length of a selection in minutes:seconds

Hi, I'm a recent convert from ProTools 9.

 

A lot of times I'll get done cutting a track and my clients will ask me how long the song is. In ProTools it was super easy to highlight a region and see the time length of that region. Is there a way to do this easily in Logic Pro X?

 

I unchecked musical grid in the Project Pref pane, which allowed me to see the selection time in minutes:seconds, but now my grid is acting all wonky. So that's pretty cumbersome.

 

I tried changing the transport to Time Display then holding down on the selection in the marquee toolbar, but it still only displays in bars:beats.

 

Help! Thanks.

go to the "view" tab on main arrange window and select "add secondary ruler". You will see bars and time

Choose View > Marquee Ruler, and click-hold the Marquee ruler to see its length.

Hey David, I tried that. This is what it looks like:

 

 

Am I doing something wrong? Do I have to turn off musical grid? Cause that makes my grid act weird. Thanks.

Add the marquee stripe if that still exists in Logic X.

I too would be curious to know.

It seemed to be simpler in L9 or am I missing something?

 

one just wishes to make a selection (with marquee tool) and find out how long it is in Minutes, Seconds and Frames.

Add the marquee stripe if that still exists in Logic X.

 

Ok, so that's called marquee ruler now.

 

So if you select time and seconds, the marquee ruler doesn't show you?

Do I have to turn off musical grid?

If you want to see the length of the selection in hours/minutes/seconds then yes, turn off the musical grid.

 

Turning off musical grid definitely makes the grid act weird, so not a great fix. Thanks for the help, David. I'll send feedback to Apple.

I'm not getting it. At all. What was so wrong with the previous system - and why is this better?

 

Why do I have to go all the way to some File > Project Settings > General menu and turn the whole musical grid just to get to know something as simple as the duration of a selection? I didn't need to do it in the previous versions, why is it suddenly necessary?

 

I sure hope this is just a very ugly bug.

 

Also, quite mysteriously, at least in one of my projects this happens:

 

When I turn off the musical grid and draw a marquee, I see a pop-up time display, sure - but the time is "negative". It says the length is "-0.59.59.99" and when I draw the marquee further (left or right, doesn't matter), the negative time gets smaller, "-0.58...", "0.57..." and so on. The range stays the same - in fact, the range doesn't seem to be anything more than the time of the marquee starting point - why is it called "range"?

 

I guess I have to send Apple an email, too - again. The name "Logic" should stand for something.

I found that by highlighting the selection you want with the yellow cycle toolbar then hitting BOUNCE on your Output track, Logic gives you how long the selection is in minute and seconds. Not the best, but it's a pretty easy work around. Edited November 17, 2014 by eastsidee

I found that by highlighting the selection you want with the yellow loop toolbar then hitting BOUNCE on your Output track, Logic gives you how long the selection is in minute and seconds. Not the best, but it's a pretty easy work around.

 

Or:

 

Double click the region to open the file editor and it will tell you the length in time (select mn:sec under View) on the right side of the editor screen.

I found that by highlighting the selection you want with the yellow cycle toolbar then hitting BOUNCE on your Output track, Logic gives you how long the selection is in minute and seconds. Not the best, but it's a pretty easy work around.

 

Ah, that's true! It's a bit more practical than turning the grid off and on again! Thanks!

 

Still I wouldn't mind if I could have the cycle length in min:sec-mode displayed all the time in the "LCD". There's certainly enough space for that, and the "LCD" is customisable anyway. If the user doesn't need it, he doesn't have to see it.

Or:

Double click the region to open the file editor and it will tell you the length in time (select mn:sec under View) on the right side of the editor screen.

 

Ah, yeah... For one audio region at the time. I usually work with MIDI, though.

 

Of course I could start every project by creating one very long empty audio region, then resize it whenever I want to measure the duration of some portion of the song and then open the file editor - but the bounce is definitely quicker.

 

Anyway, thanks for the input! Much appreciated!

I can only agree with everything being said.

The issue is that the time displayed in the Bounce window is rounded to minutes and seconds.

That's not accurate enough to make precise selections.

At least add frames here or hundreds of seconds.

 

What I'd love to see is a ruler whose absolute length stays the same when you move it (e.g. across tempo changes).

Conforming to picture would be such a breeze.

 

Then you could indeed call it the *ruler* of time !!!  

 

 

P

Mac Pro 2012, 64GB RAM, LX 10.2.4, OS 10.9.5

Am I doing something wrong? Do I have to turn off musical grid? Cause that makes my grid act weird. Thanks.

 

You do not need to uncheck musical grid...

First:

go to the "view" tab on main arrange window and select "add secondary ruler". You will see bars and time there.

Second:

Choose View > Marquee Ruler. then click-hold the Marquee ruler to see its length, now with Time in Hour:Min:Sec too.

Select "show help tags" in Preferences -> Display -> General.

Now when you try to select a cycle range a pop-up window will show you the length info. With "show help tags" selected you will see a lot of pop-up windows showing you different info depending on the tool you are using.

Brilliant!

Many Thanks for this!

Super helpful!

"show help tags" doesn't seem to work with midi.

 

So, what's the easiest way to see how long a midi bar is in sec? Can I just highlight it and get the info right away?

So, what's the easiest way to see how long a midi bar is in sec? Can I just highlight it and get the info right away?

 

In the Tracks window local menu, click on View and select Secondary Ruler.

Next, you can click-hold a midi region and it will tell you the length in time.

"show help tags" doesn't seem to work with midi.

 

It does work: Show Help Tags toggles the help tag that shows you the position and length of a region (audio or MIDI alike) when you click-hold it:

 

"show help tags" doesn't seem to work with midi.

 

It does work: Show Help Tags toggles the help tag that shows you the position and length of a region (audio or MIDI alike) when you click-hold it:

 

show-help-tags.gif

I don't see the seconds for length. Do I need to set something else?

I don't see the seconds for length. Do I need to set something else?

Choose File > Project Settings > General and disable Use musical grid.

I don't see the seconds for length. Do I need to set something else?

Choose File > Project Settings > General and disable Use musical grid.

Pink Floyd says, "Have a Cigar".

Thanks, now it display the time.

Pink Floyd says, "Have a Cigar".

Thanks, now it display the time.

You're welcome!