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Bus naming workaround?


asymonds

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Bus naming seems to be global, no matter what project I open, or am I missing something?

 

Where are you renaming the bus? Set up a bus on an aux channel. Double click the AUX at the bottom of the channel strip and rename it. The only thing I imagine you could be doing is naming it within the library in the far left pane??

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Has anyone found a good workaround for Logic's inability to name buses on a per-project basis?

 

I treat the global list as an inventory of bus names. When I add a bus to a project, I choose one from the list with a name that suits the purpose. There's usually one in the list that is suitable. If I don't see one that is suitable, I add a new name to the global list and use that one.

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Where are you renaming the bus? Set up a bus on an aux channel. Double click the AUX at the bottom of the channel strip and rename it. The only thing I imagine you could be doing is naming it within the library in the far left pane??

 

I'm naming them in the Mix menu | IO Labels.

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I'm naming them in the Mix menu | IO Labels.

 

Yes, these are global namings. I think they were created with hardware in mind. For example, if you have a bus sending stuff through a dedictated output to whatever external device which you have connected all the time, you could name it, say, "Lexicon" or whatever. That way you'd know from inside Logic what your hardware outs would be routed to.

For song-based bus names, you should rather avoid naming these and name the busses themselves, which you can do by doubleclicking the name area at the bottom.

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What's the problem with that?

If you rename a bus then all projects, past, present and future will adopt that. While it may make sense in the presence and, if you're willing to stick to a given structure religiously, to the future, it cleary does not and certainly messes things up in the past.

Thing is, both global names and names per project both have their merits, we just are stuck with Apple's choice (which, in all fairness, was Emagic's).

 

There need to be options:

1. when naming stuff in the I/O Labels list to adjust names in this project only or globally

2. when importing stuff from other projects also to import I/O labels while using different, free bus numbers

3. to save and load from I/O Label templates

4. to choose from one of these templates when creating new projects.

 

This is not a trivial task, just look how ProTools struggled with this concept and all its ramifications for years until they finally got it sufficiently sorted.

 

But Logic's current implementation is just not cutting it at all.

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and certainly messes things up in the past.

 

Uh-oh, time traveling...

 

Nah, seriously,...

 

There need to be options:

1. when naming stuff in the I/O Labels list to adjust names in this project only or globally

2. when importing stuff from other projects also to import I/O labels while using different, free bus numbers

3. to save and load from I/O Label templates

4. to choose from one of these templates when creating new projects.

 

I would agree on all that. But once you got the current concept, it's not really too tough to work around things. For a single project you just don't have to use any I/O labels. In fact, you don't really have to use them at all (personally, I never did, not even back in the days when I was in fact using multiple outs as mixing in the box wasn't feasible), as you can just create a bunch of templates with everything named properly on a per template/project base.

 

For those working a lot with external hardware (hence using a good amount of I/O routing) and moving projects between different setups, the situation could however be improved a lot. And regarding that, I would suggest at least two more things:

- I/O labeling should be saved with your choice of audio hardware, so everything would be fine and dandy regardless whether you're working on the road with a stereo I/O interface or in your studio environment, using 32 I/Os.

- The busses set to "user" (hence working globally) in the I/O menu should allow for easy reordering. You may have one setup where I/Os 5-6 are serving as sends to whatever external reverb unit whereas on another setup it'd be I/Os 7-8. As is, you would have to manually re-assign each bus on a per project base, which is sort of rendering the global approach useless. The other busses (such as those used for internal routings) should be re-ordered dynamically. So if you change your external send bus to 7-8 instead of 5-6, the internal FX (or whatever) that you may have used on the respective bus should then be re-assigned automatically.

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We should be able to change bus *names* locally or globally without any limitations. It's ten times easier to get an overview of twenty channels when the Sends are called Long Reverb, Short Reverb, Small Room, Drum Smash as opposed to Bus 34, 23, 57 and 92 respectively.

As I said, you can do this already if you stick to your one big plan, but it took me years and several revisions to finally get there. By now all old projects will turn up nonsense names for busses.

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We should be able to change bus *names* locally or globally without any limitations. It's ten times easier to get an overview of twenty channels when the Sends are called Long Reverb, Short Reverb, Small Room, Drum Smash as opposed to Bus 34, 23, 57 and 92 respectively.

As I said, you can do this already if you stick to your one big plan, but it took me years and several revisions to finally get there. By now all old projects will turn up nonsense names for busses.

 

Well - as said, I agree for the most part. But then, when you name an aux channel "RevLong" straight on the object, it'll keep that very name and also show up with that name in your send/output list. So, once you've saved that as a template, you're pretty much all set.

Yes, there's no way to change that globally - but why would you want to do that, others than for analog external connections?

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Sascha,

 

I guess you are a lot smarter than I am. Even when we mixed on a console, we used artist tape to label things. In Pro Tools, I label sends as I go, or import my template of effect send and returns. I can put it in any order that I want. And If I open a project from 2 years ago, the names are all still there. I also get projects from other people to mix, and their names may be meaningful, or they may not. Changing the names becomes a big mix. I don't want to clutter my brain with remembering that Bus 3 Small Plate is actually a delay. I may have 12 sends in a single project!

