LOGIC NOTES

Performance Score Symbols

Published in SOS September 2002
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Technique : Logic Notes

Essential info on performance score symbols, details on making efficient backups of your work, and our usual haul of Logic hints and tips.

In May 2002's Logic Notes, we started to explore the scoring functionality of Logic's Score editor, looking at the basics of transcribing MIDI notes into conventional notation and using Score Styles to define the appearance of a stave. This month, we're going to turn our attention to adding performance direction symbols to the score, and getting them to actually affect the playback of the song.

Before we go any further, though, a few words of warning: always make sure that Page Edit mode is being displayed in the Score editor before adding any symbols (View/Page Edit). Although this isn't really necessary for note-based symbols, general performance directions can get lost at the end of the previous system when the page is printed out if you enter symbols in the linear edit mode.

To add a symbol to your score, you can either drag it from the group in the Part Box on the left of the Score editor onto your stave, or, with a symbol already selected, click on the score with the pencil tool. When placing a symbol, it's important to check that you're adding it at the correct position (in terms of bars and beats) and on the correct track, if you have more than one track displayed in the editor. With note-based symbols such as staccato marks, I'm probably stating the obvious by saying that you need to make sure the symbol is actually placed on the same beat as the note for it to be displayed correctly.

Instead of clicking a group's icon to bring that particular group to the top of the stack, there are two other ways of selecting symbols within the groups of the Part Box. Clicking and holding a group's icon displays a pop-up menu of all the objects within that group, and double-clicking its icon opens that group in a floating window. If you hold down the Apple or Option (Windows: Control) key while doing this, the symbols will be arranged horizontally or vertically in the window respectively (but note that the horizontal arrangement option isn't available in the Windows version).

Adding performance directions to your score can be a tedious task, especially for larger-scaled works, and having to constantly refer to the symbol groups doesn't really help matters. However, as most Logic users already know, many of the application's handiest features are hidden behind unassigned key commands, which is certainly true for the Score editor. Some of the most useful are the Attach Symbol commands, allowing you to add note-based symbols, such as staccato or up/down-bow markings, to a selection of notes in one keystroke when assigned a keyboard shortcut in the Key Commands window.

The Transform window has some useful presets for interpreting dynamics in MIDI playback.

Possibly the most common symbol on any score is the slur, used to indicate how musical phrases should be articulated. Entering slurs, and manually trying to shape them around the appropriate notes, is a particularly aggravating process and can leave you with a collection of disfigured shapes that are barely recognisable as musical directions. However, to make life easier (and your score look a little more professional), Logic has some pre-configured Key Commands for entering a near-perfect slur every time.

To add such a slur, simply select the group of notes you want the slur symbol to encompass and press Shift+Control+Top (Windows: Shift+Alt+Control+Home) for an upper slur or Shift+Control+Bottom (Windows: Shift+Alt+Control+End) for a lower slur. However, you might want to configure your own key combinations for these commands; I think Windows users will find this idea particularly appealing.

Unlike some dedicated score writers, in Logic slurs are currently independent of the notes they relate to, meaning that slur symbols don't automatically reshape themselves when notes are transposed up or down in pitch — a real pain when you're preparing parts from a concert-pitch score for a clarinet or horn, for example. This can leave the score looking a little messy, especially if the stem direction changes because of the new pitch, so it's worth planning to add the slurs after any transpositions.

Other performance directions that can sometimes be slightly laborious to enter are graphic crescendo and diminuendo markings, and, again, Logic offers some handy out-of-the-box Key Commands. Select the notes you want the dynamic change to span and press Shift+Control+C (Windows: Shift+Alt+Control+C) for a crescendo or Shift+Control+D (Windows: Shift+Alt+Control+D) for a diminuendo symbol.

A common frustration for musicians when using a computer for scoring is that the performance directions generally aren't 'performed' with the notes. Many score-writing packages implement reasonably good playback intelligence to solve this problem, and although Logic doesn't go this far, it's still possible to achieve a slightly more realistic playback than you might imagine.

The MIDI Meaning window allows you to define length and velocity adjustments for notes with specific symbols.

To enable the MIDI playback of your scores to offer improved realism with the minimum of effort, your first port of call should be the MIDI Meaning window, which you can open by choosing Options/Setting/Score/MIDI Meaning. This window allows you to define the effect that various symbols will have on MIDI notes, specifying velocity values to be added or subtracted, and length values (as a percentage) to reduce the duration of notes proportionately.

Although this is the extent of Logic's automatic playback interpretation functionality, it is possible to add more realism to your scores, if you have some time to spare, using Logic's Transform window to interpret dynamics. This isn't as complicated as you might think. For crescendos, identify a crescendo you want to 'interpret', make a mental note of the start and end position in terms of bars and beats, and select Functions/Transform/Crescendo. In the Transform window, set the Inside locators to the start and end positions of the crescendo, define appropriate start and end velocities (the end velocity should be greater than the start) and click 'Select and Operate'. Use the same procedure for diminuendos, but reverse the start and end velocities, with the start velocity being the larger number.

