LOGIC NOTES

A customised setup can make sequencing in Logic much easier, so here's some help with tailoring the default Song to your needs. Plus, there's advice on mixing and suggestions for arranging your Screensets, as well as another bunch of handy tips and tricks from the pros.

Updating Your Autoload Song

First off, before you even start up Logic, make yourself a safety copy of your existing Autoload Song, and put it somewhere safe so that you can always return to it if you mess anything up while you're changing stuff around. Now start up Logic and create a new Song if one doesn't appear automatically — this new Song will be based on the current Autoload Song in your Logic program folder.

Once you've made any tweaks you want, and have saved the resultant Song to your computer's desktop, you then have to transform this Song file into your new Autoload Song. You can do this on the Mac by renaming the tweaked song Autoload, and using it to replace its namesake in Logic's program folder. Once you have done this, you also need to open the new file's general information window (by highlighting it and hitting Apple 'I') in order to select the Stationery Pad option — this makes sure you don't accidentally overwrite the new default settings.

If you're running Logic on a PC, then you need to change the name of your personalised Song file to Autoload.LSO, before using it to replace the existing Autoload.LSO file in the Logic program folder. Now right-click on the program icon and select Properties from the menu, checking the Read-only option in the window which comes up.

You have now updated the default setup. If you choose New Song from Logic's File menu, your tweaked setup ought to appear as the default, with the name Untitled. If you do any work within this Song which you wish to save, then you'll be prompted to choose a more suitable name.

So now you know how to update the Autoload Song, what things are worth customising? The place many Logic users really like to make their own is the Environment. For a start, if you have all sorts of unused objects cluttering up your Environment, it can make it clumsy to select Track Instruments in the Arrange window. If you delete all those objects you never use it'll cut down the size of the instrument list. Alternatively, you can remove an object's icon from the list without deleting the object, simply by deselecting the button to the left of the icon in its Parameters box — for example, even if you feel the need to use a GM Mixer object, you're unlikely to want to select it as a Track Instrument. And while you're there, why not choose a more suitable icon by clicking and holding on the Parameters box icon? Or colour-code it using the Object Colours option in the View menu?

If you're using Multi Instrument objects, then it can make sense to enter the patch names for the instrument they control, so that you can call patches up by name while sequencing — Paul White covered this in depth in his December 2000 column. Again, pre-programmed Multi Instrument objects are available if you don't fancy entering all those names yourself.

And, of course, the Audio Layer of the environment is worth setting up to suit your own way of working. For a start, you can decide how much of each object you wish to see, using the buttons in the Parameters box — I, for one, can do without the I/O selectors and channel EQ fields most of the time. You can also set up any preferred audio routing. For example, if you always use an external reverb with Logic, you could have the send and return routing already sorted out, as well having the relevant send on every channel assigned.

While the Autoload song is currently ideal for sorting out the various Channel Splitter objects for automation purposes, the automation system looks set to change in Logic's new version 5 upgrade. That said, I imagine that even the new system will require some setting up...

Personal Preferences

There are many areas of Logic's operation that can be customised to suit the way you work. One of the handiest of these is Logic's Screensets function, which enables you to quickly switch between different window setups while you work. (See Ab Wilson's article in SOS February 2001 for some useful pointers on using these.) Your preferred set of Screensets can be stored in your Autoload song, so that you always know which button to press for which set of views.

You can also set up your Arrange window so that you don't end up having to do the same setup tasks on every session. For example, you can make sure that there is a track for every one of the playback Audio objects and MIDI parts available to you. These tracks can be zoomed to the correct height, and you can maximise the potential of your screen's 'real estate' using the options in the View menu.

There are several preferences which are stored with the Autoload Song which are useful when working within other specific windows. For example, if you make use of Logic's Score window, it's worth knowing you can save all the Instrument Sets and Styles defined from the Score window, as well as the entire range of score-related preferences available from the Settings window. Similarly, your favourite Transform window settings and any custom Hyper Edit setups can also be saved.

Once you've caught the bug, it's natural to keep adjusting the default setup as you refine your working methods. Some musicians even find that they need to keep several default Songs available, using only the most general-purpose one as the Autoload, because they need completely different setups for tracking, mixing, editing, or whatever.

The difficulty with updating your Autoload Song continually is that you'll inevitably find yourself going back to old projects which don't have the most recent set of Autoload tweaks in place. In this case, you need to update your old project's setup to reflect your new preferences. If you want to update the Environment to your new setup, ensure that you only have one Logic Song open, and then navigate to the Import Environment submenu in the Environment window's Options menu.

I would suggest choosing Update from this submenu, which should add in any recent Autoload Environment expansions, such as new editor Layers and Multi Instruments, without upsetting existing Environment objects already in the project. If the changes you've made to the Environment are not just additions, then you should probably opt for Merge instead, though it's more likely here that Logic may disrupt the odd bit of cabling, particularly on the Click & Ports Layer.

Even if you're happy with the Environment setup, you may want to update your Screensets, or the settings associated with the Transform, Hyper Edit or Score windows. In this case, all you need to do is pull down the main Options menu and head for Import Settings in the Settings submenu. This will bring up a dialogue box allowing you to select the types of settings you wish to import.

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