Logic Pro Divide Region or NO SOUP FOR YOU!

Hello readers: You thought I was on Apple Computers payroll and just gush about LS saying how great it is and never criticize it? HA! think again.

I want to talk about one of the things that 'kinda' annoys me, when working on a large project and I'm dividing regions.

Here's the scenario:

You would like to divide a region with the scissors tool but in the splitting point there are overlapping notes.

(Say you want to divide the region at the second beat)

Naturally what Logic does is ask you wether you would like to:

a. Keep the notes, (they retain their actual length)

b. Shorten the notes, (they adapt to the new size of the region)

c. Split the notes, (they are split between both regions)

Pretty neat feature full of great options huh?

Well... not that great when you are working on the fly and you don't remember precisely how the notes are arranged, for that you would have to you open the Piano Roll to determine wether you want to keep, shorten or split the notes.

You see, once you give that divide command you can't open the piano roll or do anything else. Logic HAS TO perform an action and there is no way to override it! you can only Undo it once it's performed.

Meaning that you have to know what you want as there is no cancel button nor can you use the escape key to cancel this action.

The dialogue between the user and Logic goes a bit like this:

- "what you want: Keep, Shorten or Split?"

- "can I cancel this action to see the notes first?"

- "NO SOUP FOR YOU!"

My question is: Would it hurt to add a cancel button or at least the possibility to cancel the action via the Escape key?

Or: who likes GUIs that have a dialogue that says 'you have reached a point of no return, I will perform an action, any action you chose except cancel... resistance is futile'.

Use your Apple Remote or iPhone with Logic Studio

In case you didn't know you can control Logic Studio with your Apple Remote, the commands are pretty straightforward.

Apart from the obvious Play/Stop:
|<< - Rewind
>>| - Forward
+ - Select track up
- - Selec track dow
Menu - Record

Remember the Mac Pro has no Apple Remote support. (correct me if I'm wrong)

Here's a video about it:

Now here's a video of someone controlling LS via the iPhone, is it real? is it a fake? (it's real) who could shed a light on what the application is?

Update - August 8th - Here's an application that you can actually buy at the Appstore. It's called ProRemote which seems to be aimed at ProTools however they claim to have support for Logic Studio.

Herbie Hancock, Logic Studio user.

I've stumbled upon this October - 2007 interview with the man... Herbie Hancock by Eliot Van Buskirk from Wired magazine. In it Hancock comments on how he's been a long Apple computer user (since 1979 mind you).

Here's the part about Logic Studio:

"WN: Is there any new technology out now that you're enjoying using?

HH: Well, Mac OS X. As far as music goes, there's Logic Studio, which is Logic Pro 8, and some other software that makes up that package. We just got that last week and it's incredible; we've been playing around with that now."

Nowadays it wouldn't be an exaggeration to state that the very same music technology living legends use is available to just about anyone.

In the "I did not know that" department I found this: Herbie Hancock served in the board of a synth company along with Steve Wozniak!

I should make a post about "Famous Logic Studio Users".

Read the interview here.