#229: Finish Songs Faster with These Logic Pro Workflow Tips

Logic Pro workflow tips can dramatically speed up music production, and in this episode of Inside The Mix, Marc Matthews breaks down seven practical Logic Pro tweaks that remove friction and help producers finish more music, faster.

Designed for beginner to intermediate Logic Pro users, this episode tackles a common frustration: slow sessions that kill creativity. Marc explains why workflow, not plugins, CPU power, or inspiration, is usually the real bottleneck in Logic Pro music production.

Listeners learn how to restore creative flow with MIDI Chase, ensuring sustained notes always trigger when playback starts mid-phrase. Marc then shows how to assign a third tool to the right mouse button so essential edits like Gain or Scissors are always one click away. Visual organisation comes next, with auto-colouring tracks, regions, and markers to make large sessions readable at a glance.

Timing and arrangement get a boost using Groove Track and Flex, aligning stacked vocals quickly while keeping performances natural. Marc also shares overlooked Logic Pro workflow tips for routing, like instantly revealing the correct aux, and using marker shortcuts to navigate song structure without breaking momentum. The episode wraps with a powerful creative trick: converting Flex Pitch data to MIDI to generate new musical ideas directly from audio.

Each tip is explained clearly, with real-world examples and a focus on repeatable systems you can build into your templates.

TL;DR

Slow Logic Pro sessions aren’t about plugins or CPU, they’re about workflow friction. Marc Matthews shares 7 beginner-friendly Logic Pro workflow tips that speed up editing, organisation, timing, routing, and creative decision-making so you can stay in flow and finish more music, faster.

Subscribe to Inside The Mix for more Logic Pro workflow deep dives, and share which tip sped up your sessions the most.

Chapters

• 0:00 Why You Feel Slow In Logic
• 0:46 Seven Tips Overview And Goals
• 2:02 Tip 1: MIDI Chase For Mid-Note Starts
• 3:49 Tip 2: Assign A Third Tool
• 5:09 Tip 3: Auto Colour For Clarity
• 7:19 Tip 4: Groove Track For Timing
• 10:20 Tip 5: Find Aux Sends Fast
• 11:12 Tip 6: Marker Shortcuts That Map Songs
• 12:28 Tip 7: Create MIDI From Audio
• 14:13 Takeaways, Next Steps, And CTA

