Logic Tips Thread

[jonnyclueless]

With all this debate about Logic and PT, I think it would be great to have a thread where people post some of their favorite Logic tips/moves/shortcuts. There have been some PT threads on tips and I think everyone has gotten a lot out of them. How about some Logic tips. Any takers??

[pan]

Hi there!
I originally posted this in another thread, but here it fits better...

I cant figur out a good way to switch beteween the scizzers the arrow and the magnification tool. escap brings the window to the mouse, but couldnt get a key combination for the tools.

All you guys propably knew, that holding down the Apple-Key and click with the Mouse lets you select a "Toggle"-Tool.

Since this function is Window/Screenset independent: Select the Scissors in the Arrange for Audio-editing, the Velocity-Tool in the Matrix-Editor the Pen in another Matrix ... whatever....

Do not forget to lock your Screenset after assigning the Tool.


On the other hand ... just look in the KeyCommands-Window!

Just have a look - you will be surprised, what Commands exist that you may never have thought of ... of course, you can assign your own Key for every Tool.


Magnification: Hold down the Control-Key, click in an empty Area and drag a Selection works in any Editor-Window.
- To zoom out again: Just click in an empty Area

... voila!

These little things can make your workflow fast!

NIko

[Drzayuss]

Hey everyone . . . I use a rather elaborate but effective "beat-detective" method inside Logic . . . maybe everyone already knows about this trick . . . The explanantion is very long . . . if anyone's interested I'll happily post it here.

Justin

[pan]

Since logics power lies within it's customizeability (wtf?):

Build your own Autoload!

Set up your Audioconfiguration in the Environment.

Set up your MIDI-devices in the Environment.

Set up Screensets, that suit your needs and lock them. (Did I already mention that?)
The NUM-pad gives you 9 and holding Control + ## lets you access another 81...

Save your Song as "Autoload" in the Program Folder (OS9) or ˜/Library/Application Support/Logic/Song Templates (OSX)

n

[jonnyclueless]

Hey Pan, wy do you say to lock your screen sets? I always end up changing something for a particular song only to find I lost it because I forgot the screenset was locked. So in general I never lock screen sets, but maybe you can tell me some good scenarios where locking it is needed.

Also, I seem to recall there is some way to get a pseudo playlist feature using an automation function. I have been printing back into Logic, and with a lot of passes, it takes up a lot of tracks (using same audio objects of course). When finished with the passes, I pac em into a folder so they don't take up so much screen space. But it would be cool if there was some means of reducing the clutter beforehand. This is one area where I like the playlists of PT and don't need to see all the takes side by side.

[pan]

KeyCommands are key to working quickly in Logic.

You can transfer your KCs to other computers: Just take a copy of your Logic Preferences with you and import them from the KC-Window on a different computer.

n

[pan]

Originally Posted by jonnyclueless

Hey Pan, wy do you say to lock your screen sets? I always end up changing something for a particular song only to find I lost it because I forgot the screenset was locked. So in general I never lock screen sets, but maybe you can tell me some good scenarios where locking it is needed.

Well...I also have screensets I do not lock, but my main sets like Arrange, Matrix and Audio-Window are locked, so I always get a certain overview or zoom-setting when returning from a step that cluttered my screen.

I have a KC for locking assigned, so it's two keystrokes to customize for different songs...

Also, I seem to recall there is some way to get a pseudo playlist feature using an automation function. I have been printing back into Logic, and with a lot of passes, it takes up a lot of tracks (using same audio objects of course). When finished with the passes, I pac em into a folder so they don't take up so much screen space. But it would be cool if there was some means of reducing the clutter beforehand.

Dunno about a pseudo-playlist, sorry... but you could create a Folder and record directly into that Folder?

n

[studio19sound]

-[ctrl] + S
^Strip Silence^ Detect transients and cut out the silence. This is a great tool, because you can specify how much it detects, etc. It's basically a gate, but it actually cuts the audio region.....nnow if only Logic had a quantize audio region command!!! But it's not all too difficult to do it yourself.
I love this feature for doing stutter edits and stuff...also a great tool for cutting out silence in voice overs and stuff and similar tasks.

-[Option] + Adjust MIDI Region Length (Click & drag)
This will time stretch your MIDI region to however much you want.

-Adjust Region to Locators
Simply time stretches your audio region to whatever you have your loop locators set to.

[jonnyclueless]

Originally Posted by pan

Dunno about a pseudo-playlist, sorry... but you could create a Folder and record directly into that Folder?

There seems to be a bug where whenever I record while in a folder, it closes the folder each time I stop. it'skind of annoying, plus some stems aren't printed from top to bottom, so it helps to see the other tracks. Not the end of the world. I just recall seeing someone do a type of playlist using some kind of automation feature. Maybe someone reading this thread might know.

