Seeing Busses, Auxes and Outputs in the Track Mixer

[David Nahmani]

This is another quick tip:

 

Once done with your Arrangement, you generally open a Track Mixer to start mixing. One common problem is that all you can see is your Arrange tracks, and you generally don't have any of your Bus, Aux or Output objects in your Arrange window, even though you'll need them to finish your mix.

 

You can add those Bus, Aux and/or Outs to the Arrange window without ever leaving the Track Mixer. Simply put it in Global mode. Then, simply double-click on the name of any of the objects to add them to your Arrange window, switch Global off and voila, your Bus, Aux and/or Output objects are right there in your Track Mixer.

 

Remember to double-click on the name, at the bottom of the Channel Strip of each desired object.

 

Now go and finish your mix!

Edited March 2, 2010 by David Nahmani

[Vankarius]

Hey David, Great tip!

 

Do you ever get around to making actual music haha! Seems like there's no time left for you as you're always digging up the undocumented features And we love you for that!

 

Cheers Mate

[David Nahmani]

Thanks! And you are right, my music has been on the back burner for too long. Time to dust off those old tracks!

[Vankarius]

I suggest a clean slate and build some from scratch!

[David Nahmani]

Now that's a concept: new material!

[camillo jr]

Alright, I've got so many nice tips from here today, I'm gonna leave one myself.

 

You can have any mixer you want at the click of the mouse.... create an arrange window above or below the track mixer and put a bunch of empty folders in there. Go in to the folder regions and delete any tracks you don't want so you can have audio tracks in one, instruments in another, auxes and busses in a third and any combo you desire. Just make sure that there's no folders inside these folders otherwise it can get confusing.

 

With the mixer window set to with global OFF and everything else selected, you can now click on any folder region and your track mixer is instantly reconfigured. Want a mixer with just your drums tracks, busses and output? No problem.

 

On the Arrange page, just hide all the empty folders to keep the view clean. One thing about this way of working is that your little folders won't follow any changes to reflect what is happening in the arrange. But It's so easy to go into a folder region and add or delete what ever you like. Or unselect Global in the TM to work the regular way.

[camillo jr]

Forgot one important detail in the previous post! Make sure the Mixer window is yellow linked (contents catch).

[majool]

a wicked little trick indeed, but i'm trying to get away from using my mouse and so in order to click the folder i've got to down arrow to the folder i want which shoots the mixer into global for me. problem with that tip i've found, is that if you accidentally select the track instead of clicking on the object that it puts everything into global mode in the mixer. does that happen to you as well?

[camillo jr]

As far as I know, this will only work by clicking directly on the empty folder region. As soon as you click on the track, either with the mouse or with the arrow keys, it screws it up and then you have to turn off Global in the mixer to make it work again. But that's really not an impediment - the whole point of this method is to be able to create whatever mixer YOU want for the task at hand and have it be immediately accessible.

 

The folder regions work just like normal, you double click the region to see what's inside (an arrangement window with empty tracks which you can add, subtract and rearrange to your convenience) and double click on the background to back out. Sometimes the mouse is the easy way of doing things!

 

One exception to this "anything you want" deal is If you put subtracks in one of the folders those won't show up in the mixer.

 

I like to put an output track in every one of the folders so I can always see what's going on there. Another thing that I do is to create a few folder tracks with no region at all, that way, I can option drag one of my folder regions down to the empty track and then modify it without changing the original. Tons of flexibility here and easy to set up. Save it with your autoload and it will be there for all your new songs.

[majool]

Hey Camilo,

 

Thanks for the response. Yeah, I've had it setup working that way too...which I love, but recently I've been trying to navigate by key command cause my mouse hand is killing me. But, for now I'll make do with it as it is.

 

Thanks for your response...

[camillo jr]

Hey, a little OT here but if you're having "mouse pain" take your omega 3 oils! Stretch, massage all around the hand and forearm. Shake out the tension and watch your overall posture. If you are leaning forward too much, that produces tension in the neck and shoulders, which works it's way down your arm. Tension is the enemy. I've been there, it's possible to back out. Good luck!

 

Camillo

[Kuma]

David,

 

Your tips are SO SO useful to a NEW BEE with Logic!

This current tip has made my day!

Are you teaching the class Jan 13-15 and is there still room for me?

 

Bear

[SubFunk]

David wrote:

 

 

This is another quick tip:

 

Once done with your Arrangement, you generally open a Track Mixer to start mixing. One common problem is that all you can see is your Arrange tracks, and you generally don't have any of your Bus, Aux or Output objects in your Arrange window, even though you'll need them to finish your mix.

 

However, you can add those Bus, Aux and/or Outs to Arrange from the Track Mixer. Simply put it in Global mode. Then, simply double-click on the name of any of the objects to add them to your Arrange window, switch Global off and voila, your Bus, Aux and/or Output objects are right there in your Track Mixer.

 

Remember to double-click on the name, at the bottom of the Channel Strip of each desired object.

 

Now go and finish your mix!

 

this is a really nice tip!, even i tend to use screenset 8 (empty by default) to set up all the elements including (most important, thou...) the actual audio mixer which contains the buses, etc. already, i found it even more handy to jump blazing quickly between screenset 1 and 8, my personal mix setup! with all the elements handy i need for the final mixdown (that can include certain plugs as well who might be crucial for the final mix!), and if i need to make a tiny, say arrangement adjustment i just hit no.1 on the numerical keypad again, and after finishing hitting 8 back to the (full) mix... voila!

 

matter of taste i guess.

