Logic has a lot of tools. It can be cool to take advantage of all of them, of course, but why weigh down your workflow by constantly switching tools when you could do it all with just one?
In my opinion, Logic's Marquee Tool is the most powerful of its wide selection. I always keep my COMMAND + CLICK tool set to this one, and you'll understand why as we go over some of my top favorite feature of the tool.*
*For those of you not familiar with what I am referring to here as the "command + click tool," you actually have the option to have two tools selected at a time (Advanced Tools must be turned on in preferences). Then, when you hold down COMMAND on your keyboard, your cursor's functionality will shift to your secondary tool for as long as the key is held down.
What is the Marquee Tool?
The marquee tool is one of the most versatile tools offered in Logic. It allows users to select specific portions of the timeline. From here, you can delete selections, split selections into independent regions, loop selections, and more. The marquee tool looks like a little plus sign and can be selected from the Tools drop-down menu.
Function 1: Looping
Looping can be a bit of an annoying process in Logic. To go up to the top of your arrangement, fit the loop to where you want, dragging it around and getting technical, can be a bit round-about. If you are looking to quickly listen to an area of your timeline, or just a specific region, simply select an area with the Marquee Tool and hit the space bar to play it back! It’s a super helpful function to improve your workflow.
Function 2: Copying and Pasting
This function is something we only found recently, but it has helped us a lot. It can be inconvenient to have tracks full of tiny clips, but as producers, we often have to cut up vocal samples or copy parts of regions to other tracks. When creating vocal chops, for example, the timeline can get pretty messy, with tons of split regions. With the marquee tool, however, you can highlight a section of a region and then copy the section (option + drag) without having to split the region!!!
Function 3: Move to Transient
Do you want to manually chop up beats to the exact transients? You can do it easily by navigating between transients with the arrow keys and the marquee tool. Place the marquee on a track, and start moving with the arrow keys to get to where you need to cut. Hit delete to chop! The image below shows the marquee indicator, a lightly translucent line marking where the marquee currently is.
Function 4: splitting regions
It may seem like a simple function, but being able to quickly split a selection can be super helpful. Say, you wanted to split a region. Normally, you might revert to the scissor tool. Well, if you simply double click anywhere in a track with the marquee tool, it splits the region!
Function 5: Drawing Automation
If you ever used the pointer for automation, you know it can be a pain in the butt. However, with the marquee tool, you can create automation points by simply selecting a portion of the automation line! From there, you can drag dots to create linear changes or create clean immediate changes (shown above)!
The marquee tool improves workflow in so many ways! It's hard to break old habits, but making a habit out of incorporating this tool into your Logic practice would not be a mistake!
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