If you haven’t noticed from the lack of posts, we have been very busy with projects lately. While working on a project the other day, we ran out of memory for a project while using Auto Tune EVO to polish some vocals.
If you use Auto Tune and have had this happen, you know that when you click on the insert where Auto Tune is loaded an “Out of Memory” error will display and the interface refuses to open. Since you cannot click on the insert without getting the error, you cannot bring up the menu to replace or remove the plugin and free up some memory. We tried saving the project and reopening, but it didn’t help. We were stumped.
After spending some time trying to figure out a way around the error we remembered a trick for inserting a plugin to multiple selected tracks at once. We selected the VOX track and the track next to it in the Mixer. Luckily, the next track did not have a plugin on the first insert where Auto Tune was loaded. When we selected the plugin on the adjacent track we held down the Option key and selected a plugin. The out of memory error popped up and we thought it hadn’t worked. However, when we dismissed the error the plugin we selected was loaded into the insert on both tracks.
This method should work with any other plugin that you are having difficulty opening by clicking on the insert. We just happened to be using Auto Tune when we had issues.
Sometimes it is helpful to view and edit multiple automation parameters on a track simultaneously to ensure they are working well together. Instead of switching back and forth between which parameter is being displayed, you can simply display and edit as many as your screen real estate will allow directly from the arrange window.
First, you should display automation by pressing the ‘A’ key on your keyboard.
Select the automation parameter you would like to display in the automation drop down that is now showing on the track header. You can display another automation lane by clicking the triangle in the lower left of the track header. Once the lane is displayed you can select the parameter you would like to be displayed for that lane.
Just remember, if you turn off automation display the extra automation lanes will not reappear. We recommend creating a locked screenset if you would like to recall the additional automation lanes.
You can link your plugin windows to the selected track for fast plugin access on a specific insert slot. This reduces the number of clicks required to make a change in your plugins. Too bad that only one plugin window can be linked at a time.
For some reason, when you bounce a project, there is not a button to cancel the bounce if you change your mind. Luckily, there is a way you can cancel a bounce if you would like without using a button. After all, clicking things with a mouse is for noobs. All the pros use keyboard shortcuts. You are a pro right?
To cancel a bounce that is in progress, simply press Command + Period ( .)
By default Logic allows you to solo multiple tracks simultaneously. This is the same as enabling Solo Latch in Pro Tools. However, what if you want the solo on another track to be disabled when soloing another track? There is not a setting to completely disable this functionality, but there is a work around.
Have you ever noticed the button in your transport bar? Apple simply calls it Solo, but it is better described as a “Selected Region Solo Mode”. When enabled only selected regions will be played. This mode works with any combination of selected regions in the arrange window. You may be wondering how selecting regions can be any quicker than clicking the solo button on and off? Well, here’s how…
When you click a track header in the arrange window all the regions for that track are selected and all other regions are deselected. Therefore, to solo another track all you need to do is click the track header. Much quicker than enabling and disabling the solo button when trying to find the track that was recorded with the noisy cable!
Do you have problems viewing all of your tracks in Logic using the mixer window? Did you know that you can customize environment windows to view several tracks at once? Well you can! Here’s how…
Open the Environment and create a new empty layer. You can name this layer anything you like. Make it relevant to the channels you will include in your custom mixer.
Once you create the layer you can begin placing the channels you want into the layer. (Be sure to create all the tracks you need in the arrange window first.) Then go to the main Mixer layer in the Environment and select the channels you would like to include in your new layer. You can hold Shift to select multiple tracks at once. …Read More
Have you ever noticed the Drag field at the top of the arrange window? If the name doesn’t give it away, this option set what happens when you drag a region. More specifically it determines what happens when you release the region after dragging.
The Shuffle L mode will cause the beginning of a dragged region to snap directly against the end of the region immediately to the left on the same track. This drag mode is very handy when editing where you will be removing portions of the original audio file. When you delete a section of audio, all of the regions that follow will shuffle left and snap against the end of any regions that preceded the deleted region. Assuming your edits were good, you should have seamless playback across the edit point without having to drag or align any regions.
Application crashes are inevitable. They will happen at one time or other and seem to strike at the most inconvenient of times. DAW apps can crash from bugs in their code or from bugs or issues with third party plugins. Sometimes, Logic is smart enough to detect a crash and save the current project as a “Project (crashed).logic” file. However, I have had Logic lock up but never completely crash on more than one occasion.
This happened to me today while working on a project. I tried to change to a screenset with a 3rd party plugin window open while the project was looping. Something caused Logic to lock up and display the spinning beach ball of death while the project continued to loop in the background. I couldn’t stop playback, change screensets, or save the project. I figured Logic would eventually crash and ask me to save, but 5 minutes later it was still going and I still couldn’t do anything. I looked at the timestamp of my project file to see when I last saved. Intstead of losing my last 10 minutes of work, I decided to figure out a way to make Logic crash and automatically dump the project. Simply selecting “Force Quit” was not an option because it doesn’t tell Logic to dump the project before quitting. After some quick testing on another machine, I found out that if you kill Logic via the terminal it will save the file as if it crashed as long as you send the correct kill signal.
Please note that this may not work in all situations.
Here’s how to do it.
Open Terminal.
Type ‘top’ and press enter. You will see a window like the one below.
Find the PID for Logic. In the screenshot above the PID is 8070. This number will change each time you launch Logic.
Press ‘q’ to get out of top.
Type the following command and press enter. Remember to replace XXXX with the correct PID.
kill -s ABRT XXXX
Logic should tell you that it crashed and has saved the project for you.
Hopefully, you can proceed to reopen Logic and load the (crashed).logic project file and hopefully recover your changes without Logic crashing again.
Performing the steps above will cause Logic to save a (crashed).logic project file even if it is not locked up. So, feel free to try it on an empty project for practice. That way you don’t mess it up if you have to use it on an important project!
If you use Auto Tune and have had this happen, you know that when you click on the insert where Auto Tune is loaded an “Out of Memory” error will display and the interface refuses to open. Since you cannot click on the insert without getting the error, you cannot bring up the menu to replace or remove the plugin and free up some memory. We tried saving the project and reopening, but it didn’t help. We were stumped.
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button in your transport bar? Apple simply calls it Solo, but it is better described as a “Selected Region Solo Mode”. When enabled only selected regions will be played. This mode works with any combination of selected regions in the arrange window. You may be wondering how selecting regions can be any quicker than clicking the solo button on and off? Well, here’s how…