Transcript

Marc Matthews: 0:00

So it could be said that some Logic Pro users think they're slow because they need better plugins or a faster computer. But the real problem, they're fighting their door, not using it properly. In this episode of Inside the Mix, I'm sharing seven Logic Pro workflow tips that will speed up your sessions immediately without changing your setup or buying anything new. You're listening to the Inside the Mix podcast with your host, Mark Matthews. Welcome to Inside the Mix, your go-to podcast for music creation and production. Whether you're crafting your first track or refining your mixing skills, join me each week for expert interviews, practical tutorials, and insights to help you level up your music and smash it in the music industry. Let's dive in. Hey folks, welcome to Inside the Mix, the show focused on practical production workflows and real-world advice for producers and artists. So a big welcome to any new listeners, and of course a big welcome back to returning listeners. As I mentioned in my opening gambit, this is an episode about my top seven Logic Pro workflow tips or my top seven workflow tips of 2026. I think I did a top three for 2025. So I kind of do it every year because I find new interesting tips and tricks and techniques in Logic Pro every year. So the reason I'm doing this is because I keep seeing producers waste creative energy clicking through menus and fixing problems that logic already solved. So by the end of this episode, you'll walk away with faster MIDI and audio editing, cleaner, more organized sessions, and fewer interruptions to your creative workflow. So if you've ever felt like logic slows you down instead of helping you, this episode is for you. So you might be thinking, well, Mark, why does this matter? Well, it matters because when producers constantly stop to fix technical issues, it breaks momentum. And this happens to me all the time. And momentum is everything when creativity hits, as we well know. So we're focusing on small logic pro tweaks that remove friction so you can stay in the creative zone longer and most importantly finish tracks faster. Logic Pro workflow tip number one MIDI chase. Trigger notes mid-note. So what it solves, missing sustained notes during playback, and why it matters? No more rewinding to hear chords or a single note properly. So here's how you achieve this in Logic Pro. I'm in Logic and I've got this lovely chord progression using the studio piano, and it sounds like this. Okay, and if I stop it there and I press play, it won't trigger a MIDI note. It won't trigger the chord, it will trigger the next chord because it's halfway through the chord sequence, it's halfway through the notes themselves. So there will be a bit of a gap. There'll be a bit of silence because I'm going to press play, but it won't trigger the chord that it's halfway through, it will trigger the next chord. So apologies for the silence. You'll get what I mean. There we are. But if I now put it back to where it was halfway through the chord and I go to File, Project Settings, and MIDI. Now if I click on chase and then I click on notes, okay, so I've done that, and now if I press play, there you go. You can hear it started halfway through the note. It didn't sound great, but it certainly started halfway through the chords, rather. Well, I guess it's still the note, halfway through the chords. So to enable this, you go to file, project settings, MIDI, and then it's chase, and then it's notes. To summarize, enable MIDI chase. So logic picks up notes even if playback starts mid-note or mid-chord. Never rewind just to hear MIDI again. Logic Pro workflow tip number two is the third tool. So what it solves, constant tool switching of Y masses, faster editing without breaking flow. So we're going to assign a third tool. So your most used edit is always one click away. By default in Logic, I've got my pointer tool, which is my left click tool, I've got my marquee tool, which is my command click tool, but I've got a third tool here, which I've enabled, which is my right click tool, which is the gain tool. Now to enable this, you go to Logic Pro Settings and then click General, and then you've got right mouse button, and I've got it set to is assignable to a tool. Now you can change this to open tool menu, opens shortcut menu, or opens tool and shortcut menu. But I've got is assignable to a tool, and I use that for the gain tool. So again, you go to logic pro, you go to settings, so logic pro and then settings and then general, and you've got right mouse button is assignable to a tool, and I've got it set to the gain tool. So I've my setup is left click is the pointer tool, the command click is the marquee tool, and the right click tool is the gain tool. There we are. So you can now reduce clicks and stay focused. Logic Pro workflow tip number three auto color tracks in ascending order. What it solves, visual clutter. I'm all about organization, and why it matters. Faster navigation and session clarity. Let logic automatically color tracks so your sessions are readable at a glance. So how do we do this in Logic? The reason I use this in Logic is so that when I drag audio files into a project, it automatically colours them for me in ascending. I say ascending order, it kind of colours it from top to bottom in different colours and it just makes it look visually appealing. And I find that works best for me in my creativity. I like things to be organized and I like things to be colored appropriately. So if I go to Logic Pro and I go to settings and I go to view, and what you can then do is you click on tracks, and here you've got appearance. So track color, I've got set to auto-assign 24 colors, which is fine for me. And then I've got region color as track color and marker color is auto-assign 24 colors. Every time I create a new marker, it's going to assign a new color to that marker. Again, speeding up that workflow, I'm not having to worry about color coding my markers. It's already done for me. And the same when I import a track as well. And then the region is going to take on that track color. It's all about speeding up that workflow and speeding up that organization so I can be more creative. Again, to do that, you go to Logic Pro Settings, View, and then Tracks. And then it's under appearance. So in short, let Logic automatically color track so your sessions are more readable. Your eyes should work less, not more. Logic Pro workflow tip number four, groove track, time aligned vocals or instruments. Now, this is something I started using this year, and I use it for time aligning vocals. Now, of course, we've got tools like Vocalign, which are inherently, I think, better. However, Logic does have its own version. I say version, its own interpretation of time aligning instruments. And again, I use this pretty much only on vocals. So what it solves, timing inconsistencies, why it matters, faster tightening without manual edits. We're going to use groove track to align vocals naturally. There's a few more steps to get this working in Logic Pro compared to the other workflow tips I've mentioned so far. First things first, right-click on a track and go to track header components and make sure groove track is enabled. There should be a tick next to it. So make sure that's enabled. Then the track or audio you want to be your guide track. In this instance, I always I'm using a