A computer-based system offers distinct advantages over other methods of developing and arranging musical material. First and foremost is the ability to work with visual representations of sound, whether as audio waveforms or as graphical data (such as MIDI or notation). You can create detailed edits and work with arrangements by moving sections around as you would text in a word processor. A nonlinear approach to editing lets you jump around in a composition, manipulating multiple aspects of a piece of music and playing back sections for instant feedback.
Many of Logic’s features are geared toward manipulating and developing musical material. Lesson 5 focuses on techniques that enable you to efficiently view, organize, and move data within a project.
Markers serve multiple purposes in a project. They visually identify the sections of a composition, and they also provide navigation points along the Bar ruler. In this way, markers serve as a map that allows you to quickly locate a project’s sections for playback, editing, and arranging.
Markers are displayed in the Bar ruler and global tracks area and are created in a variety of ways. In this exercise, you will use several techniques to efficiently create, edit, and view markers; place them within your composition; and add text and color to them for easy viewing.
For any given project file, you can easily place and edit markers in the Marker track, one of Logic Pro’s global tracks.
Let’s start by opening the project file that you will use for this lesson.
The Marker track appears at the top of the window.
A new marker, Marker 1, is created at measure 1.
When a marker is created, Logic automatically assigns a name consisting of the word Marker followed by a sequential number. Logic’s allocation of marker names is dynamic, always depending on the order of all the markers in a project.
It is easier to achieve exact placement by dragging in the Marker track until the help tag lists the correct position. Then release the mouse button.
A new marker is created, labeled Marker 2.
The new marker is labeled Marker 2, and the following marker is relabeled Marker 3.
You can also use the playhead to determine the point on the Bar ruler where you want a marker to be inserted. In this case, you first have to position the playhead and then create the marker.
The Go To Position dialog appears, with the Position field highlighted for input.
The playhead jumps to measure 21.
Marker 4 is created at the current playhead position.
You don’t have to stop a project to add markers at a current playhead position. You can use the techniques in this exercise to create markers on the fly, placing them on the Bar ruler during playback. However, accessing this function using the mouse can be awkward when the project is playing. By using the key command Control-K, you can drop in markers quickly as the project progresses.
A new marker (Marker 5) is created at measure 34.
Pressing Control-K creates a marker at the nearest bar to the playhead, rounding its placement. If you need to place a marker within a measure or are using absolute time (working with SMPTE), use the key command for Create Marker Without Rounding (Shift-Control-K), or choose Options > Marker > Create Without Rounding. A marker will be placed at the exact spot, rather than being rounded to the nearest bar.
Another way to create a marker quickly is by using a region. In this case, the region’s start point, end point, and name designate the marker’s position, length, and name.
A new marker named Guitar Solo is created at measure 44, with the same color as the region.
You can also create a marker by clicking the region and choosing a menu command.
A new marker named Bass Solo is created at measure 68.
A marker named Coda is created at measure 76.
Markers can display all types of text, such as the name of an associated region or section, and can even serve as a placeholder for musical ideas and production notes. You can enter a name directly on the marker or open a separate window for more detailed text entry.
A text field appears.
The marker name changes to Intro.
Try using the key command for Quick Edit Marker to quickly name markers. You can also choose Options > Marker > Quick Edit Marker, or press Command-Return to quickly name markers.
Let’s try a different approach for naming markers, involving the Marker List, a technique that has its own advantages, although it is not as quick as the previous technique.
The Marker List window uses an Event List format to sequentially display all the markers used in a project. It shows marker position, name, and length and provides a single environment in which to access and edit markers.
The Marker Text area opens at the bottom of the Marker List, ready for input.
Marker 2 now appears as Verse 1 in the Marker List and the Marker track.
By using the Marker List window, you can quickly switch from one marker to another, entering text as needed.
Other information can be entered and displayed in the Marker Text area as well. You can display multiple lines of text in any font that resides in your system, making the Marker Text area a visual notepad. However, sometimes it is more useful to have comments displayed on the marker itself, providing information pertaining to the production.
The marker inserts a dividing line between the name of the marker, Guitar Solo, and the production notes beneath.
In addition to editing information in the Marker List, you can adjust markers in the Marker track the way you would work with regions in the Arrange area. Common tasks include changing the marker lengths, dragging markers to new locations, and coloring their labels.
The Coda marker you created earlier is a bar too early. Let’s move it to correct this.
The cursor turns into a two-headed arrow.
Notice that a small gap appears between the Bass Solo and Coda markers.
You can adjust this by lengthening the Bass Solo marker to fit against the Coda marker.
The cursor changes to a Resize pointer.
The seemingly simple act of coloring an item can make a big difference when navigating within a project. By coloring a marker, you can quickly discern one section from another.
The Color palette appears.
