Resource for learning rock n' roll post-production from scratch

[Dolmetscher007]

*IMPORTANT: Read this first...
This post got a little too long as I can sometimes get too wordy and no one wants to read long posts, so... in a single sentence... Does anyone know of an online resource or book that can take me back to basics and teach me best practices for recording rock n roll electric guitar and bass into Logic Pro X and especially, how to best use busses, sends, aux tracks, plugins, and panning to create cohesive mixes of guitar, drums, bass and vocals?

Here's the rest of the post for those who don't mind a little bit of my life's story. Ha! Thanks everyone!

*****
I'm an American, but I stumbled upon SOS magazine when I was 21 years old (42 now) living in Munich Germany. At the time, I was a young guy, suddenly living in Europe and all my musical friends were back in the US. So I needed to learn how to make music all by myself. So, I bought eMagic's Logic Audio Platinum v. 4.1, a Roland JV1010 sound module, and an M-Audio Omni PCI card w/ "breakout box" as it was called back then. I had a copy of the book, The Musician's Guide to home Recording, and I was off. Except... I think it took me 6 months before I could even figure out how to set things up to record a simple midi track.

I had very little patience back then, and while I have never been a particularly dumb person, I was absolutely not at all "tech savvy." So, as a guitar player who can also play drums, I learned the absolute bare-bones basics of what I needed in order to record a crappy drum beat and my electric guitar. I would literally tap out drum parts on my midi keyboard controller like this...

• Midi-Track 1: Hi-Hats - find the closed and open hi hat keys - tap out the entire song.
• Midi-Track 2: Snare - go back and make a pass adding snare hits
• and so on...

I stacked up individual plugins for each audio track and had no clue what a bus or an auc track even was, let alone that you could set up plugins once on an aux track and send multiple tracks to them to color the sound. So, anyway... you guys get my point. I was a total newbie. Problem is, 20+ years later, and I am still basically operating around that skill level. I want to change that... badly!!! But I am not sure how.

I have almost no desire to learn about synthesizers, drum loops, or anything the leans in the direction of electronic-based or pop music. I am a rock n roll: Beatles, Stones, Zeppelin, kind of guy, which means, I do want to add the occasional mellotron, piano, or some slight synth stuff, but for the most part... I record electric guitar and bass guitar into my Focusrite 18i8, and use the "Drummer" feature in Logic Pro X to simulate acoustic drums. So... my problem is, when I go to YouTube, LinkedIn Learning (fka Lynda.com), skillshare, or any of the online learning resources, almost all of the tutorials or videos focus on heavy use of synths. Also, they either are SO basic, that I fall asleep, or they assume that I was once an analog sound engineer behind a Neve desk with racks of outboard... whatever.

I haven't been able to find a resource that is like...
Step 1 - Plug your electric guitar into the pre-amp of input 1 and set the gain to the optimal level by... INSERT DETAILS HERE
Step 2 - Create a new Audio track in Logic and add the following two plugins to that track, Pedalboard & Amp Designer... Does it matter in which order you add them, or do plugins kind of "stack" differently than in the real world? What about time-based pedals through an amp's effects loop, vs. boost pedals put in front of the amp's pre-amp?
Step 3 - Best Practices for recording rock guitar tracks... INSERT DETAILS about making multiple takes and building up a composite track of the best parts from several takes.
Step 4 - Double the guitar part to make it fuller by creating a second audio track.
Step 5 - Now that you have two passes of the same guitar part, here's how you can blend them together to sound like one full guitar track and not all chorus'y and fluttered like two separate guitar tracks.[/list]

I am looking for a learning resource that comes at recording with Logic Pro X from an electric guitar point of view.

[MOF]

Have you tried the SOS store? There are lots of online guides/videos, you’ll have to try and find the one that best suits you.
Re setting gain you’ll have to look at the manual for the interface, in Logic (with the channel fader set at zero you should be peaking at that zero point) you can increase that fader level for monitoring without affecting its recorded level.
To create a new instrument you click on the plus button (top left corner above the patterns area), something you should have come across when viewing those videos, the plus in a white square creates an identical track to the one you’re currently on.
I’m fairly sure you can move the pedals into a different order by ‘mousing down’ on the pedal you want to move and dragging it.
When I started out it was all about reading articles in SOS and reading the manual. To get what you want you will at least have to watch a few videos.

[GreenHat23]

It's great that you're very clear on what you want to learn how to do.

On top of online and book resources, you might find it helpful to get some 1-2-1 tuition. A tutor could probably speed up your learning quite dramatically because they can answer all your specific questions. You might find that just an hour or two gives you what you need to make a lot of progress. I found that useful in the past. I found a tutor on a local classifieds site but Fiverr is one place you could look.

Al

[Dolmetscher007]

It's great that you're very clear on what you want to learn how to do.

On top of online and book resources, you might find it helpful to get some 1-2-1 tuition. A tutor could probably speed up your learning quite dramatically because they can answer all your specific questions. You might find that just an hour or two gives you what you need to make a lot of progress. I found that useful in the past. I found a tutor on a local classifieds site but Fiverr is one place you could look.

Al

I think this is a very good point! Thank you for posting this. It's funny that I've never really thought of this. Fiverr might be an excellent place to look for something like this. I think the problem with looking for 1:1 learning, at least in my mind, has always been the cost. If I had the free time and the money, I would gladly sign up for course after course to learn it all person-to-person. Unfortunately, I really don't have either. The whole thing makes me feel kind of guilty to a certain extent. I really do hate the idea that people spend years and years putting in hard hours of mentally and even emotionally straining work to learn a skill like audio engineering, only to have goobers like me scoff at how expensive it is to pay someone to teach me. It seems to be that way with everything in "the arts". A painter or musician might spend decades mastering their craft only to constantly hear how "ridiculous" people think their compensation is. But I digress.

Fiverr sounds like a really good middle-ground. While I can't even come close to affording to sign up for a full-on audio engineering course at SAE or Full-Sail... I could peel off a couple of hundred dollars to get some personal tutorials to help me fill in some gaps. This is, after all, a hobby for me. Although... I do end up putting in my hours with my "hobby" than I do with my actual job. Ha ha ha. Man... I really hope my boss never signs up for this forum.

[Drew Stephenson]

Depending on where you are in the world, The Elf and Zukan both offer 1:1 tuition at very reasonable rates and are both top blokes as well as being skilled mixers and teachers.