How to use the Magic Trackpad in Logic Pro

When I work in Logic Pro, I need to be fast and efficient, while avoiding pain or repetitive strain injury. 

With the right settings, a trackpad requires only tiny movements of your wrist and fingers. All tasks can be accomplished with feather light touch or swipe gestures, like on an iPhone or iPad - no pressure needed.

In this guide, I'll share the trackpad settings I choose for a fast, effortless workflow.

1. Trackpad settings

Choose Apple menu  > System Settings... and in the column on the left, scroll down and click Trackpad. 

1. Set Tracking speed to Fast,
2. Set Click to Light,
3. Turn on Silent clicking,
4. Turn on Tap to click. 

Next, in the column on the left, click Accessibility, then click Pointer Control, and click the Trackpad Options button.

1. Turn on all 3 switches,
2. Set Scroll speed to the maximum setting,
3. Set the Dragging style to Three Finger drag.

Now that you've customized your trackpad settings for maximum efficiency, I'll show you how I use it in Logic Pro. Let's dive in.

2. Tap to click

Tap to click allows you to barely touch your trackpad (no pressure needed) to select a track, a region, a note, position the playhead, toggle a button, open a menu, select something inside a menu... any operation that requires a mouse click.

3. Scroll 

To scroll any pane vertically or horizontally, drag two fingers on the trackpad. I choose to keep my index and middle fingers stuck together while I drag them, however feel free to choose other fingers, and spread them apart if that's easier for you. 

Selecting the maximum scrolling speed in your settings allows you to scroll far with very little wrist or finger movements. As you're getting closer to the desired area, slow down the dragging motion to fine tune precisely what you want to see on your screen.

4. Zoom 

To zoom in or out horizontally, use a pinch gesture. Many people use the thumb and index finger, I find it easier to use the index and middle finger for this. 

Another zooming technique is to use hold down Option while you drag two fingers. This allows you to zoom horizontally (Option + horizontal two finger drag) and vertically (Option + vertical two finger drag). 

5. Three finger drag

To drag items, swipe three fingers on the trackpad. The fast tracking speed means that a small gesture make the pointer travel a long distance. 

Use three finger dragging to move notes or regions (or Option + drag to copy them), to adjust a fader or knob, to move or copy plug-ins. To select multiple regions or notes, hover the background, and drag a blue rectangle over all the regions or notes you want to select.

ⓘAfter dragging, there's a 1 second delay before the operation is completed. This comes in handy when dragging a region or note over a large distance: when your fingers reach the edge of your trackpad, lift them up, reposition them, and resume swiping. To complete the operation and avoid the 1 second delay, tap with one finger. 

6. Open a contextual menu 

Tap any area with two fingers to open a contextual menu (a.k.a. shortcut menu, right-click menu or control-click menu), then tap an item in the menu to select it.

7. Snap a window to the edge of your display

When one of the sides, top or bottom of your window doesn't reach to the edge of your display, double-tap that window's edge to make it snap to the edge of your display.

This can be handy if you've just resized a window to see your desktop for a moment, then want to make that window full screen again. 

8. Open or close panes

To toggle the panes that are displayed to the left, bottom or right of the Tracks area in the main window (Library, Inspector, Editor, Lists or Browser, Control bar), double-tap the divider symbol that appears when you hover the cursor between two panes.

Bonus Tips: Quickly access your desktop or the launchpad

To see your Desktop, place your thumb and three fingers on the trackpad, and spread them apart. 

To see the Launchpad, do the opposite: place your thumb and three fingers on the trackpad, and pinch them together. 

All these and more gestures are pictured on the Apple website: Use Multi-Touch gestures on your Mac

To go further with the trackpad, read my follow up article detailing force click gestures in Logic Pro: