Classical music editing (maybe a plugin?)

Question

Hello,
I am a classical musician who has used a variety of audio programs for professional editing for commercial CD release of recorded classical music, but for more general teaching needs, I've started using Logic (just downloaded Logic X, but still have Logic 9). 
In this world, we look for an application that allows precision edits.  The work involves starting with a 3-4 hour multi-track recording session (this for about 10-15 minutes of music). During the session, every passage is played perfectly somewhere. As an editor, I string together regions chosen from around the session recording, with customizable crossfades. Logic can do all of this, but what I miss is the ability to do precision "nudging" of any and all region boundaries at any time.
The best such program for stereo only, 15 years ago, was called Sound Designer II, which worked on a playlist principle. Sound Designer was bought by Digidesign, who retired it when Mac moved from OS9 to OSX, forcing classical music editors to move to ProTools (or something else). One other program, a mastering program from TC Works, looked very much like SDII, and it lasted only a couple of years into the OSX time before it was dropped.  Other programs, each with their proponents, have come and gone.
What made Sound Designer and TC Works so wonderful was something we called a "nudge box."  I wonder if such a thing could be made as a plugin for Logic?  I know some classical editors who use Logic, but it has surprising limitations, which cost us a LOT of time.  For me the biggest thing: There is region boundary nudging, but only for the region ending, not the region beginning, nor for shared boundaries.  Region beginnings and shared boundaries can be adjusted only with mouse dragging. I hoped for an improvement in the new Logic release, but it didn't happen.  When I was a ProTools user, I could do all those kinds of nudges, but it was ungainly in other ways, and I HATED the proprietary plugins, the need constantly for a dongle, and the upgrades that made plugins and expensive hardware obsolete. I don't expect Avid to make things any better...
For the tracks being assembled (with all the carefully chosen regions), the nudge box in SDII and the TC Works program would show the wave for a region end (let's call it region A), a bar to represent the region end, a bar to represent the next region beginning (region B), a wave for the beginning and end of that region, a bar to represent Region B's end, a bar to represent the next region's beginning (C), and finally, the beginning of the wave for region C.
Like this:
A | | B | | C
Above were pre-roll and post-roll controls.  Below were two play buttons, one for A into B, one for B into C, according to pre-post roll amounts.  The boundary bars were selectable, individually or in groups.  There was a pair of nudge buttons (left/right) with a place to enter a nudge amount setting (in milliseconds).  Pressing the button would shorten or lengthen any region by the nudge amount according to which border bars were selected.  At each border bar pair, you could select a crossfade type (equal power, X, or any combination of fast/slow in with fast/slow out) and a cross fade length (again in milliseconds).  Finally, there was a button to advance through the regions, from ABC to BCD (then CDE, etc. to the end of the track).
With access to such a box -- and, of course, these all things that are controllable in Logic -- classical editors initially piece together a recording, but spend most of their time fine tuning the places where regions meet, with no need for mouse dragging.  In a typical 10-15 minute piece of music, there could be 50-100 regions, each ranging in length from a minute to less than a second.
There is no program I know of that has this kind of nudge box now.  Further, what never happened, to my knowledge, was applying this kind of interface to more than a stereo track.  In the old days, classical sessions were either recording to stereo (mixed down on the spot), or mixed down before editing. Now, typically, the final mix down happens during mastering, after the edits are done.
Is it possible for a plug in to replicate this kind of editing control in Logic Pro X, but for multiple tracks (say, applied to a track stack)?  If so, I know a LOT of people, including me, who would pay handsomely for it.  It would save us folks hours and hours of work on each project, providing an ideal workflow for this particular task.
If anyone knows a plugin writer who might be interested in corresponding further with me on this topic, please write to me at:
[email protected]
If I am incorrect in anything I've said about Logic's capabilities, please let me know.  The program is deep and rich, and beyond classical music editing, I'm am very pleased with it, and just scratching the surface. In classical music editing, I can get it to do what I need it to do, but am unable to find a comfortable and efficient workflow.  I'd love some advice about this.
Thank you very much,
David Froom

Answer 1

Hi David, although I can't provide any solutions you're not already aware of, I was wondering if you have tried to use the Junction pointer to Roll edit outgoing- versus incoming-takes?
I've given up hope a long time ago for a stereo editor in Logic 'alla' this mastering program from TC Works. Instead of that I've adapted my workflow to suit Logic's edit capacities. And lets face it, even the clumsiest editor app outperforms razor blade/ scissor editing in now a days. I fully agree with what you are saying though! Having had my share of complex classical music editing of all sorts in Logic, withstanding scrutiny of even the most critical (british) producers, I can say that I can accomplish just about any classical music editing task in this very program. And about efficiency……..well, thats a different kind of story.
Have a nice day!