Automation Noob - How to tell if track shares channel?

[dickie_uk]

Davids book is helping me to dig into areas of Logic I might never have touched before, and some of them are making my workflow/layout much easier.

 

In the book 'Lesson 7: Creating Content", there's a session on creating a new track with the same channel, and using that track to record the automation with the step sequencer (RemixFX in this example). All of this makes sense to me, but my question is - if someone had given my this project already completed, and this is the first time I'm seeing it - is there any easy way to tell that any particular track is sharing the same channel as another?

 

The track obviously doesn't show up in the mixer (which is a give-away its an automation track I guess), but other than the track label (which you hope would be the same), is there an easy way to see which track it is the parallel automation for?

[Atlas007]

Naming them accordingly? Use of color or icons might help...

[dickie_uk]

Ok - so I think I might have figured it out - If you mute or solo any of the tracks, it automatically mutes/solos all the tracks that share the channel. It's more of an implied relationship than anything specific in the interface, but it should be good enough.

 

As you say, In mine I'll name/color them accordingly (perhaps even create a folder stack for clarity) in my projects, but not everyone is as well organized

[Atlas007]

Organizing a project is indeed a must, especially if it gets elaborated.

Writing notes about the tracks (and in the project's note pads) is also very useful when its production spans over a long stretch of time.

[David Nahmani]

my question is - if someone had given my this project already completed, and this is the first time I'm seeing it - is there any easy way to tell that any particular track is sharing the same channel as another?

Yes: press Option-T to configure the track headers, and select the Additional Name Column. Then you can see the Core Audio channel of each track displayed in black on the right in the track headers, and easily spot the tracks assigned to the same channel strip.

 

The track obviously doesn't show up in the mixer (which is a give-away its an automation track I guess)

It's an automation track only because in the book I use it for that, but really it's another track assigned to the same channel strip. Both tracks have the same functionality, you could put regions or automation on both. In the book I use the new track for a Pattern region so that I can use step automation on an audio track, but you could use it for other purposes, such as recording different takes, or for software instrument tracks, layering multiple MIDI regions on different tracks: an example is a drum instrument where you want one track for the kick, another track for the snare, and another track for the hi-hat.

[dickie_uk]

Thanks David - that's perfect! Thanks again for your time and effort working on the book - its truly changed my Logic-Life

[David Nahmani]

Thanks David - that's perfect! Thanks again for your time and effort working on the book - its truly changed my Logic-Life

Great. And thank you for the kind words! It means a lot.