Cool idea with the locked screen sets. I have been using the Zoom settings lately so you can quickly recall default zooms (for me Option+1/2/3)

[kudzu]

Logic and key commands.....great....I spent 5 days customising Logic 7.1.....man, nobody else can use my computer but me....but I'm fast....f*ckin' powerful Logic is....(note......apple "mighty mouse" is good...)

[Sqye]

http://www.digitalmediatraining.com/...ro7/index.html

Another post for Apple Logic training DVD hosted by the master Jonathan Perl.

Check it out, y'all

[Renie]

Originally Posted by Drzayuss

Hey everyone . . . I use a rather elaborate but effective "beat-detective" method inside Logic . . . maybe everyone already knows about this trick . . . The explanantion is very long . . . if anyone's interested I'll happily post it here.

Justin

Justin

Yes please.

[jonnyclueless]

It's the bugs and crashes that slow me down the most. One that gets me lot is that Logic will globally change the SMPTE start time to something like 50 minutes & 25fps, and every session I open will be changed to that. I would open session and many of th e regions would be completely out of time. So I would open an older copy, it too would be out of time, and then every version. I didn't discover the what the bug was actually doing until I got done taking a session and manually dragging the regions all back into time byhand, having to zoom all the way in for each piece to get it back onto the grid.

Last night I would get error -43 everytime I went into record unless I started recording few seconds into the song. That's when the audio for a region doesn't start playing long before I even get to that region.

[jdunn]

Originally Posted by jonnyclueless

One that gets me lot is that Logic will globally change the SMPTE start time to something like 50 minutes & 25fps, and every session I open will be changed to that. I would open session and many of th e regions would be completely out of time.

Create a mix template. Spend some time setting everything up the way you want it. Go into the Preferences and zero the SMPTE start time, and also set your sample rate. New projects seem to default to that SMPTE time you mentioned, and 44.1 sample rate, but if you change these and save them in a mix template, you won't have to do it every time you start a new project.

There are some other settings that you can do this with too. I like to turn off the metronome and set the start offset to none instead of 4 bars or whatever. Also, if you're using an external clock, set Core Audio to "Free or External" (I believe that's what it says). Then it runs off your clock instead of it's own internal MIDI timing.

I still don't know Logic very well, but well enough to get these mixes done. I'll learn the MIDI stuff on another project when MIDI is used.

I've been getting a lot of mileage out of the Space Designer plugin though. I downloaded a bunch of free IR's (Impulse Responses) and plugged them into Space Designer. So I've got UAD-140 (love that Smokey Alto), Quantecs (both original and Yardstick), Lexicon 960 (nice!), 480, PCM-70, TC VSS-3000, EMT 140 & 250, Kurzweil KSP-8, Roland R880, Eventides and more, all ITB!

Here's the best place to download free IR's.

echochamber

Navigate to the Impulse Responses page. It's in German, but there's enough English to know what you're donwloading. There's some real gems. Here's how you use these in Space Designer for anyone who doesn't know.

1) Decompress the downloaded folder.

2) In Mac OS X, put the folder in Macintosh HD/Library/Application Support/Logic/Impulse Responses. You'll have to Authenticate with your OS X password. I do this each time instead of changing the permissions just to be safe.

And wa-la! You can now hit Load & Init IR in Space Designer and navigate to that folder. They will be beneath the Logic ones.

On some of these IR's (wav files), Space Designer will say that the IR is defective or something. This usually means they're in 32 bit format. I've solved this by converting them to 24 bit. To do this, simply open the Batch Processor in something like Spark XL, Peak or DSP Quattro, Wavelab, whatever.

Import the folder with the incompatible IR's and batch convert them into a new folder at 24-bit. I use Light Noise Shaping in Spark XL with excellent results. You'll want to dither from 32 to 24 bit in order to avoid quantisation noise. Then take that folder and put it in Logic's Impulse Responses folder as explained above.

Now you can use these IR's too! I was going to drop some money on the Waves IR-1, but all these freebies are working nicely at the moment. Another source for some free IR's is

NoiseVault/Impulses

That's where I got the Kurzweils, Eventides and some others. Also, I'm using a 16 channel summing buss (Phoenix Nicerizer16), and 4 channels are just for reverbs, 1 stereo and 2 mono.

[Mr Edit]

Key commands are the key to Logic.

My personal favourites are:

Split objects by locators. (really useful) - Apple + Y

Select inside locators - Shift + I

Zoom to fit selection -z

Zoom back out from selection - shift + z

Split object into equal segments i.e. bar long segments - hold down Alt when using the scissor tool.

But my absolute most essential one is one that I assigned myself:
Set the + and - buttons on the keypad to be 'next plugin setting' and 'previous plugin setting' - Makes going through soft sytnh presets a far less painful experience.

Theres a few, I'll post more if anyone is interseted.

