This guide assumes you are using the Logic Keyboard Ninja Key Commands. You can find instructions on how to install them on thekey commands installation page. Also, find a full list of the keyboard ninja commands in the Key Commands List.
A note on Moving through a project
follow the steps outlined in the Eleven Ways To Navigate Through a Project in Logic For Keyboard Ninjas Guide to see all the different ways to move through a project.
Editing From The Track Header Area
When you navigate to a track in the track header area, you will in turn select all the regions on that track. You can split a region at the playhead with Command T, and if the track has multiple regions you can move to the previous and or next region on the track with the left and right arrows respectively. As this acton doesn’t speak with VoiceOver, you can move the playhead to the start of the selected region with Control Home (Control FN LeftArrow on a laptop keyboard) or to the end of a selected region with Control End (Control FN RightArrow on a laptop Keyboard). VoiceOver will speak the start and end measures or bars when the playhead moves to them.
Putting it all into Practice
Now lets say you just recorded something and or imported a track and want to edit it. If you know where about you want to start the edit you can move to that time in the project using one of the navigational methods outlined here. Otherwise, press space bar to start playing, and when you get to about where you want to start your selection press Control Command Space to pause on that point. You can use Command+T to split the region. Once you get the start point of the region you want to cut out press space to play pass the word or phrase you want to cut out and press Control Command Space again to pause and press control+T to make another split. Now the word or phrase is its own region and you can press left arrow to select it.
(Note every time you make a split, what is to the right of the playhead is what gets selected. This is why you will have to press the left arrow once to select the new region you just created with your two splits.) You can press control Home to jump to the start of the selected region and you can press SpaceBar to play from that point and press SpaceBar to stop and return to that point. You can solo the selected region on playback with Control S or mute it with Control M. If all is well you can press command+x to copy or command+c to copy or delete to delete it. If you want to delete it and have whats to the right of it move in to fill the gap, then use the delete and move option under the edit menu or it’s assigned key command, Shift Delete.
Fine Tuning the Start and end Points
Other ways to navigate while you are trying to fine tune your start and end points. Use Control Command Comma and/or Control Command Period for example (Rewind or forward by Division Value ) to move forward and or backwards through the project in small increments. This is especially useful after using Control Command Space to pause playback as it will move the locate position to somewhere near where you stopped playback. Now when you use SpaceBar to play and stop it will return to this point. Once you have the start point dialed in you can once again split with Command T, and use a similar method to dial in the end point and Make a second split there.
Also 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 chop out words by scrubbing. You will 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.
You can use this technique to scrub back to just before the word or phrase starts and press command-t to split, and scrub forward to when the word or phrase ends and press command-t again to split. Once again you will want to press the left arrow to move the selection back to the new region which is the word or phrase you want to take out.
Useful Key Commands
- Play or Stop and Go to Last Locate Position Space
- Play or Stop ⌃⌘Space
- Rewind (moves back by measure) Comma
- Forward (move Forward by measure) Period
- Forward by Division Value * ⌃⌘Period
- Rewind by Transient * ⌃Comma
- Forward by Transient * ⌃Period
- Split Regions/Events at Playhead Position ⌘T
- Select Previous Region/Event ←
- Select Next Region/Event →
- Go to Selection Start ⌃Home
- Go to Selection End ⌃End
- Play from Selection ⇧Space
- Solo Mode (Toggle Solo for selected Region) ⌃S
- Mute Notes/Regions/Folders On/Off (Toggle Mute for selected region) ⌃M
- Delete Region Delete
- Delete and Move (Delete region moving any following region up to fill the gap) ⇧⌫
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Workflow Tip
- I would recommend setting the division value to be a beat or 1/4th note as its listed in logic with ⌃⇧⌘/. This way you can use Comma and Period to move by measure, use ⌃⌘Comma and ⌃⌘Period to move by beats and use ⌃⌥⌘Comma and ⌃⌥⌘Period to move by 16th note divisions through out the project.
For more on moving through a logic project see the navigating section on the “Getting Started With Logic” page.