The marker changes from its gray default to the chosen color.
The Marker track does not have to be visible for you to see the markers you have created. Whenever the Marker track is not visible, the markers are displayed directly under the Bar ruler.
The Marker track disappears (it is the only global track whose visibility is turned on). All the markers you created in the last few exercises are displayed in the Bar ruler, along with their assigned names and colors.
The markers here are displayed the same way they’re displayed in the Marker track, with the exception of the text that you entered for the Guitar Solo marker. When displayed in the Bar ruler, markers are allocated a limited amount of space, which does not allow for extended text.
In a nonlinear editor you have the unique advantage of being able to jump around within a project, concentrating on various aspects, regardless of their position in the Bar ruler. To truly benefit from this random access, it is essential to navigate the project in an efficient manner. Quickly getting to where you want to work is paramount, especially when time is limited.
While the basic transport controls work for navigation, they still follow a linear approach modeled on tape-based media. Forward and rewind controls move the playhead from a fixed point in one direction or the other, and you must scroll through intermediary material to reach the edit point.
In this exercise, you take advantage of the nonlinear aspects of Logic, using techniques to navigate the project rapidly while setting yourself up for the edit.
The basic method of moving nonlinearly within a project is by using the playhead. Jumping to another section is as easy as clicking once in the bottom half of the Bar ruler (below the dotted line). Playback from any point in the project works in a nearly identical fashion—all you do is double-click instead. The two techniques used together enable both quick location and playback.
The project starts to play at that location.
The playhead position jumps to that location without stopping playback.
The project jumps to that location and stops playback.
This technique is not very precise for locating starting and stopping points, but it works well for quick navigation when accuracy is not a priority.
However, starting from an exact location is often important, especially when you’re isolating specific areas or material in the composition. Let’s look at a few of the key commands that help to accomplish this.
All commands that have play in the name are listed in the Command column (including words that contain this combination of letters, such as display).
Several useful playback commands are listed here, many of which are accessible only via a key command. (The “•” preceding a command identifies it as a key-command-only function.)
You will be using these for playback from specific points in the project.
Before you’re ready to try out these playback commands, it is necessary to understand what they do. The Play from Selectio function allows you to select a region or event using its leftmost point as the location to initiate playback.
The project immediately starts playing from the beginning of the region.
Rather than base the playback location on the start of a region or event, as Play from Selection does, thePlay from Left Window Edge command uses the visible area of the active window to determine its playback start point. Essentially, it uses a “what you see is what you get” approach, starting playback from the leftmost visible point in the window. This is especially helpful when you’re zoomed in while editing, as it doesn’t require selecting a region or event first and it’s independent of zoom level.
The view zooms in horizontally and vertically, displaying a few measures.
The project immediately starts playing from the leftmost point of the visible window area.
As mentioned earlier in this lesson, markers are extremely useful in helping you locate places in a project. In this way, they can be viewed as navigation points, allowing you to skip to sections where you want to work. In this exercise, you will learn methods of using markers for navigation and for initiating playback.
The playhead locates to the beginning of the marker (measure 5). This is a quick way to move to the beginning of a section.
By double-clicking while pressing the Option key, you can start playback from the beginning of a marker.
The playhead moves to the beginning of the marker (measure 13) and starts playback.
Another way to navigate using markers is with the Marker List.
The Lists area opens. Note that the Lists area has its own set of primary and secondary (with Command key) tools. By default, they are Pointer and Finger tools.
The project starts playing from the beginning of the Intro marker and continues playing until you release the mouse button.
This provides a simple way to audition sections in the project, especially when you have many markers that are not in the visible area of the window.
Menu commands (and their respective key commands) also provide an efficient way of jumping from one marker to the next.
The Marker track appears at the top of the window.
The playhead moves from marker to marker sequentially, aligning itself at the beginning. As each marker is selected, it becomes highlighted in the Marker track.
Although the menu commands are readily accessible, the key command equivalents provide the most efficient access to these functions.
With these key commands, you are able to quickly scroll forward and backward by markers along the Bar ruler.
Cycle is an extremely useful mode that enables you to play a section repeatedly. This works well for isolating material in a project, permitting you to focus on the repeated section, editing as you listen.
Cycle works by setting locators (used as start and end points), which can be done manually or automatically. Let’s take a look at methods to set locators and to create cycle areas that allow you to isolate material.
The project starts immediately at the start point of the cycle area, continuing to play until it reaches the end, at which point it loops around again, playing from the start of the cycle.
This technique works for locating to a given point and for playing an isolated passage that has been defined manually. However, precisely positioning the start and end points is difficult and becomes tedious when done around predefined sections (such as markers and regions). To address this, let’s look at additional techniques that can automatically set the locators defining a cycle area.