I know that they are listed in the key commands section, but there are so many thatg is good to get a few tips as to the useful ones. That said, they are obviously down to the indvidual user.

[jonnyclueless]

Originally Posted by jdunn

Create a mix template. Spend some time setting everything up the way you want it. Go into the Preferences and zero the SMPTE start time, and also set your sample rate. New projects seem to default to that SMPTE time you mentioned, and 44.1 sample rate, but if you change these and save them in a mix template, you won't have to do it every time you start a new project.

I think you are misunderstanding me. I am saying that the SMPTE start time is being changed in SAVED sessions. In other words it would override the SST from the template and from the saved sessions. A session that had an hour start time (derived from the template) was changed to 50 minutes. So was everything opened after that, despite them all having been saved at 1 hour. And all the SMPTE locked files were then moved to the wrong place in the song.

If this was an issue of me not saving the start time, it'd be a no brainer. ;-)

[jonnyclueless]

Forgot to mention, thanks for the IR link! When I first used SD I was highly dissapointed. But when I started recording my own IR's it was really good. I just don't happen to like the presest they include. But having sampled a couple rooms that I normall mic, it works really really well.

I jsut today got one of those Kensington track balls with the scroll wheel and 6 buttons at the top. I have been tking the key commands that are generally on the right side of the keyboard and moved them to the mouse buttons. Hopefully it will speed up my Logic chops (they need a lot of speeding up).

Only downside is that while I can assign the main 4 buttons to change depending on the program being used, I can't find a way to do that for the top 6 buttons. This means I can't change the buttons to be different for PT than for Logic.

Also, for the longest time, recording BWF format with the TDM hardware resulted in white noise in the audio files. I have stayed away for a while because it can be quite painful to the ears. Today however I gave it a shot, and it recorded just fine, no white noise. Anyone know if this issue has been officially fixed or if I maybe somehow got lucky?

[Bump Music]

QUOTE "nnow if only Logic had a quantize audio region command"



You CAN quantize audio regions. Select the audio regions you want to quantize on the arrange page. Then go the the event list. And on the bottom left corner of the screen there is a quantize button. Awesome tool!

[Drzayuss]

if only Logic had a quantize audio region command!!! But it's not all too difficult to do it yourself.


Logic does . . . it has global quantize that can be used to snap all manner of audio to grid . . . and can also be manipulated into a poor man's beat detective.

Here we go:


There are three key commands you are going to want to program very close to one another:

Goto Selection

Select All

Split Objects By Song Position

These three should be right next to one another on the keyboard for extra speed . . . this process is not at all automated like in Pro Tools and you want to save time where you can.

Ok . . . say you've recorded eight tracks of drums to a click in sync with the logic grid . . . However, they drummer was nada so good . . . and you want to quantize him. Well . . . duplicate the kick and snare tracks . . . put them on other tracks . . . so now you have 10 tracks of drums . . . now strip silence the duplicate kick and snare tracks ( I typically seperate the kick an snare tracks into five or six shorter regions before strip silencing so I can see with detail that I am getting the transients while setting the strip silence perameters).

OK . . . after this process you should have the duplicate tracks broken down to just the snare and kick hits . . . with everything in between deleted. Now . . . using the mouse . . . click on the first region (typically the kick) . . . hit your key for Goto Selection . . . the song location cursor will go the beginning of the region.

Now hit your key for select all (this will select all tracks in the arrange window . . . if you have other tracks recorded you will want to put the drums in their own folder so you don't inadvertantly select other tracks you do not wich to quantize).

Ok now hit the key for split objects by song position. This will cut all the selected tracks at the start of the aforementioned kick region (hopefully you're starting to see where I am going with this). Now do this for the next snare and so on and so on till the end of the song.

I have the above mentioned key commands set to one, two and three . . . I can get through this process really fast. Clic kthe region with the mouse . .. then just hit them in order (1,2,3) and click on the next region etc.

Ok . . . if you've done everything correctly . . . by this point you should have your eight original tracks cut at every kick and snare hit. Clear the duplicate, strip silenced kick and snare tracks. Now hit "cntrl-2" I guess maybe "apple-2" on Mac . . . this should bring up the event window . . . reselect all the drums . . . now there is a global quantization section in the bottom left of the event window . . . select the appropriate parameter (1/8,1/16 etc.) and hit the "Q" button . . . your tracks will then be snapped to the nearest beat depending on which parameter you selected in the bottom left of the event window. Ok . . . assuming your drummer isn't too terrible . . . you should be able to select all the drums and drag the left corner backward (to left that is . . . towards the start of the song) to fill all the gaps.

When all the gaps are appropriately filled, you can then select all the drums again and write global crossfades in the object parameters section of the arrange window. Just click to the right of where it says "fade in" . . . a box will appear where you can write the crossfade value . . . I find 5 works well.

