Q&A #4

Topics covered are mentioned below. You can also check out all the Q&A’s on this playlist

Check out Q&A 4 here

This time out on the Q&A, a member catches us up on how their podcast is going, and there is a brief discussion about the utilitarian Scripter MIDI plug in that’s included in logic. We also talk about the interview with Louis Moorhouse and the value of networking.
Following a brief conversation on how it’s never too old to get started, we discuss Creating a Keyboard Command to mute VoiceOver and whether or not you have to have enable Keyboard commander checked.
The conversation then turns to mixing on headphones vs speakers, the pros and cons, and the iLoud MTM small studio monitor speakers that Louis and I talked about both liking. In the Q&A I also mentioned their even smaller sibling the iLoud Micro Monitors.
We then talk about how on newer Macs the headphone out and speakers are treated as separate outputs, so if you have VoiceOver coming out of one and Logic the other, you can change where Logic is routing audio.
To do this :
1) In Logic Press Command comma to open settings.
2) Navigate to the top of the window where it says toolbar, and interact with it.
3) Select Audio and stop interacting.
4) As you VO right, make sure the devices tab is selected. Then continue with VO Right to the pop up button where you can choose your output.
5) Vo space on the pop up button, and select your speakers, or external headphones if you want to use the mac’s headphone out.

This is where you also would select your audio interface if you want to use that instead of the Mac’s built in speakers or headphones.
Next up we have a lengthy discussion on Automation, its pros and cons, and why I choose not to use it as much as I can get away with and what I do instead of automating. At the end we also talk about using things like region gain verses the track fader. If you are interested in learning more about automation, see this tutorial on Automating a track parameter like Volume, Pan or Send,, this tutorial on Automating a plug in Parameter and this tutorial covering how to Automate the Stereo Output or Master Fader to do a Fade Out.
We then talk about Some of the patches and which instrument or Soft Synth is being used for them. This then leads to an in depth conversation about Full Screening an application Like Logic, What Spaces are, and what it means when it says “space with Logic Pro Finder and mail” (or something similar), and Command Accent vs Command TAB and VO F2. If you are new to the Mac and these things still confuse you a bit, this part of the conversation is worth a listen.
We talk about Locators and how they can be useful as a replacement for arrangement markers, given that arrangement markers are not accessible at the moment, and a couple different ways to use them to move sections of the project around.
This leads to a conversation on bug reporting, how I understand things to work and why it may still be valuable to file bug reports even if it seems like they don’t get sorted right away or even for a long time.
The in depth discussions continue as we dive into the When, Where, Why And How to use Side Chaining. This is less about the actual steps of doing it as demonstrated in the previous Q&A as well as this tutorial, but more about what exactly it’s doing and how it works. There are also a few examples of how it’s useful, from the very commonly used ducking music when someone is speaking, to the secret weapon of the pros technique of ducking a reverb while the vocalist is singing.
As a result of discussing Side Chaining, we also have to explain how a compressor works and what the main parameters do, so this conversation may be worth listening to if compressors still confuse you.
We wrap up with a conversation on future tutorials the members would like to see, and how I invite suggestions, so speaking of which, please don’t hesitate to [send me an email ] with any feedback and suggestions that you have.