LOGIC NOTES

Guide To Setting Up Logic For Writing Music To Picture

Published in SOS August 2002
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Technique : Logic Notes

Logic's video window and its settings options on the PC (left) and on the Mac (right).

There's a simple guide to setting up Logic for writing music to picture this month, as well as advice on speeding up your work in the Score Edit window. Plus, there's news of the latest improvements in Logic v5.1.3 and, of course, the usual fistful of useful tips.

As well as offering a lot of facilities for music-only projects, Logic Audio also provides many of the key tools needed when writing music for picture (although 'picture' might be film, TV, cartoon, video game or web animation). Most media composers work either by synchronising Logic to an external video playback unit (such as a standard VCR) or by playing back digitised video clips using Logic's own video playback facilities. Both methods are considered here and, whichever approach is adopted, timecode is a key issue, especially if the music has to hit key moments within the video footage.

If a client provides a normal video cassette, timecode will often be recorded on the audio track. This type of timecode is known as longitudinal timecode (LTC) and can also be referred to as SMPTE timecode. For both video cassette and digitised clips, the timecode is also commonly 'burnt' into each frame, and provides a visual representation of the SMPTE time in the usual hours:minutes:seconds:frames format.

When working from video tape, the key issue is getting the audio version of the timecode to control playback in Logic. The most efficient way to achieve this is via a timecode reader (offered by some MIDI interfaces, for example) that can take the audio timecode signal from your video playback device and convert it into MIDI Time Code (MTC). Once the appropriate synchronisation settings are made in Logic, this allows Logic's playback to follow the video playback, with the VCR acting as the master device. This arrangement works reliably enough and does not put any significant additional strain on the computer running Logic.

However, this traditional approach does involve a lot of time spent waiting for the VCR to rewind — hence the growing popularity of working with digitised video. This method has the advantage that the video playback window is controlled by Logic's own Transport controls and the user can move instantly to any position within the clip by repositioning the Song Position Line (SPL) within the sequence. Playback can also be looped.

In a commercial context (and in an ideal world!), working with digitised video clips may not require any additional hardware, as long as the client can provide the composer with AVI or MOV files, including burnt-in timecode, on CD-ROM. However, playback of the video clip will place an additional load on processor, graphics card and hard drive, so a well-specified computer is recommended.

Here's how to set things up when working with a hardware VCR. The first thing to do is connect the VCR's audio output to the input of the timecode reader, and to feed the resultant MTC to Logic. Then you'll need to sort out Logic's Synchronisation Settings, available from the Settings submenu of the main Options menu, so that it responds correctly. Under the General options, the Sync Mode can be left as Internal but the Auto Enable External Sync box should be activated (click on it so that a cross appears). These settings mean Logic will behave entirely as normal until it receives any timecode from an external source.

Logic's Synchronisation Settings window.

Two other settings are also likely to require some adjustment. Firstly, the Frame Rate should be set to match the video medium that you are working with (for example, PAL is 25fps) and, secondly, the Plays At SMPTE time must be set. In a commercial context, this information would usually be documented with the supplied video footage, but it will also be shown in the burnt-in timecode. Essentially, this setting allows Logic to match a specific SMPTE time position to a specific musical position in the Song (in terms of bars, beats and ticks).

It is a good idea to have a number of bars of pre-roll at the start of the Logic sequence before the SMPTE start time of the video sequence. For example, if the first frame of the video is at 01:00:00:00 and the music is due to start at 01:00:10:00, then I would set the first beat of bar three to match the SMPTE time of one hour, zero minutes — this example is shown in the screenshot. This allows a couple of blank bars for any MIDI data (synth patches and so forth) to be recorded before the video playback commences. When timecode is received from the VCR, Logic will begin playback from bar three and, 10 seconds later, the composing needs to start! By the way, don't route the timecode audio through your monitor speakers, as it will sound very unpleasant and, at high volume, might result in damage!

With a suitable file (on the PC, the supported formats in Logic v5 are AVI, MOV and MPG) stored on the computer's hard drive, selecting either Video Player or Video Player As Float from Logic's Options menu will open a dialogue box that allows you to browse your various hard drives for the video clip you require. (Note that these options are Movie and Movie As Float on the Mac, and you can play any movie file supported by Quicktime.) Only a single video file can be loaded at one time so it's generally easiest to create a separate Logic Song for each musical cue.

Once the file is selected, it will be displayed in Logic's video window. This window is configured via its Video Settings dialogue on the PC — the screenshot shows an example of the video window and its settings dialogue. (These options can be accessed on the Mac using the video window's buttons or by clicking and holding on the picture to access its options menu.) The SMPTE Start setting dictates the SMPTE time at which video playback will commence and should, of course, be set to match the SMPTE time burnt into the first frame of the video file. The Size setting allows the video window to be scaled as desired — while this doesn't change the quality of the video image (files played back at double size will probably look rather pixellated), it can be useful if you are playing an instrument some way from the computer monitor and need a bigger playback image to see what is going on. As with external video playback, it is a good idea to configure the Plays At SMPTE time in the Synchronisation Settings to something other than the start of bar one.

