Lock and Load
Screen sets. We all love ‘em. We lock em’ and then load em’ up constantly. Conventional wisdom about locking screen sets is that once you meticulously set up the exact layout, sizes, link and catch modes etc the way you want them – you lock the screen set so that in case you inadvertently change something, your initial setup is not lost. You just recall the screen set and it reverts back, or reloads, to its pristine state. But screen sets can be useful for more than storing different combinations of window layouts.
Let’s talk about Logic’s three preset zoom levels for a moment. You can store and recall three separate zoom levels separately for each class of window in Logic. This is a global setting; and so once done, applies to all songs until any future changes are made. Cool. Three global user definable zoom settings are great. How about getting more than that – and on a song per song basis?
This is where locked screen sets come in. Locked screen sets remember zoom settings as well as other layout elements. So, set your zoom level to something other than one of your three preset zoom sizes; and lock the screen set. Now your screen set can act as a fully storable and recallable fourth zoom setting. And it’s unique to the song you’re in – so can be useful for specific tasks you are undertaking at that moment without ruining your three global levels that you have set.
Want more? Just go to another screen set. You can set up a whole palette of different zoom levels on different screen sets that have them locked in. You can instantly recall as many as you need!
So, in practice what is this good for? Unique or irregular tasks – that’s the answer. Let’s say you need to zoom way in on the Arrange Window for some sample accurate viewing in order to isolate some breaths or clicks in a newly recorded audio file. There’s a locked screen set zoom level right there. Or maybe in the score editor you want to set up and view an instrument set unique to the current song so as to work with multiple parts simultaneously – that could warrant a unique zoom level. Or maybe you’re in the hyper edit window editing individual events of a long 64th note based buzz roll you’ve programmed in on a snare drum.
On the other extreme; maybe you’re working on a big orchestral arrangement and want a bird’s eye overview of the Arrange Window – zoomed way out – so as to see everything that is going on. And then maybe you need to zoom way in to edit the automation of some plug-in parameters on a specific instrument. And then jump right back to your overview. There are two screen sets right there.
Now of course, all of these situations I describe could easily be dealt with by using one of the three customizable preset zoom levels. But the point is; you can store those for routine run of the mill tasks, and use locked screen sets for the more infrequent or extreme settings we all need from time to time.
So, in theory, Apple’s marketing department could legally say: “Up to ninety user definable zoom levels now available!”
Monday, June 4, 2007