[jjigga3000]

Here's another tip. As you get deeper into Logic you find things that work for you. Heres one. Normally when you first set an autoload, and you open up your enviroment window. You only have Instruments, and Audio. As far as fader enviroments go. You'll find that your auxes, busses, Outputs, Tracks, and Audio Inst. Are all in the same enviroment page. Well What I did is create different enviroment windows for each of the different sets of faders. Such as one for Tracks, one for audio Inst, and so on. It's simple, just select create a new enviroment, from the menu on the left hand side, And name the enviroments pages, Aux, Busses, Output, Audio, Audio Inst. Then copy and paste the faders into the appropriate enviroment window. This makes for more organization.

 

Also Logic only reflects what is in the enviroment pages. Meaning, If you only have 2 tracks of auxes. Then It will only show 2 tracks of auxes in the Mixer, hence you will only get two tracks of auxes in the arrange window. So you will need to create as many auxes as you might think you need in the enviroment window. Do that for all the enviroment windows. Remember it's better to have more than enough, than to not have enough and have to stop the creative process to create more.

[saxsmith7]

Here's another tip. As you get deeper into Logic you find things that work for you. Heres one. Normally when you first set an autoload, and you open up your enviroment window. You only have Instruments, and Audio. As far as fader enviroments go. You'll find that your auxes, busses, Outputs, Tracks, and Audio Inst. Are all in the same enviroment page. Well What I did is create different enviroment windows for each of the different sets of faders. Such as one for Tracks, one for audio Inst, and so on. It's simple, just select create a new enviroment, from the menu on the left hand side, And name the enviroments pages, Aux, Busses, Output, Audio, Audio Inst. Then copy and paste the faders into the appropriate enviroment window. This makes for more organization.

 

....

 

I took this another step and named my layers with numbers in front so the sort would be in an order that i liked. Ex. '01 Audio', '02 Instr", etc

 

Using a numerical prefix when naming also helps in tracknames (though i don't use it as often as in the Environment Layers...

 

Steven

[camillo jr]

I'm tyring to round out my meager environment knowlege. What is the advantage of having separate layers in the env for audio, instruments and so on? Does it change the way the track mixer works? Or is it something else?

[David Nahmani]

It's purely for organisation and display purposal. I like to have specific mixer layers that will, for example, represent all and only my string tracks, independantly of what's in the arrange or of the selection. I create special layers for that.

 

Or more specifically, you can create a layer that only has two buttons to switch the monitoring between 2 different pairs of speakers cabled into your audio interface. You might want to have your output channel strips on that layer (I've uploaded such a layer for 3 pairs of speakers here: http://www.logicprohelp.com/viewtopic.php?t=1049).

[saxsmith7]

I'm tyring to round out my meager environment knowlege. What is the advantage of having separate layers in the env for audio, instruments and so on? Does it change the way the track mixer works? Or is it something else?

 

I think most of us use the Environment mixer for instances when we want to see specific components as a group. The Adaptive mixer is hip for what you are currently using in the Arrange window but is usually different from song to song. It's adaptive aspect is helpful in some situations but not in others.

By breaking the audio components into groups (such as Audio Tracks, Auxes, Outputs), it's more easy to set up a screenset that will always show you that particular group. In some Audio only songs, i set screenset 6 to Audio Layer with the scroll set all the way left / Screenset 7 to Audio Layer scrolled right / Screenset 8 to Auxes used for grouping / and Screenset 9 to FX buses and Outputs.

 

This reflects what David said about organizational and display use...

 

(Setting 6 scrolled left shows me the first 16 audio tracks and 7 scrolled right show the last 16 Audio tracks...)

 

Steven

[David Nahmani]

Hey Steven. Actually, for that kind of organization, you can use the Track Mixer as well. Use the global mode and the filters, and screensets, to show you only a certain combination of groups (like Aux and Outputs for example).

[dwaynedelario]

Hey David,

 

This may be a totally stupid question, but what's the easiest way to "undo" this tip? i.e. you have created some, let's say, multi-instrument sub tracks in the arrange and you want to be able to hide them from the arrange but keep them in the non-global track mixer? Is this possible or do I have to make specific mixers with an en environment window?

[David Nahmani]

Since the 'track' mode of the track mixer only displays what the Arrange window displays, in that case you need to make custom mixers in environment layers.

[saxsmith7]

 

Good day all...

 

nice to see this topic receiving more action. Going back to my previous comments about orgainzing the Environment in layers. The main advantage i find by doing this is if i want to assign something to a group of ______ (Instruments, Auxes, etc) at once.

I can "rubber-band" select multiple objects in the Environment view but not the Track Mixer view. Change the first one and all the others will follow suit. Particularly handy if i want to assign the same bus or Output assignment to the first eight ________ (Instruments, Auxes, etc).

In the Track Mixer, you can Shift-click to select more than one Object at a time but it is just too slow for more than three (for me).

 

Best regards to all... Steven

[David Nahmani]

In the Track Mixer, you can Shift-click to select more than one Object at a time but it is just too slow for more than three (for me).

You can drag across the label of the channel strips, or shift drag anywhere on the channel strips. Faster?

[saxsmith7]

That technique was unknown to me. Thanks very much David!!!

 

Steven

[paulm]

Thanks for this David soooooooooo useful and just what I wanted to know

[Waterboy]

Amazing! This thread is over (2) years old, and is still assisting folks!

Awesome!

[m29]

Stupid question from a noob. What is global mode and how do you put your mixer in global mode ?

[David Nahmani]

That's a L7 tip. Click the Global button in L7 to see all the objects in your environment.

[m29]

So I take it this won't work in L8 ? I don't have L7.

[m29]

I see that in L8, control (or right) clicking in the fader in the mixer and choosing the first option puts it in the arrange window...cool.