This method is effective on all kinds of things . . .

OK . . . that being said . . . you're going to have to spend some time tweaking the parameters to get a real feel for the process . . . and I am on PC . . .ver. 5.2 . . . the newer versions may be slightly different. I know this sounds like a lot of stuff . . . but once you wrap your brain around it . . . it is actually pretty quick and easy.

Any questions . . . I'll be happy to answer . . .

Justin

[pan]

Cool - thanks Justin!

[Mr Edit]

Another one I like when I need to work fast:

On logic 7 only, there is an export region as audio file. This is a much quicker method of printing effects so I have assingned Apple + P to this function. It makes bouncing little things a much quicker process.

Also for those not aquainted with the Aux's in Logic. If you have BFD, Stylus RMX or use the EXS24 a lot. You can load up a multi channel version. Then go over to your Aux section and in the input section you can assign the different outputs from the multi instrument. It kicks asss with BFD and Stylus as you get individual control over all the elements rather than using the rather compromised internal mixers.

I have this set up on my autoload and also have created a seperate enviroment for my Stylus outputs. I then assign this to a loceked screen set. Lovely!

[cdog]

Asign all objects their own C O L O R

Guitars green, drums blue, bass brown, vocals yellow - whatever.

Drives me nuts when I get a project and all objects are RED

Select your drum tracks

Goto view

Object colors

Viola

[jonnyclueless]

Mr Edit

I was trying to start using 'export region as audio' the other day and it seemed that no matter what I did it wouldn't un-grey. Do you know what the conditions are that determine when this option is and isn't allowable?

cdog

Do you actually color the audio objects themselves? I always color code regions for visual aid, but I find myself moving tracks around a lot, so naming or coloring audio objects seems problematic to me. How do you address this?


One tip I have started to develope myself is that assigning tracks to different audio objects (changing them) is slow since it can only be done one at a time. I have found it faster to just create new ones. So I will create a butt load of no output tracks, then move the regions to the no output tracks (usually I keep them SMPTE locked so they don't move, or holding down SHIFT will keep them from moving). Then I can delete the tracks and create new ones (usually create track with next instrument, or create multiple), and drag the regions back.

I often get stuff done in core audio and have to move it all to DAE, or in core audio, there will be stereo files on mono tracks and rather fumble around trying to change everything on at a time, I just start over. Maybe this is bad practice, but it has been working well for me until I find a better way.

[studio19sound]

Awesome, thanks a million Justin (you too Bump).
I had always thought there was a way but could never find it--I rarely venture into the event editor--I probably should have thought.
Anyways, thanks again!

Originally Posted by Mr Edit

Another one I like when I need to work fast:

On logic 7 only, there is an export region as audio file. This is a much quicker method of printing effects so I have assingned Apple + P to this function. It makes bouncing little things a much quicker process.

Thats really cool, I didnt know that it actually bounce the effects too. How would you go about bouncing, say a reverb tail on a vocal? The only way I've found is to maybe create a silent region and merge it on the end of the region for as long as the effect trails. Is there an easier way?

[jonnyclueless]

I found an apple script that will do auto-backups in Logic:

http://www.opuslocus.com/logic/LogicAutoSave.zip

[studio19sound]

Originally Posted by jonnyclueless

I found an apple script that will do auto-backups in Logic:

http://www.opuslocus.com/logic/LogicAutoSave.zip

you are a good man, thanks much for that!

[jonnyclueless]

Originally Posted by studio19sound

you are a good man, thanks much for that!

No problem. I wish I could thank whoever made it. One problem I have noticed is that when it auto-saves, I hear a gitch in the audio playback (ike a pop). I don't know if this is specific to TDM, so if anyone uses it, please let me know if you do or don't have the same issue!


...Thread...dying....

[jonnyclueless]

Oh forgot to mention a new tip I stumbled on and likely has been in logic for ages. It's audio window groups. Boy do I wish PT had this. I can sort all my audio regions in group folders. A folder for all my drum region/files, a folder for all my background vocal region/files, etc etc. I did however have one instance where I organized all the session regions into neat groups, and when I opened it once, the regions weree all outside of the groups. I had to drag them back in. Hopefully it was just a one time quirk.

[studio19sound]

Originally Posted by jonnyclueless

No problem. I wish I could thank whoever made it. One problem I have noticed is that when it auto-saves, I hear a gitch in the audio playback (ike a pop). I don't know if this is specific to TDM, so if anyone uses it, please let me know if you do or don't have the same issue!


...Thread...dying....

Just now got to use the script...mine makes the click too :-\--no TDM here.
Small price to pay for autosave though I guess

[studio19sound]

Ok, if you aren't already setting up sub-groups and sending them to the busses, you should really give it a try---
It totally opens up the mix, sounds fantastic as opposed to just sending all your tracks to your master out.