IO Labels Overhaul - suggestions and ideas?

[wing]

As many of us have tearfully discovered, IO labels are global only. I'm sure this makes sense for studios with large outboard hardware gear but for anyone like myself working entirely ITB, it does make it hard to keep things organized.

When I started using Logic I went through and created templates and set up IO labels which at the time made sense to me; however as both my skills in mixing and creative production ideas have progressed, the IO labels drive me crazy.

So for example, I had originally set up the first 3-4 busses as reverbs. Then the next 3 as delays. Then choruses/doubling/modulation fx etc etc up through about bus 20. Then distortion, saturation, parallel compression.

Then the next range was set up for subgroups, like drums, bass, guitars, synths etc.

So this all made sense and worked for awhile. But recently I've enjoyed using various types of reverbs, different delays for different purposes, some specialty FX channel strips. And my musical needs are a little different too, like I've been doing more orchestral sample library stuff and so on.

So using my current IO labels, it drives me a little crazy adding a new reverb but like way down the busses from the others, sorta orphaned on its own. Becomes difficult to remember where I put it in that case - wish I could just easily consolidate all like-with-like effects together.

While I have some downtime between projects I was thinking of doing a complete overhaul that leaves room of empty slots for potential effects.

For example:

• Busses 1-20: Reverbs (Normal to Creative)
• Busses 21-30: Delays
• Busses 31-50: Creative modulation FX (choruses, doubling, pitch shifting, etc)
• Busses 51-70: Distortions, saturation, and parallel compression
• Busses 71-100: all empty slots for project-specific FX only
• Busses 100 onward: subgroups etc (reserving about 5-10 busses for each subgroup for their own FX sends, reverbs I only use on vocals or parallel comps I only use on drums for example)
• Busses 245-255: final mix subgroups and master bus (which for me is always 255).

Obviously I'm aware opening old projects the labels will be screwy, but it is what it is.

Thoughts on anyone who has done this, what works best in your experience, especially if you mix ITB and perhaps collaborate with others or work in various studio environments?

I know some people don't bother with IO labels but I find it super confusing when I look at a channel strip and I just see "Bus 13, Bus 147, Bus 65" etc. I'm thinking at least even with empty slots that don't have labels, if it's in a particular range I'll know if it's a certain type of effect or an instrument group or what have you.

But goodness, I wish Apple would just simply allow project-specific preferences OR to be able to save and swap presets from the IO labels window, like the way you can save keyboard shortcut presets...

Edited July 23, 2022 by wing

[OFS]

The fact that no one replied to this thread shows that, unfortunately, not many people seem interested in what you’re talking about. I’m with you 100%, this drives me nuts. I think I/O labels should be saved with the session file so that when later down the line you change your labels, old sessions don’t get messed up with a send to a “Delay” that now is a “Reverb”. I think Pro Tools has this nailed, the IO labelling section is very complete.

At the very least they could change the stupid IO setup window (I HATE that dialog…) and make the lines draggable up and down so you can add a new reverb or something to an upper slot without having to copy and paste EVERY SINGLE LINE below the position you want to insert one line down!

[jnchristp]

I think the same: IO-Labels should be session-based. Or at least one should have the option to use the receiving AUX-names instead of the numbered busses. So you don't see "Bus 1" but "Cathedral Hall" or whatever, because the Aux is named that way. If you don't like that, turn it off. Back to "Bus 1", "Bus 10" etc.

But I'm using the great PlugSearch-software and don't care that much for the numbers anymore. When I want to insert a send to some place I use Plugsearch and type in the name auf the AUX. Done. I don't have to remember the Bus-number anymore. 

But I like to keep sessions consistent. I like Pro Tools for this. Naming sends. Logic should do the same.

Cheers

Jan

[scg]

5 hours ago, OFS said:

The fact that no one replied to this thread shows that, unfortunately, not many people seem interested in what you’re talking about.

For what it's worth, I've seen project-specific I/O labels come up before as a wished-for feature. So at least a few people are interested! (Including me.)

