Music Lesson: Understanding the LCD and Ruler Area

So having looked at the LCD area, what we now have is the ruler area.

The Ruler Area

• You can see there's this big ruler up at the top here, which signifies essentially bars and beats.
• Above that, we have a bunch of buttons that we are going to work with.

Menu Options

1. Edit Menu:

   • The edit menu is actually the same as this edit menu.

2. Functions Menu:

   • Depending on what we're processing, whether that's MIDI data for software instruments or audio data, this menu will change.
   • Some options will appear grayed out while others are available.

3. View Area:

   • This allows us to do things like:
     • Have a secondary ruler, for instance, if we want to see the time as well as the bars and the beats.

Views and Controls

• These two buttons here indicate that we are currently viewing in tracks view.
• However, we can also show or hide the live loops.
• Grid and live loops are something that we're going to get into very shortly as well.

Automation and Flex

• This button here is your automation button where you can show and hide automation.
• This is your flex button to turn flex time on and off.

Tools Section

Moving to the middle here, we have our tools buttons.

• Logic allows you to select:
  • One primary tool
  • One secondary tool

The primary tool is the one that you use when you move around, while the secondary tool can be used by holding command on your keyboard. When you hold the command, it shifts to that secondary tool.

Overview of Tools

So what are these tools and what do they do? Let's break them down:

• Pointer Tool:

  • Our main tool for clicking, dragging, and selecting.

• Pencil Tool:

  • When in the workspace area, this tool allows us to create a new region.
  • If you don't know what a region is, don't worry! We've got a whole lesson dedicated to that.

• Eraser Tool:

  • Used to delete regions.

• Text Tool:

  • Allows us to rename a region.

• Scissors Tool:

  • Used to cut a region.

• Glue Tool:

  • Allows us to glue two regions together.

• Solo Tool:

  • Lets us listen in solo (isolation) to a region.

• Mute Tool:

  • Used to mute a region in our workspace.

• Zoom Tool:

  • Allows us to zoom in and out in different states and ways.

• Fade Tool:

  • Introduces audio fades, which we will examine further in audio editing.

• Automation Select Tool:

  • Selects a bunch of automation we may have created.

• Automation Curve Tool:

  • Curves linear data to create a smoother and more natural flow.

• Marquee Tool:

  • A special tool to discuss during navigation.

• Flex Tool:

  • Used when working in flex time mode, specifically for time-stretching data and working with our flex markers.

Snap Modes and Drag Mode

On the right-hand side of this ruler area, we can see our snap modes.

• Snap modes determine how we move regions and where we are moving them on our grid.
• We also have our drag mode, allowing us to specify the behavior of our regions (e.g., overlapping or shortening the region).

Zoom Options

The remaining buttons pertain to zooming:

• Waveform Zoom:

  • If we had an audio file, we could zoom in on the waveform.

• Auto Zoom:

  • Vertically and horizontally fits all tracks and regions onto the screen.

• Zoom Sliders:

  • Help us to zoom in and out of our session, both vertically and horizontally.