Waveform Wednesday: The Comp Tool in Logic

A very 
useful 
tool 
in 
Logic, 
the 
comp
 tool 
allows 
you 
to 
pick 
the 
best
 parts 
from
 different 
takes
 of 
the
 same
 instrument,
 pasting 
them 
together 
to
 get 
the
 ‘perfect’
 take!



Step 
1:
 Start
 recording
 a 
few 
takes 
on 
the 
same 
track. 
Logic 
is 
very 
intuitive 
where 
you 
can 
record 
over 
the 
previous 
take 
without 
losing 
or 
destroying 
the 
takes 
before. 
A 
good
 way
 to 
do 
this 
is 
to 
turn 
on 
loop 
recording 
where 
you 
can 
record 
a 
few 
takes 
 at 
once.
 


Step 
2: 
Once 
you 
have 
the 
tracks 
recorded, 
double 
click 
on 
the 
region 
to 
show 
all 
 takes.
 You
 may 
click 
once 
on 
the 
individual 
tracks 
to 
listen 
to 
them 
to 
pick
 the 
best 
 parts 
from 
the 
different 
takes. 
Placing 
the 
cursor 
over 
the 
tracks
 will 
bring 
up 
the 
 ‘comp 
tool’ 
that 
looks 
like 
a 
vertical 
bar. 
Click 
and 
drag
 over
 parts 
from 
the 
different
 takes 
that 
you 
want 
to 
use 
for 
your 
final 
track. 
The 
blue 
regions 
are 
the 
ones
 assimilating
 the 
top 
track 
and 
the 
white 
regions 
are 
the 
unused 
regions.

Step 3: Once you are satisfied with the final track from the different takes, you can either choose to create a new audio file of the track or just remove the unwanted region. By clicking the arrow on the top right hand corner of the top track (final track), a drop down menu will appear where you will see ‘flatten’ or ‘flatten and merge’. ‘Flatten’ is to just to get rid of the unwanted regions but ‘flatten and merge’ will create a new audio file (it works like ‘glue’ )

There you have your perfect take!

-by LC Tech Blog contributor Stephanie Tham

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Fermata Friday: Drum Notation in Finale

Putting drum notation into Finale can be a tricky thing to do. You have to deal with stems in different directions, solid and X noteheads, and making sure that the MIDI pitch you play to trigger a particular drum shows on the correct line or space of a staff. If you have tried this on your own, you may have been tempted to just write the notation in yourself, but there is a way.

The first thing to do to help yourself out is to pick drum set as your instrument from the setup wizard. This will load the percussion layout, and display the correct clef.

Next major thing to be aware of are Finale’s layers, which can be changed in the bottom-left of your Finale window (option-command 1-4 to switch between layers). It is easiest to put notes with stems up in layer 1, and stems down in layer 2.

Add your notes (if you are new to note input, sign up for aFinale Level 1: Lead Sheets session), but notice that hihats, cymbals, and other pieces of the drum kit are in odd locations.

To fix this, go to the Staff Tool, and in the Staff menu, choose Edit Staff Attributes…

Choose Select, next to the percussion notation style, then you can edit the drum set percussion layout.

Select your drum sounds from the left, and drag the notes around on the right to make appropriate changes.

When finished, your drum notation should be accurate (it automatically updates).

To save the changes you made to the layout, you must save the percussion layout library, and load this library into new Finale documents, which can be done from the File menu.

Check our Finale Resources page for training sessions on these topics, and links to helpful video and blog resources.

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