Logic Pro 9 A way to generate 30 projects in one go?

[composerguy78]

Hi All,

I compose music for TV which requires me to make 30-40 logic projects per TV episode.
If possible, I would like to remove some of the tedium involved in this process of making 30 logic sessions each episode and I thought that applescripts might be able to do this? Though it doesn't matter if it's applescripts or not, just any way that I can learn how to do it! Terminal, shell commands etc..however.

This is what I would like to be able to do:

1. Generate 30 logic sessions from a text list of 30 cue names. -So that the name and cue number from the list is automatically inserted into the file name of the project.

2. Set the SMPTE Project start time in each session (different each time) from the same list.

The 'list' I am referring to would be something like this:

**CUE # TITLE SMPTE START**
1M01 RECAP 1.00.00.00
1M02 GEEK APT. 1.01.02.22
1M03 OMEGA PLEDGE PIN? 1:00:42:08
1M04 ZBZ IN THE NIGHT 1:01:38:00
1M05 CAN'T STAY 4 FREE 1:02:04:12
1M06 JIGGLING DOOR KNOB 1:02:43:24
1M07 TITLE CARD 1:04:17:15

Any help would be very much appreciated!!

Best regards,

Felix

P.s. Please forgive me if this is not the right forum or feel free to move it to the most appropriate one!

 

[Peter Ostry]

My God! Is this a serious request?
Seems to be. A document of the time we live in. 10 movies in two hours or something like that, made by one man.

No, I cannot help with this, I just fell off my chair and wanted to write something after I managed to climb up again.

 

[composerguy78]

ha ha! love it!

Well in fact, I'm not writing that much music! But yes, it can be challenging!

Thanks for the reply though, you made me laugh!
Felix

 

[georgelegeriii]

Quickkeys might be able to do something like that. Have you taken a look at that?

They also have a pretty involved forum. I'd suggest taking your post over there and see if you can get an answer.

George Leger III

 

[Pete Thomas]

Hi All,

I compose music for TV which requires me to make 30-40 logic projects per TV episode.

I try to do as many cues as possible/feasible in one Logic project.

If the instrumentation is totally completely different in each one, then no, but I try to make my life easy so once I have a basic submix for a rhythm section or some other section, then keeping all the cues in the same project works very efficiently.

SMPT offset is your friend.

 

[Colin Shapiro]

I'm with Pete Thomas on this.

I also try to do all cues in one project if possible. If the instrumentation is different, I just have groups of tracks for different cues.

I'll add a tip:
When working like this, use SMPTE lock to fix all regions for each cue so that they don't "drift" out of sync by accident.

The advantage is being able to play the whole episode/movie to the client in one shot. Also, changes made for one cue(eg modifying EQ on a channel, improving on the mix, etc) are then applied to all similar cues.

But there are lots of ways to work within Logic....

 

[bobdemaa]

What I would do is create all the session documents in the finder first. Just Command -d until you get the total you need. Quickkeys could be used to automate this.

Next, grab the session files and drag them into an application called "A Better Finder Rename". Use the advanced category : action "rename from file list". The rest should be self explanaory.

Once the Cues start acquiring automation, running multiple cues in a single session gets to be a PIA. I find it is best to determine the orchestration and instrumentation. Once a couple of mixes have determined the sound then the plug-ins and levels can be relatively similar in each cue, so running different sessions is not that much trouble... As long as you aren't having logic load an entire VSL setup or something. My 2$.

 

[LSchefman]

Logic sorely needs D.P.'s "chunks" function, where multiple cues can be incorporated into a single sequence. In D.P. they can even share a plugin rack so that calling up a chunk doesn't involve tedious "reloading." Each chunk can also have its own SMPTE start time.

I fail to see why this would be difficult to implement in Logic.

 

[Pete Thomas]

Logic sorely needs D.P.'s "chunks" function, where multiple cues can be incorporated into a single sequence.

Is this different from I suggested, the way I work is with lots of different cues in one project. Not sure if we are talking about the same thing though, what do you mean by "sequence" ?

 

[composerguy78]

I try to do as many cues as possible/feasible in one Logic project.

If the instrumentation is totally completely different in each one, then no, but I try to make my life easy so once I have a basic submix for a rhythm section or some other section, then keeping all the cues in the same project works very efficiently.

SMPT offset is your friend.

thx v. much Pete! Although, a lot of the time I"m opening old projects so this isn't what would work for me but I may well use this approach for movies.
I really appreciate the tip!

