MCU — Page 2 — learning at the elbow of the internet

Show/Hide EQ Thumbnails — Logic Pro keyboard command of the day

Displays an view of the EQ bands that are active - a quick reference to how the filters are applied

  Show/Hide EQ Thumbnails

Shows or hides the EQ thumbnail in the channel strips. It’s unfortunate that third-party EQ plugins can’t (or won’t) use the thumbnail. To be fair, the built-in “coloring” EQs don’t use the display either. The Channel EQ and Linear Phase EQ use the display.

The MCU (Logic Control) is an excellent companion to the channel EQs — the 8 controls map to the plugin. Eight bands, 4 controls per band. Quick work to EQ with knobs and dials. It is also kind of fun to FLIP the MCU and use the faders to adjust the filters.

Channel strip controls in Logic Pro — Apple Support

Each channel strip has a set of controls (also called components), which varies according to channel strip type. You can adjust the channel strip volume and pan position, mute and solo channel strips, add and adjust effects, and send the output to auxiliary or output channel strips.

Play from Beginning — Logic Pro keyboard command of the day

  Play from Beginning

Move the playhead to the beginning of the project and start playing. Rather than assigning a command for this I simply press Return (go to beginning) and Space (start playback).

On the X-Touch I can use the transport STOP button. If currently playing pressing STOP stops playback, a second press returns to the beginning.

Control playback in Logic Pro with the transport buttons — Apple Support

You can use the transport buttons in the control bar to control playback, or to set the playhead position. You can click the buttons to activate or deactivate functions, or use the corresponding key commands to speed up your workflow.

Select Members of Group 6 — Logic Pro keyboard command of the day

  Select Members of Group 6

Select all of the channels/tracks that are members of group 6.

Groups are useful. I would start by making sure that I have the Groups Inspector available as a separate window. I would name all of my groups with something meaningful. I would select members of a group by clicking on the group name and using the gear menu to select the members.

The Group tool on the MCU is a good way to perform the functions of the Group window. The Group number display is lacking, having only two positions, so we get G1, G2, … G9, G1…..G1, G2 and so on. If the group is named then the first 10 characters of the name are displayed in the information panel.

Groups inspector in Logic Pro — Apple Support

You use the Groups inspector to define the behavior of each Mixer group. The Groups inspector appears in the Track inspector when one or more groups have been created, and it can be opened as a floating window as well. It contains the following settings:

Mackie Control Group button in Logic Pro — Apple Support

Press the GROUP button to activate group edit mode that allows you to edit various Mixer group parameters.

Shuttle Forward — Logic Pro keyboard command of the day

  Shuttle Forward

Move the playhead forward — wind the “tape” forward. I have used the shuttle feature in my video players on the Mac, but never tried it in Logic.

I need to spend a session or two using the transport controls on the screen, and on the X-Touch. Things I have simply never considered, or have forgotten about from my days of fiddling with tape recorders .

Use transport keyboard shortcuts in Logic Pro — Apple Support

Shuttle Rewind and Shuttle Forward: Repeated key presses increase the winding speed. Repeated presses of the opposing shuttle key slow down the shuttle speed, and eventually change the winding direction. Shuttle disables Cycle mode. Shuttling is halted by the Stop command.

Toggle Hide Group 13 — Logic Pro keyboard command of the day

  Toggle Hide Group 13

Show or hide channels/tracks that are members of group 13. Every time I read about groups I try to remind myself that they are extremely useful for setting up tracks and channels for a project, even if you can collapse the tracks into a stack, the grouping serves very useful purposes.

Groups inspector in Logic Pro — Apple Support

You use the Groups inspector to define the behavior of each Mixer group. The Groups inspector appears in the Track inspector when one or more groups have been created, and it can be opened as a floating window as well. It contains the following settings:

When you use an MCU as a control surface the GROUP button gives you access to group settings. You can change the settings for the first seven groups.

The newer settings — “Quantize-Locked (Audio)” and “Track Alternatives” are all the way at the end of the settings.

You can assign channels to groups using the MCU as well. Time for me to read the GROUP section of the Mackie Control chapter.

Mackie Control Group button in Logic Pro — Apple Support

Press the GROUP button to activate group edit mode that allows you to edit various Mixer group parameters.