The Project Logical Editor

Introduction

On the Edit menu you will find the function “Project Logical Editor…” that opens a Project Logical Editor for the entire project. It works similar as the Logical Editor on the MIDI menu, see “The Logical Editor, Transformer and Input Transformer” on page 387. The most important difference is, that the Logical Editor for MIDI works on event level whereas the Project Logical Editor works on project level, and is therefore a very powerful tool for “search and replace” functions in your project.

Ö The MIDI events in the MIDI parts will not be affected by the Project Logical Editor operations. If you want to change MIDI notes or controller data, you have to use the Logical Editor, see “The Logical Editor, Transformer and Input Transformer” on page 387.

When we speak of “events” in this chapter, we refer to all the Project window elements that can be modified with the Project Logical Editor, e.g. MIDI parts, audio events and parts, Transpose parts, Arranger parts, automation events, etc.

The Project Logical Editor allows you to create “macros”, e.g. for special track type operations on tracks that are named identically. You can use its functions to delete all muted MIDI parts or to toggle the open state of all folder tracks in your project, etc.

Included with the Project Logical Editor are a number of presets that give you an impression of the great possibilities that this feature offers, see “Selecting a preset” on page 401. Many of them can also be used as starting points when you set up your own editing operations.

The principle for the Project Logical Editor is this:

• You set up filter conditions to find certain events.

This could be events of a certain type, with certain attributes or values or on certain positions, in any combination. You can combine any number of filter conditions and make composite conditions using AND/OR operators.

By combining filter conditions, functions and the specific actions, you can perform very powerful processing.

The Project Logical Editor allows all kind of settings that may not always make sense. Experiment a bit before applying your edits to important projects. You can undo the operations by using the Undo command on the Edit menu.

Opening the Project Logical Editor

1. Open the desired project.

All elements in the project will be affected, you do not have to make any selection.

2. Select “Project Logical Editor…” from the Edit menu.

Window overview

Selecting a preset

To understand the Project Logical Editor, it might be a good idea to start by exploring the included presets. These are found on the Presets pop-up menu at the bottom of the window, to the right.

•To load a preset, select it from the Presets pop-up menu.

The window will show the settings stored in the preset. As the preset is not applied to the events yet, you can load different presets just to study them without affecting any events. You can also edit the preset before applying it.

•To apply the loaded preset (i.e. to perform the operations defined in the Project Logical Editor), click Do It.

Ö You can also open the Edit menu and select Presets directly from the “Process Project Logical Editor” submenu.

This allows you to apply a preset directly, without having to open the Project Logical Editor.

For information on how to create and handle your own presets, see “Working with presets” on page 409.

Setting up filter conditions

General procedure

The upper list is where you set up the filter conditions, determining which elements to find. The list contains one or several conditions, each on a separate line.

Ö If you want to start from scratch (as opposed to basing your settings on an existing preset), you may want to initialize the settings by selecting the Init option from the Presets pop-up menu.

•To add a new line (condition), click the Add Line button to the right.

The new line is added at the bottom of the list. If there are many lines, you may need to use the scrollbar to the right to view them.

•To remove a line, select it and click the Delete Line button to the right.

You set up a filter condition line by clicking in the columns and selecting options from the pop-up menus that appear. Here is a brief description of the columns:

Below, the different Filter Targets (and their corresponding Condition and Parameter options) are described in more detail.

Searching for Media types

1.Select Media Type in the Filter Target pop-up menu.

This allows you to find elements of certain types of media only.

2.Open the pop-up menu in the Parameter 1 column and select the desired option.

When the Filter Target is set to Media type, the pop-up menu lists the available media types. The following table lists what will be found:

3. Open the pop-up menu in the Condition column and select the desired condition.

For media types, the following options are available:

If, e.g. you have set up the Project Logical Editor like this…

Searching for Container types

1.Select Container Type in the Filter Target pop-up menu.

This allows you to find parts, events or tracks.

2.Open the pop-up menu in the Parameter 1 column and select the desired option.

When the Filter Target is set to Container type, the pop-up menu lists the available container types. The following table lists what will be found:

3. Open the pop-up menu in the Condition column and select the desired condition.

For container types, the following options are available:

If, e.g. you have set up the Project Logical Editor like this…

…the Project Logical Editor will find all Marker events and tracks in the project.

…the Project Logical Editor will find all Folder tracks in the project.

This Filter Target is very powerful in combination with the Media type Filter Target:

Combining Media type and Container type

The combination of the Filter Targets Media type and Container represents a vesatile tool for logical operations:

Here, the Project Logical Editor will find all Automation tracks (not events) in the project whose name contains vol.

Here, the Project Logical Editor will find all MIDI and Instrument parts (not tracks) in the project that are muted.

Searching for Names

1.Select Name on the Filter Target pop-up menu.

