Logic Pro 9 Everything is muted but hear track

[edurbrow]

I've muted every track but I hear the guitar track. I wonder why. Is it because it is a comp track?

 

[Robert Wilson]

Do you have any sends set up?

 

[edurbrow]

Do you have any sends set up?

No sends that I can see.

In the mixer window, I can see a track called "gui" next to the Master and the same color as the master. This track also appears in the Inspector where normally I'd see the Master track. !? This gui track does not appear in the arrange window. There are no sends available on that track. I don't know how I got in this situation, but I would like to turn gui into a normal audio track.
TIA

 

[Peter Ostry]

This "gui" is your Stereo Output and you named it "gui". It doesn't take the name on its own.

From the screenshots I cannot tell what is muted and what not. Please make a complete screenshot where the track headers and the mixer channels are visible.

And, btw, why is your Master at +2.6 dB, is this intentional? That channel can confuse you. Better keep it at 0 dB.

 

[edurbrow]

As you can see, I have every track muted and that gui track is not to be found among the regular tracks. Also, if you look at the position of the cursor, it is in an area that appears to be muted for the guitar track as if another track were below it and selected for the comp track, but there isn't another take, just the one. Yet, I hear the guitar. It sounds the same whether I choose comp or take 1.
The master was not intentional, just a slip of the mouse, I guess. I don't know how I got into this situation. Still learning.
Thank you.

 

[Gio]

Shot in the dark here,
Open your environment window and make sure that there isn't a hidden bus or track left there. Or anything that shouldn't be there
Good Luck
Ciao
Gio

 

[Eli]

Looks like your arrange window hide button is active (The big H in the upper left). Maybe there is a hidden track that remains un-muted. Press the H button to reveal the hidden tracks and see what becomes visible.

 

[edurbrow]

Shot in the dark here,
Open your environment window and make sure that there isn't a hidden bus or track left there. Or anything that shouldn't be there
Good Luck
Ciao
Gio

Thank you all. I thought for sure Eli's tip about the H button was going to solve the problem, but it didn't. I opened the Environment and voila! there was an unmuted comp guit track.
I still haven't learned about the Environment. I don't get what it is for. I have to read up on it. It just looks like the mixer window.

 

[edurbrow]

The question now is: how can I get things back to normal? How do I get that comp track that is found only in the environment into the arrange window? And how to get a normal Master track and get rid of the gui track without harming anything.
Also just now, somehow, by just going back and forth between the Arrange and Environment, all my regions except those in two tracks disappeared though I still heard them. Investigating further, I saw headbanger kit and it was a folder. Somehow I clicked on it and got the tracks back. I wonder if there is a folder at some level that I'm not seeing I need to get rid of?
I've been using Logic for a while now but I still feel every bit the newbe. The program is deep but it is easy to get into areas where I don't know how I got there.
Thanks,

 

[LMPaule]

I can't help you with your question but, I will offer one suggestion. I too had that newbe feeling. After going thru all of the Groove3 videos (which are excellent), I came across the book Logic Pro Power by Kevin Anker & Orren Merton. I found this book an excellent resource to get me to a higher level of understanding of Logic Pro. I would not make any claim to be an expert but the book got me at least to the intermediate level.

 

[Doug Zangar]

I'm not sure how it got orphaned in the environment, but one way to get it back to your arrange area track list is to open your mixer and change the filter button to "all". You can then control click on the channel strip (it should show up there) and select "Create/Select...." item from the pop up menu. Probably select the Arrange filter button when you're done.

Let me know if this doesn't work.

 

[Peter Ostry]

I opened the Environment and voila! there was an unmuted comp guit track.
...
I still haven't learned about the Environment. I don't get what it is for. I have to read up on it. It just looks like the mixer window.

The Environment holds all channelstrips you can use for your work and it can process MIDI in sophisticated ways. It is the heart of Logic and in many aspects it is Logic. The programmers pull us more and more to the combined main window where we can work on almost everything except MIDI without leaving this window. But the Environment is still the base.

