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!

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.

When you have all the tracks selected that you would like to include in your custom view, click on Edit > Copy (⌘C ) to copy the channels.  Return to your custom layer and paste (⌘V) the channel objects.

You can arrange the objects however you see fit.  You can go to Options > Clean Up > Align Objects to line up selected objects and make it look nice.

Tips and Suggestions

We suggest that you protect the position of your items to prevent accidental movement while clicking around in the mixer.  Click on View > Protect Cabling/Positions to do so.

You can maximize screen real estate by selecting View > Frameless Floating Window.  This will remove the clutter of the environment window and allow area for plugins or other items.

If you appreciate the power of screensets as much as we do, you can create a screenset for each of your custom mixer views.  Here is an example screenset with a mixer for the band (minus drums) with compressor plugins for each instrument so you don’t have to mouse to the track and double click the plugin to make a change.

When dealing with custom mixer views in the environment, be sure to leave enough room for the track objects to expand as you add inserts and sends.

This type of setup is VERY powerful and useful when dealing with large scale projects.  Here is an example of a custom mixer that we use on a dual screen setup.

We could never see all of those tracks onscreen with the default mixer pane or by opening the mixer in a separate window. Apple, why isn’t this the standard mixer view?

One thing to remember when using the “Frameless Floating Window” option is that once you open a plugin, if you click back to the mixer, the plugin will be hidden by the environment window.  The best way we have found to get around this is to use ⌘` to cycle through the open windows to get back to the plugin or to close the plugin window when you are finished making changes.

One more thing… The insert behavior is not quite the same when using this method.  While you can still insert plugins on tracks, you cannot ⌘ + click/drag to rearrange plugins once they are inserted.  This must still be done in the regular mixer view.

We use custom mixer views everyday and love them… but we want to know what you think.  Post any questions or issues in the comments.

This week we want to know how you keep your projects organized. Do you keep them all in one folder? Do you sort by artist, album, or other criteria? Get in the loop and leave your feedback in the comments.

In Logic 9, you can click and drag the Mute, Solo, Input Monitor, Hide, and Freeze buttons in the Arrange Window to enable or disable the button on multiple tracks. This works great if you would like to solo a group of tracks. In previous versions you had to click each button individually.

For example, lets say that you have 7 wireless microphones that you are recording for a live event. Highlight the 7 audio tracks in the mixer you would like to use, double click and name the first one “Wireless 1″. The following 6 tracks will automatically be named “Wireless 2″, “Wireless 3″ and so on. This tip can greatly speed up track naming for large projects with multiple mics.

The quickest way to trim the automation on the entire track is to cmd-click+drag the yellow bar on the track header in the arrange window. This action can be performed no matter which tool is selected. Check out the video below to see this hint in action.

This comes in very handy if you need to send some stems to your bass player so he can lay down some tracks. When he imports the audio files into a new Logic 9 project he will be prompted to import the tempo and marker information from the files into his project. This will allow him to play with Logic’s click track as well as view any markers that may contain important notes.

BONUS TIP: Pressing the Esc key twice will reset the selected tool back to the Pointer Tool.