Logic Pro: Using multiple outputs with Ultrabeat

Logic Pro can route audio from various software instruments to different destinations. This allows you to process different voices of the same instrument with independent DSP plug-ins, or to route different streams of audio to different outputs on your audio hardware.

Logic's integrated drum machine, Ultrabeat, is one instrument that can greatly benefit from this feature, allowing you to process each drum voice (kick drum, snare, toms, cymbals, and other percussive sounds) within a kit individually. Here's how to set up Ultrabeat to use multiple outs:

1. In the Arrange window, select an Audio Instrument track that you want to use.
2. In the channel strip pane (on the left side of the Arrange window), insert the Ultrabeat plug-in as an input: Click the slot directly below I/O and from the pop-up menus, choose Multi Channel > Logic > Ultrabeat.

   

3. The Ultrabeat interface opens, listing its 25 drum voices on the left side.
4. Load the kit that you want to use before proceeding. Initially, all sounds are routed to the Main output pair, Output 1-2, as dictated in the Audio Instrument channel strip (the assigned output pair appears in the slot directly below the Ultrabeat insert).
5. To select a different destination for a drum sound, select the voice in the Ultrabeat interface and click its output destination. A pop-up menu opens, allowing you to choose from seven additional stereo outputs. Choose one.

   

6. Repeat this process for each drum sound that you would like to send to a different destination than the Main output. In the picture above, we routed a Kick drum to Output 3-4.
7. When you're done assigning outputs, open the Track Mixer window.
8. Click the Global button in the upper left corner, and then click the Aux button a few buttons below it. (Logic Pro uses auxiliary channels as routing destinations for multichannel instruments.)
9. Click the input slot (the slot below I/O) for Aux 1; a pop-up menu opens. Besides the usual Input and Bus source submenus, the menu now has an instrument channel submenu for assigning Ultrabeat's multiple channels.

   

10. From the Instrument submenu, choose which output stream you would like the Aux channel to use as its input source. If the Aux channel is set to mono, then the streams will appear as individual channels (such as Ultrabeat 3, Ultrabeat 4). If the Aux channel is set to stereo, then the the streams will appear as pairs (such as Ultrabeat 3-4, Ultrabeat 5-6, and so on). In our example, we set Aux 1 to accept input from Ultrabeat 3-4. Therefore, any Ultrabeat voice that we assigned to Output 3-4 (such as the Kick drum), can now be processed on the Aux 1 channel.
11. Repeat as necessary to assign more Aux channels to support the number of output pairs that you have coming from Ultrabeat.

You can insert plug-ins on the Aux channel, use Sends, and so forth. If your audio interface offers more than two outputs, you can even route the Aux to different physical outputs for external processing.

Note: After using the Logic Setup Assistant, you may only have two Aux channels. Please see the Logic manual for information on setting up additional Aux channels. As a shortcut, you can make a new song using the Basic Production template, which starts out with eight Aux channels.