The Environment does not "just look like the mixer window" as you put it, actually it is the other way round. The mixer in the main window provides a special view of the Environment's channelstrips and adds (and hides) some functionality.

Same is true for the tracks in the Arrange window. They hold the audio and MIDI regions, but can only work with channelstrips that exist in the Environment.

For a long time we had to create the channelstrips ourselves in the Environment before we could use them for tracks. Today Logic handles the channelstrips on its own but sometimes it loses control. Then we go to the Environment, look at the "real" channelstrips and fix the problem. This is similar to select "All" in the mixer window but sometimes you better go to the Environment to see what really happens.

By the way: Some people still use the Audio Mixer of the Environment instead of the mixer of the main window. It allows to organize your channelstrips as you like, you can build your own virtual mixing console. The backdraw is that the automatic channelstrip management of Logic may disturb your mixer layout unless you know the tricks to avoid that.

The question now is: how can I get things back to normal? How do I get that comp track that is found only in the environment into the arrange window?

You cannot have a comp track in the Environment because it is a track and belongs to the Arrange window. We need to clean up our wording to speak about the same thing.

Talking about audio,

1. An audio channelstrip processes audio data.
2. An arrange track is assigned to a channelstrip.
3. The regions on the Arrange track contain data to be processed by the assigned channelstrip.
4. A comp track is one of several regions on a track that is assigned to one channelstrip.

The drawing below should help to understand what happens when you view the Arrange area and the Mixer in the main window:

​

If you run into problems, you can either try Logic's features in the Mixer how Doug explained, or check the Environment and then assign channelstrips to tracks manually by right-clicking in the track header and selecting a channelstrip from the popup menu. If you are not familiar with the wording in Logic yet, the track header is that grey area at the beginning of each Arrange track, where track number, name, icon and buttons are located.

And how to get a normal Master track and get rid of the gui track without harming anything.

We don't call that "master" or "track". It is a channelstrip. Although some stick to the word "master", the Master channel in Logic is a dedicated channelstrip with the purpose to adjust the overall output volume independently from the levels of individual outputs. And a track is not a channelstrip, it belongs to the Arrange window and contains regions and/or automation data.

Back to the "gui" issue: What you see is your Stereo Output. And you see this name in grey right in the channelstrip. You just gave this strip a custom name, you renamed it to "gui".

​

Solution: Rename the Channelstrip to "Output 1-2" or whatever you like but don't delete it. You wouldn't hear anything afterwards until you re-create this output in the Environment.


---


For everyone who is unsure about the functionality of Logic's channelstrips, here is an overview:

Input Channelstrip

This is the door for incoming audio. The number of available inputs depends on the audio interface you selected in Preferences->Audio.
​

Output Channelstrip

The number of available outputs depends on the setting in Preferences->Audio. An output channelstrip has no sends and no I/O settings. It is dedicated to particular channels of the audio interface.
​

Audio Channelstrip

It processes Audio. It can record from inputs and buses. This type is mainly used for Arrange tracks to record and play audio regions.
​

AUX Channelstrip

The AUX gets audio from a bus or an input. It can neither record nor process audio regions. It is the main channelstrip for distributing audio throughout your mix. As an Arrange track it can process automation data.
​

(Bus Channelstrip)

A bus may bee seen as an internal road where audio data can travel to other locations. The Bus Channelstrip represents this road but is no longer used. Avoid this type of channelstrip, it is just here for backwards compatibility and can make problems. Use only the buses themselves by selecting them in the other types of channelstrips.
​

Instrument Channelstrip (= Software Instrument)

It processes Audio from an inserted software instrument. With the "External Instrument" inserted, it sends MIDI to an external hardware or software synthesizer and processes Audio coming from this synthesizer.
​

MIDI Channelstrip

This type is dedicated to MIDI data and thought for external MIDI intruments.​

 

[Doug Zangar]

Peter - did you have too much free time today? That's a heck of a response!

