How to Use Tonic in Sunday Mix for Logic Pro X

Sunday Mix includes the Sunday Keys trademark feature “Tonic Pad Player” into Sunday Mix. The Tonic Pad Player is an ambient pad generator that plays a pad in the key of your choice, and is a great way to glue together your mix underneath and between songs. Check out this video to see how to use the Tonic Pad Player in Sunday Mix, and some differences in the way it functions in Sunday Mix as opposed to Sunday Keys or there are details about Tonic below this video:

In Sunday Mix, Tonic is presented as a MIDI region that generates audio upon playback, as opposed to in Sunday Keys, where Tonic audio is generated in real time. This changes how the Tonic Pad player functions, and how we control it.

We’ve included Smart Controls modifiers that you can use to shape the sound of the Tonic Pad Player. Just place your cursor at the beginning of the timeline in Logic and press play. Then adjust your modifiers to hear how they change the sound.

You may find that when you press play from different places in the timeline, there is no sound coming from Tonic. If you press play when the cursor is anywhere other than the beginning of the MIDI region, Tonic will not generate sound. This is because Tonic uses MIDI to tell it when to start and stop generating audio, and the beginning of the MIDI region is at the beginning of the timeline.

You can always split the MIDI region if you want Tonic to begin in a different place on the timeline, or, if you have multiple keys in the session you are mixing. To split a MIDI region, place your cursor at the preferred location, then right click > Split > Split at Playhead, or use the keyboard shortcut “Command T.” In the pop-up window, be sure to select “split.” Now you have multiple Tonic regions that you can use for different keys or songs.

As a default, the Tonic Pad appears in the key of C upon opening Sunday Mix. To transpose this to a different key, you’ll want to open up the piano roll. This is another window that can be opened with a button in the top toolbar, or by using the keyboard shortcut “E.”

Here, you will be able to see MIDI notes as presented on a vertical keyboard, with the horizontal timeline showing how long the MIDI clip is. To easily transpose this MIDI, highlight both notes, and simply drag them to a new key. The bottom note is the note of your key while the top note is just a perfect fifth above, so make sure you go by the bottom note. Once your notes are in place, feel free to place your cursor at the beginning of the new region and press play to test out the new key.

You can also manually draw in MIDI notes if you prefer to have a more detailed key change. To draw in notes, hold down command and click to create a note. Be aware that the MIDI note will be very long. MIDI notes take the default length of the last MIDI note you were selected on. It may be wise to shorten the length of the original MIDI notes, then to draw in new notes, so that they don’t overlap too much.

Once you are happy with your Smart Controls adjustments and key changes of Tonic, you may find that you’d like to be able to hear Tonic no matter where you press play from in the timeline. To do this, you will need to turn the MIDI region into an Audio region.

You can easily turn the Tonic MIDI into audio by following these steps:

1. Select the Tonic Pad Player track so that all regions are highlighted.
2. Right click and select Bounce > Bounce in Place, or use the keyboard command “Control B”.
3. In the pop up window, make sure the Destination is set to New Track, the source is set to Mute and the Audio Tail is included in the file. Then press OK. It may take a moment to render the entire MIDI region into an audio file.
4. Now when you press play from anywhere in the Timeline, Tonic will play.
5. Be aware that once you turn the MIDI region into an Audio region, you can no longer make Smart Controls adjustments. But don’t worry, you can always go back to the MIDI region if you need to make further adjustments to the sound or key. Then repeat this process again.

Head over to the Sunday Mix Resource Page for more video tutorials about Sunday Mix.