Logic Pro 9 need some help DP5 to LP9 switch

[papertigerbob]

I saw somewhere, that there were some videos helping explain how to do thing that you could do in digital performer, that you needed to do differently in logic. or maybe it was just links to tutorial videos. just something, because the majority of videos i see, are pretty much people using loops, loops this, loops that, i'm looking to figure out how i can select input on my interface, and the outputs as well, so i can send them to the necessary output to my headphone amp, and soon to be routing 8 channels out into my dbox.

digital performer has all ins and outs right there for me, makes my job a breeze. and right now, i don't know why, but i click on an "i/o" number and it doesn't do anything.......

i'm going to have no hair left on my head after i'm done with this...

 

[leytonnz]

are you saying that you have your audio interface selected in audio preferences but when you click on the input slot of a channel you dont get any options? see attached pic.

 

[CSeye]

It sounds like you're comfortable using DP.

Learning a new software program takes a bit of time to learn how it works: Names of functions and menu items (that maybe labeled differently than what you're used to), how signal is routed, etc.

leytonnz posted a very helpful screen shot that will hopefully answer your question.

The User Manual which is available in Logic's Help Menu (and in pdf form here: http://www.apple.com/logicstudio/resources/ ) can be very useful.

Take a look at Chapter 2 Setting Up Your System, and Chapter 14 Recording in Logic Pro.

Give yourself a break. It seems a bit overwhelming in the beginning but then things fall into place more quickly.

It might be helpful to list your system specs: Mac, OSX, audio interface.

As an aside, I used DP before Logic 8 and found the basics of using Logic much more intuitive than DP. Logic does have some screwy ways of working but the basics of recording and editing audio and MIDI will seem very easy to you once your get up to speed.

 

[papertigerbob]

well i figured out what was causing the problems, though gives me still another problem. first off, dummy mistake, i wasn't holding down the input button long enough, i kept single and double clicking it, since it was taking a hair longer to open up the drop down menu to select the input.

can i somehow just route the click to a buss and record it, so i can have total control of volume control of how much i hear in the contrl room and how much the person hears their headphones, on the metronome page, it looks like i can only select "stereo output pairs" and i don't want to route them to an output, i want to route them to a mono audio track, so i can record it, and be able to turn the volume up and down when i so please for both the musician and me. plus can i change the click sound. in dp5, i had the option of a lot of different sounds, and i've been using a very very easy to hear cowbell for the past two years.

i've been able to name some of the inputs on the "i/o naming" but sometimes it doesn't always show the names. its really weird.

 

[papertigerbob]

oh i forgot, running os x 10.5.8 2x2.66 dual cores. 5gb ram. and using rme fireface800 interface as my main one. and i have a motu 828mkII that i use for scratch tracking, to get some extra inputs used.

 

[daveyboy]

I switched over, kind of, as I still use DP. But, I use Logic on anything new and it's been like this the whole year. They are different. I got way more comfortable after just renting (not buying) the groove3.com videos. There are definitely things that DP does better/easier as there are things in Logic that are great too. Anyway, do the rental thing for a week and see how that works out for you.

 

[CSeye]

can i somehow just route the click to a buss and record it, so i can have total control of volume control of how much i hear in the contrl room and how much the person hears their headphones, on the metronome page, it looks like i can only select "stereo output pairs" and i don't want to route them to an output, i want to route them to a mono audio track, so i can record it, and be able to turn the volume up and down when i so please for both the musician and me. plus can i change the click sound. in dp5, i had the option of a lot of different sounds, and i've been using a very very easy to hear cowbell for the past two years.

i've been able to name some of the inputs on the "i/o naming" but sometimes it doesn't always show the names. its really weird.

In Logic menu bar at the top, go to File>New>Compose>Songwriting template. Take note of the Green-colored Send set to Bus 20. This is set up for a headphone mix so that you can adjust the volume for each channel strip as needed. You could set up more pre-fader sends for multiple head phone mixes. (I've never had to do this as I mostly work alone). Notice that the channel strip named Headphone in the Mixer has Bus 20 as it's input.

In order to route the click into your headphone mix: Open the Mixer (x), then click on the All button, scroll to find the channel strip named Click. Set the top Send to whatever Bus you select for your Headphone mix(es). Hold down on this send until a window opens giving you pre and post fader options. Choose PreFader. Adjust the send volume as needed.

Once you're happy with the send volume(s) for the Click, you can click the Arrange button in the Mixer to just see channel strips in the Arrange window.

