I originally bought Logic Express and the MacPro tutorial on it because I upgraded to OSX and my old music program, SoundEdit 16, doesn't work on OSX. Thing is, my primary need is to be able to work with existing AIFF files, and edit and mix them. I have a huge library of music in AIFF format. I still haven't figured out how to do this in Logic, despite going thru the tutorial a couple of times. Granted, I've never been able to devote long chunks of time to the tutorial due to the demands of my business. I was wondering if there are ever any workshops in my area (Toronto), or one on one coaching sessions available with some expert in the area. Thx,

I originally bought Logic Express and the MacPro tutorial on it because I upgraded to OSX and my old music program, SoundEdit 16, doesn't work on OSX. Thing is, my primary need is to be able to work with existing AIFF files, and edit and mix them. I have a huge library of music in AIFF format. I still haven't figured out how to do this in Logic, despite going thru the tutorial a couple of times. Granted, I've never been able to devote long chunks of time to the tutorial due to the demands of my business. I was wondering if there are ever any workshops in my area (Toronto), or one on one coaching sessions available with some expert in the area. And in response to Rounik who requested more data: I make seamless music CDs using existing songs that I often remixed in SoundEdit 16, perhaps blending in a Ludacris intro and adding a few new percussive bits or a bass line punch, or a reworking of a guitar solo, etc. My thing is CDs that have a bit of everything from rock to metal to reggae to industrial to hip hop to foreign language to jazz, etc, all blended together. So I'm using existing music, and winging it from there. SoundEdit displayed the music in AIFF in left and right channels as sound waves (like those heartbeat medical things), and I could add as many tracks as I wanted. With Logic, mostly I want to import my AIFFs or import songs from my CDs and take it from there, i.e. add more tracks so I can re-edit the song, blend in other music, controlled fades out and in from one song to another, etc. I suppose the tutorial I bought, Logic Pro 8 101, will show me how to then output a CD once I'm done. But it all seems a very laborious learning curve for me, and with my spare time available in irregular chunks, I felt it would be more productive to sit down and show/explain to someone exactly what I do. The last time I went thru the tutorial (a few months ago) I did manage to put together a little song using some of the supplied Apple loops and the Piano Roll Editor. But I really want to take this kind of flexibility and apply it to existing songs. Hope this helps. Thx,

I am a freelance art director who's hobby is making CDs of all my favorite songs from the last 5 decades, with crossfades and custom-made segues between songs. I also edit/remix songs I like, eg. seamlessly removing the mundane guitar solo (in my opinion) from Elton John's "Love Lies Bleeding". I am only working with Audio files and have no external anythings. I bought Logic 8 Express almost 2 years ago to replace my beloved SoundEdit 16, because Mac OSX does not support that software. I also bought the MacPro Logic 8 101, but its only recently after 2 one on one tutorials with a local musician that I have been able to pretty well duplicate what I did in SoundEdit... except... My tutor is on tour and unavailable and I have hit a bit of a roadblock. I will typically have 6-10 Audio tracks in my Arrange Window for a song I'm re-editing and/or building a segue. Should I "flatten" all the tracks into one track, like I do with a layered Photoshop file, before I Bounce the song? Or should I just Bounce the entire Arrange Window as is? Also, for segues, with SoundEdit I would copy the end of song 1 into the Arrange Window, and then the beginning of Song 2 onto another track. I would leave each song open with the highlighted area still 'live'. I would then build the segue on as many tracks as necessary and then 'mix' the result. I would then 'cut' that final segue AIFF into 2 parts, copying and pasting the 1st part back into the still open and marqueed Song 1, and the last half of the segue back into the still open Song 2. In that manner, I would have precise clean cuts going from one song to another in my final compilation CD. I'm having a heck of a time trying to figure the best way to duplicate this in Logic. Mucho thanks to anyone who may be able to assist me here. Retro

thanks for your tips. If I understand correctly, you are suggesting that I place all 15-20 songs that comprise my compilation, into one Arrange Window? (giving that step-ladder look). BTW, I have been automating the volume and pans, adjusting gain as the tracks demand, and have started to play with High Cut. I'm just wondering if it may be a tad nightmarish if I decide to change the order of some songs. I often burn several CDs before I hit upon the right sounding flow of one song to another. Can I "group" song tracks and multi-track segues together? That way I could "lock in" the areas of the arrange window that do not get changed and move them around without all their little edit bits losing their precisely timed places. And finally, I'm still not sure how I go about precisely "cutting apart" the seamless sound that runs from one song to the next, so that the songs can be numbered and accessed individually on the final CD. thanks, Retro (what does HTH mean?... how the hell?... halt the hysteria?... Harry the Hindu?...)

