Logic Pro Help

in my relentless search for big clicky keys and transports, I bought Elgato Stream Deck... (Jog wheel is still missing)

I plan to use it as an alternative to Logic Remote shortcut page. I love the concept, i hate the lack of feedback.

I wanted to use logic remote as an alternative to the TouchBar which i had setup with shortcuts in logic and i absolutely loved how it worked, but can't use it on the mini.


Will report how it works.

it looks call as f*%@ and the keys have a nice feel to them.

Ploki wrote:

in my relentless search for big clicky keys and transports, I bought Elgato Stream Deck

Looks interesting! Which Logic functions/controls do you plan on using it for?

anp27 wrote:

Ploki wrote:

in my relentless search for big clicky keys and transports, I bought Elgato Stream Deck

Looks interesting! Which Logic functions/controls do you plan on using it for?

First of all transport!
I love having external transport.
it has a "hotkey switch" function, so you can actually make a play/stop button with different graphics!

I will extend it to have "go to next marker and play" and such commands, since i always mark my projects by song sections this should prove useful.

then a few convoluted shortcuts that i only use seldom but still often such as
- insert silence between locators
- remove section between locators
- nudge values!
- nudge left/right

having custom graphics on it really looks fun.

Have to play with it to see how it actually works

Ploki wrote:

First of all transport! I love having external transport. it has a "hotkey switch" function, so you can actually make a play/stop button with different graphics!

I actually own a nanoKontrol2 that I got with the intention of using mainly for transport control. After a few hours using it I found it annoying moving my left hand from my typing keyboard to the nanoKontrol repeatedly. There isn't that much distance between either but still. I guess I'm weird or something...
Ultimately I ditched the idea and have stuck to using just my typing keyboard to do everything. I use a highly customized set of Logic key commands and to this day I'm still refining it. I've deleted the default key commands that I know I'll never use and I have all of the most frequently used key commands on the left side of the typing keyboard. Right now I'm very close to where I'd like to be though.

anp27 wrote:

Ploki wrote:

First of all transport! I love having external transport. it has a "hotkey switch" function, so you can actually make a play/stop button with different graphics!

I actually own a nanoKontrol2 that I got with the intention of using mainly for transport control. After a few hours using it I found it annoying moving my left hand from my typing keyboard to the nanoKontrol repeatedly. There isn't that much distance between either but still. I guess I'm weird or something...
Ultimately I ditched the idea and have stuck to using just my typing keyboard to do everything. I use a highly customized set of Logic key commands and to this day I'm still refining it. I've deleted the default key commands that I know I'll never use and I have all of the most frequently used key commands on the left side of the typing keyboard. Right now I'm very close to where I'd like to be though.

I thought about that too.
I mean, the stream deck is nothing but a fancy keyboard (with the benefit of built in macros)
Also, since i moved from laptop to desktop the full-sized keyboard makes a lot more space for shortcuts.

But damn, a backlit squishy key transport just looks SO DAMN COOL. And I can have a single key that makes safari google myself.

Ploki wrote:

But damn, a backlit squishy key transport just looks SO DAMN COOL.

Yeah I bet! I want to like using something external like that but... knowing me, I'll probably use it for like a few days and then go right back to my old ways...

Ploki wrote:

And I can have a single key that makes safari google myself.

What the heck? LOL!

anp27 wrote:

Ploki wrote:

But damn, a backlit squishy key transport just looks SO DAMN COOL.

Yeah I bet! I want to like using something external like that but... knowing me, I'll probably use it for like a few days and then go right back to my old ways...

Ploki wrote:

And I can have a single key that makes safari google myself.

What the heck? LOL!

Yeah I have had quite a couple of misses with external hardware, still seeing how Elgato will playout.

- Emagic Logic Control. Really liked (and used) transport+ jog wheel. It felt great. Jog wheel especially. Transport really made sense when used with jogwheel. Faders and function buttons were stupid and i just ended up using keyboard, and the whole thing is too clunky to just have it on desk for transport + jog.
- Novation Launch Control, 16 rotary encoders. I wanted to set it up as a "universal" control and have all my synths and plugins mapped to it for hardware control. Nope. Sitting in the box. Just remembered i have to sell it (also emagic)

Wanted to buy X-touch One (single fader + transport) but before I did i figured its gonna take too much space for only using transport + jogwheel again.

I'm going to try NobControl single-knob that controls the current onscreen parameter as I'm too lazy and annoyed to program everything, so I'd have the following external setup:
Stream Deck for tranpost +shortcuts, a jogwheel, and NobControl for plugin control...

I had my eyes on JL Cooper MCS2 external transport+jogs but its too risky that it wont play nice with new computers

I just got one as well - any updates on what you programmed in?

lewisinkpress wrote:

I just got one as well - any updates on what you programmed in?

transport, automation r/w, flex, some nudge values

honestly i'm still finding the best setup tho

I hear ya! I've been doing a ton of research - so many shortcuts to consider - working through a hierarchy of how I will set it up - but already - what I've programmed is so convenient.

Thanks for the reply!

djl

I also just got the nob control, and, among many other things, I'm trying to see if I can make it behave like my old Logic Control shuttle/jog wheel. Have either of you found a way to do that? (i.e. are there any key commands that replicate that Jog Wheel behavior?).
-Curtis

sorry Curtis - that's outside my wheelhouse...