Hang in there.

 

[nk_e]

I switched over, kind of, as I still use DP. But, I use Logic on anything new and it's been like this the whole year. They are different. I got way more comfortable after just renting (not buying) the groove3.com videos. There are definitely things that DP does better/easier as there are things in Logic that are great too. Anyway, do the rental thing for a week and see how that works out for you.

+1 here.

I bought those videos recently and earlier had purchased the ones from Macprovideo.com. The videos made a HUGE difference for me as I was having a hard time translating from DP to Logic and I was getting very frustrated. $50 bucks and a few hours of time invested were really really worth it.

I think the GrooveBox videos are more straightforward. The MacProVideos are updates to their Logic8 series (fine as there is huge overlap between the two Logic versions), but the approach in their Logic8/9 tutorials is obtuse (at least to me). The videos from Eli at Groovebox are organized in a more linear, step-by-step fashion IMHO. Macprovideo's other Logic Tutorials by Steve Horlick (Tips n Tricks, Flex Time, etc.) are excellent however.

Btw, I purchased them 'cause I tend to forget things if I don't stay involved with them daily, and as this isn't my "day job" (unfortunately :-( ) ...

 

[Eli]

Hey there,

Thanks for the kudos on the videos. Glad you are liking them!

 

[Markdvc]

I tend to forget things if I don't stay involved with them daily, and as this isn't my "day job" (unfortunately :-( ) ...

That is a huge issue with "non trivial" apps, such as Logic, Final Cut Pro, Shake, In Design, Dreamweaver, to name just a few of very many....

It's not like learning to swim or ride a bike. Our minds need to keep confronting challenging computer programs, otherwise, those precious, hard won skills start to rust...

kind regards

Mark

 

[Eli]

I often do Logic tech/instructional calls to repeat clients and invariably find them, many times, struggling with the same things I showed them previously.

At first I faulted myself for being an ineffective teacher. But I realized after time that it was more than that. When learning these new tasks and workflows it is important to repeat them, focus on them, and most importantly use them and integrate them immediately over and over again in order for them to sink into long term memory. Otherwise they will be long forgotten by the next time you need to execute them a month later.

It's kind of like learning a new tune. I find that if I play it over and over again and it really sinks in to my long term memory; I'll remember it a year later even if I hadn't played or thought about it in the interim. If not, I'll forget it two days later.

Having taught many people Logic, to varying degrees, I have found that the ones who are "task oriented" fare the worst. They just want to learn how to do the specific task they need to do at that moment, and that's it. They're the one's who will forget the next time they need to do it again a month later.

The one's that really "make it" in the long run are the ones that embrace the whole program and really try and dig in and understand the mechanics, the hows and whys of the way the app presents itself. They are the ones who make it a point to see the bigger picture of how the app is organized rather than just focus on the one or two tasks at hand.

Having said this, and now trying to steer the thread back on topic; I readily admit that the one or two times I have sat in fornt of DP at a buddie's place, my eyes glazed over....

 

[papertigerbob]

yeah, i've got ya, i want to learn it all. though i want to learn the basic multitracking first, then when i know where and how to add the the channels to make a basic multitrack template myself, then i'll start on to comping, and loops, and midi.

quick question, can someone help me get the "*" button on my number pad to be my record button, it keeps saying i can use that in the instruction pdf, but every time i hit the button, it just makes a noise at me and doesn't start recording. and i can use R, but its in such a bad spot. can i make my own short cuts for the record button, plus will the "*" allow me to hit the button for punching in and punching out. i ask, because in DP, i love the way they setup the recording buttons, the number "3" on the number pad is the record button, and i can hit it to start recording, and hit it again for it to stop recording on the track but still allow the track to play, (for when i want to record over a couple parts and not over others, if that makes sense) and then "0" on the number pad is stop, the enter on the number pad is play, and the "1" on the number pad is the "back to zero" button. 2 is pause, and the "." can allow me to type in bars to go to directly. all with one hand, i'm a punch master with this setup. it makes my life so easy.

let me know
thanks

 

[Eli]

Hey papertigerbob,

I'm not sure what system you are on but if you are using a full extended keyboard, you should think about switching your key commands to the default set for US with numeric keypad. This set has the * assigned for recording.

You can switch key command sets from the local menu in the key commands window.

