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View Full Version : DP to Logic... a learning curve


TubaSolo
April 1st, 2008, 01:48 PM
Like any fool in a new relationship I was all starry-eyed and enthralled by the promising features as I fell for Logic and thought my old daw-friend (DP) and I were through.

I happily started threading Logic waters, confident I'd soon find a smooth workflow and that my marriage to DP was definitely a thing of the past.

I watched the videos, went through the tutorials, checked the forums and the manuals, gathering useful tricks as I went and hoped for the best.

Last week I did my first serious project entirely in Logic. After a lot of cursing and bafflement trying to find out how to do simple things that were a breeze to do in DP, here's a few of my ponderings hoping most of them are due to newbie shortsightedness and y'all soon bring me a few slightly humiliating but greatly relieving "duh moments":

1- There seems to be no way to hear the selection I'm making with the marquee tool in the arrange window, inside of an audio region. That's insane, how do I know that I'm selecting, say a certain vowel or syllable in a word, if I can't hear what I'm doing?

2- All sophisticated comping features set aside, the whole track/take system seems cumbersome to use. How can I create a new take just to plop some stuff on it, or duplicate an existing take on any given track? I'll get more adventurous and will try all sorts of weird shit on "take 3 - copy" if I know "take 3" is still only a click away.

3- Now let's say I want to lower one single word on a vox track by 2 db.

In DP, I can very conveniently choose between:
a)-- processing the region with a "Trim" plugin, non-realtime style,
b)-- or reach for the audio menu and lower the level of just that "soundbite", as Motu calls it.

But here, the only choice (outside of volume automation) is to go to the sample editor and, god forbid you'd even dream of applying that change on several non-contiguous regions at the same time, apply the level change region by region.

Destructively.

On the audio file itself!!??

Are they kidding?!?!?

4-Is there any way you can process audio thru a plugin in non realtime?
I know you can freeze tracks to save up cpu cycles, but let's say I just want to filter or compress or eq a certain region once & for all, how can I do that without leaving a devoted plug on that track needlessly forever?

5- Logic wont let your mouse wheel automatically see it should scroll horizontally or vertically according to the scroll bar it's on. I know it seems like minor stuff but it impedes on the workflow quite a bit.

Now say it ain't so, Joe....

Ashermusic
April 1st, 2008, 04:21 PM
1. While there is audio scrubbing with the Scissors Tool, there is sadly not with the Marquee Tool so when you need scrubbing the Scissors is the way to go. What I do is to zoom in so that I can see the waveform better, and play the section a couple of times. Usually I am familiar enough with the file by then that I can easily tell what syllable I am selecting.

2. I too am not in love with the whole Take folder thing but you can Flatten it and then simply option-drag it to copy it to other tracks as much as you like.

3. Your analysis here is correct :(

4. File > Export > Region as Audio File or Track as Audio File.

5. In Logic, IMHO, the best method for this is to hold down the Control key and use the up-down and left-right arrows. I always have believed that using the mouse is only for things that you cannot do with key commands, which are much faster and less wear and tear on your wrist.

DP has some great features that Logic does not and you have definitely zeroed in on some of them. Logic has some great features that DP does not. Cubase has some great features than Logic and DP do not, etc.

The hardest thing about moving from one DAW to another is that if you were fluent on the other, it has trained you to think like it thinks so when you go to a new one and it does something differently, your first reaction will be, "Whoa, that's wrong."

That said, you have very clearly pointed out some areas where IMHO DP is superior to Logic.

Oberlehrer
April 1st, 2008, 06:00 PM
5- Logic wont let your mouse wheel automatically see it should scroll horizontally or vertically according to the scroll bar it's on. I know it seems like minor stuff but it impedes on the workflow quite a bit.

Scrollwheel: scroll vertically
Scrollwheel + shift: scroll horizontally
Scrollwheel + alt: zoom vertically
Scrollwheel + shift + alt: zoom horizontally

pounce
April 1st, 2008, 07:26 PM
i've had fun messing about with all of the soft synths in logic, but still cannot break away from my familiarity of DP. and with DP6 coming out so soon, i may be tethered to DP for a long time. the DP upgrade looks awesome. that said, i still don't really prefer DP for midi composition as i just like how Logic does it better. so as always, i'm hopping between two programs doing audio in DP and messing with midi in Logic.

Comte de St Germain
April 1st, 2008, 07:55 PM
For me DP is still the choice it just works for me since it is set up to be initially a gradual shallow wading pool with plenty of depth if you need it.