An interesting thing happens when navigating using the Go to Next/Previous marker key commands: the locators are automatically set around the marker, corresponding exactly to the marker length. You can use this to your advantage, dynamically changing cycle areas that correspond to the sections in the project.
The locators adapt to the selected marker length, and the cycle area moves in the Bar ruler, matching the Verse 1 marker length exactly.
The cycle areas adapt to each marker accessed.
As long as Cycle mode is on, the cycle area will relocate to any selected markers, allowing you to effectively concentrate on individual sections in the project.
You can also create a quick cycle area with a marker without having to locate to it first. This can be done via a simple drag-and-drop technique.
A cycle area is created, matching the Guitar Solo marker length and location.
This is another way to quickly turn off Cycle mode.
While markers work great for sectional material, you will often want to concentrate on smaller areas in the project. You can accomplish this by setting locators around individual regions or events in the project, and then activating Cycle mode.
A cycle area is created, matching the Bongos region.
This technique isn’t limited to regions: it generally applies to all selected objects (notes, events, and so on) in any editor. Thankfully, a single key command encapsulates all object types, allowing you to execute this command regardless of the editor.
All commands that have locator in the name are listed in the Command column. Make note of the key command for “Set Locators by Regions/Events,” Control-= (equal sign).
The cycle area within the Piano Roll Editor adapts to your selection.
As long as Cycle mode is active, it will adapt to whatever you select when using this command.
Sometimes it is helpful to skip a section to hear how a project sounds without it. You can do this by creating a skip cycle, which lets you omit a passage. Locators are used to determine the position of the skip cycle area, but here they work in reverse, swapping the left and right locators. This technique is especially helpful when trying out transitions between sections.
A skip cycle area is created, represented by the striped bar at the top of the Bar ruler.
The project plays from the beginning of Verse 1 until it reaches the skip cycle area, then jumps past it, continuing to play from the end point of the skip cycle area.
This is effective for quick designations but suffers from the same problems as manually drawing a cycle area: it’s inexact and it doesn’t adapt. You can address this with a key command that enables you to create a skip cycle area out of any cycle area (or vice versa).
The search field should still have locator typed in it, with the Command list displaying all commands with locator in the name. Make a mental note of the key command for “Swap Left and Right Locators” (J).
The skip cycle area changes to a regular cycle area around the Guitar Solo marker.
The cycle area now becomes a skip cycle area.
The project plays from the beginning of Verse 3 until it reaches the skip cycle area, then jumps past the Guitar Solo, continuing from the Bass Solo until the end of the project.
When editing, it is often necessary to work with material at a highly detailed level. Zooming is the act of moving in and out of your arrangement, magnifying your working area to focus on individual aspects of a project.
In this exercise you will use various zoom techniques that improve your ability to view and edit material.
Before you begin, it is important to understand how Logic uses positioning to determine which visual material is magnified. The goal is to keep the area you are concentrating on visible in the window. This is dictated by either the playhead position or the selected material.
You can see this when executing basic zoom commands such as those controlled by the zoom sliders.
The playhead locates to the beginning of the Chorus section.
The project zooms in lengthwise, spreading out in both directions but keeping the playhead in roughly the same place within the window.
The project zooms in, spreading out in both directions, but this time it keeps the left edge of the region in roughly the same place within the window.
What does this mean, and why is this important? In effect, while zooming, the displayed area of the window is justified either to the current playhead position or to a selected region. When you want to zoom in to a given playhead position, you must make sure that nothing is selected before you zoom. If you want to zoom in to an individual region, you need to select it first. This is important to keep in mind while zooming because you may find yourself losing the area that you intend to work with unless you actively choose one of these methods.
Zooming can be thought of as navigating up and down levels of magnification. Each magnification level can be accessed via the zoom sliders or a key command, and it can also be saved for later use. These zoom steps can also be saved and recalled dynamically while you’re working (like saving and restoring screensets), allowing you to return to desired levels of magnification.
Let’s explore this technique by assigning a few key commands.
All the commands that have zoom in the name are listed in the Command column.
Note the functions relating to saving and recalling zoom settings: Save as Zoom 1, 2, and 3, and Recall Zoom 1, 2, and 3.
Once they’re assigned, you will use these key-command-only functions to save and recall zoom “snapshots” of various levels of magnification.
Now that you have assigned keys to save three zoom snapshots, let’s assign related keys to recall them.
With this arrangement, the Command key works as a memory toggle, storing settings when it’s used in conjunction with the function keys. When the keys are depressed without the Command modifier key, they recall the last zoom level that was saved.
The project zooms in a modest amount, showing the audio region in track 1 in greater detail.
You have saved three zoom settings with varying degrees of magnification.
These settings work effectively in conjunction with the zoom positioning techniques discussed earlier, allowing you to quickly view elements of the project at multiple magnification levels.
