Specs for Logic, live looping.

[John Isige]

Hi all.

Got a couple unrelated questions, but I figure I'll just combine into a single message. First, the easy one. Decent specs for a mac for Logic? I'm thinking a Mac Mini M4 with 24 GB memory. Is that enough, or is it really worth it/necessary to upgrade to the Pro with 48 gig? Right now I'm mostly doing software instruments, but no huge orchestral libraries or anything.

Next, looping. I'm considering an Ableton Move, because they sound really fun, but also because I want to do music like so.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aeV4ilpMlqs

I know most here use Logic like a studio, and that's totally understandable. But I'm interested in something like this, where you're essentially using a giant live looper pedal that can record your performance. Obviously I could do stuff like this on the Move and export the audio into Logic, but naturally Ableton Move is meant to work best with Ableton Live.

I own a grid controller, as well as a few keyboard midi controllers. So I could save myself money and just experiment with this kind of workflow in Logic, assuming it can be done. Does anybody know if it can? If so, do we have any tutorials on it?

Basically what I want to get is less studio and more live improv/building up tracks like this, with looping pieces, maybe bringing in some audio, that sort of thing. A lot of the music I listen to, modern or traditional, does this kind of thing, so it's something I want to explore for a while. If Logic isn't the right vehicle for it, I'll focus on Ableton for a bit for the more creative stuff and use Logic to keep learning more traditional recording technique.

As an example of more traditional stuff, the stringed instrument here is a kamelengoni, a type of African harp. Note particularly the looping pattern behind the singing, but also it uses maybe three or four patterns total. It would be much easier to record a few and bring them in and out as necessary, e.g. if I were soloing over them with a flute or the like.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-KFBe78JbU

To be clear, I know if I am doing more traditional recording, I can just record however many bars and copy and paste and arrange as necessary. Again, I'm looking for that more live feel that's happening in the first recording. Think of it much more as a type of performance than a recording. The recording is just incidental, in case I get something I really like, then it's saved. I guess if I'm altering parameters like attack/decay and effects and such, I'll need some other kind of controller to map in Logic, something with knobs. I can get something I'm sure. But I don't know if it's a viable workflow for Logic to begin with.

Thanks in advance for any help, as always.

[TheOreoMonster]

Fortunately we like in an age where I can say buy the best Mac you can afford. Will you have limitations with the Neo, probably but light projects should still run fine. But Anything that is 16 GB of ram or higher and you should be looking good. If you are gonna be heavier on virtual instruments than audio, probably spend more on RAM than Drive Storage. If you are more audio Then you may want a little more drive space unless you plan to keep everything external. I would argue even if you plan to keep everything external, bumping up from 256GB of storage can still be beneficial so if you can afford it do so.
If you aren’t on heavy Orchestral projects then 24GB of ram should be fine. You can open the activity monitor on the Mac while in one of your bigger logic project and look how much Ram is being used.
There are ways to set up a live looping workflow in Logic via the many cycle options. A previous student of mine would set a cycle range and perform a few passes playing and working the mod or pitch wheel or expression pedal or etc and then comp the best parts together into one take or just keep the performance he liked the most. The nice part about working that way was also that you had variations to use through out the song so every time that passage came around it wasn’t the same exact performance. Most pad and MIDI controllers can easily be mapped to work in Logic Generally as well also, and alot of them come with a Logic script so some pre-mapping is done for you already. Depending on the unit some of them have a custom mode so you can do more as well other than the pre-mapped stuff. I don’t think logic is limited to working in just the traditional song sense. I have worked with a lot of beat makers over the years as well that have used various looping workflows in logic to build out songs or performances.
Yes Ableton has a hardware software integration thats second to none from a performance standpoint so if thats something you are really curious about, it maybe worth grabbing a trial of Ableton and giving it a spin. The great thing about the world today is that for once as blind users, we actually have choices.
-T.O.M
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[Bruce Harrell]

Hey John,

I agree with Steve in regard to which Mac to buy, "as good as you can afford." A couple reasons.

First, the better you buy, the longer it will be before you need to buy again.

Second, of course, better Mac's deliver better performance.

Smile.
enjoy your new toy!

Bruce

On May 8, 2026, at 9:54 PM, John Isige <gw...@tds.net> wrote:

[Ramy Moustafa Saber]

Hey Steve:

I read your email here, and the most  Beautiful thing is moving between loops in a  Live performance, is it really possible?

if so, can you make a video on how to do so?

warmregards

Dr/ Ramy Moustafa Saber

tel: +201002221750

Music Instructor, Music Producer and Sound Engineer

www.ramymoustafaproductions.com

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/logic-accessibility/775C78CB-B24E-4EA0-9CE6-1A08240070E5%40logic.band.

[John Isige]

Well, I've started experimenting. So far, if you load a loops project, you can play it by hitting enter. If you interact with the grid and hit VO-space on a loop, and then hit enter, it plays. But I didn't get another one to play yet.

However, if you have a  Novation Launchpad, I have the Launchpad X, it's mapped to Logic, and if you load a loops project, hitting pads triggers individual loops, and stops them. In the one I've tried so far, the bottom row of pads, possibly any unassigned row, plays the whole project, i.e. all of the loops. You're supposed to be able to record with it but I haven't got that working, I need my wife to check out a video or two so she can see what's going on and explain the totally visual teaching style to me.

If I figure out how to do it, probably starting with the Launchpad, I'll post here. If I can get it working with the Launchpad, i'll try to figure it out with the keyboard as well. But Esp. with the Launchpad, if you load a project with loops already in it, you can start and stop them individually, and thus bring them in and out, the way you'd want to.

There's a lot more to figure out, recording your own loops in each cell, how you load instruments/tracks into cells, i.e. if you want to mix audio and software instruments, how you add extra tracks outside of the loops, you set up some loops and you want to solo over them, how to record your live looping performance ... So yeah. I also don't know if Logic Magician has any facility to work with the live loops grid or not.

I'm really interested in whether we can do all of this in Logic because, while Ableton Live is designed for it and quite a bit of it is accessible, not all of it is, nothing against Ableton, they're working on things and they're much newer in the accessibility space. But as an example, i'm not sure how you'd use, say, SUrge XT with Ableton, in terms of getting into its interface to do some sound design work and then record with the sound you've just designed. I do know how to do that in Logic already. So Logic just seems to have a lot more nailed down, in terms of what's accessible to us. I'm sure Ableton will catch up, probably sooner than later, but even when it does, well more options are always better, at least I think so.

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