I'd suggest you reassign the * key. Instead of assigning it to record, assign it to record/record toggle. This allows it to serve double duty. It can act as the regular record shortcut. And then when punch on the fly is enabled, you can also use it for punching in, as you describe.

0 and enter are already assigned to stop and play. In general, the "culture" of Logic key commands is to usually _NOT_ use numbers for key commands. They are reserved usually for calling up screen sets. This is a feature that is used much less since v.8 of Logic, but nonetheless is important to have available for when you might need it.

Once you initialize your key commands with the US and numeric keypad set, you can print them out and learn the defaults. They're generally a good starting point when learning the program.

HTH.....

 

[papertigerbob]

ok, got the keyboard thing under control. and got the click track situation worked out how i'm used to (kind of).

this one is odd, but very usefull for me. but can i change the color of the label on the mixer, for instance, have all the drums be "red" and the guitars be "blue", etc. this is something that i love about dp, and the wave file would be the same color as the channel color as well, so it'd be very easy to select, and see what i'm working with, with the high track count sessions.

another one, can i select just the tracks i want to see in the main window, sometimes i'll only want to view the tracks i'm working on/mixing/editing etc, and i'll just have them shown on the screen, plus sometimes i'll have other tracks that are muted and not being used, but may be used later, just aren't important, or i'm done mixing them, etc, what ever the reason really. can i hide them from from view?

another weird thing, though i haven't had a chance to test the headphone mix yet, (i've just been manually building my template so i can get some ins and outs experience so i know how the software is setup, instead of just playing with preset layouts, will won't help me learn anything about the layout. but back to the point of this question/inquiry, on the headphone buss send, there's no panning? now the only thing i can think of, is that the send just mirrors the panning of the actual track. is this true? plus why are all the busses seem to be mono, and i need to use "mono to stereo" plugins for reverb. in dp i could choose a mono buss, or stereo. which i used a lot.

i will have more questions later, its too late to think of them right now though.

 

[Eli]

Hey paper,

Lots of questions! I'll try and answer them as succinctly as possible:

1. Yes, you can color channel strips and then have those colors applied to the regions recorded on their tracks. Open your mixer. Under the view menu you will find a color palette. Select the channel strips and assign a color to them from there. The color will be applied to newly recorded regions.

2. Yes, you can hide tracks from view in the Arrange Window. Pressing the H button will toggle / reveal the hidden tracks. When they are showing, you will see an H button in the track headers. Click it to have the track hidden when the status is toggled.

You may also want to consider packing unused tracks and regions into folders (and muting them) as a way of managing your tracks. I often do this for tracks or regions I no longer need regular access to. What's great about this is that you are not tied to individual tracks; but can group any combination of tracks you want into each folder. If you need to go back into the tracks; just double click the folder to "go into" it. Double click in the background to "go out" of it.

3. Aux tracks can easily be made stereo by clicking on the format button in the bottom left corner of the channel strip. Change them to stereo before calling up any plugins in order to get easy access to the full stereo version of them.

4. When you click hold in the send field on a channel strip you will have the choice of having the send be post pan, as well as either pre or post fader.

 

[nk_e]

ok, got the keyboard thing under control. and got the click track situation worked out how i'm used to (kind of).

this one is odd, but very usefull for me. but can i change the color of the label on the mixer, for instance, have all the drums be "red" and the guitars be "blue", etc. this is something that i love about dp, and the wave file would be the same color as the channel color as well, so it'd be very easy to select, and see what i'm working with, with the high track count sessions.

another one, can i select just the tracks i want to see in the main window, sometimes i'll only want to view the tracks i'm working on/mixing/editing etc, and i'll just have them shown on the screen, plus sometimes i'll have other tracks that are muted and not being used, but may be used later, just aren't important, or i'm done mixing them, etc, what ever the reason really. can i hide them from from view?

another weird thing, though i haven't had a chance to test the headphone mix yet, (i've just been manually building my template so i can get some ins and outs experience so i know how the software is setup, instead of just playing with preset layouts, will won't help me learn anything about the layout. but back to the point of this question/inquiry, on the headphone buss send, there's no panning? now the only thing i can think of, is that the send just mirrors the panning of the actual track. is this true? plus why are all the busses seem to be mono, and i need to use "mono to stereo" plugins for reverb. in dp i could choose a mono buss, or stereo. which i used a lot.

i will have more questions later, its too late to think of them right now though.

