I'm trying to create an effect for a guitar track I'm working on, which sounds similar to the pulsing guitar on the Smiths "How Soon is Now" song from the 80s. I have heard of a method that uses a drum or click track to trigger a compression effect, so it essentially turns the recording track up and down in level in a repetitive way. Any idea how that can be tied together? Another method that might work would involve manually drawing in automation for the compressor, but if I want to change the tempo, that seems clunky and labour-intensive. I'm sure there's a better way...

Hi sammydave, Sounds like you want do achieve "side chain compression". If you have Logic 404: Mixing electronica you can find it discussed in chapter 14, and if you have Steve H's TNT 1, you'll find it in chapters 43 - 49. Basically, you'll need to have a source that triggers the "undulating" effect on the guitar track. e.g. on a soft inst track load a simple exs24 kit. Record a region just of the kick drum, playing the notes say on every 16th note. Loop the region and set the Output of the track to a free Bus, Bus 10 for example. Set the Output of Bus 10 to no output. You now have the source of the undulation! Now on the guitar track, insert a compressor plugin and assign the sidechain in the top right to Bus 10. Play with the threshold and ratio etc to give the guitar track a pumping sound to taste. (by the way, for a gated effect, try using the Noise Gate instead of the compressor) Cheers Rounik

of course, you could also use Logic's tremolo plug-in at an extreme setting for a similar feel to the guitar in How soon is now. Cheers Rounik