General project settings in Logic Pro for Mac

When Enable Complete Features is selected in Advanced settings, you can use the musical grid setting to determine the view option for the ruler and whether or not tempo information is written into recorded audio files.

• Use musical grid checkbox: Sets the primary ruler to bars and beats, and tempo information is recorded into audio files. If deselected, the ruler is set to time, and tempo information is not recorded into audio files. Both settings have an independent nudge value with bars and beats set to Division and time set to 1 frame as a default.

  Tip: In general, you don’t need a musical grid in the primary ruler for non-musical projects (for example, spoken word) or for projects containing music that aren’t referenced to the bar grid. If you’re working on a project recorded against the bar grid and you want to show time in the Tracks area, consider using the secondary ruler to show time in addition to the primary ruler showing the musical grid. To learn more about the primary and secondary rulers, see Position items using the ruler.

• Only load plug-ins needed for project playback checkbox: When selected, only plug-ins needed to enable the full signal flow for playback (including auxes, busses, and outputs) are loaded when a project is opened. This includes:

  • The focused track

  • Audio tracks containing audio regions (not including frozen tracks)

  • Software instrument tracks containing MIDI regions, pattern regions, or Session Player regions (not including frozen tracks)

  • Audio tracks with input monitoring active

  • Audio and software instrument tracks with plug-ins that automatically generate sound without requiring any input

  • Any other tracks required for the complete signal flow

  Plug-ins on tracks that are not required for project playback are dimmed, indicating that they are currently inactive.

  After you open a project, all inactive plug-ins on a channel strip load any time you:

  • Select a track or channel strip with inactive plug-ins.

  • Add a region to a track with inactive plug-ins.

  • Unfreeze a frozen track.

  • Add a plug-in to a channel strip with inactive plug-ins.

  • Click an inactive plug-in.

  • Click the empty plug-in slot on an inactive channel strip, then choose “Activate Plug-ins” from the pop-up menu.

  • Click the EQ display or gain reduction meter on a channel strip with inactive plug-ins.

  • Add an additional output to a multi-output software instrument on a channel strip with inactive plug-ins.

  • Record enable one or more channel strips with inactive plug-ins.

  • Use selection-based processing on a channel strip with inactive plug-ins.

  • Set or change an input on an audio or aux channel strip with inactive plug-ins.

  Note: Inactive plug-ins do not load for tracks that are turned off.

  Loading only the plug-ins as needed can be a significant time-saver when opening complex projects with a large number of tracks and plug-ins, only some of which are used. It also more efficiently allocates your computer’s resources, which can help guard against audio dropouts or other glitches.

  To learn more about opening projects, see Open projects. To learn more about working with plug-ins, see Plug-ins overview.

• Reset record enable state of Software Instrument tracks checkbox: When selected, all Record Enable buttons that were active when closing a project are inactive when opening the project again.

• Region automation takes priority over track automation checkbox: When selected, track automation is suspended between the region start and end, if the region contains automation data for the same parameter. It’s on by default in new projects—and off by default in projects created in older Logic versions.

• Use preset parameter value for regions without region automation (if no track automation is present) checkbox: If selected, the parameter value you set in the channel strip or plug-in is applied to all regions that don’t have automation data for that parameter. If deselected, the final parameter value of the preceding region with automation data is used for regions without automation data.