This user group used to have some GREAT information downloadable that explained a lot of functions on Logic. I actually learned quite a bit from that. I suspect any information on the Environment is still valid. A quick look around the site didn't show it. Perhaps it's around and could be posted, assuming it's still of value?

 

[Peter Ostry]

Peter - did you have too much free time today? That's a heck of a response!

Actually I have no time left at all
But I thought it is time again to bring some basics into the foreground. People who don't know Logic from the past tend to believe that what they see is everything, and that it works or not. Apple supports this thinking but I don't. I find it still better to know what happens behind the curtain of automated features. And as we just saw, those features do not work flawlessly.

This user group used to have some GREAT information downloadable that explained a lot of functions on Logic.
...
Perhaps it's around and could be posted, assuming it's still of value?

We discussed that, the old files are supposed to be in the repository of the old mailing list which is still operating for some people who insist on using email instead of a webforum. But a lot of that information is out of date, it would be a tough job to separate the working examples from others. And looking at the current interest of users in the Logic Environment and the trend of the manufacturer to make Logic a mainstream application - mhm - sounds more like nostalgia to exhume old support files.

 

[Doug Zangar]

Actually I have no time left at all

That I can believe.

Well, thanks for an in-depth tutorial of how the Environment works. Back when I first started training people on Apple's Logic courses, I always did the environment first (Logic 6.x). Once students got that it was a lot easier to understand how Logic works. Now, as you mentioned, Apple has minimized the need to deal with the Environment. But it is still a good part of Logic to understand.

 

[Markdvc]

Peter - did you have too much free time today? That's a heck of a response!

Absolutely, I'll link that in the FAQs, something like "even with version 9, Logic IS the environment"

This user group used to have some GREAT information downloadable that explained a lot of functions on Logic. I actually learned quite a bit from that. I suspect any information on the Environment is still valid. A quick look around the site didn't show it. Perhaps it's around and could be posted, assuming it's still of value?

Doug, thanks for noticing! Perhaps you are referring to the Files section of the mailing list:

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/logic-users/files/

there is also the database, containing the Latency tests carried out about 3 years ago:

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/logic-users/database

We have some development work coming up here on the Forum, once that is out of the way, I will start sifting through these files and moving relevant ones over here.

kind regards

Mark

 

[Doug Zangar]

Hey Mark,

A quick glance at those makes me think that you could get some useful and valid information out of some of that.

I didn't see what I was actually looking for - I think it was an FAQ for Logic that started around version 3 (?) and went through version 6 or so? I just in the last year recycled most of those sheets I had printed out years ago to study. However, I did find two pages on the EXS mk II. Two questions from the sheet below.

18.18 EXS mk II: How do I crossfade between groups with a MIDI controller?

18.19 EXS mk II: how do I let note-velocity control pitch variations?

This ring any bells? And not sure how valid it all would be, but the EXS stuff really hasn't changed too much.

 

[Markdvc]

Hi Doug

Actually I had meant to mention the FAQ that a few of us worked on back in 2002/2003. It is based mostly around Logic 5, and while quite a few things have changed, such as setting up channel strips, I think quite a lot of it is still useful. It is still hosted by LUG veteran Hendrik Jan Veenstra here:

http://www.omega-art.com/logic/faq/index.htm

- and can be downloaded as a large html file. Definitely worth having IMO.

kind regards

Mark

 

[Doug Zangar]

That's what I was thinking about - that was a great resource in its day!

Belated thanks to those who put it together. I actually printed the whole thing out and read it - probably numerous times.

Some of that has to be valid today - I'm going to download it and review it again (and probably get all sentimental....)

 

[edurbrow]

A quick reply:
I haven't tried Doug's or Peter's suggestions yet, but I wanted to say a quick thank you. I'm really blown away by the generosity of this group. This kind of support inspires me to try harder to learn more.
Thanks.