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Editing/Setting to Grid, workflow suggestions


aleos

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HI, I was hoping one of the more experienced editors might give their take on a workflow, or critique mine. It's a large project, and Im sure I could be doing it faster with more efficiency.

Here is how I do it

1. I have a large project, with many instruments playing staccato eighth-notes for long periods of time. All audio. No midi. I record the instruments playing their parts, rhythm is never perfect, (and the music calls for precise robotic rhythm).

2. I break the regions up with "remove silence".

(the following steps are where I feel inefficient)

3. Because none of the individual notes are exact in amplitude and attack, "remove silence" breaks them at different points. So I manually, with mouse, click on a region, pull it's front out a bit, apply a 10ms fade-in, and then align transient with the grid. Then do the following note. Then add a fade-out.

 

One of the frustrating aspects, is I don't know how to move the playhead by a division other than a bar. Is this possible? If I could move it by eighths, I would never have to click the ruler, which would save so much time. I have thousands of individual notes to edit. Would love to hear how a pro-editor might tackle this.

Thanks in advance to any and all suggestions.

574342407_ScreenShot2021-09-16at11_57_49AM.thumb.png.f28fa5dba2e6f265d6fa01875ae09e13.png

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Let's suppose that the instruments are recorded to Logic's click.

 

Select a Track, then enable Global Flex View at 1, the Track's Flex button at 2 and finally the Regions' Flex&Follow function at 3.

 

flex1-2-3.png.10deb3bf244ec5d11a2bfd83ff7ef85a.png

Start with Flex Monophonic.

Now select the desired Quantize value from the Region Inspector. This will quantize all transients to that value.

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Hey Fuzz! Thanks for your reply.

 

I used that method for a similar project a couple years ago, and it although it did yield some great results in parts, there would be other areas where logic grabbed the transient in a strange spot, and there was some weird flex issues. In the end I found that repairing all the artifacts from

That method proved to be more work than it should have.

That’s why I went for the ‘all manual’ road this time.

That being said, maybe there was a reason my quantize audio results weren’t that great? Maybe I should give it another try.

 

Thanks again for taking the time to write.

 

Edit: yes everything is recorded to click.

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If the performance wasn't sufficiently tight to begin with, then transients might be moved to wrong spots. A listening pass with the unflexed recording against the click will tell you if you need more preparation. Once you've engaged Flex, you grab a transient that's far off and snap it to the right value. All audio from the previous Flex Marker across the current, moved one, up until the following Flex Marker will stretch smoothly. This is just to reach the ball park, so don't go overboard on this. Let Quantize do the heavy lifting.
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Thanks you two for the help. And quantizing the audio has been successful in most of the laborious tasks of this project.

However there are a few sections, where the tempo of the piece, as well as the timbre of the instrument doesn't allow for the quantize feature to detect accurately. Mostly because the way I have to play this particular part, doesn't allow me to give much space/definition between notes. And in this particular passage, there are various pitches being played, as opposed to a repeated one. So it's a little messy.

Anyways, I still would love to hear any tricks or tips regarding mass editing. Mostly I guess regarding navigation and/or zooming. (I've had many editions of your book David, so Im not so inexperienced ;)

 

But that's what I find the biggest inefficiency in my work. e.g. Zooming in to snip the front end of region, zooming out to move to the end of region, zooming in to snip back end, zooming out to have perspective on the piece, to zoom in to precisely align transient to correct place on grid. Then click with mouse on ruler, to next quarter note on grid.

There isn't a way to change the playhead key command so that it moves by 1/8s, or 1/4s, instead of moving by bar?

 

thanks.

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Check all the “Forward / Rewind” key commands. There’s many options which will do what you want (move playhead by bar, 1/8th note, nudge value, transient, etc), you just need to assign them to a command.

 

Alternatively, I often make use of the “select next / previous region” key commands, which for me are just right and left arrows. The track must be selected FYI… then you can stay super zoomed in, hit right/left and it jumps to the next region without ever zooming out.

 

Also heads up you can quantize hundreds of audio regions in batch using the event list. No need to tediously drag regions in place. Or the “move region to playhead position” command can be very helpful.

 

But mostly, I think you’d benefit from a better understanding of how flex works in Logic:

It’s basically 2 distinct parts. FIRST Logic analyzes audio and places transient markers where it thinks they belong. THEN it quantizes these markers (that’s the key) to whatever quantize value you set in the region inspector. You can freely edit these transient markers in the audio file editor and results will automatically update / be reflected in the arrange. So really, the heavy lifting should be verifying the transient markers. If these are correct, quantizing becomes easy. Some material Logic automatically deals with better than others, so you just need to spend time in the audio file editor getting it right.

 

So what I would do in your case is:

-pull up the entire unchopped audio file in the Audio File Editor window and press the Transient Editing Mode button (it will turn orange)

-this now shows Logic’s automatic analysis of transient markers

-you can hit the + / - buttons to change the sensitivity (within your selection), or manually erase / add markers

-spend time getting THIS right

-once you do, flex quantizing should work well. And remember, quantize is on a per region basis, so any sections that get funky or require a different quantize setting, you can chop them out so they can have their own quantize value.

811162180_AudioFIleEditor-TransientMarkers.thumb.png.e58033c8bcb4e4576ce42470a3b0297c.png

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thanks so much grubmanus for the detailed reply/help. Yes, clearly I do need to understand how flex works better. I have never had good results with it, sometimes passable, but never flawless. And I followed your directions, but I simply can't not hear the artifacts. It's not a piano, or similar instrument. It's single note guitar playing up tempo, and notes blead into each other depending on the fingering. When I flex time, it catches the little legato transitions, and warps them. Thats what I can't get smooth on the flexitime game.

 

Thanks for the tips about the key commands. I evidently had a blank spot in my head while trying to remember forward/rewind. Cheers!

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Hey, great--no problem.

 

FYI, editing the Transient Markers so they're correct just sets the stage for Logic to more accurately quantize. But often that just gets you 80% of the way there, and then you can manually flex edit in the arrange to fine tune. A lot of which could be double clicking any problematic flex markers so Logic ignores them, like the quick passing notes you mention.

 

You can even chop out certain sections and turn flex off altogether for them if that suits you. The "flex and follow" check box in the region inspector allows you to turn flex off for individual regions on a track while leaving the track itself (and other regions) in flex. Just some things to keep in mind.

 

Good luck.

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