Logic Pro X Template Tips for Producers & Worship Keys with David Ramirez

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David Ramirez is back to take us inside his Logic Pro X template that streamlines workflow and elevates worship production. He breaks down his full process of song production, synth layering, key programming, and organizing sound palettes. You’ll see how he uses plugins like Arcade for micro loops, layers warm, organic piano textures, and dials in synth presets to shape a rich, expressive sound. David also shares his take on gear and how he’s built a personalized setup that serves his creative flow. If you want to level up your worship keys workflow, this one's packed with insight. Don’t miss out on this episode, where David and Carson will walk through a full project step-by-step. 

David O. Ramirez

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Transcript

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Welcome to the Worship Keys YouTube channel. My name is Carson Bruce, so glad you're here. We talk all things music theory, gear, industry and ministry for your worship keys playing. If this episode is beneficial for you or you have any questions as you continue to watch, feel free to comment below and I'd love to hear any feedback that you have along the way. So let's get into today's episode. Well guys, we're gonna get into David Ramirez template. So your Logic Pro X template for what you do, helps your workflow, helps you work faster. So guys, check it out. Let's get into it, man. Well, whenever I am producing a song or I'm working for a different producer and my role is keys and synth and drum programming, I usually start with this template. Even when I'm songwriting in a session and I have a producer writer role. This is the template I start with and it has everything I would most of the time need. I've spent a lot of time gathering sounds and I always think of sounds as like color palettes. So the same way we think of like a painter who's about to paint a large, beautiful painting, there's a bunch of, they have to pick out, okay, what's my color palette? I. And so they get a bunch of colors, before they start painting. This is a lot of years of work, but I've got little folders here with very quickly accessible, like base sense. Let's do this and. This plugin called Arcade, which is great. I use a lot for things I call micro loops. I have a ton of drone starting situations and a ton of pianos like your raw organic pianos, a lot of grands and a lot of uprights. Same thing with intimate pianos. They're more like, felt very like textured. Pianos, a bunch of hammered keys like dulcimers and plucky, things that are on the organic side, and a bunch of synth starters that are, organized into pads, gates or plucky arp things. More stabby type synths, and then more swelly type sense. And they're all just colors and different tonal characteristics, but they're kind of. Designed the same way. And then I have like a Meron folder 'cause I like trons and then a lot of string type starters. And I'll, I'll like. Go to one of these whenever I know I need to access it. So just quick run through, like base sense. They're always pretty quick. I just kind of scroll through that. I've got my mod wheel programmed most of the time, to something. Depending on the song or the track, I'll kind of scroll through stuff, see what the vibe is. Oh, that's something. But So they're all just kind of starting points. Same with drones. It's like. There's a lot of starting sounds and I'll kind of find like voicings and there's, you know, they're all pretty quick to access. I've spent a lot of time finding these sounds, they're sounds that I've pre dialed within the plugins. Same thing with pianos, like especially writing a song or if I'm writing the piano part. Sometimes I'll track a real piano, but sometimes you just need like access to something, something, and they're all different colors and. I usually try to see what the song feels like. The sound is gonna be so, so there's gonna be a lot of these grands. Some uprights. And then these are like my more intimate sounds, like more felty. I love this Winchester. Um, I use it a lot, actually is a layer. Um, so something as simple as like layering the very organic felty thing with. , a very clean, like grand, like the s that I use a lot, Could layer them and then I could, you know, make blend it to where it, you get a little bit of extra texture. And that's just like one move I may do sometimes, depending on the song, there's, I love this midnight one. I'm always looking for creative sounds more felty kind of things. Instead of like spending 30 minutes trying to find a good piano and then scrolling through like my plugins going to instruments. Okay, what piano could I use? They're all right here. And depending on the type of song, if it's like a slow, intimate kind of moody song, I may lean toward the intimate ones. If it's like a big grand like pop song, I might lean to a cleaner. Grand