00:00:07 Hey guys, today we're gonna talk
one of my absolute favorite things
that was introduced to Logic X.
00:00:12 Track stacks.
00:00:13 Track stacks allow us to quickly route
and create sub-mixes.
00:00:17 They allow us to play multiple
instruments in one patch
and they help us keep
our projects organized,
which can be a life-saver
in your bigger projects.
00:00:24 Let's check it out.
00:00:26 So, here we have a session with 39 tracks,
it's not huge but it's not tiny
so we're gonna use
track stacks to clean it up.
00:00:33 And just real fast you can see that
all my drum-kit tracks are dark red,
the percussion tracks are light red
and then they're color-coded from there.
00:00:42 So, to create a track stack
we have a track selected
and we're gonna Shift + Click
at the bottom
of the tracks that we want to select.
00:00:51 So now we have multiple tracks selected.
00:00:53 We can then Ctrl + Click
or right-click
and select 'Create new track stack'
or use the key command
Shift + Cmd + D.
00:01:00 Let's do that.
00:01:01 Now we have the option of two
different types of track stacks.
00:01:06 We have Folder Stack,
which at the bottom we have this little
drop-down that gives us
some details about that.
00:01:11 We're gonna come back to
Folder Stack at the end of the video.
00:01:13 What we're gonna concentrate
on for now is the Summing Stack.
00:01:16 So let's hit create and see what happens.
00:01:19 So Logic created
'Sum 2', a new auxiliary track for us,
which is our main track
in our track stacks.
00:01:26 And below that,
all the tracks that were
selected are now our sub-tracks.
00:01:31 And we can tell that these sub-tracks
are contained within the track stack
because while we have this selected,
we see on the left side of our tracks area
the track kind of continues down
encompassing all of the tracks
that are in the track stack.
00:01:46 And there's this disclosure triangle
which we can collapse
and uncollapse the stack.
00:01:52 If we open up our mixer
we'll see a similar situation.
00:01:58 Let's rename this
'Drum Bus'.
00:02:02 Also in our mixer we can see that
all of our sub-tracks are routed
to the output Bus 1,
where they were routed
to the stereo output.
00:02:11 And then the input
of our Aux return,
which is the main track,
of our track stack,
is also Bus 1.
00:02:17 So all of that routing
happened automatically.
00:02:21 We can also add and subtract tracks
from our track stack
by going to the tracks area
and clicking and dragging
a track into the stack area.
00:02:29 Notice the output of this channel
changes from stereo out
to bus 1 automatically.
00:02:36 And then if I simply want to
remove it from the track stack
the output changes back to stereo.
00:02:43 So all of the routing
happens automatically.
00:02:45 Which makes it super-fast and convenient.
00:02:48 Because all of our tracks
in our track stack
are routed through the same Aux return
we now have a sub-mix.
00:02:55 It's common practice to do things like
route all of your drum channels
through a single Aux return
and then compress
them to glue it together.
00:03:03 To do that all we have to do
is add a compressor
to our channel-strip.
00:03:10 Now, all of the tracks that are included
in our track stack are running
through this one compressor.
00:03:15 The other type of track stack
we can create is a folder stack.
00:03:18 So, we're gonna select our Aux percussion,
Shift + Cmd + D,
and select Folder.
00:03:26 So we are able to collapse the tracks
just like in the Summing Stack
but you'll notice down in our mixer
that our main track
doesn't have all of the options
that our normal
channel-strip would have.
00:03:40 So we're missing things like Audio FX
and all of our routing stuff.
00:03:43 And all of the tracks
in our track stack
are still routed to the stereo out.
00:03:48 So this Track Stack allows us to
use track stacks
without affecting our routing.
00:03:53 We can however adjust the volume
or mute and solo these tracks.
00:03:58 I don't find myself using
this very often
except for one very specific situation
which I'm gonna show you right now.
00:04:04 So what I would do if
I opened up this project
is I would go through, and I would create
track stacks for all the
different groups of tracks.
00:04:13 And there's actually a shorter
way to create a track stack.
00:04:16 You can hit Shift + Cmd + G
and now I've created a Summing stack.
00:04:20 So I'm gonna just select the
different groups of instruments
and also my male vocals
and my female vocals.
00:04:30 And now I have a Summing Stack
for all of my different groups.
00:04:33 And I can collapse
all of my groups
by hitting Opt
and clicking on one of
the disclosure triangles
so you can see my groups.
00:04:42 And let's just name this real fast.
00:04:45 Here I have Percussion
and hit tab to go to the next track
and this is just Instruments.
00:04:52 And then we have
Male Vox
and Female Vox.
00:04:59 And if we open this back up
we can see our tracks.
00:05:03 Now, one thing you can't do
is put a Summing Stack
into a Summing Stack.
00:05:09 So, if I were to select
multiple track stacks
and right-click it, you see that
'Create track stack' is grayed out.
00:05:18 I can however
create a folder stack
by using the key command
Shift + Cmd + F.
00:05:25 And now I have
three different track stacks
buried within the folder.
00:05:29 So what I might do
is call this
Instruments
and then I'll create one
for vocals.
00:05:38 And I just like to
put a little equal sign,
so I know that it's a track stack.
00:05:43 So we can open this up
and the nice thing is
we have 39 tracks,
not including any of our
auxiliary channel-strips
but if I wanna just focus
on the male vocals, the lead vocals,
I can only see those if I want to,
without having to do things like
hide tracks or anything like that.
00:06:02 They're all just buried
within track stacks.
00:06:05 There's one other situation
where track stacks really come in handy.
00:06:08 And that's using
multiple instruments within one patch.
00:06:13 So I'm gonna create a couple
of software instrument tracks
but using the key command
Opt + Cmd + S.
00:06:18 And I'm just gonna make 3.
00:06:20 And let's open up our Library
by pressing 'Y'
and on the first one
let's load up a piano.
00:06:27 On the second we're gonna load up,
let's say,
a synthesizer, we'll go with the pad.
00:06:37 And maybe some strings on this one.
00:06:41 I think romantic strings.
00:06:43 So now that I have multiple
software instruments loaded
I can actually bury this
within a summing stack
and use them as one patch.
00:06:51 So let's select the 3 tracks,
Shift + Cmd + G.
00:06:55 And while our main track is selected
they act as one instrument.
00:07:04 And we can open up our mixer and adjust
how they blend together.
00:07:09 So let's bring down this
Fast Pad and the strings a bit.
00:07:27 And of course, I can save this patch
and use it in later projects by
going to the Library and hitting 'save'.
00:07:34 Let's call this 'Scott's Romantic Patch'.
00:07:41 And now I'll find that
in my 'user patches'.
00:07:46 And you'll actually notice that,
I'm gonna create a new
software instrument real fast,
that some of Logic's built-in instruments
are actually
track stacks
containing more than
one software instrument.
00:08:06 As you can see,
track stacks can help you out while
you're mixing by creating sub-mixes,
they can help you out while you're composing
by using multiple layered instruments
or they can just help
you organize those unruly projects.
00:08:19 Since I've started using
them in my projects
I can't imagine living without them.
00:08:24 I see you next time.
Once logged in, you will be able to read all the transcripts jump around in the video.
Scott Griffin is a producer, songwriter, and composer for artists like Kid Runner, Effee, The Saylor, and Clubhouse. He has also produced custom music for large brands such as Proctor & Gamble, The Columbus Crew Soccer Club, Walmart, Nationwide Insurance and many more.
