This guide assumes you are using the Logic Keyboard Ninja Key Commands. You can find instructions on how to install them on the key commands installation page. Also, find a full list of the keyboard ninja commands in the Key Commands List.
Moving through a project
You can move through projects with comma and period which moves you back and forward respectively by a measure. You can move in smaller increments with the move back by division value (command control comma) or move forward by division value (command control period), which by default in logic moves you back and forward by a sixteenth note). However, as there is a keyboard command mapped to moving back and forward by sixteenth note, I’d recommend setting the division value to be a beat/quarter note instead. You can do this with the key command Control Command /.
Now you can move back or forward through your project by bars or measures with comma and period, by a beat or quarter notes with Control Command Comma or Period, an eighth note with Control Shift Command Comma and Control Shift Command Period, and by sixteenth notes with Control Option Command Comma and Period respectively. If you aren’t familiar with musical time, think of it this way, you can move through your project in large, small, smaller and tiny increments depending on how tight an edit you are attempting to make.
I’d suggest making the above changes in a blank project with other settings you usually want when you start a project and saving it as a template. This way when you start a new project in the future you can choose this template and not have to make these changes every time. You can save it as a template from the File menu > “Save as Template …”.
While the above settings will be fine for most editing and navigating task through a project, if you need to move in smaller increments, you can change the division value that Control command Comma or Control Command Period moves by. In fact, you can set the division value to be pretty much any division of musical time. For example, it can be set to anything from a quarter note all the way down to a 1/64th note, 1/128th note and beyond. You can use Control Shift / and Control / to cycle between all the different division values. However, this process won’t currently speak the value it’s being changed to, so for VoiceOver users who want to know for sure what value it’s being set to, you can do this manually from the control group.
To do this, first interact with the “Control Bar toolbar” and then navigating to and interacting with the “Control Bar group”. In there navigate over to the display mode pop up button which by default is usually set to Beats & Project. Activate the pop up button with VO+Space and navigate down the list to custom and select it again with VO+Space. Now if you navigate with VO+Left arrows you will find a pop up button that says something like “/4” or “/16” etc. Activate this popup up button and select the appropriate option. You can select “/2” for a half note or “/64” for a sixty-fourth note for example. You can set it to a 32nd note with Control Option /, so you won’t have to go through the aforementioned process if that the value you would like. See the list of key commands below for the shortcuts to other division values, and as stated before, you can set the division value back to a beat/quarter note with Control Command /.
Fine Tuning the Start and end Points
You can use Control+Comma or Control+Period to jump to the next or previous transient if you want to get to exactly where a word starts for example. SpaceBar will play from the transient start.
Scrubbing
You can also navigate by scrubbing, and you will also want to make some changes to the preferences in order to have scrubbing work optimally. You can get into preferences with Command comma. Then in the toolbar, choose “Audio” and then stop interacting with the toolbar and select the editing tab. The scrubbing with audio in tracks area check box needs to be check. Now you can choose the scrub speed. Once you make these selections and close preferences, When you scrub in the project you should now hear audio while scrubbing.
To scrub, while the project is playing back, press period on the Number Pad to pause playback. Once playback is paused, use period and comma on the QWERTY side of the keyboard to scrub forward and backwards respectively.
Navigating to specific parts of a project.
You can jump to a specific bar/measure by pressing slash (/) and typing in the bar/measure number and then hitting return. As well, you can move back and forward by 8 measures at a time with Shift Comma, and Shift period. Also it’s possible to jump back to the start of the project with Return and jump to the end of the project with Option+Return. You can also set and use markers to get to specific sections of the project. For more on using markers, see the navigating section on the getting started page or check out this Youtube tutorial.
Further Reading
Now that you know in depth the different ways to move through a project in large and small increments, next we’ll take a look at moving around a project and making some edits.
Useful Key Commands
- Rewind (moves back by measure) Comma
- Forward (move Forward by measure) Period
- Rewind by Division Value * ⌃⌘Comma
- Forward by Division Value * ⌃⌘Period
- Rewind one 1/8 Note * ⌃⇧⌘Comma
- Forward one 1/8 Note * ⌃⇧⌘Period
- Rewind one 1/16 Note *⌃⌥⌘Comma
- Forward one 1/16 Note *⌃⌥⌘Period
- Set Next Higher Division * ⌃/
- Set Next Lower Division * ⌃⇧/
- Set Division Value to 1/4 Note * ⌃⌘/
- Set Division Value to 1/8 Note * ⌃⇧⌘/
- Set Division Value to 1/16 Note * ⌃⌥⌘/
- Set Division Value to 1/32 Note * ⌃⌥/
- Set Division Value to 1/64 Note * ⌃⌥⇧/
- Set Division Value to 1/16 Note * ⌃⌥⌘/
- Rewind by Transient * ⌃Comma
- Forward by Transient * ⌃Period
- Go to Beginning Return
- Go to End of Last Region * ⌥Return
- Go to Position… /
- Fast Rewind * (Moves back by 8 Measures) ⇧Comma
- Fast Forward * (Moves Forward by 8 Measures) ⇧Period