You can also use the Transform window to interpret static dynamic changes, which is much simpler than processing crescendos. Select the notes you want to apply the dynamic change to and choose Functions/Transform/Velocity Limiter. In the Transform window, change the Max parameter to 'Fix', set the velocity you want to apply to the selected notes and click 'Operate Only'.

The above techniques should enable you to create slightly more dynamic performances from your MIDI modules, if you'll excuse the pun. If any Logic users have found some neat ways to work around other aspects of interpretation, do write in and let us know.

Quick Tips     When you want to try one of Logic's radical tempo-altering options, such as 'Reclock Song', use one of the 10 available Tempo Alternatives. Simply open the Tempo List, select and copy all tempo events, choose a different Tempo Alternative from the local Options menu, and paste the events in there. Now make your radical changes and use the original Tempo Alternative for A/B comparisons, as well as a safety net. Len Sasso If you're tired of trying to decipher note velocities from the note colours in the Matrix editor, turn on HyperDraw for Note Velocity from the editor's View menu. You can then click-drag individual velocity bars with the mouse or apply linear contours by click-dragging from an empty space. Len Sasso Although Logic's Transform Window works a lot like the Environment's Transformer object, it has one big advantage: it can work with time. Use it, for example, to scale the relative timing of groups of notes, to reverse note order, or to create velocity crescendi. You can also use it to select discontiguous groups of notes based on their positions within the bar (called sub-positions), by using the Transform Window's 'Select only' button with the Shift-key modifier while changing the sub-position condition setting. Len Sasso Recently, a colleague's Mac-based EXS24 suddenly started showing messages saying that samples relating to specific instruments could not be found, even though he and I could see that the samples were on the hard drive exactly where they were supposed to be. After trying all kinds of complicated solutions, and reinstalling everything, to no avail, we tried trashing the Logic Preferences file as a last resort. After restarting the computer and reselecting the audio driver for the installed Audiowerk card, everything behaved just as it should! Paul White

Using Chord Memorizers     When you want to correct or filter notes to a particular scale, use a Chord Memorizer. In the Chord Memorizer's setup window (double-click the Chord Memorizer to open it), select each of the 12 notes in the chromatic scale, using the top keyboard, and map them to single notes on the bottom keyboard (see screen below). For notes not in the desired scale, you can either map them to the closest note in the scale (scale-correcting) or map them to nothing (scale-filtering). Len Sasso The Chord Memorizer's top keyboard is for selecting the note to be mapped and the bottom keyboard is for defining the notes in the chord. In the illustration, notes are mapped to individual notes (ie. one-note chords) to accomplish scale correcting. Displayed is the correction of C# to C.

Backing Up & Transporting Complete Logic Projects     Given that large-capacity data storage media are now so easily available and portable, it should be a cinch to back up and transport your Logic projects. However, you need to make sure you copy all elements of your project to the destination drive (including audio files, samples, and EXS24 sampler instruments), so here's how to make sure you don't leave anything vital behind when you take projects elsewhere. To deal with the audio, go to Logic's Audio Window, where you have two options, depending on how far into the project you are. Choose 'Select All' from the window's Edit menu if you wish to copy all files (no matter whether they are used on the Arrange window or not); or choose 'Select Used' if you wish to copy only the files in use in the Song, and not all 19 takes of the bongo solo! Next, select 'Copy/Convert Files' from the Audio files menu and copy the selected files into a new folder for transportation (this folder will eventually contain all the data for the project). Now save the Song into this new folder. As an alternative, you could choose 'Select Unused', then 'Delete', then 'Select All', before using 'Copy/Convert', as before, and resaving the Song into the same folder. This slightly more cumbersome method results in a Song that won't ask you to find audio files you haven't copied (because they weren't used in the original copy of the Song) when you open it on the destination machine. If EXS24 is being used in the Song, Logic provides two `convenient commands to ensure you can keep track of your files. When you create a sampler instrument in the EXS24 Instrument Editor, the 'Save As' command from the Instrument menu names it and saves it to the Sampler Instruments folder in Logic's program folder, making it available to the sampler. To back up, use 'Copy Audio Files' from the same menu. This copies the audio files referenced by the Instrument to a folder with the same name, and creates a new instance of the Sampler Instrument file in a folder called Sampler Instruments in the same location. Backing up further instruments makes new folders for each set of audio files, and places each new instance of the sampler instrument files in the Sampler Instruments folder. Making these instruments available to EXS24 on the destination machine is achieved by dragging a copy (or an alias) of this folder to the Sampler Instruments folder in the Logic program folder. Mike Watkinson