Playlists in Logic? Or somethings like that.

logic inherently has a built in feature which is far better than protools playlists, IMO.

in the logic arrange window, you can have as many 'copies' of the same track as you like. so, if you are recording a given thing (say, vocals) on say, audio track 11.. all you have to do is select that track, then hit your key command for 'create new track' as many times as you like. this will create a whole bunch of 'track 11's' one below the other. and they are actually the same channel, so plug ins, panning and level is the same. but, each one can contain its own audio regions.. or in other words, each one is a different playlist for that very same channel. so you can record away on each of these tracks, muting the ones you aren't listening to at any given time. and then when it comes to editing/comping, it could not be easier because you can see them all one below the other.. so what I do is create another arrange track (in this case, track 11) above all of the ones I recorded on, and I use it as my final assembly track - the one that will actually play my final edit of all the elements I recorded below. usually I put a 'no output' blank track between the 'playlists' and the 'assembly' track, because when zoomed in close for cutting I find it is helpful to have a blank space to separate the playlists from the main track, and also it gives you a blank space to click in to deselect regions, which can make life easier when you really get into cutting in logic.

to take this one step further, logic also has an automatic track creation feature that operates in cycle record mode. you set it up so that you have your cycle range set to the area of the song in which you want to record. then, once recording, logic will automatically create a new track (always using the same channel, in this case 'track 11') each time you repeat another cycle recording. this way, you can just keep tracking uninterrupted, and when you're done, you'll have track after track of your takes, each below each other, all on the same channel.. basically, you will see your 'playlists' right there in front of you, and logic even mutes all of them except the most recent take played. so from there you can review them all, get cutting, and assemble your comp.

frankly I think it's way more flexible than playlists in protools.. once you realise it's not actually called 'playlists', you just set it up yourself and you can choose to work with it as you wish. also don't forget the 'hide tracks' function to hide the 'playlists' you don't want to see once you've comped your track. or, you can just pack them in a folder and mute it.

hope this helps.

Coming from a Pro Tools backround (yes i am now a
Logic fan), it has an idea that is called playlists.
What you can do is record/mix/arrange several
versions/takes of a song, in the same position of a
timeline, by creating a playlists of each track.

I looked for this and other functions that I was used to using in ProTools when I added Logic to my setup. Logic has a different way of doing stuff, but once I've learned Logic's way, I've ended up liking it better than PT everytime.

There are not playlists as such in Logic. But in Logic there's an even better way to compare or comp than PR's playlists. Select the track you want a playlist for and create a new track (Don't use create track with next; don't use create multiple tracks; just use create track). This creates a copy of the track selected (same plugs, same channel, same virtual instrument if you're using that). This seems odd to new logic users often, but you'll start to like it better i think. PT playlists are stacked beneath each other. Logic stacks below ... so it's better visually.

Use mute and/or solo to compare. This too may seem like a hassle at first. But it's easier if you don't use the icon buttons for this. Just click the rectangle box beside the track name (that selects every region on that track) and hit the m or s key on keyboard to mute or solo.

If you are working on other things and need to clean up all the copies of same track for real estate, pack them into a folder as mentioned in the answers. Folders are easily packed and unpacked.

Welcome to Logic.

Dee

set up an aux or a bus with the processing you
require, and send all relevant tracks to it.

This is a good solution or workaround, but won't work if you need to hear Processors that need to be inserted.

I think the create track and folders may serve this particular situation better.
Dee

set up an aux or a bus with the processing you
require, and send all relevant tracks to it.

This is a good solution or workaround, but won't work
if you need to hear Processors that need to be
inserted.

I think the create track and folders may serve this
particular situation better.
Dee

I correct myself. I just actually tired this solution - I should have before my post. It does work even with inserted DSP on the bus. My bad. LOL.