uh a vocal track. You want to then, where is it where you've got the track number? If you hover around there, you'll be able you'll see a uh a star, a yellow star appear. And it says set track as groove track. So I click on that, and then all the other tracks after it, or any other tracks really, audio regions, you've got this blue tick that you can then add and remove. So anywhere where the blue tick doesn't exist, next to the track number, you can see it says match groove track if you hover over the checkbox. And then if you tick that and then look at the audio, you'll see it snaps to time with your guide track. Tips here make sure specifically with vocals here, you've got the flex tool enabled. You want flex enabled on the track, and then set it to monophonic, and then it will snap in time with your guide track, your groove track. Now, top tip, don't leave it there, folks. Don't think, well, done, I can move on. Go in and check the markers because you probably need to pull a few in and out because it's not going to be perfect, but it's a great place to start. So to summarize, right click on the track, track header components, groove track. Make sure your groove track has been time aligned. So you're probably gonna have to go and manually edit it so it's aligned correctly. Select it as your groove track next to the track number. If you hover there, you'll see it says set as groove track, and then check the box of the tracks you want to then align to the groove track. Make sure they're monophonic, and you've also got flex enabled on those tracks. And remember, you are not done there. Go in and check those flex markers and make sure they're in the right place, as you'll probably get a few weird artifacts in there and some odd stretches. But again, it's a good place to start. It will take some time and experience to get good at using groove track and pick out those anomalies and artifacts that will inherently happen that you can then go in and fix, but it's a good place to start, as I mentioned. So use groove track to align vocals or instruments naturally and let Logic Pro do the heavy lifting. Logic Pro workflow tip number five is to shift-click an auxiliary send, a send channel to reveal that channel. What it solves hunting for an auxiliary send and why it matters, faster mixed decisions. Now I like to label my aux sends so I know what they are. So I can look at a channel and I can see exactly what that auxiliary send is going, that send is going to, what auxiliary channel it's going to. However, I have received projects where the sends are just numbers and they're on multiple sends. And I'm thinking, well, where is that going? And a really quick way of finding out where that send is going. When you've got the actual mixer window open, if you shift-click on an auxiliary send on a track on a channel, it then highlights the auxiliary send that is going to. And it makes it so much easier to identify. Say, for example, I've got auxiliary send labeled number 23, and there are 23 aug sends, and I'm thinking, okay, well, I quickly want to identify that one. Or maybe it's labeled something totally differently altogether. I can just shift-click and logic will, it's got this flashing white box around it, and it highlights it for me, and I can automatically see it. And it just speeds up that process. I'm not having to scroll through all my aug sends to find the auxiliary send I'm after. So shift-click on auxiliary send and logic pro will highlight that send for you. So find routing instantly. Logic Pro workflow tip number six marker creation and navigation shortcuts. So what it solves, losing song structure, and why it matters, faster arranging and revisions. I use these marker shortcuts all the time, and it makes the mapping of a reference track so much quicker in Logic Pro. And basically, if you press Option Apostrophe, it will create a marker. And then if you press Shift, then period, it will jump eight bars. And then I can press Option Apostrophe and create another marker. And then shift period, jump forward another eight bars, option apostrophe. And then to navigate between the different markers I have here. If I press option comma, I can go left and it will jump to the next marker to the left. And if I press option period, it will then jump to the right. So to summarize, option apostrophe to create a marker, option period to move right to the next marker, option comma to move left to the next marker to the left. And then if I press shift, comma, it will jump eight bars to the left. And if I press shift period, it will jump eight bars to the right. Infinitely speeds up the marker, creation, and navigation process. There we have it. Navigate your track like a map using marker keyboard shortcuts. Logic Pro workflow tip number seven, the final one. Create MIDI track from audio region. What it solves, rebuilding melodies manually and why it matters, fast idea extraction. I use this particular feature all the time and I use it on uncomplicated material, something like a basic drum loop or maybe a bass part or something like that where I like the progression, but I want to use my own sounds. Or if I have a particular melody that I like, but I'm feeling lazy and I can't be bothered to work it out by ear. I often use this to help me do that. And I'm converting an audio region into MIDI. So to do this, there's a few steps. I've selected the track and I've enabled flex, the flex tool feature on this. Then what you're going to want to do is select flex pitch from the drop down for that track. And if you press E on the keyboard, it will open the track window at the bottom. And what you then want to do is this. You go to edit and click create MIDI track from flex pitch data. And what it will do is it will create a new software instrument track at the bottom, and it will have the MIDI notes taken from that flex pitch data from that audio in terms of the note itself, timing, and also velocity. It's not perfect by any means, but it's a good place to start. And then you can replace the default software instrument with one of your choosing. To summarize, on the track that you want to translate into MIDI, make sure flex is enabled, select flex pitch, hit E on the keyboard, then go to edit, create MIDI track from Flex Pitch Data. And that's it, folks. Those are my seven Logic Pro workflow tips of 2026. So, my task for you. What's your most used Logic Pro shortcut or workflow trick? Send me a message using the link in the episode description, and I'll feature it in a future episode. And this week, try one of these tips that I've just gone through, but don't overwhelm yourself. And if you've enjoyed this episode, check out episode 191. Every Logic Pro user should know these hidden tools. Do you? Featuring Justin Hachella of the Face Your Ears podcast. Here's the big takeaway. Workflow improvements don't come from massive changes, do they? They come from removing small points of friction. So master a few Logic Pro features like the ones I've been through today, and everything else gets easier. And don't forget to grab my free weekly tips using the link in the episode description. No fluff, just once a week I'll ping you an email with some useful tips and tricks and other bits and pieces. No spam, folks, no spams. Click the link in the episode description and get on that email list. Until next time, keep creating, keep mixing, and join me in the next episode.