Apple 8 manual Using Control Surfaces

Using Control Surfaces

Any device used to remotely control Logic functions is known as a control surface. Many Logic operations, including control of channel strip parameters, execution of key commands, screenset switching, track arming, muting, soloing, transport functions, and much more—can be done remotely, with any MIDI device, such as your MIDI keyboard.

More flexibility is offered by dedicated hardware controllers, however. Typically, these devices will contain several channel strips—each with a fader, knob, and one or more switches. Most also offer dedicated transport buttons: Play, Stop, Record, Rewind, and Forward. Higher end units have LCD displays, jog wheels, and a number of reassignable function buttons.

Control surfaces can massively accelerate your use of Logic—particularly for mixing and automation recording tasks. Obviously, if automating or changing volume with the mouse, you can only control this one parameter—on one channel—at a time. With a control surface, you can simultaneously automate or alter the volume of several channels (as many channel faders/knobs as you can move at a time on the control surface).

Other tasks, such as software instrument or effect programming and automation, can also be made simpler with a control surface—which provides dedicated faders or knobs (the channel strip controls are reassigned) for plug-in parameters. This gives you simultaneous, direct control of a synthesizer plug-in’s filter cutoff, filter resonance and LFO speed parameters, for example.

Not only is this faster, but the “feel” and “mix balance” of your music can be enhanced by using your hands and ears, rather than your hands and eyes.

Many control surface devices are natively supported. You can freely reconfigure these, or unsupported devices, in the Logic > Preferences > Control Surfaces > Controller Assignments window.

Chapter 8 Speeding Up Your Workflow

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