Whatever type of video you're working with, you should be able to keep Logic perfectly in sync if you set things up right. However, there are a number of other technical issues that become relevant once you're sync'ed up, for example the relationship between 'hit points' and tempo. So keep your eyes peeled for more tips in a forthcoming column...

Logic Tips     If you're a MOTU 828 owner using a Mac and have just upgraded to Logic v5, you may occasionally be greeted with a message telling you that there is no ASIO driver, even when you know that you put it in the ASIO Drivers folder yourself. Quitting and restarting Logic seems to fix the problem most of the time, but failing that, restarting the Mac will always sort it out. Paul White Editing together two vocal takes at a syllable boundary can be tricky when there's no stop consonant at the join creating a handy gap. This is especially the case if the two takes are out of phase at the edit point, because this will usually cause an undesirable dip in level during the necessary crossfade. Fortunately, once you realise this, you can easily shift the latter of the two audio regions into phase using the Nudge Event Position By Tick +1 Key Command. Mike Senior For some reason I've never completely fathomed, some connected MIDI instruments don't always set up to the correct patch when you open a Logic song. Using the up/down cursor keys to select each track in turn (just whizz through them all in one go!) sends the appropriate MIDI Program Change and Bank Change messages for all the tracks. Paul White

Using The Keyboard To Adjust MIDI Data     Using keyboard shortcuts for common tasks is a great way to speed up your working habits in any application, and Logic is no exception. For example, some of the more common note manipulation functions in the Matrix or Score Edit windows, such as selecting, nudging or transposing, can be achieved without even touching your rodent-based controller. Firstly, you can select different notes in the sequence by pressing the left and right cursor keys, and if you hold down the shift key while doing this, you can select multiple notes in either direction. Once the note or notes are selected, you can transpose the selection up or down a semitone by holding down the Option/Alt key and pressing the up and down cursor keys respectively. If this sounds too exciting, hold on to your hats, because it's also possible to nudge a selection (including notes and, in the score editor, symbols) left or right one format step by pressing Option/Alt and either the left or right cursor key. If you're wondering what a format step is, this is the value set in the Transport window underneath the time signature — it's a semiquaver (16th note) by default. The format step value is also indicated in the Matrix Edit window underneath the toolbox on the left-hand side. These shortcuts also apply, to some extent, in the Arrange and Hyper Edit windows, where objects on the current track can be selected with the left and right cursor keys, or, again, several objects can be selected by holding down the Shift key while doing this. Similarly, you can nudge selected objects on any track by holding down the Option/Alt key and pressing the cursor keys just as before. Mark Wherry

Logic v5.1.3 Adds Multiple Undo, VST 2.0, DSP Optimisation & Much More...     The latest v5.1.3 Logic upgrade (available as a free download on the Emagic site) adds significant functionality both to the basic program and the operation of the Logic Control hardware control surface. Users upgrading from v5.0 now get the multiple undo/redo and processor optimisation that was incorporated in the 5.1 version that shipped with Logic Control. Almost any editing step in Logic can now be undone — a log of all editing steps is automatically created while you work and shown as a list in a dedicated window (Edit / Undo History). The number of undo steps is set by the user (the default is 30) via Options / Settings / Global Preferences / Limit Multiple Undo Steps, and the edit history list is saved with the song so that it remains available every time you work on it. Destructive audio edits, however, can only be undone once, immediately after execution. Logic Platinum 5.1.3's DSP Optimisation Technology (DOT), works with Pentium III, Pentium IV, AthlonXP, and Apple G4 PowerPC Velocity Engine, and can provide a doubling of available CPU power depending on the specific plug-ins used. Emagic plug-ins which have been optimised display an orange DOT logo on their front panel. VST 2.0 effects are now fully implemented — inserting them in Audio Instrument channels means that they can be controlled by incoming MIDI messages. The audio is routed to the plug-in via its side-chain input. If you've previously had any VST 2.0 effects in your system you may need to insert them into Audio objects and relaunch the Audio Engine (or restart Logic) before they will appear in the Audio Instrument listing. Logic Control users get a host of useful tweaks, including OMS support on the Mac platform allowing the controller to be used with a wider range of MIDI interfaces. Highlights, for me, are the ability to create Markers without having to enter Big Marker Mode (you can now just hold down Marker and press Nudge) and the ability to toggle aux sends on and off without losing their current value (using the Mute button in Send Multi-channel view with Flip activated). New Zoom functions allow you to scroll by page, and the Jog wheel can now be used to set up Cycle regions and define a Skip sector (by holding down Cycle and rotating clockwise or anticlockwise respectively). The Jog wheel can also define Drop regions, the transport now offers a Shuttle mode (also using the Jog wheel) and Global Views now remember fader bank offsets. And finally, there's also a small fix for Mac users in that double-clicking song files (or aliases to song files) will once again open the application correctly. Some users experienced difficulties with this from v5.0. Dave Lockwood