Experience on using project alternatives when film scoring?

Recently, on a film I'm working on, I had a musical passage finished for a scene, but it required about a minute of music leading up to it.

Instead of opening a whole new project in Logic, which I usually do for each cue, I decided, because the instrumentation was almost identical, to just do a project alternative.

I erased all the regions, and some of the used instruments in the previous alternative version, and viola, I had a new 'project' but contained under the same name, and with all audio files and bounces in the same folder etc.

It seems like a good way to work.

What I'm wondering, is if anyone can see any potential downfalls to this workflow? I'm on a tight deadline and I don't want to run into some unforeseen disaster problem down the line.

Is there some defining difference that separates an new "alternative" from a new "project"? Obviously naming, and folders, yes, but that is not such a problem. Will a saved alternative from last week be exactly the same, no matter what has been done in any following (or previous) alternatives?

Maybe the clear question is: Can I screw up an alternative, when working in another?

If anyone has any stories, bad or good, would love to hear.

Thx

A

Recently, on a film I'm working on, I had a musical passage finished for a scene, but it required about a minute of music leading up to it.

Instead of opening a whole new project in Logic, which I usually do for each cue, I decided, because the instrumentation was almost identical, to just do a project alternative.

I erased all the regions, and some of the used instruments in the previous alternative version, and viola, I had a new 'project' but contained under the same name, and with all audio files and bounces in the same folder etc.

It seems like a good way to work.

 

What I'm wondering, is if anyone can see any potential downfalls to this workflow? I'm on a tight deadline and I don't want to run into some unforeseen disaster problem down the line.

 

Is there some defining difference that separates an new "alternative" from a new "project"? Obviously naming, and folders, yes, but that is not such a problem. Will a saved alternative from last week be exactly the same, no matter what has been done in any following (or previous) alternatives?

 

Maybe the clear question is: Can I screw up an alternative, when working in another?

 

If anyone has any stories, bad or good, would love to hear.

 

Thx

A

I've done similar things before myself. The only problem I could see is if you end up having to edit the original arrangement and create a new version.

You could still make it an alternative, or you could work with Track Alternatives inn this case, although if you had to return it to your original edit, it would be problematic. Or you could backup your actual project and put your new edits in the copy.

The only problem I could see is if you end up having to edit the original arrangement and create a new version.

Thanks for the reply Simon. What did you mean by the above statement? I mean, what is the problem I could run into?

I’m glad to hear you’ve worked this way too. It seems so convenient, that I don’t know why I havent done it before. For some reason it seems too good to be true.

I never use track alternatives? How do you include them in your workflow.

I’ve recently decided, that although I’ve been using logic for almost 20 years, I need to step up my game. I seem to work very inefficiently. Trying to improve.

Thanks again.

A

I was just talking about versioning. You know, saving a working history of all your edits. How would you go about keeping a current version that needs to have new edits done to it because it's the client requires changes to be made. And what would happen at a latter point in time if the client want's to discard all the new changes and go back to an older version. You'll need to keep it all backed up.

So the questing is. Do you also save your different versions as Alternatives as well, or do you save your different versions using another method??

Track alternatives are enabled on by right clicking the Track Header and selecting it from one of the options. It's kind of like Track Stacks in in one sense, because it effectively creates another alternate track to work on while preserving what was there previously. The main exception is that Track Alternatives can ALSO contain track stacks.

I know I've made it sound a bit confusing. For some reason elegant explanations aren't coming to me at the moment.

One way in which I use Track Alternatives, though, is say I had a part and it largely consisted of track stacks. So as I progress in writing I want to simplify all the use stacks, but actually hang on to them as well incase I ned to make changes later. Well, the way I go about it is duplicate the track alternative, so I have copy of the stacks to work with and flatten those. Meanwhile my stacks are still preserved on another track alternative which I could recall at any time.

In theory you could recall entire project arrangements the same way, but it doesn't take any changes in plugins into account and it's more tedious to recall an older version of a project that way.

Ahh, yes, of course. I guess I have actually done this already, I’m saving everything as alternatives. But it does seem like it could get untidy quickly. But I enjoy having both different versions of the same cue, and an entirely different cue in the same project.

But the two pieces were a similar tone, and right beside other in the film, so there was something nice about having them all under one project. Maybe it doesn’t really make a difference practically, just sort of a personal preference. I’m enjoying it. And so far no disasters.

So really, there’s nothing you can do in an alternative that will impact another alternative?

Ahh, yes, of course. I guess I have actually done this already, I’m saving everything as alternatives. But it does seem like it could get untidy quickly. But I enjoy having both different versions of the same cue, and an entirely different cue in the same project.

But the two pieces were a similar tone, and right beside other in the film, so there was something nice about having them all under one project. Maybe it doesn’t really make a difference practically, just sort of a personal preference. I’m enjoying it. And so far no disasters.

So really, there’s nothing you can do in an alternative that will impact another alternative?

Just be careful when it comes to deleting any audio tracks. Usually Logic is smart enough too prevent audio that is still use in another alternative from being deleted. It's still good to be cautious though.

The one bad thing about Track Alternaitives is that they all share the same automation.

Project Alternatives all use the same set of Audio Files. So if you delete or process one file, it will affect all projects.

The one bad thing about Track Alternaitives is that they all share the same automation.

 

Project Alternatives all use the same set of Audio Files. So if you delete or process one file, it will affect all projects.

Thanks for this. This is precisely the kind of disaster that I would accomplish.

I’ll keep aware of it now. Cheers.

The one bad thing about Track Alternaitives is that they all share the same automation.

 

Project Alternatives all use the same set of Audio Files. So if you delete or process one file, it will affect all projects.

They do share the same track automation, but the regions still have individual automation. So it's best to use that feature as much as possible when working with Track Alternatives