Align one region to another

[mbiaso]

Is there a faster way to do this then move playhead to start of region 1 and then move region 2 to playhead? In Pro Tools, a simple Control+click in region 2 would align it to region 1 automatically... :/

Thanks!

[David Nahmani]

Not that I can think of. Alignment guides should help but they don't seem to work as expected here.

[mbiaso]

Yeah, they don't...thanks anyway!

[David Nahmani]

They used to... but they've always been finicky anyway. Too bad, they were promising, not sure why they never could get them to work as expected.

[mbiaso]

They seem to work fine if you are on grid or on beat. Not the case here. Lots of post production sound design.

[David Nahmani]

They seem to work fine if you are on grid or on beat.

Ironically, in those situations they're not much help.

 

Interesting: in the project where I couldn't get the alignment markers to work to align one MIDI region on track 2 with another off the grid MIDI region on track 1, I used Snap to Bar (absolute value) to move the region on track 1 to an exact bar number. I then tested the alignment guides and they worked as expected. I now moved the MIDI region on track 1 off the grid again, and now the alignment guides work as expected. It's as if I "woke them up". Finicky.

[mbiaso]

You are right...in those cases we don't need them actually.

 

Wow! So it seems like a bug...should we report it?

[mbiaso]

I think you actually got it...cause it seems to be working here now WHEN the Snap function is off.

That's nice...but kind of a bummer have to drag the regions all the way from where they are instead of a mouse click.

[mbiaso]

Nope...it seems to be random...it's not working again...

[David Nahmani]

Yeah it's just kinda random. Annoying. Sure you can report it but I'm sure they're aware of it already, basically alignment guides have never worked reliably ever since they were introduced in Logic. -> https://www.apple.com/feedback/logic-pro.html

[Ploki]

You can assign a shortcut that position your playhead at the start of the region and another that shuffles selected region to playhead position...

 

I think.

[robinloops]

Those are already default commands. Can’t remember what they are when not at the computer. Move playhead to beginning or end of region = cntrl+home or cntrl+end and I think : moves region to playhead (but not sure without checking).

[mbiaso]

shift+enter and ;

[mrwheet]

I found your question by googling the same thing. It's actually super weird that a simple left-align isn't available. It would be super handy.

[mrwheet]

...okay, kind of roundabout, but on my keyboard I can do ctl-home to move the cursor to the start of a selected region, then select the region to align and hit the semi-colon... basically, "navigate" to the start of the selected region, then "move to playhead"... I think this is equivalent to what @mbiaso was suggesting, just different Logic version (and keyboard)..? Anyway, the old "left align" from graphics software would be more straightforward.

Edited November 26, 2023 by mrwheet

[mrwheet]

Ah... actually, left-align would definitely be better, as this doesn't seem to work for multiple regions.

[wonshu]

Well, more often than not you want the regions (and thus their musical content and context) to stay in the correct time relationship, so aligning several regions to the same playhead position seems to be more of a theoretically nice feature, but musically this makes no sense at all in 95% of the cases.

[mrwheet]

Hmm... respectfully disagree. I'm *very* regularly in situations where I'm dragging and dropping audio from various places, and it would be super helpful to be able to quickly align a bunch of new regions to the same start point. In fact, I do a *ton* of work that isn't on a normal "grid" at all—clock time, maybe, but that's not necessarily very helpful. It's by no means the majority of times that I dig down, define the tempo and metre, and start snapping everything to absolute positions.
So, 95% of the time for you, sure, but maybe not for everybody.

[David Nahmani]

How about you turn on the Alignment Guides in the Snap pop-up menu, then drag a region to line it up with another? 

[mrwheet]

Yeah, I turned that on earlier, but hadn't realized what it was supposed to do... haha...  It's not bad, but still requires more care than selecting regions and hitting keys.

[mrwheet]

I think one of the problems I have with dragging is that I use the trackpad ("magic" or MacBook Pro built-in) with three-finger dragging, which is kinda crap for precise positioning. I know I should use a mouse or trackball, or just get used to click-dragging (again), but I'm working on my laptop a lot, so this use of the trackpad has become second nature to me.

[David Nahmani]

3 minutes ago, mrwheet said:

which is kinda crap for precise positioning.

That's the idea with the alignment guides: they make the dragging snap to other regions on other tracks, which is what we're talking about here right? 

I also use the trackpad with 3 finger dragging, exclusively, and I find it much more precise than any mouse.

[mrwheet]

Really, wow? Maybe I'm "holding it wrong"... 🤣

The problem I have is the delay on releasing—often times the region moves slightly during the release. I can release one finger before the others to "solve" that, but it's far from second nature to me. I wonder if I have some dodgy trackpad settings?

EDIT: Obviously that delay-on-release is helpful, since it means you can do long drags as a series of shorter ones, but I find it can mess with precision.

Edited November 26, 2023 by mrwheet

[David Nahmani]

You should see a yellow vertical line when the regions snap: 

[mrwheet]

Sorry, I wasn't clear. Yes, I do see those, and they do work pretty well. I'll definitely keep that enabled. I just find it a bit finicky with the three-finger drag (i.e., sometimes on release the region moves off the snapped point). However, my "hit rate" does improve a lot if I just one-finger click-drag for precise dragging. So that's an option.

Edited November 26, 2023 by mrwheet

[David Nahmani]

5 minutes ago, mrwheet said:

I just find it a bit finicky with the three-finger drag (i.e., sometimes on release the region moves off the snapped point).

You're certainly not the first one to report that however I never understood what the problem is. I use three-finger drag exclusively, and I never have the region move on release. It's never been a problem, especially not when using snapping methods such as alignment guides: when I see the yellow line, I let go and I continue to see the yellow line, I then have to wait about a second for the operation to complete on its own. So when do you see the region move? Before you release the three fingers? 

Even trying to move the region on release is kind of a challenge here, I have to do it on purpose. 

So basically just to make it super obvious: I three-finger drag the region and when I see the yellow alignment guide, lift the fingers off the trackpad without dragging. 

If I want to speed up the process and shorten the 1 second wait I can release the three fingers then tap the trackpad with one finger to quickly confirm the edit. 

It's really quick and accurate here. 

[mrwheet]

Well... the more I do it the better it gets... 🤣 
I think maybe it's partly my set-up. Too much lateral motion to reach my trackpad, so my arm sometimes drifts a tiny bit between seeing the yellow, and releasing... maybe... ??
Not totally sure, but it's been a problem in Logic long enough for me to have noticed. Generally I just deal with it, though. It's obviously not too terribly awful or I would have made the leap to another pointing device by now. Heh... I think maybe it's just a small point of fatigue inducement (however minimal) that I'd rather avoid, and key commands remove any attention to precision.

[mrwheet]

Just out of curiosity, you're on "smart" snapping and "snap regions to relative value" ?

 

[wonshu]

Perhaps the keycommand "Move Region/Event to Playhead Position and Select Next Region/Event" can speed this up for you. But I doubt it because it will probably select the wrong next event.

[mrwheet]

@wonshu Yeah, I agree about selecting the wrong event; there are bound to be plenty of situations in which it would select something other than what was intended. This pair of key commands works pretty well, though. The funny thing is that I pretty much never use the "home" key, so it's very much outside my touch-typing repertoire!