sound, then I always look for organic sound. So I'm always gonna have these kind of hammered keys, especially with worship music. It's kind of been a thing that I've done for a long time. So there's always these things. I'm always looking for different colors, and again, I could layer these plenty of times together. Like I could layer that with this one. There's tons of these as well, just different types of organic p pucky. You can make a lot of cool little a. And so I always like raw sounds 'cause that it enables me to approach something, you know, from like a clean slate, even though I've got these starting points. So then it's easy to, you know, um. Add more plugins to it, like that little verby thing. And on my laptop I have all these kind of preset to a general starting point that I like. Um, but, but there's, you know, then I like the raw sounds and then. It's kind of like a guitar player. You know, you want your raw guitar tone to be really nice. I kind of approach keys the same way, and then I can add effects after. So I've got my like synth. Kind of folder. It's the same kind of idea. It's a bunch of synth colors doing the same things. That's a weird mod. And if a song needs a pad, which one fits in the mix better? And the right keys. And again, tons of these. I've always got these pucky sense on hand with a little a thing. Um, same thing. Mod wheels pre-programmed. I could open up these so y'all could kind of see these too. Do it this way. Um, again, they're all just different colors, so I love that sound. And the song, he is just like big open stabs on like a chorus it's a really long tail, more stabs. Let's do this. I will kind of just go through all 'em, so you have everything. It's all there in the background and it's all deactivated until you activate it. So I love swell uh, scent swells. I just kind of pre-program this to have different feels. D it's just a lot of colors. A lot of these scent stuffs can be a lot of the arturia kind of things. Um, I like Meron. I got a handful of different ones. I also have a real model electronic. I use a lot. Well, a re reissue, well, a digital remake, not a reissue. So these are all just raw sounds. Um, I use strings a lot in the same kind of way. Uh, as drones, they just have a lot more texture than. Like, like a keys or synth pad would have. I tend to use like stuff like shimmer on this kind of thing. I also like this delay, I usually will do a save as default situation on all these on my laptop. I like doing stuff like that, and then I'd always throw like a shimmer on top. So I always have these like things kind of readily. That's kind of the idea of what I just basically create starting points. They're all sounds that I've spent a lot of time dialing in and I know whenever I load it, it's, I know what to expect. It's not like you're, you have a random plugin and then you're like, what are these presets, what is harmonic waves? I don't know if I would use that. Maybe. These might be organized, but you're getting like a ton of different genres. I've just built, curated a template that with general sounds that I gravitate towards. Okay, so I use arcade a ton and I have a way of using these presets as well. Oh. So like I'll find little samples often. So say I like this little sound and I'm in a different key. I'll just go here and I'll manipulate this. Say there's a little micro loop in here that I like. I will just grab that guy, you could mess with. Different keys, octaves, and I'll just sample that one thing and I'll kinda do the same thing with just different engines within. I'll usually will go in a plugin and favorite a bunch of things that I like within that plugin, the same way I've created my template. Like said just like that one little guy. Yeah. I can mess with this stuff. I like using this a lot. Uh, that could be a great song starter. For context, what was it? That's kind of the thing I, I will just leave this for now. Let's go up and boy. You know, just a little starting point of inspiration. This is starting to triple, so I find these little micro loops, and there's always tons of sounds to scroll through. And I always go in this mode. 'cause then I could see the, the file and then I just, you know, so I just like this little guy. Yeah. That's what I use Arcade a lot and I can do the same kind of thing within Splice. Um, you know, I'll find different loops and splice and pick the key and all that stuff. That's a whole different approach. But I have a whole folder dedicated to Arcade specifically. Um. More sounds a little string guy and they're more just beds. I find a way of building beds within kind of something like if I were to do, maybe not strings, This guy. Can build on around whatever that. Anyways, that's kind of the general template of starting points. The other side of the thing is I talked to many other producers that have spent years doing templates, and they're like, I will not do a template because it will force me into a lane. But for me it's just more about time saving. I've kind of personally built my template to where all I identify which e with each of these sounds in some kind of way. They're not just really random sounds to me. And they're just kind of like starting points. And I'm never gonna go through every single plugin when I'm working on a song. It's just, oh, I need a synth. It's right there. And if these don't do it, then I'll start going through my other plugins and finding something else. 