Its so obvious. Can't believe I missed that...

I was lying in bed this morning in that 'reflective' state when the thought hit me - I bet it means Happy To Help. I don't text, tweet or Facebook, so I guess its pretty obvious that I'm old school. As a young teen music freak, I was once actually on stage for several hours while the Dead and the Airplane jammed after a concert. re: High Cut. When I remix songs, I will often construct an entirely new intro, or outtro, or do a little mashup somewhere using parts of the song itself, a different song, movie sound bites, sound effects, etc. I love (what I call) that 'phase shifter sound', and will use it wherever I think is apt... quite often in older songs that don't have the dynamic range of todays recorded music. Works good in segues too. In SoundEdit, one would marquee the area to be effected and hit a button. In Logic, I have to use that High Cut plugin and automate the frequency shift. A lot more control over the effect, but a lot more time intensive. BTW, is there a command where I can get one region to butt up precisely to another region? thx,

I've just completed my 1st compilation of remixes, edits and mashups of existing music imported from music CDs. One of the songs, Fresh from Kool + The Gang, is woefully lower in volume than all the others, even tho I boosted the gain when seguing it to match the louder songs before and after, on my compilation. Is there any way of opening the song, increasing the volume, save it and close the file/AIFF song? Or must one always 're-bounce'it after the changes have been made. Also, if I import a song, do nothing to it, and immediately bounce it - then burn a new CD with that bounced, unaltered song on it, will that song sound identical to how it sounded on its native CD? Or will the defaults in Logic Bouncing change the sound? thx guys,

Thanks for your input. Here's another thing that's puzzling me. I'll Bounce a project of say, 6 music tracks, where I have every track reading close to 0.0 decibels. Then when I place the resultant 'bounce' into a new arrange window and play it, both the Input and Outputs read -4.7 decibels and it sounds noticeably softer than in the Arrange window with the same music on 6 tracks - pre-bounce. Why is that? If all my tracks are peaking near zero in each individual track, then why is the resultant bounce so much lower in volume? What am I doing wrong?

I have no plugins or anything in the Output strip. I am shortening and rearranging one song from the Tropic Thunder soundtrack CD, so I have 6 tracks that contain bits and pieces of the one song. When I Solo each track, both Input and Output strips read near zero from beginning to end (with minimal variations). But when I play the entire song, the Output levels jump when the playhead crosses one track's crossfade to another, up to +1.2 in the first instance, then it jumps to +4.7 as it moves thru the second crossfade section (this is the biggest jump of all the crossfades), and stays there till the end of the song. The input levels remain near zero. (these crossfades are done with automation. They are a fraction of a second in length and I use 0.0 as my base volume level. They are how I "splice" together rearranged sections of a song). However, if I stop the playhead while it is reading +4.7, then re-start the playhead at the same spot, the volume level on the Output strip drops back down to the normal levels that are consistent with every track when Soloed. It's like the crossfades and segues, i.e. where there are tracks overlapping tracks, big peaks are created, even tho everything sounds seamless with no big jump in volume while listening on my headphones. And in order to mitigate these isolated peaks, Logic is lowering the volume of the entire song so that the peaks are accommodated. But its not only volume, it's clarity too. The resultant bounce is much lower in volume, and quite muffled in sound... all the higher frequencies are gone... its a muffled mess. Whenever I Bounce, there's a Window that pops up with a progress bar - Normalizing. Could the set up/defaults in Normalizing be the prob?

Or maybe I've inadvertently hit some command that is affecting the Output and/or the Bounce?... p.s. I tried the Sample Editor, but I don't get it. Doesn't seem to play the song in the Arrange Window as it has been edited, with all the crossfades, etc