2.Enter the desired name, or a part of a name in the Parameter 1 column.

3.Open the pop-up menu in the Condition column and select the desired condition.

For names, the following options are available:

If, e.g. you have set up the Project Logical Editor like this…

Here, the Project Logical Editor will find all MIDI and Instrument parts (not tracks) or all audio events (not parts or tracks) in the project that are muted.

…the Project Logical Editor will find all tracks in the project whose name contains “voc”.

Ö To take most advantage of this feature, we recommend you to use a standard nomenclature in your projects (Drums, Perc, Voc, etc.).

Searching for elements at certain positions

1. Select Position in the Filter Target pop-up menu.

This allows you to find elements starting at certain positions, either relative to the start of the project or within each bar.

2. Open the pop-up menu in the Condition column and select the desired condition.

For positions, the following options are available:

• If you select any condition other than the Range, Bar Range, Cursor, Loop or Cycle options, you set up a specific position (in bars, beats, sixteenth notes and ticks) in the Parameter 1 column. Note that the position for Bar Range is measured in ticks related to the start of the bar.

Here, the Logical Editor will find all elements at the position 5.1.1. in the project.

•If you select Inside Range or Outside Range in the Condition column, you set the start position of the range in the Parameter 1 column and the end position in the Parameter 2 column.

The Project Logical Editor will then find all elements inside or outside this position range.

•If you select one of the Bar Range options in the Condition column, the Bar Range column will show a graphic bar display. You specify the range within the bar by clicking and dragging in the bar display (the specified Bar Range is indicated in blue).

The Project Logical Editor will then find all elements starting inside or outside this Bar Range, in all bars (within the current selection).

Here, the Project Logical Editor will find elements starting around the second beat in each bar.

Searching for elements of certain lengths

1. Select Length in the Filter Target pop-up menu.

This allows you to find elements of a certain length only. The Length parameter is interpreted via the time base setting of the tracks, i.e. in ticks (musical) or ms (time), except for audio parts or events: these are always measured in samples.

2. Open the pop-up menu in the Condition column and select the desired condition.

For lengths, the following options are available:

If you select any condition other than the Range options, you set up a specific position in the Parameter 1 column.

Here, the Project Logical Editor will find all audio parts and events in the project with a length smaller than 200 samples.

Searching for properties

1.Select Property on the Filter Target pop-up menu.

2.Open the pop-up menu in the Condition column and select the desired condition.

When the Property option is selected, the Condition column has two options: “Property is set” and “Property is not set”.

3.Open the pop-up menu in the Parameter 1 column and select the desired option.

This sets which property will be searched. The options are “muted” and “selected”.

Two examples:

Here, the Project Logical Editor will find all muted MIDI and Instrument parts.

Here, the Project Logical Editor will find all elements that are selected but not muted.

Combining multiple condition lines

As described above, you can add condition lines by clicking the Add Line button to the right of the list. The result of combining condition lines depends on the boolean And/ Or operators and the brackets.

The bool column

By clicking in the “bool” column to the right in the list, you can select a boolean operator: “And” or “Or”. A boolean operator separates two condition lines and determines the result in the following way:

Ö If two condition lines are separated by a boolean And, both conditions must be fulfilled for an element to be found.

The Project Logical Editor will only find MIDI Tracks.

Ö If two condition lines are separated by a boolean Or, one of the conditions (or both) must be fulfilled for an element to be found.

The Project Logical Editor will find all parts or events that match exactly the cycle.

When you add a new condition line, the boolean setting defaults to And. Therefore, if all you want to do is set up two or more conditions that all must be met for an element to be found, you don’t have to think about the boolean column – just add the required lines and make the usual filter settings.

Using brackets

The bracket (parenthesis) columns let you enclose two or more condition lines, dividing the conditional expression into smaller units. This is only relevant when you have three or more condition lines and want to use the boolean Or operator. This is how it works:

Ö Without brackets, the conditional expressions are evaluated according to their order in the list.

Here, the Project Logical Editor will find all audio parts and events whose name contains perc and all Audio parts and events whose name contains drums, as well as other parts and events (e.g. MIDI parts) whose name contains drums.

Maybe you wanted to find all Audio parts and events that either had the name perc or the name drums (but no other parts or events named drums)? Then you need to add some brackets:

Here, all audio parts or events will be found whose name contains perc or drums. The rule behind this is:

Ö Expressions within brackets are evaluated first.

If there are several layers of brackets, these are evaluated “from the inside out”, starting with the innermost brackets.

You add brackets by clicking in the bracket columns and selecting an option. Up to triple brackets can be selected.

Editing filter conditions as text

You can also edit filter conditions as text. This works just like in the Logical Editor for MIDI, see “Editing filter conditions as text” on page 394.