And the fact that I'm a 95% audio guy and that i dabble in MIDI means i don't have to get as in depth as Logic initially appears to be.

But I sure am watching all this discussion with open ears.

HOOK
April 1st, 2008, 11:22 PM
Scrollwheel: scroll vertically
Scrollwheel + shift: scroll horizontally
Scrollwheel + alt: zoom vertically
Scrollwheel + shift + alt: zoom horizontally


If you use mighty mouse you just go ahead and scroll anyway you want (set the scroller ball to 360 degrees in mouse prefs.)
Scroller ball + ctrl = Zoom. (the screen, not logic.)





HOOK

TubaSolo
April 2nd, 2008, 09:05 PM
From what I've read is seems like one-daw days are over for many of us now... I personally would now tend to start a song in Logic, edit in DP, & back to Logic to mix.... What a fuckin pita :lol: But I shouldn't complain as they're fantastic tools to work with and we're lucky to have them both. Amen.

Waiting eagerly for DP6, with hopefully a decent sidechaining function on the new compressor and true compliance with the AU 2.0 standard. Yee-haah! :grin:

Thanks a lot for your opinions hints & workarounds gentlemen.

jord
April 4th, 2008, 06:48 PM
This all depends on your workflow. You've been used to DP for a long time, so Logic is likely to be a shock to you as to how things work inside of it.

jord

TubaSolo
June 2nd, 2008, 06:13 PM
Ok, new problem. This should be a no-brainer, can't figure out why it's not working the way I'm used to:

I've got two mono audio tracks (vocals) which are routed to a "vox submix" aux track via a stereo buss.

I'd like to pan them, hard L&R.

But no matter how I turn those panpots, both voices stay dead center. :icon_eek:

Go figure. I double-checked: the buss and aux are both stereo so what gives? You're not allowed to pan mono tracks???

Oberlehrer
June 3rd, 2008, 12:18 AM
Ok, new problem. This should be a no-brainer, can't figure out why it's not working the way I'm used to:

I've got two mono audio tracks (vocals) which are routed to a "vox submix" aux track via a stereo buss.

I'd like to pan them, hard L&R.

But no matter how I turn those panpots, both voices stay dead center. :icon_eek:

Go figure. I double-checked: the buss and aux are both stereo so what gives? You're not allowed to pan mono tracks???

Can't reproduce this here. This behaviour is typical when the Aux is set to mono, though. This can be a bit deceiving: If the Aux is set to mono but a "mono->stereo" plugin is used the meter will appear as stereo (however the small button beneath it will still desplay the "mono" sign).

So you might want to triple-check this once more: Is the Aux really stereo or is it a mono Aux with a stereo plugin?

jord
June 3rd, 2008, 05:29 PM
Your sends are probably the default post fader. Try setting it to post-pan and see what happens.

jord

Oberlehrer
June 3rd, 2008, 06:17 PM
Your sends are probably the default post fader. Try setting it to post-pan and see what happens.

That's not the impression I got from his description; this seems to be not about sends, but about the output of a track.

jord
June 4th, 2008, 12:48 AM
Says who?? Routing doesn't imply output or sends. However, bus sends in Logic are pre-panpot by default and are dead centre.

jord

RobS
June 4th, 2008, 01:07 PM
Ok, new problem. This should be a no-brainer, can't figure out why it's not working the way I'm used to:

I've got two mono audio tracks (vocals) which are routed to a "vox submix" aux track via a stereo buss.

I'd like to pan them, hard L&R.

But no matter how I turn those panpots, both voices stay dead center. :icon_eek:

Go figure. I double-checked: the buss and aux are both stereo so what gives? You're not allowed to pan mono tracks???

I'm 99% sure your Aux channel is mono. Look right under the meter for the aux channel you'll see a little o click on that and you'll see that the one meter turns into 2, and the o is oo. Now your panning should work fine.... but maybe I'm on crack

Oh yeah and what Jord said...

R

TubaSolo
June 6th, 2008, 11:29 AM
I had no idea a mono plug could creep his way in there as soon as the aux and buss were both stereo (which they were) BUT... yall guessed it, it was indeed the case, one of the plugs (the, er... first one :Redface: ) was mono, so yeah, duh moment etc. :Confused: :lol:

Ober, Jord, Robs, thanks so much and sorry for the delayed reply but I was deeeep into urgent work for several days.

jord
June 7th, 2008, 01:37 PM
That can happen to ya every time. :)

Always be mindful of which plug your are inserting on your aux channel. Sometimes, it does allow a mono plug to slip in.

jord