OS X Keyboard Shortcuts Every Logic Pro User Should Know

Danski April 15, 2011 Logic Pro 9 Tips, Logic Pro Beginner Tips, Logic Pro Workflow Tips, OS X Tips

logic pro key commands

Here’s a list of OS X keyboard shortcuts that should come in handy when you’re working with Logic Pro. For more OS X keyboard goodness, follow the link at the bottom of this article. Have an OS X keyboard shortcut tip yourself to speed up workflow? Drop it in the comments!

Sound:

When using built-in audio:

Increase or decrease your volume by quarter increments: ⌥+⇧+Volume Up/Down.
Use ⇧+Volume Up/Down to change volume without the sound effect.
Holding down ⌥ while clicking the volume control in the menu bar gives you a menu where you can choose your mac’s input and output audio devices.
Pressing ⌥+function key will bring up the System Preference panel for that key.

⌥+Mute/Volume brings up the sound preference panel.

Screen:

Hold ctrl and move the scroll wheel (or use 2 fingers on your trackpad). It will zoom in the entire screen. This makes connecting certain objects in Environment a lot easier.
Holding down ⇧ while using the mouse scroll wheel will scroll the window horizontally.
Change screen brightness in quarter intervals: ⌥+⇧+ Brightness Up/Down.
Put your screen to sleep while listening to your work: ctrl+⇧+⏏.
Invert screen colors with ctrl+⌥+⌘+8.

Logic Pro Navigation:

When closing an unsaved song, ⌘+D will invoke “Don’t Save” for you. Be careful.
Navigate Logic Pro’s menu bar by keyboard: ctrl+F2. On macbooks with function keys turned off: ctrl+fn+F2. You can navigate through the menus using the arrow keys and the enter key.
Press ⌘+` (right apostrophe) to switch between multiple windows.
While typing in Notes in Logic Pro, press F5 for suggestions. On macbooks: fn+F5.

See pic:

Full article (more tips!): apple.stackexchange.com

(Source: lifehacker).

Recent Comments

slehman805

June 27, 2017 | #

Will any of these work with a FireWire multichannel audio interface?
LancesUK

June 25, 2017 | #

Excellent article. This is LPE at its best. Thank you, Edgar.
EdgarRothermich

June 18, 2017 | #

I see. Now I understand your question, and yes, you are right, my statement is misleading.

You are correct that for the listener, the perceived loudness of a highly compressed track is similar to the perceived loudness of a track with a healthy dynamic when played back on a Loudness Normalization system. The difference is that due to its distortion and lack of transients and nuances, the hyper-compressed track most likely sounds bad compared to a track with a healthy dynamic.
(I corrected that section in the article. Thanks for pointing it out)
David

June 18, 2017 | #

That’s a helpful elucidation but I think my question wasn’t clear enough. About automatic loudness normalization, you said one implication is, “A highly compressed song, resulting in a high Program Loudness of -4LUFS will be played back on that system 12dB lower, sounding much softer than a song with healthy dynamics and transients.” This seems to imply that two songs adjusted to play back at the same loudness will have a different loudness.
ColinS

June 17, 2017 | #

Just for the record, the Food Pyramid that everyone has taken as fact and law was based on faulty science. New nutritional science understands that fats are essential and carbs are the bad guys. Just google “Food pyramid is wrong”.

This takes nothing away though from Edgar’s excellent advice above….
JCurtis

June 16, 2017 | #

Another good (and free) Loudness Meter: http://youlean.co/youlean-loudness-meter/

Excellent end to the series Edgar!
JimGramze

June 15, 2017 | #

Demoed this and couldn’t hear the effect at all, except for the beautiful high frequency trim. So I put it on all five tracks of my current project along with the mix bus and my only reaction was: that’s way too much! Dialed it back some on each track and it sounds great. It bothers me I can only hear the cumulative effect, apart from the high lift or pushing the Amount into distortion. My ears need more training.
Chris Vandeviver

June 14, 2017 | #

Hi Nikolozi, thanks so much for pushing back on this idea!

I just saw your comment, and it pushed me to dig in and confirm. So I test-drove your approach. Setting the Ratio 1:1, Threshold at 0, it did appear that there was absolutely no change in the frequency spectrum, and the signal nulled.

However, I noticed with Voxengo’s SPAN, there was a frequency difference when I set to Opto against any of the other emulations. Albeit, far, far down the scale in terms of decibels.

So I decided the real test was on actual instruments. I loaded a session I just recorded this past weekend that had absolutely no processing on it whatsoever.

I grouped each instrument with a track stack. Three track stacks in total – drums, bass, and guitars. Then I gain-staged each bus with the Hornet VU.

After the Hornet VU, I placed the compressor 4 times on each of the 3 track stack busses:

– 1 row of Classic VCA
– 1 row of Studio FET
– 1 row of Studio VCA
– 1 row of Vintage Opto

I bounced the session with each layer of compressor, Threshold at 0, Ratio 1:1, in the order listed above. Then I opened a new session and loaded the four bounces.

Flipping the polarity, there were surprising differences. The Dropbox link below links to the screenshots.

It’s so far down dB-wise, that it may not be perceived by humans. Nonetheless, it appears there is a tonal difference.

Perhaps the Logic team deeply studied the deep subtleties of inherent compressor noise?

The screenshots: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/kiwur4biyfnd8ex/AABzlJwtE_DpSKKQSb1DhRn7a?dl=0
EdgarRothermich

June 14, 2017 | #

You question shows that it is important to use the right terminology, otherwise, I don’t know what you are referring to. When say “both set to -16LUFS” are you referring to both are et to “-16LUFS Program Loudness” when bounced, or both songs applied to the same “-16LUFS Target Loudness”?

Also, when you say “all -16LUFS material”, do you mean all material bounced with a same “-16LUGS Program Loudness”, or all material aired system with a “-16LUFS Target Level”

To answer your question, think of four elements “Compression/Dynamic”, “Peak Level”, “Program Loudness”, and “Target Level”.

-1- Compression/Dynamic: This is a creative decision, what type of sound you want to achieve. Maybe lots of dynamic, maybe little dynamic.

-2- Peak Level: This is a technical decision, where you want to set the maximum peak level of your song.

-3- Program Loudness: This is the result of -1- and -2-, measured with the Loudness Meter. If you aim for a specific Program Loudness (i.e. -16LUFS), then you can change the dynamic or the maximum level of your mix. You can (and should) easily verify that in Logic with the Loudness Meter.

-4- Target Level: This is just a global reference level set by a radio, TV or internet streaming service, that matches all program material aired on that channel to their reference level. It is simple math: If a song has a -10LUFS Program Loudness it will played back 6dB lower. Please note that the system doesn’t care how much compression (-1-) the song has or what its peak level (-2-) is, as long as it doesn’t clip. It just measures the song’s Program Loudness, which of course is a combination of compression and peak level.
David

June 14, 2017 | #

In section #3, you seem to be saying that if two songs are both set to -16 LUFS, and one was originally limited much harder than the other, the more limited one will sound softer after loudness normalization. It’s clear that it will have a lower peak value, but isn’t the whole point of LUFS to match perceived loudness as much as possible? Shouldn’t all -16 LUFS material be more or less equally loud by definition?

OS X Keyboard Shortcuts Every Logic Pro User Should Know

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