Can't toggle recording on/off when punch on the fly [SOLVED]

I am working through David Nahmani's book and everything has gone fine until I got to the Punch On The Fly exercise. I followed the instructions carefully until I got to the instruction to press Shift + R. This didn't seem to produce the desired effect. I checked in the manual and it said to use Shift + *. This didn't work either.

I checked the Keyboard Commands settings and there doesn't seem to be a shortcut listed for the Recording on/off toggle. I could set one of course - but I wonder if I have somehow inadvertently disabled the preset command.

Early in the book, David instructs you to load the US preset (for key commands). I think you didn't do this. There are only a couple of places in the book where this actually makes a difference, but you have found one of those places.

In a freshly installed Logic (i.e., a new preferences file), the command "Record Toggle" is unassigned. In the US preset, it's assigned to shift-R. This is why you're seeing what you're seeing.

So you should probably just load the US preset (option-K to open the Key Commands window, and then look for the menu "Options," then select Presets > U.S.).

The vast majority of key commands referenced in the book are present in a fresh preferences file, and for those commands it doesn't matter that you didn't load the US preset.

The book is great, isn't it? Very clear, and lots of helpful details.

I checked in the manual and it said to use Shift + *. This didn't work either.

Yes, the manual says this (p. 450): "Click the Play button in the Transport bar, then use the Record Toggle key command (default assignment: Shift-*) at the point where you want to start recording."

It turns out that Record Toggle is indeed assigned to Shift-*, but only for certain presets, i.e., the presets for keyboards that have a numeric keypad. But if you're using another preset, or no preset at all, then the statement in the manual is incorrect.

This subject gets confusing, because I think that most of the key commands that most people use most often (and this includes almost all the key commands referenced in David's book) don't require any preset at all, i.e., they are present in a freshly initialized Logic preferences file.

On the other hand, the manual describes various key commands as the "default assignment," even though in many cases this is true only if you have loaded a certain preset (and I think in most or all such cases what they have in mind is one of the numeric keypad presets).

rpm is correct, make sure you choose the "US" key command preset as instructed on page 3 and as reminded in the note on page 23.

Then Shift-R will work as described in the book.

I knew it was mentioned at the beginning of the book. I forgot it was also mentioned later!

Now that I review my notes, I think this is actually the only place in the book where you use a key command that is not present in the default preferences file (and which therefore requires the US preset).

But the US preset has some helpful commands (that are unassigned in the default file), so it's probably a good idea to get familiar with it. I especially like these:

= Set Locators by Regions/Events/Marquee

⇧⌘→ Move Locators Forward by Cycle Length

⇧⌘← Move Locators Backwards by Cycle Length

Now that I review my notes, I think this is actually the only place in the book where you use a key command that is not present in the default preferences file (and which therefore requires the US preset).

Oh no there are quite a few others - which is one of the reasons I decided to go for the "U.S." preset as the one we'd use for the book.

Gosh, I don't know how I missed them. I did every exercise carefully (at least I thought I did) and I took careful notes about stuff like that. And I only found that one instance (and possibly one other).

If you happen to remember some of those other places, it would help me to know. Because they are probably exercises that I would like to do again, because I thought I did them carefully but actually didn't!

Anyway, thanks again for the terrific book. Highly recommended.