[des99]

The I/O labels feature was designed quite some time ago, and really was intended I believe as a way to name your hardware inputs and outputs for easy handling on your system (a bit like the audio equivalent of the Environment for MIDI gear). It probably wasn't envisaged to be variable, and flexible, and changing per project, otherwise they'd have made it a project thing, rather than a system thing. It was a "name the inputs and outputs on your audio interface"-type thing, so you don't need to remember that Input 13-14 is your DAT machine input, etc.

Then they slightly confused the issue imo by adding bus labelling, because busses themselves aren't I/O at all (they are internal to Logic's mixer), and people have a real need to name busses on a project-specific basis.

I'd argue a better implementation would be to split this up between actual I/O labels, and bus labels. Keep the I/O labels as a system thing (but maybe give users a way to save/recall settings if they are using different hardware systems), and have bus labels more as a mixer/project thing.

You could have a system default setting, but override these on a per-project basis (much like other configurable areas of Logic) too.

Basically, for me, having busses in the "I/O Labels" might be convenient from a user-interface point of view, but the two things should probably be separated as they are used differently.

Edited May 24, 2023 by des99

[OFS]

1 hour ago, des99 said:

The I/O labels feature was designed quite some time ago, and really was intended I believe as a way to name your hardware inputs and outputs for easy handling on your system (a bit like the audio equivalent of the Environment for MIDI gear). It probably wasn't envisaged to be variable, and flexible, and changing per project, otherwise they'd have made it a project thing, rather than a system thing. It was a "name the inputs and outputs on your audio interface"-type thing, so you don't need to remember that Input 13-14 is your DAT machine input, etc.

Then they slightly confused the issue imo by adding bus labelling, because busses themselves aren't I/O at all (they are internal to Logic's mixer), and people have a real need to name busses on a project-specific basis.

I'd argue a better implementation would be to split this up between actual I/O labels, and bus labels. Keep the I/O labels as a system thing (but maybe give users a way to save/recall settings if they are using different hardware systems), and have bus labels more as a mixer/project thing.

You could have a system default setting, but override these on a per-project basis (much like other configurable areas of Logic) too.

Basically, for me, having busses in the "I/O Labels" might be convenient from a user-interface point of view, but the two things should probably be separated as they are used differently.

Fully agree with everything and I’d add that the UI itself for naming the buses must be updated - it should be possible and easy to change the order of the buses. That radio-button thing doesn’t make any sense for that purpose.

[wing]

Just logged on to see a bunch of replies to this nearly a year later, haha.

For what it's worth, I did abandon my naming scheme which I was exploring above in my original post - it was too annoying to try to manage across different templates and project needs, and therefore it got a bit inflexible. Plus I got too lazy trying to keep up with it, and making any modifications (like moving numerous busses down) is a disaster.

But I will say back to the main point, I've worked a lot as well in Pro Tools, and I've always loved that these labels are saved based on a project. It just makes sense to me because every project might require very different routing or different needs - even hardware. For example if I'm doing a rock project, I might want to set up several busses of parallel compression, parallel distortion, and so on – something I probably wouldn't want if I'm working in classical or jazz let's say. Or alternatively, I work on instrumental/film score music just about as much as I do vocal-based pop music – and the needs for FX sends are really different in these cases. Just for example with vocal projects I'll end up doing a lot more busses set up with very specific vocal FX, and it's much easier to just quickly look and see "ok, that's going to the 1/4 delay" than "wtf is Bus 36 again?". But on an instrumental project of a different genre, I won't be using the same FX or busses. I also think this makes sense if you open a project on a different computer, in another studio, your labels are based on the needs of the project, not whatever studio you have your laptop in at the time whose hardware will be different.

Anyyyway, if anyone is at all curious, I kinda quit renaming busses but now have a looser organization to make it easier to remember - busses 1-99 are typically creative FX or parallel mixing FX; 100-199 subgroups for instruments; 200-255 everything else (utility, sidechaining, master bus etc). I tend to start with reverbs, then delays, chorus, distortion etc in that order because it works for me. That way projects are flexible yet still kind of organized and generally consistent across the board regardless of genre or needs.

So in short I guess it's the opposite of labels for me now haha 🤷🏻‍♂️

Edited June 3, 2023 by wing