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Sharing Logic tips and tricks

Here's a small collection of tips that can be useful if you have performance issues with Logic when you use it with Kontakt or other samplers.


Don't use Kontakt's memory server unless you know what you do or need an urgent workaround - it may be helpful in some cases but also makes your system slower. It shouldn't be needed at all if you run Logic in 64-bit mode​


Use the Global Purge function in Kontakt, and purge all samples from your project. When you start playback again, Kontakt will only load the samples it needs. Before you start playback again, it may be a good idea to use the Recycle Memory function in Memory Drag (or similar in other apps). It isn't really global AFAIK; it seems you need to do these for each of your channel strips.
Screen Shot 2019-06-30 at 01.07.39.png ​


Don't activate Kontakt's multiprocessor function – since you most likely already have multiprocessing happening in Logic.
Screen Shot 2019-06-30 at 01.01.55.png

Check out this thread for advice like creating a dummy track which isn't a VI track and have that selected during playback or enabling multithreading in Logic for playback only.​

Don't listen to the advice above if users with more experience than myself chime in with better advice. :)​
 
Here's another tip: Use the Patch function.

If you click on the little Save-button in the lower right corner of this pic, you can save Patches. They include more than Channel Strip settings (Articulation sets, for instance, Smart Controls and routing settings.)
Screen Shot 2019-07-20 at 12.30.34.png




There are different kinds off Patches. A Patch can, for instance, be a Track Stack containing your favourite cellos. If you click on a patch in the patch list, it is temporarily loaded into your track (yes, the whole track stack) for previewing, and if the Patch is a Track Stack you can open it and check out how each of these cellos sound in the project you currently work on. You can also record enable more than one of them (inside the Track Stack); and check out how they sound layered.

But the Track Stack can also be your five layer Kontakt instruments, or a single sound, or something completely different.

When you click on another saved Patch, your previous Patch is overwritten by the new one.

More info in Logic's Help menu:


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Garry said:
I recently came across Mike Baggstrom's channel: there's a list of them here. He has some great videos: he delivers them quickly and concisely, usually in about 5 'tips' (and his 'Bonus tip'). I haven't watched any that I didn't learn something in. Highly recommended. MusicTechHelpguy is also wonderful, but his videos are typically longer and more in depth; Mike's are quick and to the point, and so very digestible. These are the 2 best Logic teachers I've found on Youtube so far.
Click to expand...

I just watched Mike's "51 Logic Pro Tips" video and learned several new shortcuts I had not been aware of. Really well done! Link to Video => 51 Logic Pro Tips
 
I'm fairly new to Logic and just learned this yesterday. If I have recorded a region with too much deviation between loud and soft notes (note velocity) I can compress that data. This reduces the loud notes and increases the quiet notes while maintaining the dynamic character of the region.

This is done in the "region" section of the "inspector" window. You simply select or type in a percentage that you want the dynamics decreased. You can also increase the dynamic rage as well by entering a percentage greater than 100.
 
Thanks for posting that... quite a few good things covered in that video. I'm pretty new at Logic and VI orchestral work. Does all of his workflow port over to orchestral music? Such as... do you "gain stage" all tracks or just those with loud passages. For example, would you bring a very quiet violin passage up to his -18db average "sweet spot", or leave it alone?
 
This isn't exactly a tip or trick, but nevertheless: I've recently seen some rumours about OSX Catalina maybe being released already on October 4th. Since backwards compatibility between Logic OS X currently (and in general?) means that Logic is compatible with the current (Mohave) and previous (High Sierra) MacOS version, and since High Sierra will possibly won't be the previous anymore from October 4th, it's probably a very good idea to download Mojave before October 4th, even if you're not planning to install it yet.
 
small but useful one. if you have a channel strip with a lot of plugins and want to turn them off all at once then click and hold the first plugin "on" button (next to the insert) and drag down while still clicking.

same for the mixer if you have 20 channel strips with 20 plugins each, just highlight all channel and click and hold>drag down on one of the "on/off" plugin insert buttons and all of 20x20 plugins will be turned off or on.
 
