Logic users past and present - can you help me out with automation?

  • Hi guys


    Not much help elsewhere on the 'net - I'm having a problem with Logic Pro X, and writing automation. I'm using a touch-sensitive fader (Presonus Faderport), and it works fine in Studio One and in Repaer. However, in Logic...


    When I set it to touch mode, it's like it "times out" after a second or two without me moving it. I've still got my finger on the fader, but the automation being written just "jumps to its previous value", if that makes sense. If I then move it just a slight bit, the automation being written jumps down to where the fader is at, pretending nothing untoward has happened... As I said, Reaper and Studio One understand that my finger is still on the fader.


    Latch mode works fine.


    I get nothing from the manual so far (I haven't read through all 2000 pages, but I've looked in the sections I thought were relevant), and tried searching the net for an answer as well.


    Anybody have any experience with this?

  • Does your fader keep sending something when you stop moving it? I believe Touch mode recognizes when a fader movement has stopped and then reverts back. If your fader stops transmitting then I think this would be normal behaviour right?
    (I admit that I don't know the Persons faderport works, but it would be good to know if it is still transmitting when this happens.)


  • Does your fader keep sending something when you stop moving it? I believe Touch mode recognizes when a fader movement has stopped and then reverts back. If your fader stops transmitting then I think this would be normal behaviour right?
    (I admit that I don't know the Persons faderport works, but it would be good to know if it is still transmitting when this happens.)


    Hmmm. I don't know if the fader continually sends something when it's stationary. In touch mode, with a fader which does register if the finger is still on it, I'd expect it to just listen to THAT. As I said, it works as intended in reaper and in studio one. Maybe that's just a "feature" of Logic's? If so, that's damn stupid, frankly :) But I'm pretty sure it isn't intended to work like this.

  • You need to have the track in Write mode, otherwise Logic only registers a change when there is movement. Touch mode will work the way you expect it to on the first automation pass only. As soon as there is automation data on the track, it will behave as you described in your first post.

  • You need to have the track in Write mode, otherwise Logic only registers a change when there is movement. Touch mode will work the way you expect it to on the first automation pass only. As soon as there is automation data on the track, it will behave as you described in your first post.


    Hmmm.... I still think this is a very strange way for touch mode (granted, I'm a rank amateur).


    What I can see is in touch mode is:
    - With no preexisting automation, touch mode works like latch mode if you keep the finger on the fade for long enough after a fader move (like keeping the fader still for something like a second or a half. That i to say, that becomes the "new standard level".
    - With no preexisting automation, doing a QUICK fader move and quickly releasing the fader afterwards (lifting finger off, not keeping the fader stationary with the finger on it still), the fader will revert to whatever level is now "standard" (see point above). This will NOT happen if the fader move is long enough, like a fade or something. I think the threshold is about the same as the point above (maybe half a second).
    - With preexisting automation (even if the automation contains no actual changes in value), it works like described above. The "standard level" is the previously written automation.



    This just doesn't seem very useful to me, if that is the standard way touch mode works. What are the benefits, other than very quick bumps or reductions in volume? Like it is now I can't use it to, say, redo a slow fade.



    Conversely, when using the mouse on a fader in touch mode (rather than my faderport), it behaves exactly like I would expect it to, and like the faderport works in Reaper and Studio one.

  • I think it's just the way the Faderport protocol works with Logic. IIRC, my SSL Nucleus worked as you expect, but then it used the Mackie Control protocol that Logic used to use as standard. I'm not sure if the Faderport is the same, having no experience of it.


    Edit : I just quickly googled, and it seems Presonus have written their own protocol

    Edited once, last by sambrox ().

  • Hmmm... Maybe I should try with the HUI protocol and see if that works any differently. Although I couldn't get it to work when first I tried it.


    Also, I tried the Behringer FCB2000, and seem to remember that reacting exactly the same way - and that was under some mackie protocol as well. (the Berry isn't touch sensitive, but you can kind of "force" the fader to keep in position, which is their version of "touch sensitive").