Color Confusion in Tracks, Regions, Sub-tracks, Takes, etc.

I'm having a real challenge understand how to change colours in Logic X. I've figured out some of it but other stuff is really confusing to me. Here we have a screenshot from a project. Because I had everything Grouped, when I changed the colour of one track it did so for everything else. I turned the group off and started manually selecting all of the comps and then changing them to match the Track colour. (BTW, it really irks me that one cannot "undo" colour changes in Logic. I'd never have to do this if I could have just undone my initial mistake.) You can see that there is the Track colour, the regions colour, and then the colour that is to the left side below the track colour... the Take colour perhaps? I cannot figure out how to change this "take colour" down the left side. Really frustrating. I just want everything in each of my Tracks to all be one colour. Thanks.

 

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j12/scu11ey/ScreenShot2014-04-23at183709.png

Edited April 24, 2014 by sculley

(BTW, it really irks me that one cannot "undo" colour changes in Logic. I'd never have to do this if I could have just undone my initial mistake.)

You should be able to undo them:

 

Okay, I am seeing that now, however, this does not seem to apply to Track colours. I've been working on this for the past few minutes and there isn't any possibility of undoing the Track colour change, or what I'm referring to as the Take colours (which seem to be a universal change for every track.)

 

BTW, I remember how I got into this situation in the first place. I was attempting to colour Markers and coloured Tracks in error.

You are correct! Region and take colors are undo-able, but track colors aren't.

 

Ok so I believe you still may a bit confused perhaps? So:

 

• Track colors are the bars to the left of your screenshots, where the track number is (number "5" on your screenshot).

• Region colors are the colors of the individual regions, for example on your screenshot, the region called "57 Snare" (and that region is a take folder).

• Take colors are the colors of the individual takes, inside the take folder, so in your case Take 15, etc...

 

To change the take color:

1) Disable the quick swipe comping mode (third button at the top left of the take folder),

2) Select one or more takes (in your case you could rubber-band select all the takes in one go).

3) Click the desired color in the color palette.

I get that I change the Take, and regions and even the Swipe Comps, but the one colour that I cannot change, without it being applied to all the tracks, is that colour on the left side that is BELOW the Take colour. When I try and change it for one Track, it does it to ALL the tracks. So, the Track is red, the regions are currently Yellow-ish, and that section to the left (below the red '5') that I can't seem to change is "rust" coloured. That's the one I'd like to make the same colour as the track, regions, takes, etc. Thanks.

Oh so you mean the little empty square below the track number, that would be the take folder's sub-tracks colors. Normally those should always be the same color as the track. I'm not sure why they're not exactly the same color on your screenshot. I would try to change the color of the track, normally the sub-tracks should automatically get the same color.

I would try to change the color of the track, normally the sub-tracks should automatically get the same color.

 

Yeah, that's not happening for me. I don't know why. It changes that particular section on all the tracks at the same time. It all seems really petty when I could just be actually RECORDING right now, but it's irksome. Here's a play by play - best to ignore the Undo History because i screwed up the order and had to redo things to have it make sense.

 

Starting point....

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j12/scu11ey/ScreenShot2014-04-23at195432.png

 

If I click anywhere in the grey area of the track heading and select green it changes the "region" according to Undo History to green, but only that wee little bit of region at the very end of the comp. Otherwise the 'box" surrounding all the Takes is now also green.

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j12/scu11ey/ScreenShot2014-04-23at195454.png

 

When I click and choose "Assign Track Colour..." in the same area as above...

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j12/scu11ey/ScreenShot2014-04-23at195525.png

 

...I then see this... Note that the colour palette is now showing two highlighted colours representing the Track colour, and the dark red coloured Sub-tracks at the side.

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j12/scu11ey/ScreenShot2014-04-23at195544.png

 

Now, when I choose a colour, it changes this Track colour, and also the Sub-tracks colour to blue. Great except that is also changes EVERY OTHER Sub-track colour to blue as well! (I only zoomed out for the last screenshot, but you can see that the Sub-tracks above and below this one are now blue, where before they were the dark red.)

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j12/scu11ey/ScreenShot2014-04-23at200048.png

This may have nothing to do with your issue. If only to help your diagnostics, be advised of the following command:

 

Project Settings > Recording General > auto-colorize takes.

I would try to change the color of the track, normally the sub-tracks should automatically get the same color.

Yeah, that's not happening for me. I don't know why. It changes that particular section on all the tracks at the same time.

What's happening for you is exactly what I described: you change the color of a track (the square with the track number "5" in it) and it changes the color of all subtracks (the squares without a number, below the square with the number "5" in it). That is the expected behavior since the subtracks aren't tracks, they're just... well.. subtracks: they "belong" to track 5 and always share the same color. Or at least they should.

 

Starting point....

So at your starting point, your subtracks are not the same color as the track they belong to. That's not the expected behavior, so it's a bug/glitch.

 

If I click anywhere in the grey area of the track heading and select green it changes the "region" according to Undo History to green, but only that wee little bit of region at the very end of the comp. Otherwise the 'box" surrounding all the Takes is now also green.

That's the expected behavior: when you clicked the track header, the folder was selected. When you click a color in the color palette, the selected region (in your case that take folder) gets the color.

