Customize the control bar

Customize the control bar

The control bar offers a default set of buttons and other controls, providing commonly used options. If you need to access particular functions that aren’t part of the default set, you can easily customize the control bar in the following ways:

  • You can show or hide the entire control bar to maximize the amount of available space in the main window.

  • You can show or hide individual buttons and other controls in the control bar.

  • You can open one or more giant beats display or giant time display as a floating window.

  • You can configure it to show SMPTE time with or without SMPTE view offset.

  • You can customize the time, tempo, and clock format in Display preferences.

Change the controls on the control bar

  1. Control-click the control bar, then choose Customize Control Bar from the menu.

  2. Add or remove individual controls by selecting their checkboxes in the dialog.

    Figure. Customize Transport dialog.

  3. Do one of the following:

    • Click the Cancel button to keep the previously saved control bar layout.

    • Click the OK button to make the new control layout active.

    • Click the Save As Default button to save your current layout as the default, which is then applied whenever you create an empty new project, open a new main window, or click the Restore Defaults button.

    • Click the Restore Defaults button to return to the default layout.

Set the display mode for the LCD

The LCD has five display modes, allowing you to view the time format in either musical units (bars and beats) or absolute time units (minutes and seconds), independent of the time format of the ruler.

  • Click the icon on the left side of the LCD, then choose one of the following:

    • Beats and Project: Displays the time format in bars and beats, and displays project properties (tempo, key, and time signature).

    • Beats and Time: Displays the playhead position in both musical and absolute time formats.

    • Beats: Displays the playhead position in musical time format.

    • Time: Displays the playhead position in absolute time format.

    • Custom: Displays the playhead position in both musical and absolute time formats, and displays addition information, including the tempo, project end, left and right locator positions, MIDI In and MIDI Out status, and CPU and HD usage meters.

Open a giant beats display or giant time display

Do one of the following:

  • To open a giant beats display: Click the icon on the left side of the LCD, then choose Open Giant Beats Display.

    Figure. Giant Beats Display.

  • To open a giant time display: Click the icon on the left side of the LCD, then choose Open Giant Time Display.

    Figure. Giant Time Display.

You can open multiple giant beats and time display windows, and resize and reposition each one independently.

Turn the Use SMPTE View Offset setting on or off

You can set a SMPTE offset for the project. As songs don’t always need to start precisely at bar 1, you can select any bar position to be played at the set SMPTE time.

  • Click the icon on the left side of the LCD, then choose Use SMPTE View Offset.

    Figure. LCD shortcut menu, with Use SMPTE View Offset selected.

Change the time, tempo, and clock format

  1. Choose Logic Pro > Preferences > Display (or use the Open Display Preferences key command).

    Figure. Displays section in the General pane in the Display preferences.

  2. Choose one of the following settings in the Display Time as pop-up menu:

    • With Bits: Subframes (SMPTE bits 0 to 79) are shown.

    • Without Bits: Subframes are not shown.

    • With Quarter Frames: Quarter frames are shown.

    • As Feet Frames, 35 mm film: The display is displayed in feet and frames, for 35mm film.

    • As Feet Frames, 16 mm film: The display is displayed in feet and frames, for 16mm film.

    • With Milliseconds: The frame fractions are displayed in milliseconds instead of SMPTE bits (also called subframes). Remember that this value is dependent on the frame rate: at 25 fps, a frame is 40 milliseconds long, at 30 fps, approximately 33 ms.

    • With Samples: Frame fractions are shown as sample values.

    • With Frames and Samples: Both fractional frame and sample values are shown.

  3. Select the “Zeros as spaces” checkbox if you want zero values to appear as blank spaces, rather than the number 0 in SMPTE time displays.

  4. Choose one of the following settings in the Display Tempo as pop-up menu:

    • Beats Per Minute (BPM, Maelzel): Beats per minute, to four individually adjustable decimal places.

    • BPM without Decimals: Beats per minute, with no decimal places.

    • Frames Per Click with Eights: Frames per beat with eighths. After the value, you will see fpc.

    • Frames Per Click with Decimals: Frames per beat, to four decimal places. Take care, as this display can easily be confused with the bpm display.

  5. Choose a clock format from the Clock Format pop-up menu