PTB,

Dude, I'm sure you are familiar with the MOTUNATION's response to questions like that: RTFM! Unfortunately, with version 9 that's gotten a little problematic since it appears the manual is embedded in the help system. (I think someone mentioned a PDF download somewhere though.) It's pretty nice still since you can search it, though figuring out the proper phrase is sometimes a bit tricky...

Anyway, those questions (even if basic) are are totally legit of course. But you will have 1 million of them I guarantee you, and this thread would be many many pages. They can be answered in some of the resources mentioned earlier.

So I strongly suggest also renting Eli's videos, or buying the macpro videos, or checking out some free resources on youtube like the LogicNinja.

Much luck.

 

[papertigerbob]

i saw that holding and waiting for the pre/post fader/pan option would come up. and since its my headphone send, i select the prefader, though that still doesn't answer the question about panning, or maybe it does and i'm not realizing that. in dp, i'd have two knobs on my send, one for level, and one for pan. so that i can have panning setup in the headphones so that the guitars can be hard panned, and the drums are panned in the headphones as well. this also worries me for when i'm setting up my drum buss, i route all of my drums to and aux track, (usually buss 11 and 12 when its in dp) and then i can apply compression/eq/automation/etc. yet, i don't seem to see stereo busses. should i assume that each buss can act as either a mono bus or stereo buss, just depending on the aux track its assigned to? or am i missing something again.

"Dude, I'm sure you are familiar with the MOTUNATION's response to questions like that: RTFM! Unfortunately, with version 9 that's gotten a little problematic since it appears the manual is embedded in the help system. (I think someone mentioned a PDF download somewhere though.) It's pretty nice still since you can search it, though figuring out the proper phrase is sometimes a bit tricky...

Anyway, those questions (even if basic) are are totally legit of course. But you will have 1 million of them I guarantee you, and this thread would be many many pages. They can be answered in some of the resources mentioned earlier.

So I strongly suggest also renting Eli's videos, or buying the macpro videos, or checking out some free resources on youtube like the LogicNinja.

Much luck. "

i understand that there are videos out there that have tutorials. but i have very specific questions that i'm trying to find the answer to and i don't want to have to sift through videos to find the one or two answers i need at the moment. plus something i've seen with a lot of logic videos and tutorials, (so far, that is) they're more based around arranging, song writing, or post production stuff. which i'm not there yet, i want to get my template setup first, to how i want to track.

thanks

 

[papertigerbob]

two more things that popped into my head. first thing. when getting mic preamp levels. do i just look at the mixer's meter and go by that. or is there a dedicated screen that allows me to view the input levels more accurately. in dp i would have a totally separate window just for my input levels, and could change the size of it, so i could really get an accurate representation of the level coming in, and could see all the levels right by each other, making fine tuning a breeze.

and something else that i'm interested in. on quantizing, anything really. it seems that you change the setting for the whole track and not just a part, lets say you have a drum fill or guitar part that is played as a triplet and the quantizer isn't setup for triplet grid, but you don't want to change the quantize setting because everything else isn't played on a triplet grid. does this make sense? i have to worry about this when doing manual quantizing in dp, i have to sometimes change the grid display to show the triplet view or the standard 32nd note screen. i hope that makes sense to everyone. i record a lot of metal bands, and sometimes they'll have some crazy fills that only work in a certain grid.

bobby

 

[Doug Zangar]

Yeah - this DP/Logic thing is tough. I taught DP at a community college back on version 4 - I hated it. So counter-intuitive to me, albeit a powerful program.

Anyway, to one of your questions: quantizing - you're talking MIDI, right?

You can quantize on the track level, region level, and event level. Cut a track into regions specific to quantize needs and quantize to taste, or open up the piano roll, grab those two beats of triplet fills and just quantize those.

If by grid you mean the physical lines you see in the Piano Roll to mark the beat and sub-division, it's globally adjusted in the transport bar. Have to adjust to 16ths, 12ths, whatever. Not the best system.

 

[daveyboy]

Yeah - this DP/Logic thing is tough. I taught DP at a community college back on version 4 - I hated it. So counter-intuitive to me, albeit a powerful program.

I felt this way about Logic 7 when I first got it!. At this point it's probably a love/hate relationship with both DP and Logic. At least they're pretty equal. I would say Logic shines in the CPU department, at least 8 did. I seem to be having a boat load of issues with 9x (as many are). I wish I could skip a head 2 years (or whatever) to when Logic and plugins will be 64 bit and we can all live in a world of lots of memory. Aaahhhhh, good times ahead....I hope.