Logic Notes

Setting up Logic to replace a tape-based system

Published in SOS January 2003
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Technique : Logic Notes

You can make punching in with Logic much simpler if you do the drop-ins on a separate track, leaving the original track untouched.

This month's workshop shows you how to get Logic to fill the shoes of a multitrack tape machine. Plus a handy way to display multiple automation passes side by side, and the usual bucketload of tricks, tips and workarounds.

For many years I have worked using ADATs for conventional recording and Logic Audio Platinum running on a Mac for my own projects. However, I'm now using Logic for all my regular multitrack recording as well as for my own work. Here's how I set up Logic to replace the old system.

The first thing needed for multitrack recording is an audio interface with multiple inputs and low latency, and I opted for the MOTU 828. This has eight analogue inputs and outputs, as well as ADAT and S/PDIF I/O. The ADAT I/O means I can transfer work to and from my existing ADATs, and I can also feed the output from Logic to my Yamaha 03D digital mixer — I use this to add hardware effects when mixing or to add reverb to the monitor signal when doing overdubs.

Logic Tips     What if you want to use the Pickup Clock Key Command to sync a sound effect file to a specific SMPTE time, but it's some mid-point of the file you want to sync to, not its start? All you have to do is double-click on the audio file to get to the Sample Editor, and then drag the Anchor point (the solid black triangle which resides above the Start point by default) to the relevant point in the file. If you now close the Sample Editor and return to the Arrange window, the Pickup Clock Key Command will work exactly as you want. Mike Senior I have a Celeron 667MHz PC running Windows ME, and I use Logic Audio Silver v4.8 and Native Instruments Dynamo with a Terratec EWS88MT soundcard. I used to get digital noises and crackles over most of my Logic recordings, but after some time spent troubleshooting I found that this was because Dynamo retained output settings from its stand-alone mode even when used as a VST instrument. Setting Dynamo's stand-alone output to an unused ASIO channel (or to no channel) solved the problem. Andy Gooding

The 828 has zero-latency monitoring, because I've found that some musicians are put off by the slightest hint of latency — even in systems where the latency is too low to notice over loudspeakers, it may still be audible to the performer over headphones.

Any low-latency interface with enough analogue I/O should serve perfectly well in most situations, and input monitoring can be arranged by using a small mixer, or by doing your overdubs using a mic preamp with built-in monitoring facilities. You just need to remember that you need to switch off software monitoring in Logic in this case, otherwise you'll hear both the zero-latency sound and the slightly delayed software monitoring.

Logic still lacks proper audio file organisation, and I've found the best method is to create empty folders on my audio drive before the session starts, each named after the song title. That way, I can choose the appropriate folder as my audio path when starting a new song.

An ADAT only has one way of working. The first recording pass creates a continuous recording that is fixed in time relative to the other tracks. When you come to punch in sections to correct mistakes, the original material is overwritten, and a short crossfade is created at the edit point to prevent any clicks from occurring. There are no timing discrepancies during the punch-in, the monitoring automatically switches from track to source and back again, and the punch-in points happen exactly where and when you press the record button. Apart from the lack of Undo, it's hard to fault the way ADATs handle punch-ins. Analogue tape machines are slightly less obliging, as most produce an overlap corresponding to the distance between the erase head and record head when punching in, and leave a corresponding gap in the audio when punching out.

Set Up Multiple Automation Displays     This Logic v5 tip comes courtesy of SOS reader Tom Dolbear: "Let's say you're automating a vocal track in the Arrange window, and you need to draw in automation for both volume and an aux send. If you don't want to be switching back and forth between the volume and send displays, simply create a track under the one you're working on, giving it the same Track Instrument — in other words, whichever Audio object is assigned to the vocal track, assign the same one to the new track. Clicking on the little triangle at the bottom left of the track name panel will do this automatically. You can now display the volume automation on one track and aux send automation on the other. In Logic you can have as many tracks with the same Track Instrument as you like, so you can have automation displays for lots of different parameters simultaneously."

Recording the original tracks into a sequencer is usually no problem — you just set up the different tracks you want to record, adjust the levels and start work. Setting an automatic drop-in is also easy and, because the computer knows in advance when the recording will start, the process works quite seamlessly. But for true tape-like operation, you need to be able to punch-in manually, and this isn't quite so straightforward. You might think that all you need do to punch in is to select Replace mode using the 'X' button in the Transport window, and then hit the Record button at the punch-in point, followed by Play or Stop at the punch-out point. In practice, however, it's not the best way to work.