'cause I have tons of other plugins that I also use that aren't on my templates. It just depends how much you're doing it for. A lot of producers who do a lot of different tracks and songs for different artists. Having a template just expedites the speed and the how fast you can work. So if a song's gonna take me six to eight hours a day to knock out everything that I would normally do in the keys and synth piano world, then I could save one and a half hours. From my template that I've already done per song. And so then it's like, how many hours of my life did I save? Because I built this template for myself for things that I naturally gravitate to. Mind you, every one or two years, I scrap this template and redo it so that I don't keep doing the regurgitating the same thing over and over. Y there's pros and cons. It's to be fast, but if anything, I'm, I used to delete the template, now I just expand it or, modify it more so. So when I first started and I was in college, had no money, had big dreams to do music. I would buy like one keyboard and learn everything that could be learned on that one keyboard, even if it's like a cheap Casio or something. I would learn every single sound, go through every patch, and familiarize myself with even just within a Casio. Okay, here's your marimba. And I know I'll always know what that sound sounds like. So if I ever am working on a track or a song. I'm like, I need that sound. I know where it comes from and I know, okay, we need a Casio. But to scroll back, scroll back is hilarious. I would buy this say a ca cheap Casio like $50 keyboard, learn everything, and then. Okay, I'm bored with this. I've exhausted the sounds from this. I would sell it, get my $50 back, try to find something else. And then just over the years I started upgrading my equipment and, I think the first synth, like analog synth I bought was a core DW 8,000. It's an an well digital, digitally analog synth. It's analog enough. But all the button, there's no sliders or knobs. It's all touch screen buttons. It's very annoying to program something. But then eventually I would get like a Juno and like multiple. Like sequential circuits. Now they're a then they became Dave Smith and now they're sequential, but had many different iterations of Dave Smith Sense that I would use a lot of Moog, and. I use the profit a ton, at least in the last two, three years. I used it on a ton of projects. Again, I would just exhaust everything. I would dive into what is the profit, learn every little knob, every detail of it, and know it like the back of my hand. , so then it becomes this tool. So if I'm working on record live with a band and I'm using a prophet, depending on the project, if it's more worship leaning, if it's more gospel leaning. If it's more pop, with electronic stuff, I'll, the same way I've picked my tools here, I'll pick my hardware instruments. If it's a live recording and it's a gospel thing, then I'm like, okay, there's already a B three player, there's already a piano player. And I'm just covering, textures and sounds. I gravitate towards a meron and maybe an analog synth, like the prophet. And then I'm sitting in a different tonal. Frequency kind of space that's not gonna clash with a B three or piano. And I'm just finding the pockets where I can fit in and also not clash with whatever guitar players are doing. So then I always think of music as sound palettes. What is this album need? And then you, from there it's okay, what do these songs need? And then from the songs it's like, okay, what do these sections and moments need? Having all these available sounds that I've prepped and gathered over many years of doing it, just expedite the process, so that's awesome. Yeah. Dive into every little piece of gear, even if it's a $10 keyboard you found at Goodwill and. Run it through a pedal or something. And if you don't have pedal, run it into logic and then throw a verb or delay or a chorus or whatever, a distortion, and you'll find a whole new pallet of sounds just from one little toy keyboard. Guys, I hope y'all enjoyed seeing David's template on Logic Pro X, what he works through when he approaches a new song. Next week, we're gonna see a detailed actual project of something you've been working on for a while. What's the name of the song? Here and now he here and now. Yeah. By Heart Room Worship slash by Heart Alliance Worship. Okay. Okay. Y'all go check out that song and if you love it, which you will because it's super catchy, super awesome. Sound design is incredible. It's all thanks to David here and I