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August 10, 2018

6 Reasons to Use the Logic Marquee Tool

 

The Logic Marquee Tool is versatile and formidable tool in your Logic tool kit. Any time you need to make a specific selection along the timeline, the Marquee Tool has your back.

From cleaning up your tracks to drawing Automation, the Marquee Tool is all about finesse and efficiency.

Personally, I couldn’t imagine a life without the Marquee. It’s foundational to my Logic workflow for 6 specific reasons:

  1. Cleaning up Audio Regions
  2. Splitting Audio Regions
  3. Listening to specific sections of audio
  4. Copying & pasting Marquee selections
  5. Drawing Automation (quickly)
  6. Processing specific sections of Audio

Sure, some tools like the Pointer or Scissor tools can solve some of this. But the Marquee tool is the best of all worlds.

It’s time to speed up your workflow with Logic’s most under-utilized mouse tool.

For all 6 reasons, do the following:

  • Hit Key Command T to open the Tool menu
  • Hover your mouse over the Marquee Tool in the menu
  • Hold Command and click on the Marquee Tool

Now you’re ready for action. Any time you need the Marquee, simply hold Command to bring it up.

1. Clean Up Audio Regions

Logic Marquee Tool

Just because an Audio Region starts at Bar 1 and lasts the whole song doesn’t mean you need every bit of it. In fact, there are several reasons to clean up those Regions.

Often musicians don’t perform for every moment of a song, which leaves moments of empty space.

What happens during those breaks might be:

  • Practicing
  • Movement
  • False starts
  • Ambient noise

Or just about anything else you don’t need in your mixes. These are ripe for removing.

Even beyond unsightly noise, removing dead spaces on your regions organizes your sessions.

By removing the dead space around a guitar solo, it makes it that much easier to know when that solo comes in. You can easily see that solo on the timeline.

Select a section of a region that doesn’t have any Audio. To do this, hold Command, click and drag across that empty section.

Once you’ve made your selection, simply hit Delete to remove the unnecessary bits.

You can also do this for actual bits of Audio you don’t need or like as well!

Just make sure to add Fades to your regions afterwards.

2. Split Audio Regions

Split Audio Regions with Marquee Tool

Splitting up regions into two or more is just as easy as well with the Marquee tool.

Instead of navigating to the Scissor tool every time you need to make a cut, just double-click anywhere on a region with the Marquee.

With that simple double-click, you can break up regions quickly and efficiently.

3. Listen to Specific Sections of Audio

Listen to Marquee Tool Selection

The Marquee is also great for grabbing a specific section to listen to for playback.

It’s as simple as clicking and dragging to make a selection. Hit Spacebar to begin playback, and the playhead will immediately jump to your selection. As soon as the playhead hits the end of your selection, playback stops.

Bonus tip: make a selection with the Marquee. Then use key command Command-U to have the Cycle Range loop your chosen selection for continuous playback πŸ™‚

4. Copy & Paste Marquee Selections (without breaking up regions)

Copy & Paste with Marquee Tool

A fantastic Marquee trick is copying and pasting selections without ever actually breaking up your regions.

Select a part of an Audio Region you’d like to copy and paste somewhere else along the timeline. Now hold Option, click and drag the selection to another track.

Lo and behold – Logic will copy and paste this selection without ever breaking up the original region!

This is perfect for grabbing that one word or riff in the middle of a region.

5. Select & Draw Automation Quickly

Draw Automation With Marquee Tool

Using the Pointer has never been a fun way to draw Automation in Logic. Double-clicking one node at a time to adjust feels like scratching an itch you can’t reach.

Utterly maddening.

Instead:

  • Enable Automation with key command A
  • Make a selection with the Marquee, and
  • Click the selection with the Pointer Tool

Curiously, it looks like the Marquee created 2 Automation points.

But if you click the line inbetween the two points with your Pointer and drag up or down, it turns out the Marquee created four points.

Like a champ, the Marquee brackets your Automation selection with Automation points. Which makes drawing Automation a snap.

6. Processing Specific Sections of Audio

Selection-Based Processing with Marquee Tool

In 10.3, Logic introduced us to Selection-Based Processing. Meaning that we can now process specific bits of our Audio Regions with effects like Reverb and Delay.

What makes Selection-Based Processing even sweeter is using the Marquee.

