Producer Greg Kurstin on working with Adele and Logic Pro, straight from Apple’s site:

When Kurstin needed a sound he couldn’t create, he’d find it in a Logic Pro project containing a select set of sampled vintage synth and keyboard sounds. “I was working on my MacBook Pro away from my own studio,” he says. “And playing a rented guitar with none of my favorite pedals. So I didn’t have all my trippy effects there. But I was able to pull out everything I needed from my plug-ins, channel strips, and effects.”

On finishing “Hello”:

The chords were promising, and Kurstin and Adele were able to write most of the song that day. But they couldn’t finish it. “We tried different choruses, but we didn’t quite nail it,” he says. “And I didn’t know if we ever would. I thought maybe this one was going to end up on the shelf.” But Kurstin was called back six months later to finish the song. He used Logic Pro X instruments and plug-ins to enhance the bass line and drums. More radically, he lowered the entire song a half step at Adele’s request. “We tried really hard with a bunch of different ideas,” he says. “And we finally got it right.”

For Kurstin, the song didn’t feel finished until they recorded Adele singing the chorus. “When Adele gets on the mic, she blows your mind. I was moved when I first heard her sing ‘Hello,’ and I’m still moved every time I hear it.”