Felix

 

[composerguy78]

Logic sorely needs D.P.'s "chunks" function, where multiple cues can be incorporated into a single sequence. In D.P. they can even share a plugin rack so that calling up a chunk doesn't involve tedious "reloading." Each chunk can also have its own SMPTE start time.

I fail to see why this would be difficult to implement in Logic.

Yeah, Chunks would be really really handy! Esp for playing back stuff to clients.
Hear Hear!
felix

 

[composerguy78]

What I would do is create all the session documents in the finder first. Just Command -d until you get the total you need. Quickkeys could be used to automate this.

Next, grab the session files and drag them into an application called "A Better Finder Rename". Use the advanced category : action "rename from file list". The rest should be self explanaory.

Once the Cues start acquiring automation, running multiple cues in a single session gets to be a PIA. I find it is best to determine the orchestration and instrumentation. Once a couple of mixes have determined the sound then the plug-ins and levels can be relatively similar in each cue, so running different sessions is not that much trouble... As long as you aren't having logic load an entire VSL setup or something. My 2$.

This is a GREAT answer. I HAVE A better Finder Rename and LOVE it but I didn't know it could do this, I'm going to try it right now!
Your tip is very much appreciated!

Felix

 

[bobdemaa]

SMPT offset is your friend.

Pete, wondering if you could explain how this is utilized in your workflow?

 

[LSchefman]

>>Is this different from I suggested, the way I work is with lots of different cues in one project. Not sure if we are talking about the same thing though, what do you mean by "sequence" ?<<

From your subsequent post it appears you've got it, but to explain further, the separate chunks - each of which can be its own project or part of a song or cue - live within a single project/file. I was calling a project a "sequence" 'cause DP, Logic, etc., are sequencers.

Open a project with chunks, and each chunk is available at a mouse click. You can play, edit, and work on them separately. Or, the chunks can then be arranged to play back as a "song" (forget the literal meaning of the word "song" here) and each chunk can start at its own SMPTE time, bar, beat or whatever you want. And a mouse click duplicates your initial project's template, or not. Whatever you want.

It's a fantastic way of working with cues. DP has had it for at least 10 years. You can create chunk after chunk, one for each cue, and play the whole thing back for the client synced with video without having to load new projects for each cue.

So you might have multiple cues, or chorus-verse-bridge-verse-chorus or whatever you want to do with the chunks. They all play back within a single project. But each is its own sequence/recording, etc. as well. Think of a chunk as a whole file within a file.

 

[Pete Thomas]

SMPT offset is your friend.

Pete, wondering if you could explain how this is utilized in your workflow?

It's on my site here:

http://mediamusicforum.com/logic-editing-cues.html

This tutorial is based around making different length versions for production music (from a Sound on Sound article), but I very often use the same process for different cues in TV programs, provided the orchestration is not totally and utterly different.

 

[bobdemaa]

Cool site Pete, thanks for the link.

Found your environment for keyswitching instruments. YES! Can't believe i hadn't thought of that before. Would make using logic live a lot more feasible.

Cheers.

 

[composerguy78]

What I would do is create all the session documents in the finder first. Just Command -d until you get the total you need. Quickkeys could be used to automate this.

Next, grab the session files and drag them into an application called "A Better Finder Rename". Use the advanced category : action "rename from file list". The rest should be self explanaory.

Once the Cues start acquiring automation, running multiple cues in a single session gets to be a PIA. I find it is best to determine the orchestration and instrumentation. Once a couple of mixes have determined the sound then the plug-ins and levels can be relatively similar in each cue, so running different sessions is not that much trouble... As long as you aren't having logic load an entire VSL setup or something. My 2$.

Hi BD!
This works really well!! Thanks very much for the valuable suggestion!
Felix

 

[wonshu]

What I would do is create all the session documents in the finder first. Just Command -d until you get the total you need. Quickkeys could be used to automate this.

Next, grab the session files and drag them into an application called "A Better Finder Rename". Use the advanced category : action "rename from file list". The rest should be self explanaory.

Once the Cues start acquiring automation, running multiple cues in a single session gets to be a PIA. I find it is best to determine the orchestration and instrumentation. Once a couple of mixes have determined the sound then the plug-ins and levels can be relatively similar in each cue, so running different sessions is not that much trouble... As long as you aren't having logic load an entire VSL setup or something. My 2$.