a good idea to go
with the frame rate of the movie le, and let logic adjust to it.

Step 3: Now we have our movie! We can watch the whole thing on the oating window, or
close it and it will tuck to the lefthand corner. The original audio track and the video track will
be hard-synced, in other words, you can’t move one without moving the other. This is a good
thing, as it prevents getting things o -sync. The audio track can function like any other audio
track, you can mute it, or perform various manipulations and e ects on it.

Step 4: We are ready to add some sounds! Here onwards, there is not much di erent from a
regular Logic session. You can add your audio, software instrument, and bus tracks and mix as
you wish.

As you move the playhead, you will see that the frame is changing. This is great for being able
to see how your sound syncs with video moment to moment.

When scoring, we should keep in mind the overall a ect of the scene, and the narrative it is
conveying. How do we want the sound design to relate to that?

Another thing to pay attention to is the rhythm of the visuals. Cuts, scene changes, or
movements within the frame. Do you want your sound to mimic the scene changes and cuts of
the video, or do you want to establish a more continuous feeling?

One handy tool Logic has for identifying scene changes is automatically creating “markers” for
scene changes. This easily lets you see where a cut occurs, and (if you wish to do so) use that
somehow in the soundtrack (for instance, to introduce a sound, or synchronize some aspect of
the soundtrack). To do that, go to Navigate / Other / Create Movie Scene Cut Markers / Entire
Movie. It does not always work perfectly (sometimes it will place a marker where there is no
scene change, etc.) but it is a good way of visualizing the rhythm of the images! You can
always delete a marker by selecting it and hitting delete.

Step 5: Once you are done with your movie soundtrack, you can export it as a Quicktime
Movie. To do that, go to File / Movie / Export Audio to Movie / and follow instructions for
labeling your le and saving.
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