The problem is that Logic doesn't know when you're going to hit the Record key and, like any sequencer, it has a little background work to do before it can start recording. On my system, this results in a delay of about one eighth of a bar (at 120bpm) between me hitting Record and recording actually starting. The punch-out time is dead accurate, though. Clearly this makes tight drop-ins very tricky indeed, even though you can undo the recording and try again. Furthermore, the newly recorded section of audio has a fixed start time, so you can't stretch the region start point back to the intended punch-in point, because there's no audio to 'uncover' before recording started. Where there are large gaps between phrases, this may be an acceptable way of working, but for punching in individual words or notes, it's simply not accurate enough. Fortunately, Logic has a better way.

The secret is to tick the Punch On The Fly option, visible if you click and hold the Record button in the Transport window. This in effect records audio in the background, even when you're not recording, so that when you do hit Record, audio that occurred even before you hit the Record button can be captured retrospectively. Not only does this allow Logic to do the punch-in at exactly the time you hit Record, it also stores a short section of audio before that point, enabling you to adjust the punch-in region start time after recording, if you need to. On my system, the monitoring switches seamlessly between track and input at the punch-in point, but when I hit Play to punch out again, the timing of the playback seems to stumble very slightly. This doesn't present any problem in practice, because, by the time you hear it, you've already punched out, so your recording can't be affected. When you come to replay the section, the timing is fine. Note that using Punch On The Fly does tax your system a little more than regular recording, so if you run into problems, simply mute any non-critical tracks while you do your punch-ins or bounce down the existing backing tracks to a temporary mixed file and use this as your guide when punching in, keeping the original tracks muted.

Logic v5.4 Update For Mac OS X     This is an incremental update for Mac users with OS X 10.2 or higher. Audio Units are now accessible from the individual objects' drop-down plug-in menus, and can be used both for effects and virtual instruments. In addition to this, some functionality has been reinstated from previous versions: Recycle files can once again be imported into Logic Platinum and converted by EXS24. Mike Senior

You can use Punch On The Fly in Replace mode, but I've discovered that a much more flexible way to work is to create an empty duplicate of the track where the original audio is stored, recording your punch-in parts alongside the original part. This doesn't require Replace mode to be switched on and, because you're not now chopping your original track into sections by breaking into it at each punch-in point, there's no chance of the original audio parts being accidentally moved within a track. In fact, once you've made the original recording, locking the tracks in place by selecting Lock SMPTE Position (from the Object submenu of the Arrange window's Functions menu) is a good safety precaution. This is different to using the Track Protect Switch, as that prevents any edits or changes of any kind being made to that track.

Once you've been through a track and done any necessary punch-ins, you'll be left with a continuous audio track, plus a second version of that track containing just the punch-in segments. What's more, because both the original recording and the punch-ins are assigned to the same Audio object, only one part can play back at a time, so whenever the track reaches an overdub section, playback switches from the original audio to the punch-in, and then back again at the end of the new section. (Note that this relies on the punch-in track being above the main track in the Arrange window.) You could do all these operations on one audio track, but it's very easy to get into a mess, as selecting the original audio part will bring it to the top, hiding the punch-in sections.

At this point, you have all the benefits of working with tape, except the necessary crossfade to produce a smooth transition between edits, so if you have edited during audio rather than during pauses, you may hear a slight click. Fortunately, even this is fixable in a very simple way. First of all, set the default crossfade time to around 20ms (Arrange Page > Audio > Default Crossfade Options), which is short enough to be inaudible but long enough to prevent clicks. This is the crossfade time that will be applied to any edits when tracks are mixed, so when you're happy all your punch-ins are in the right place, simply select all the audio in the original and punch-in version of the track using the glue tool and a new file will be created with your punch-ins smoothly integrated into the original (with the punched-in parts replacing the corresponding sections of the original recording). This technique is applicable to both mono and stereo tracks.

Once all the overdubs and punch-ins are complete, you can tidy up your audio files by getting rid of everything except the final, edited tracks, and then all you have to think about is mixing.

Current Versions     Mac OS X: Logic Audio Platinum v5.4 Mac OS 9: Logic Audio Platinum v5.3 PC: Logic Audio Platinum v5.3