Dee

in this case, what you probably want to look into is folders. folders do give you separate arrange windows, in a sense.. so you can jump into each one, change the playback track to the one you want, and jump out again.

or, I suppose you could try separate arrange windows, unlocked so each one stays zoomed in to the area you want for each separate instrument in the band. you could have them on different screensets and just change to each screenset to change the playback track for each instrument that way.

the thing with logic is, there is a lot of flexibility.. so you can come up with many ways to tackle any given task. try out a few approaches and see what you come up with that works for you.

I agree that for doing a vocal take or the like, the IMO is a great feature, but for what I am looking at doing, which is severral takes of an entire band (live recording in a theatre) this method becomes a little cumbersome. I was hopeing I could just line up all my takes, then switch between takes on any track and have an alternate performance. (which is what I would do in PT). I'll try working out another workaround for this.

Wayno,

I'll be repeating all that has been said here, but let me try and clarify...

The way to do this is with copies of audio tracks, and then folders.

So, you're recording a whole band. Set up all your tracks, name them, ect... record take 1.

Now, select all of the tracks you recorded to, and pack them into a folder. Name this folder "Take 1".

You'll now notice, that all the tracks you assigned for recording, no longet have any regions on them. That is because they are packed into the folder. All the audio regions you just recorded are still assigned to the appropriate tracks, but their just inside this folder now.

Mute the folder named "take 1", and record enable all the tracks again. Record take 2.

After recording take 2, pack all the newly recorded audio regions into a folder. Name this folder "Take 2".

Rinse and repeat...

You can easily listen back to each take, by simply muting or unmuting the prospective folders.

Any plug-ins, volumes, pans... even automation, are still assigned to the appropriate tracks, but the folders are dictating which take is playing through those audio objects.

Hi Wayno.
I just responded to your OP after reading only the first few threads. I just read TBirds answer which is a much more detailed and better version of what I just wrote. So mine won't help you much either for your particular needs.

Re using different arrange windows. I think that could be set up by possibly having different versions hidden in each arrange window. I will have to try that to see. You can try it. That said ... I am not sure I would work it that way. It seems a lot of set up and a confusing way to work. But I would find playlisting an entire band confusing too ... so different folks ....

Myself, I would record each take in a linear fashion within one session. The old fashioned way we did it with tape. Again. Different folks ...
Try out the mulitple arrange windows ... and I will too. Curious to see how it would work.

Cheers

Dee

I just tried to create a number of arrange windows each showing/hiding different takes of the same track. I couldn't get it to work as you are wanting it to. But that could be something I am overlooking.
I don't have time just now to dig deeper. Maybe someone else can offer insight on this.
Best of luck.
Cheers
Dee

huh I just posted to another thread that what I miss in Logic is something like snapshots, but what you describe below is the same. Take a snapshot of a song in time and be able to flip to that snapshot to A/B at any point to measure progress or simply go back to snapshot to start over from that point and keep moving forward.

R

Then you can edit the folders, glue the comp'ed folder regions together, open the folder and do your fine adjustments. I find it superior to Playlists in PTs. No more playlists not changing correctly with groups and or any of that.

Then when your comp is done, do a save as and you can remove the outtakes from the sessions. If you ever need them again, just copy/paste from the older session to the newer one.

heh you learn something new every day. This is cool! Now if they only added pan, effect, automation etc... to this same feature, and I could have my snapshot 🙂

The trick is though, how do you combine tracks from takes? Say you want the guitar from take 1 with the bass track from take 2? you simply reconstruct the song into a 'take x' type of situation by copying tracks to their appropriate regions in take x?

Thanks
R

huh I just posted to another thread that what I miss in Logic is something like snapshots, but what you describe below is the same. Take a snapshot of a song in time and be able to flip to that snapshot to A/B at any point to measure progress or simply go back to snapshot to start over from that point and keep moving forward.

BOTR,

The folders won't work like that. When I mentioned automation in my previous post, it was in relation to the same automation would be available on multiple takes.

So the automation wouldn't save with the folders, it would save with the song, as you're used to it doing.

So as useful as folders are for multiple takes, they won't help you in your snap shot concept, I'm sorry to say.

I think right now, as you even mentioned, "Save As" is your best bet. Not ideal though, I know.