Select part of a region with your Marquee. Next, head up to the Functions menu at the top of the Arrange page. Then select Selection-Based Processing in the drop-down menu:

Selection-Based Processing

The Selection-Based Processing menu will pop-up. In column A, choose Space Designer.

You can preview this effect for your chosen selection by clicking the speaker icon under the Preview heading:

Preview Selection-Based Processing

Once you’re satisfied with your chosen effect, click Apply. Logic will bounce your specific selection with the effect.

Voila! You can commit effects to specific moments without creating new Tracks in the Arrange page.

Conclusion

The Marquee provides tons of value for editing and processing in your Logic sessions. Try out these 6 Marquee techniques to maximize your Logic Pro workflow.

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Filed Under: Editing, Mixing, Workflow

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Comments

  1. B says

    August 11, 2018 at 1:56 pm

    Very helpful, thanks for that. I’ve wasted so much time doing these things the long way up till now!!

    Reply
    • chris.vandeviver says

      August 11, 2018 at 3:17 pm

      Of course B! Thanks for reading πŸ™‚

      Reply
  2. Joey Belville says

    August 14, 2018 at 7:47 pm

    Dude, you’re awesome. I use the marquee tool fairly often, but your sheer enthusiasm makes inspires me to adjust my workflow to utilize it more! Keep the Logic love coming!

    Reply
    • chris.vandeviver says

      August 14, 2018 at 8:14 pm

      Thanks so much Joey! I’m stoked we get to use the best DAW out there πŸ˜‰

      Reply
  3. John Adams says

    August 15, 2018 at 4:15 pm

    That automation shortcut using the marquee tool is a great time saver.
    Thanks!

    Reply
    • chris.vandeviver says

      August 16, 2018 at 12:35 am

      No problem John!

      Reply
  4. Brian says

    November 6, 2019 at 8:20 am

    Hi first I want to Thank You so much for making this very helpful πŸ˜€

    I am trying to create seamless audio loops for using in the EXS24
    Do you have a video on this topic I sure hope so I am really wanting to learn this

    Reply
    • chris.vandeviver says

      November 6, 2019 at 1:58 pm

      Thanks for checking out the website Brian! I’d be happy to help on the EXS24 front.

      Let me ask you – how have you been approaching loops in the EXS24 so far?

      Reply
      • Brian says

        November 8, 2019 at 6:02 am

        Hi again ,
        I was wondering have you done a video on snapping to zero crossing
        so we can create seamlessly perfect loops

        Reply
        • chris.vandeviver says

          November 8, 2019 at 10:32 pm

          Hey Brian, I have not! But Using Snap to Zero crossings is a great way to ensure your edits are on point.

          My best suggestion is to do the following:

          – Chop up the sample how you’d like it
          – Set a Fade In and Fade Out
          – Bounce the Region in Place to create a brand new audio file with the fades printed to the File
          – Open the EXS24
          – Click the “Edit” button in the EXS24
          – Drag the newly bounced region into the Instrument Editor for the EXS24

          With Fades set at the beginning and end, your samples should be free of pops/clicks/bad edits.

          Also – you can drag and drop your samples into the Apple Loops Browser to add your samples/loops for easy archiving and finding.

          I hope that helps!

          Reply
  5. Brian says

    November 6, 2019 at 8:40 pm

    I been recording them on my iPhone
    And in logic like me humming A single note or scrapes and scratches
    Or bouncing a steel ball (well once lol)

    Music side playing with guitar and creating drum patterns on my ipad with chopsticks

    Been looking for a plugin to help create seamless audio loops
    One is Kontakt way to much $$$
    I came across this
    Crossfade Loop Synth

    Reply
  6. Zander says

    March 16, 2020 at 1:43 am

    Feel like I just gained another Logic super power, thanks Chris

    Reply
  7. Macx says

    November 9, 2021 at 6:43 pm

    think the commands for some things are a bit dated? using option to copy to another track doesn’t work for me, for example

    Reply
    • Chris says

      November 9, 2021 at 7:02 pm

      Hi Macx, thanks for your comment! Holding option and dragging a marquee selection to copy part of a region still works over here in Logic Pro 10.7. The other key commands in the post remain relevant as well.

      Are you holding Option when you click and drag? And did you try both Option keys on your Mac’s keyboard?

      Reply

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