 

...I then see this... Note that the colour palette is now showing two highlighted colours representing the Track colour, and the dark red coloured Sub-tracks at the side.

So by chosing that option you deselected the regions, therefore only the region (the take folder) was deselected therefore the color palette now shows you the color(s) of the selected track.

 

.... etc etc... every step you describe is the expected behavior. The only unexpected behavior is your starting point, where the subtracks don't have the same color as the main track.

 

Now, when I choose a colour, it changes this Track colour, and also the Sub-tracks colour to blue. Great except that is also changes EVERY OTHER Sub-track colour to blue as well!

Yes, that's the expected behavior. Every subtrack should always have the same color as the track it belongs to. So basically, you had an unexpected behavior at the beginning, you followed my advice (you tried a different color for your track) and that solved the unexpected behavior!

I was already at the "Starting point..." because of the bug/glitch. I was already at the point where all of the sub-tracks were changing to the colour of whatever track I was changing the colour of. So, if I changed a track to red, all the sub-tracks on all the other tracks would turn red. etc. So, now that we know this is a bug/glitch I can forget about it and move on. Can you reproduce this bug? I will try in a different file tonight.

 

I am curious as to why the folder changes to green (in this case), and also the small region of audio at the end of the comp when I click on the track header and then a colour on the palette. At this point, I realize that I may be asking design/programming related questions, but I'll continue...

 

So by chosing that option you deselected the regions, therefore only the region (the take folder) was deselected therefore the color palette now shows you the color(s) of the selected track.

 

Yes, (I think). When I'm doing this and selecting a colour, the Track and Sub-tracks are behaving as they should. The fact that the sub-tracks of every other Track are also being changed to the colour I just chose is, as we have determined, a bug/glitch.

 

Yes, that's the expected behavior. Every subtrack should always have the same color as the track it belongs to. So basically, you had an unexpected behavior at the beginning, you followed my advice (you tried a different color for your track) and that solved the unexpected behavior!

 

It hasn't solved the behaviour because all the other sub-tracks continue to change to whatever colour I'm changing the selected track to.

 

I made a 30 second clip to show what it is doing. Although I forgot to turn off the Groups for this video the behaviour is the same regardless when Groups IS turned off. Track 3 is the selected track, yet every other tracks changes the subtract to blue. Hope this helps clarify.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rKJURmjInI

Can you reproduce this bug?

No, that screenshot you posted was the first time I ever saw subtracks having different colors than their main track.

 

I am curious as to why the folder changes to green (in this case), and also the small region of audio at the end of the comp when I click on the track header and then a colour on the palette.

Ok here's how Logic works when you click a color in the palette:

- If region(s) are selected, Logic assigns the clicked color to the selected region(s).

- If no regions are selected, Logic assigns the clicked color to the selected track(s).

 

In your case, you click the track header, which selects the take folder on that track. When you click green in the palette, it assigns that color to the take folder, so you see a green halo around it when it's open, and the whole folder is green when closed. On the waveform itself, the colors of the takes selected in the quick swipe are used. Where no take was swiped (end of the take folder), the color of the take folder is used in place of the waveform (that green bit at the end of the take folder).

 

Yes, (I think). When I'm doing this and selecting a colour, the Track and Sub-tracks are behaving as they should. The fact that the sub-tracks of every other Track are also being changed to the colour I just chose is, as we have determined, a bug/glitch.

Wow I think I JUST understood something you were explaining all along: that changing the color of a track changes the color of subtracks from another track!? Well yeah you're right that's definitely not expected behavior. It's hard to tell because on your screenshots I can never see the color of the subtracks of the "other" track (track #3) until your very last screenshot, after you've clicked a color in the palette....

 

It hasn't solved the behaviour because all the other sub-tracks continue to change to whatever colour I'm changing the selected track to.

Then I'm afraid I misunderstood what you originally asked? If you want subtracks to have their own individual color independently of the color of the main track they "belong" to, that's not possible.

I made a 30 second clip to show what it is doing. Although I forgot to turn off the Groups for this video the behaviour is the same regardless when Groups IS turned off. Track 3 is the selected track, yet every other tracks changes the subtract to blue. Hope this helps clarify.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rKJURmjInI

Your clip is set to "private" and unfortunately I could not watch it.

I made a 30 second clip to show what it is doing. Although I forgot to turn off the Groups for this video the behaviour is the same regardless when Groups IS turned off. Track 3 is the selected track, yet every other tracks changes the subtract to blue. Hope this helps clarify.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rKJURmjInI

Your clip is set to "private" and unfortunately I could not watch it.

 

Sorry, try it now. I think we may be talking about different things.

I can reproduce this bug! Let me do some more experimenting.

I can reproduce this bug! Let me do some more experimenting.

 

Woo Hoo!

Ok now I can consistently reproduce the bug, so I'm afraid you're right, this is a bug.

 

I hope that at least my explanation of why your take folder is colored in green helped?

I hope that at least my explanation of why your take folder is colored in green helped?

 

Yes. Throughout the course of last evening and this thread I was able to figure most things out. Thanks!

Alright. At least I don't feel like I was completely useless in this thread.