 

Workaround is a term that Logic users should be embarrassed to throw out there, and yet some here use it so casually! In Pro Tools, I name the Aux returns, and then I name the sends the same. So Small Plate is the bus to the Aux with EXACTLY the same name. Makes everything so much simpler.

 

Steve

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One of Logic's strength is its ability for a user to achieve a certain task/result while using different approaches. Some users often losely name it a workaround, one of those indirect procedure, when they cannot find a single command or direct way to attain their goal. That is where proficient users distinguish themselves from becoming ones...

 

That being said, it would indeed be an interesting improvement if the Sets concept was implemented in the bus naming feature.

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Sascha,

 

I guess you are a lot smarter than I am. Even when we mixed on a console, we used artist tape to label things. In Pro Tools, I label sends as I go, or import my template of effect send and returns. I can put it in any order that I want. And If I open a project from 2 years ago, the names are all still there. I also get projects from other people to mix, and their names may be meaningful, or they may not. Changing the names becomes a big mix. I don't want to clutter my brain with remembering that Bus 3 Small Plate is actually a delay. I may have 12 sends in a single project!

 

I doubt that I'm smarter than you - and while I'm sort of informed about PTs superior way of dealing with templates and such, I still don't see much of a problem with the way Logic does things. Unless you are switching hardware often (or transfering projects using different hardware often). But then, it could pretty much be that I'm missing something essential here.

However, let's consider a 100% in the box scenario for now. In that case you can simply skip all I/O labeling and just name your auxes/busses straight on the objects themselves.

But then, I defenitely give it to you that when you skip the I/O labels, there's no indication of the destination of a send until you click onto them in the inspector or open up the assignment pulldown. And yes, that could defenitely be improved (because when you label things via the I/O menu, the names actually show up straight on the sends. Same goes for channel output routings which only display the generic bus names, regardless of how you named the return channels.

 

Hm, thinking about all this - yes, a better send/aux/bus labeling functionality would indeed make quite some sense...

 

See, you folks already changed my mind.

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Sascha,

 

I guess you are a lot smarter than I am. Even when we mixed on a console, we used artist tape to label things. In Pro Tools, I label sends as I go, or import my template of effect send and returns. I can put it in any order that I want. And If I open a project from 2 years ago, the names are all still there. I also get projects from other people to mix, and their names may be meaningful, or they may not. Changing the names becomes a big mix. I don't want to clutter my brain with remembering that Bus 3 Small Plate is actually a delay. I may have 12 sends in a single project!

 

I doubt that I'm smarter than you - and while I'm sort of informed about PTs superior way of dealing with templates and such, I still don't see much of a problem with the way Logic does things. Unless you are switching hardware often (or transfering projects using different hardware often). But then, it could pretty much be that I'm missing something essential here.

However, let's consider a 100% in the box scenario for now. In that case you can simply skip all I/O labeling and just name your auxes/busses straight on the objects themselves.

But then, I defenitely give it to you that when you skip the I/O labels, there's no indication of the destination of a send until you click onto them in the inspector or open up the assignment pulldown. And yes, that could defenitely be improved (because when you label things via the I/O menu, the names actually show up straight on the sends. Same goes for channel output routings which only display the generic bus names, regardless of how you named the return channels.

 

Hm, thinking about all this - yes, a better send/aux/bus labeling functionality would indeed make quite some sense...

 

See, you folks already changed my mind.

 

Great. In the box mixing is exactly what I'm talking about. I don't use much hardware except to record with. It would be really convenient to be able to name internal busses on a per project basis. Thanks for being open minded. Hope someone at Apple will get on board.

 

Steve

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  • 2 years later...

The people dismissing this concern by saying "just rename the channel strip and/or track" are completely missing the point. When you rename a bus in the IO Labels panel then that name is what appears (albeit truncated) right on the send knob. Troubleshooting unexpected behavior is infinitely faster because you can glance at the mixer and know where everything is going and why. Strip names and track names are completely invisible unless you click on the send and read everything in the popup menu, hoping you don't accidentally change the setting in doing so.

 

Maybe I should be bothered to remember which busses I chose to use for what in my projects but the fact that Logic appropriates and uses a bus object automatically in the creation of summing stacks makes it fundamentally impossible for me to impose any semblance of consistent order on anything.

 

It's utterly ridiculous that IO Labels are still global after all these decades.

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  • 2 months later...
there's no indication of the destination of a send until you click onto them in the inspector or open up the assignment pulldown.

 

The destination is also shown when you wait for the automatic popup, requires some patience :-(

 

I totally agree that bus labels on the sends buttons are not implemented well. It could be solved easily, just show the name of the bus channel strip instead of the IO Label in the track send slots.

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There is absolutely no reason why internal buses used as sends to reverbs cannot be named on a per project basis, except that Logic doesn't want to do it. It's software. And there are already two sets of preferences. Preferences under the Logic Pro list, and Project Settings under the file menu. I've been asking for this for several years now and not a peep from Apple. I'm not a bedroom guy. I mix 200 songs a year. It's what I do for a living and have for 30 years. We were writing on artist tape on the console in my early days!!! There is really no LOGICAL reason for it to work the way that it does!!! It's a mess and requires several minutes to sort out every time I get a session from someone to mix. Please Apple! Fix this!!!

 

Steve

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