MUSIC PRODUCTION 13: Workflow with Screensets
A screenset is the collection of windows you have open, including their size and position (on one or more monitors) and most importantly, their mode of operation (regular, flex or automation).
You can arrange some windows and save them. Then make a new arrangement and save that - each to a pre-arranged shortcut set up by Logic for this purpose.
Let’s try the method I use on one giant TV.
Open and move a few windows (e.g. Main Window, Mixer and Piano Roll) into position, overlapping as per below with the edges of the Mixer and Piano Roll visible to the left so you can click them and use as required.
Then press A to activate Automation Mode while using the Main Window and press the 1 key. You can see in the screenshot that I have just got going in this project and the drum mics have been automated for volume only.
Press the 1 key and Logic will save the set of windows and mode as a screenset which you can recall by pressing 1 after setting up another version.
Now click the 2 key and the screenset will change to whatever Logic had saved.
Open the Main Window by itself and choose Flex-Mode for editing the rhythmic timing of notes. To access this mode, press the Knot button just under the Rewind & Fast Forward buttons. When editing timing you just need the one window open to focus. You can see below that I have been through the drum mics adjusting the hits to correct phase or timing.
Press 2 to save this screenset.
Now click 1 and 2 and watch the screen sets change. This way you can move back and forth between these modes as you mix and edit. Magic.
This approach was borne out of the discovery of a bug in the software which frustratingly only reveals itself once I had done months of mixing in Automation Mode (with many lanes of it having built up under each track e.g. reverb mix, various eq frequencies, volume, delay bypass), all painstakingly drawn and left open so I can see and tweak them all as I listen and scroll through the mix.
This is how it happens. At some point after being neck deep in a mix for months you will hear a timing error that was not obvious, or someone will send you a new overdub which needs a tweak to make it fit really snug. At this moment you decide to push the Flex Mode button and get the timing work done, and then press A to return to Automation Mode and then discover that only one lane of automation is open on each!?!?!? That’s right, you have to now manually open up all the others for each track. It can take 30mins and caused much misery and frustration for me the first time, and despite Apple acknowledging the bug over 3 years ago (I was on the phone to a tech in their Logic team and he opened a fresh session his end and I took him through the steps to reveal it), they have yet to fix it. Fortunately a kind person on the LogicProHelp forum suggested the Screenset route and it works.