assigning 3rd tool to the control key still possible?

[steinweg]

I have checked the boxes for the 3rd tool in the menu in the settings. And the 3rd tool works when i perfom a right click in the arrange window, but not when i control + left click (this just opens the contextual menu).

I would love to have it the other way around, or at least having the 3rd tool accessible from holding down the ctrl key. Is this still possible nowadays or did they changed this to be permanent?

[David Nahmani]

I believe this can be set in your Apple Menu > System Preferences > Mouse? (not sure as I'm using a trackpad here)

[steinweg]

yes, this is most likely possible, thank you for the suggestion!

But i would not want to change my right click behavior system wide, i would rather just love to have that tool triggered by the control key in the arrange and editor windows (and everything else behaving as always).

I thought about programming a BTT routine for exactly that, but then i realized, that i would also change the whole click behavior in all the other environments of LPX (such as Plugin-Internals, where right click is used for certain things, or just channel strips and inspector related things). And in all other areas i love and need the right click...

Hope that Apple brings it back!

[David Nahmani]

Out of curiosity, what do you use the 3rd tool for? I've never used it nor felt the need for it, just curious what kind of workflow requires it. 

[steinweg]

I always used the 2nd one for the scissor tool and the 3rd one for the marquee, because, at least for me, i feel i am more precise and quick, when i have to make many little cuts in a row, instead of just using the marquee for that. But other than that i also use everything through click zones and modifier keys. But maybe i just have to get better at using the marquee haha

[David Nahmani]

Well workflows are very personal so that's why there are many options. I use the Marquee for everything. I can double-click with the Marquee to cut, or click with the Marquee and press Delete. 

Also if I first click with the Marquee then I can use Left/Right arrows to move the Marquee point to the previous/next transient. 

Just sharing my own personal workflow in case that helps you or anyone else reading this. 🙂 

[steinweg]

Wow i did not know about this (especially the double click to cut functionality), so cool to learn something new, thank you very much!

Getting rid of the 3rd tool right now. And then only using the scissors tool, if i have to cut in equal parts. Or can i also do that with a shortcut (or the marquee)?

But thanks David! Also your book is awesome, working my way through it for the past weeks, really informative on so many different levels!

 

[David Nahmani]

1 minute ago, steinweg said:

And then only using the scissors tool, if i have to cut in equal parts. Or can i also do that with a shortcut (or the marquee)?

Aaahh no that's the only function where I still resort to the Scissors tool. No way around that I'm afraid.

Great, thank you for the kind words on my book, always good to hear! 🙂 

[steinweg]

Sooo after a bit of experimenting i actually got this to work. With the help of Keyboard Maestro i created a macro and everytime while holding the fn-key (instead of the former ctrl-key) down it switches to the scissors tool and as soon as i lift the finger up, it instantly goes back to the scissors-tool.

Fn-key, just, because it is of no use for anything else in my case and therefore the ctrl-key can do the usual other things it has to do without any macro interferences. Works completely flawlessly, as if it would have been hardwired into logic that way (even the equal parts thing with the Option Key).

Just putting this here, in case anyone misses the 3rd tool assigned to a key as well!

[David Nahmani]

11 hours ago, steinweg said:

With the help of Keyboard Maestro i created a macro and everytime while holding the fn-key (instead of the former ctrl-key) down it switches to the scissors tool and as soon as i lift the finger up, it instantly goes back to the scissors-tool.

Great! Good to hear. Would you be willing to share your Keyboard Maestro macro, in case someone reading this may be interested in trying it out? Thanks!

[Dox]

On 3/15/2023 at 4:48 PM, David Nahmani said:

Well workflows are very personal so that's why there are many options. I use the Marquee for everything. I can double-click with the Marquee to cut, or click with the Marquee and press Delete. 

Also if I first click with the Marquee then I can use Left/Right arrows to move the Marquee point to the previous/next transient. 

Just sharing my own personal workflow in case that helps you or anyone else reading this. 🙂 

I keep forgetting all the myriad possibilities for tools etc. Have you any suggestions for keeping everything in mind, or is Logic Pro use the same as playing an instrument - practise, practise practise?

[David Nahmani]

1 minute ago, Dox said:

Have you any suggestions for keeping everything in mind, or is Logic Pro use the same as playing an instrument - practise, practise practise?

Mostly just practice any new trick you learn, take notes if that helps you, and also experiment. A lot of that stuff I've learned just by experimenting with holding down various modifiers while doing something and stumbling by accident upon new functionality. 

[Dox]

Thanks David. I have a folder full of Tips & Tricks for Logic (a lot of them from this forum and your book as well as MusicTechHelpGuy online videos) so that when I can't remember something but know there was some easy way to do it, I can look through my T&Ts. I suppose, like most skills, life is just hard. 😀

Edited April 11, 2023 by Dox

[David Nahmani]

Just now, Dox said:

Thanks David. I have a folder full of Tips & Tricks for Logic, so that when I can't remember something but know there was some easy way to do it, I can look through my T&Ts. I suppose, like most skills, life is just hard. 😀

Wow you're a hard worker then. Most people probably don't go through that kind of trouble. But that's definitely a great idea. 

I don't think it's hard - however our brains is so wired that we learn, we forget, we learn again, etc... stuff that's really useful sticks, stuff that's kinda useful but not everyday we have to relearn... and some stuff just disappears into oblivion. 

[Dox]

Too often, too much "just disappears into oblivion" 🤣

[steinweg]

1 hour ago, David Nahmani said:

Great! Good to hear. Would you be willing to share your Keyboard Maestro macro, in case someone reading this may be interested in trying it out? Thanks!

Absolutely! These are the two macros, the first one switches to the scissors tool, when you press the key, the second switches it back to the pointer tool, when you finally release the key. But note these two important aspects, when using this:

1. You have to set the trigger to "device key", because the fn-key can't be assigned as a standalone hot key itself, but as a key position it is no problem. In my case it is the fn-key of my MBP Keyboard. If you want to make it available on BT Keyboards as well, just duplicate the macros and assign the fn-key as a device key to the fn-key of your other keyboard as well. But if you don't want to use the fn-key in the first place, you could easily just set a regular hot trigger for it (whatever you would normally assign a shortcut to).

2. You have to assign the Pointer Tool and the Scissors Tool to direct keycommands in Logic and set the correct keystrokes in these two macros for that. In my case it is Sh + Ctrl + Opt + Cmd + S for the Scissors ("Scissors Press" Macro) and Sh + Ctrl + Opt + Cmd + P for the Pointer ("Scissors Release" Macro). 

If you keep these things in my mind, it should work without any problems!

Scissors Press.kmmacros Scissors Release.kmmacros

[David Nahmani]

29 minutes ago, steinweg said:

Absolutely! These are the two macros

Great! Thanks a lot for sharing! 🙂