Is there any shortcut to raise/lower the sustain pedal cc in the piano roll? (While editing in the piano roll I mean. Obviously you can perform it in live by stepping on a midi sustain pedal. :P )

I find it kind of a pain to do by clicking and dragging the little dots. I wish there was a simple on/off command that snaps to the top or bottom.

Logc Sustain Pedal CC.gif
 
Land of Missing Parts said:
Is there any shortcut to raise/lower the sustain pedal cc in the piano roll?
Click to expand...
Since sustain pedal movements are seen as region automation in Logic, at least one of these should do the trick:
nudge automation.png

Increase last clicked parameter.png

But I just tried, and couldn't make any of them work. OTOH, I have reassigned some of the factory key commands to something else (and the above assignments are to be changed as well) – maybe you should try at your place and see if any of these key commands works there. (If they do, they still aren't ideal for what you want, since you'd need to click many times to achieve what you want.)
 
Vik said:
Since sustain pedal movements are seen as region automation in Logic, at least one of these should do the trick:
nudge automation.png

Increase last clicked parameter.png

But I just tried, and couldn't make any of them work. OTOH, I have reassigned some of the factory key commands to something else (and the above assignments are to be changed as well) – maybe you should try at your place and see if any of these key commands works there. (If they do, they still aren't ideal for what you want, since you'd need to click many times to achieve what you want.)
Click to expand...
Thanks @Vik . I spent a few minutes trying those out but wasn't able to get anything to work for the sustain pedal. But it does appear that I can adjust the value in the Event Menu, so maybe I will experiment with that. Also I can experiment with copying and pasting.
 
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Two automation tips:

There's a key command (I use R, but I believe that the factory default is something else) which lets you switch between seeing Region Based Automation and Track Based Automation in the track list, which does the same as clicking on this icon:

Screen Shot 2019-09-30 at 15.35.03.png

But there's another useful thing that can be done with this icon as well: if you click on it with the alt (option), Logic will move all visible region data to track automation (and vice versa).

This means that you can forget the key commands for Move Visible Region Data to Track Automation and Move Visible Track Automation to Region and use the vacant brain space (and key commands) for something else. :)
 
Land of Missing Parts said:
Is there any shortcut to raise/lower the sustain pedal cc in the piano roll? (While editing in the piano roll I mean. Obviously you can perform it in live by stepping on a midi sustain pedal. :P )

I find it kind of a pain to do by clicking and dragging the little dots. I wish there was a simple on/off command that snaps to the top or bottom.

Logc Sustain Pedal CC.gif
Click to expand...

Check your DM, You get to find out first! ;)

Update:

We're expanding the Arkeon Custom LPX Template to include even more powerful MIDI Presets and tools. And yes it will include a lot of handy CC management shortcuts, including what Land of Missing Parts asked for:

View attachment NewMIDI Transforms.mp4

Arkeon owners will get them Free as part of Update 1.1 :2thumbs:

We'll have an announcement on that soon!
 
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Vik said:
This isn't exactly a tip or trick, but nevertheless: I've recently seen some rumours about OSX Catalina maybe being released already on October 4th. Since backwards compatibility between Logic OS X currently (and in general?) means that Logic is compatible with the current (Mohave) and previous (High Sierra) MacOS version, and since High Sierra will possibly won't be the previous anymore from October 4th, it's probably a very good idea to download Mojave before October 4th, even if you're not planning to install it yet.
Click to expand...

YES. You should do this with every OS for sure.

I even go a step further and immediately make a bootable installer since macOS installers now download assets instead of including all assets in the installer... Basically if there's a known stable build of the OS I make that my installer ASAP as I've found Apple's security updates to be problematic on several occasions, and I assume at some point Apple will just start forcing security updates as part of the install process...
 
Hi!
Is there a way to make more keys appear in the piano roll (without dragging the piano roll up)
The keys are taking a lot of space... Thanks!
 
Hi – use the zoom function? In some situations, the Collapse mode (click the button which is orange the pic below) can also be very useful.

Screen Shot 2020-04-07 at 17.53.11.png Screen Shot 2020-04-07 at 17.54.13.png
 
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