No worries- I’m happy to say that I was able to set it up to do what I was looking for. If it’s useful for anyone else, I set the nob to keypress control mode, then assigned clockwise and counterclockwise turns to a specific key press. Then using keyboard maestro, I assigned those key presses to arbitrary MIDI CC messages that I then assigned to the play head global parameter in Logic’s controller settings (using the learn feature). I can get more specific if anyone is interested.

No worries- I’m happy to say that I was able to set it up to do what I was looking for. If it’s useful for anyone else, I set the nob to keypress control mode, then assigned clockwise and counterclockwise turns to a specific key press. Then using keyboard maestro, I assigned those key presses to arbitrary MIDI CC messages that I then assigned to the play head global parameter in Logic’s controller settings (using the learn feature). I can get more specific if anyone is interested.

RusticM wrote:

No worries- I’m happy to say that I was able to set it up to do what I was looking for. If it’s useful for anyone else, I set the nob to keypress control mode, then assigned clockwise and counterclockwise turns to a specific key press. Then using keyboard maestro, I assigned those key presses to arbitrary MIDI CC messages that I then assigned to the play head global parameter in Logic’s controller settings (using the learn feature). I can get more specific if anyone is interested.

sorry i wasn't here - but yes.
no need to go via midi tho, you can assign the keypresses directly to Scrub Forward and Scrub Rewind in logic key-commands assignment - works flawlessly.
(also you can switch to jog/keypress mode via nAb control center)

Ploki wrote:

RusticM wrote:

No worries- I’m happy to say that I was able to set it up to do what I was looking for. If it’s useful for anyone else, I set the nob to keypress control mode, then assigned clockwise and counterclockwise turns to a specific key press. Then using keyboard maestro, I assigned those key presses to arbitrary MIDI CC messages that I then assigned to the play head global parameter in Logic’s controller settings (using the learn feature). I can get more specific if anyone is interested.

sorry i wasn't here - but yes.
no need to go via midi tho, you can assign the keypresses directly to Scrub Forward and Scrub Rewind in logic key-commands assignment - works flawlessly.
(also you can switch to jog/keypress mode via nAb control center)

I ended up having to use the MIDI pass through because I wanted the wheel to behave like a locate wheel, not a jog wheel. But I couldn’t find the appropriate key commands for that (“playhead global parameter”), so I had to use MIDI to make logic think the Nob was a midi controller.

And I’m very much liking this Nob control. What other functions are you using your Nob for?

Surprised not to see more threads about Stream Deck and the like. Anyone working on Logic every day NEEDS to get involved with macros. I use a stream deck setup through Soundflow. Unbelievable what you can do.

Soundflow and logic? how does it work?

Ploki wrote:

Soundflow and logic? how does it work?

Soundflow is designed for Pro Tools obviously but there’s a lot you can do with it.

Firstly you can set the deck up within the Soundflow app really easily.

Soundflow has a macro creator similar to Keyboard Maestro but especially for Pro Audio. Also you can write your own scripts or there are plenty on the Soundflow user forum.

The way Logic’s UI is designed means you often have to use workarounds in soundflow’s macro designer: plotting xy mouse coordinates etc.

Things I can do direct from my stream deck include:

- Automating Plugins with midi cc (ok pretty standard)
- Clip/Region gain up and down with keyboard shortcuts
- Launching Plugins of choice on next available insert slot
- Assigning outputs of choice, busses etc at push of a button
- opening Melodyne and automatically levelling and de’essing vocals
- sending vocals to guide and dub tracks in a revoice pro
- colouring tracks/regions with one button push
- instantly switch between software monitoring and zero-latency monitoring (UA Apollo interface)

You obviously have to put the time in to create these shortcuts for your particular workflow and for how your personal logic windows are configured, visually- so the UI elements, pop up menus etc will always be in the same place for Soundflow to interact with them.

Mine are mainly for mix prep and mixing but the possibilities are pretty mind-boggling. The time saved if you do these things every day really adds up

I've got a Stream Deck Classic (5x3) and digging it a lot. Mainly got it for streaming, but have (additional new) shortcuts now for FCP, Logic, several other apps and like it a lot.

A Finnish company called Loupedeck (loupedeck.com) does a quite similar device 'Live' (https://loupedeck.com/en/products/loupedeck-live, and two bigger ones, mainly for video and photo editing initially), but it has a divided touch screen (with haptic feedback) instead of moving buttons, plus six rotaries. It's been a bit hard to configure and they didn't first have that many built-in profiles esp. for Mac, but have caught up nicely and are also working on MIDI features, which could be great for Logic and Ableton Live use. Build quality is good, it's solid to use once you get going and if you do know Stream Deck or Touch Portal, you'll figure this out quick.

Full disclosure: I don't get paid by them, nor told what to say, but I did get a test unit from them to keep. Currently I still use the Stream Deck more as I got it up and running very quickly and Loupedeck's teething problems slowed me down a bit, wasn't then as intuitive, but I'm now in the process of getting it going alongside SD and interested in using the rotaries for navigation and perhaps zooms etc in Logic.