PT Logic

Logic Pro 9 Play Position

mk3

mk3

Logician
It seems to me that it should be easier to set the play (or, as the Logicians would have it, "playhead", which sorry to say, sounds rather inappropriate in a family-oriented program like this one) position.

One has to click in the miniscule marker area above the Arrange window. Be careful not to click too low, or nothing happens. Be careful not to click too high, or you might set a loop instead!

One should be able to click in empty areas of the Arrange window to set the play position. One should even be able to click inside regions to do so. At least this could be an option. Ableton Live works very well in this way, and it's very easy to move around.

Another nice feature from Live is that setting the play position in this way generally rounds to the nearest beat subdivision. That should be an option (or with a modifier key, perhaps) in Logic. This would be especially useful when one wishes to paste a region or event at a subposition, as commonly is the case.
 
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mk3 said:
Another nice feature from Live is that setting the play position in this way generally rounds to the nearest beat subdivision. That should be an option (or with a modifier key, perhaps) in Logic. This would be especially useful when one wishes to paste a region or event at a subposition, as commonly is the case.
Click to expand...

This is also possible in Logic.
Just click and hold the pointer close to the beat subdivision you want and the playhead jumps to it.
Try it.
Easier with /16 - or less - subdivision ruler.
 
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D_Gordon said:
mk3 said:
Another nice feature from Live is that setting the play position in this way generally rounds to the nearest beat subdivision. That should be an option (or with a modifier key, perhaps) in Logic. This would be especially useful when one wishes to paste a region or event at a subposition, as commonly is the case.
Click to expand...

This is also possible in Logic.
Just click and hold the pointer close to the beat subdivision you want and the playhead jumps to it.
Try it.
Easier with /16 - or less - subdivision ruler.
Click to expand...

Interesting. I just tried that...It does work, but a little too fine a grid; even zoomed out, the playhead seems to jump to 16ths or so rather than to the larger beat or measure divisions. Is this dependent on snap or other settings?

...ZM
 
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One of the great underrated key commands of all time is rewind/forward by division value. Combine this with the key commands for setting the next higher/lower division values - and you've got yourself some serious shizzle there.

😎
 
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Golden Frog said:
Hi. I'm new in the forum and with Logic. Is it impossible to move the playhead when you click in an empty space? Is there a way to change this?
Click to expand...

It's not possible. That's exactly what I was requesting in this thread. One should be able to click in any empty space, or perhaps even in the middle area of regions, to set the play position.

mk3
 
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Eli said:
Click in the bar ruler. Learn to do it as a habit and you won't even think about it after a few hours.
Click to expand...

That's what we all do... or I use the dot trick (I assigned the period (dot) key on the keypad as "Go To Position").

Still, this isn't very efficient. On a big screen, one has to move the mouse practically off the mouse pad to always go to the top of the screen and find the ruler area. Also, it's too easy to accidently click in the locators area and set (or un-set) a loop.

I still would want the ability to move the play position by clicking in the Arrange. This could be a user preference, as some people might not want this behaviour.
 
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I agree that clicking in the bar ruler can be a bit troublesome at times - especially when markers are present and/or the marker global track is being displayed.

The problem with clicking in the background to position the play head, is that clicking in the background is so important in order to be able to deselect regions. How can you have both behaviors coexists. Even if it were a preference - you'd need to be able to routinely do both. I know there's a key command for deselect all; but still..... It's vital.
 
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A slightly taller bar ruler, especially if each of the elements of the bar rules had different shades of gray, would make it easier to see where to click in order to go to that position.

Personally I'm glad that a click on the empty background in Arrange doesn't take the playhead there.

It would also help, I guess - for those used to PT - if the Arrange window would copy the functionality of the Score window, where a background click with the Alt button moves the playhead to the clicked position.
 
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Eli said:
I agree that clicking in the bar ruler can be a bit troublesome at times - especially when markers are present and/or the marker global track is being displayed.

The problem with clicking in the background to position the play head, is that clicking in the background is so important in order to be able to deselect regions. How can you have both behaviors coexists. Even if it were a preference - you'd need to be able to routinely do both. I know there's a key command for deselect all; but still..... It's vital.
Click to expand...

Point taken. A preference would handle that, though. Or one could set a modifier key for one of the two behaviors.

mk3
 
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Set your command click tool to the Marquee Tool.

Command click in the Arrange Window where you want to play from.

Done.

Logic will now play from this position where you short clicked with the marquee tool.

Click anywhere in the background to disable.
 
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I use Eli's tip of the Marquee Tool regularly. In fact, by default it's assigned to the command key. No assignment necessary. Single click snaps playhead to that point (upon play command) and will play until you stop. You can also define a playback region by click-dragging with marquee tool. Marquee line or selection overrides cycle, if it's enabled. As Eli mentioned, click in background to eliminate line or selection.
 
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Eli said:
Set your command click tool to the Marquee Tool.

Command click in the Arrange Window where you want to play from.

Done.

Logic will now play from this position where you short clicked with the marquee tool.

Click anywhere in the background to disable.
Click to expand...

An excellent solution!
Thank you, Eli!

It would also be nice if that clicked point would work as an insertion point for pasting, which would allow editing during playback. However, pasting still pastes at the playback position instead.

So, for pasting at an exact position, one would still require several steps:
- Command click on the position
- keyboard shortcut for "Go to selection start" (default is Shift-Return)
- Paste

It would seem like the second step should be unnecessary. I often find myself wanting to paste regions around (usually on the grid) while the project is playing, but it seems impossible to do without stopping playback.


mk3
 
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Pasting regions while the sequencer is playing is roughly equivalent IMHO to a woman applying makeup while driving a car: bad idea, almost begging for an accident.

A little patience is not a bad thing. In my experience, going a little slower actually leads to making better music.
 
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Jay Asher said:
Pasting regions while the sequencer is playing is roughly equivalent IMHO to a woman applying makeup while driving a car: bad idea, almost begging for an accident.

A little patience is not a bad thing. In my experience, going a little slower actually leads to making better music.
Click to expand...

Why a bad idea? I do this all the time in Ableton Live, for example, and have NEVER had a crash or even an audio glitch while doing so.

Logic is not a toy. I should be able to do any and all editing during playback. With modern technology, this should not be a problem. As Live amply demonstrates, it's certainly technically reasonable.

It's not an issue of patience. I find that one often has to work under time pressure (in a tight session, etc), or inspiration pressure, so to speak. That's why we invest thousands and thousands of dollars on hardware and software. I have not found that slowness necessarily leads to better music. There are times to work slow, and times to "strike while the iron is hot". It's those latter times that I am concerned about.

If Logic's code is so unstable that it can't handle basic multi-tasking on a modern powerful computer, then that's a serious deficiency of the platform. Maybe they should price it back at $1000, more reflective of professional software, and use the additional income to rewrite some of the underlying code.

mk3
 
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