The selected region (Rhythm Guitar) zooms in, keeping the playhead position within the window.
Zooming in on specific regions is useful when you need to focus on a particular element in a project. It provides a quick way to resize the visible work area to encompass the entire region or regions.
There are several useful key commands for zooming in on regions, including “Zoom to fit Selection vertically & horizontally, store Navigation Snapshot.” This function automatically employs the zoom settings that best fit your selection within the window. The command is also dynamic, using low zoom levels for large regions and high zoom levels for small ones.
Since this has already been assigned to a key combination by default (Control-Option-Z), let’s give it a try within the project.
The screen changes size to fit the entire selected region, justifying the selection to the upper-left corner of the work area.
The work area changes size to fit the entire region, shrinking the horizontal view while zooming in vertically.
This technique also works for zooming in on individual events in other editors such as the Piano Roll.
A similar zooming effect can be achieved based on locators rather than regions or events. You need to assign a key command to this function.
The search field should still have zoom typed in it, with the Command list displaying all commands with zoom in the name.
Remember how the locators automatically changed to fit the marker when you used the commands for going to the next and previous markers? You can use this feature in conjunction with the key command you just set, adapting the view to display only the selected section.
The work area is resized horizontally to fit the entire Intro section in the window.
Audio is displayed in the Arrange area as waveforms that are constantly redrawn for every zoom level, all the way to single-sample resolution. When the signal level is low, the displayed waveform is quite small and can be difficult to edit.
A good example of this is the Rhythm Guitar region at measure 4. A small waveform is barely visible.
To enable more precise edits, the waveform can be zoomed vertically, independent of the region. Logic has a dedicated Waveform Zoom tool to do just this.
The waveform is magnified while the region size stays the same.
This makes the waveform much easier to edit without changing the visible area.
The Waveform Zoom button acts as a toggle between the zoomed view and the original magnification.
The waveform zoom is independent of the screenset and zoom level. It is especially helpful for working with low-signal passages, where you might want the waveform continuously displayed in a magnified state.
The ability to rearrange the structure of a composition is an essential part of composing and arranging. However, the seemingly simple task of cutting and repeating sections can become overly complicated, and achieving the desired results often entails multiple steps (dividing regions, selecting areas, cutting, pasting, and so on). Fortunately, Logic offers several features that help with editing multiple regions over numerous tracks by combining multiple steps into single commands.
The cycle area (and locators) adapts to the Verse 2 marker.
Depending on your individual setup, a dialog may appear asking if you want to erase the automation data within the selected area along with the edit (this preference can be found in Preferences > Automation). For the purpose of this exercise, it won’t matter which option you choose (Don’t Erase or Erase). However, it is important to keep in mind that large-scale edits will also affect underlying (and oftentimes unseen) automation information written to the tracks.
Multiple things happen when the command is executed:
• All regions that overlap the cycle area are divided to form separate regions within the points specified by the locators.
• All material within the cycle area is selected.
• The selected regions are deleted and saved to the Clipboard.
• The regions immediately after the right locator are moved earlier along the Bar ruler to the location of the left locator.
By performing this edit, you effectively eliminated Verse 2 from the project without forming a gap in the project.
Now that you’ve tried your hand at cutting an entire section, you will perform another common large-scale edit, repeating a section.
Similar to Cut Section Between Locators, this command groups multiple functions under one roof, selecting only the region information that lies between the locators and inserting it immediately. The result is that the entire Verse 1 section is repeated, followed by the Chorus section.
1. How do markers aid in a production?
2. How is changing the text and color of markers useful in a production?
3. Where are markers accessed?
4. How do specialized playback commands function in a production?
6. Zooming justification depends on what factors?
7. How are zoom settings stored?
8. Identify the difference between the Zoom to Fit Selection and the Zoom to Fit Locator commands.
9. How can you magnify the audio waveform independently of the region?
Answers
1. Markers can designate section material or serve as navigation points.
2. Changing the appearance of markers (including production notes) helps you easily identify and navigate to sections within the arrangement.
3. Markers can be accessed in the Bar ruler, Marker track, or Marker List.
4. Specialized play commands can effectively aid in quick, nonlinear navigation.
5. Locators can quickly be set by dragging within the Bar ruler or by creating cycle areas for any region, event, or marker.
6. Zooming justification is dependent on playhead position and region selection.
7. Although Logic keeps track of previous magnification levels when zooming, zoom snapshots can be saved and recalled using key commands.
8. Zoom to Fit Selection adapts the viewable area to display selected regions or events. Zoom to Fit Locators allows you quickly display marker areas within the arrangement.
9. Use the Waveform Zoom slider to magnify an audio waveform independently of the region.
10. Locators can be used to edit large areas of the project at once by enabling you to cut or repeat entire sections.
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