Locking/protecting environment values ?

Question

The manual recommends that you never assign two audio objects to the same channel.
Wow... I did that by accident today, and it's horribly confusing. I created two channel strips assigned to the same output track, and it's a mess--you get two channel strips with different names, so they look like two different objects in the track mixer, but they're effectively the same object. Any changes to one of the objects (fader, pan, insert, etc.) take effect on both objects.
I can't think of a reason why anyone would ever want this behavior. Maybe someone else can ? Actually, I don't really understand what is to be gained by having an adjustable channel assignment for a track object, anyway. Is there some power here that I'm not seeing ? Would Logic lose functionality if it forced all track objects to be assigned to unique channels ?
I'm new to Logic, so I'm looking for any tips in how to avoid shooting myself in the foot with arrange tracks, audio objects, and output channels.
As best I can tell, once I create a track assigned to an audio object, I am almost never going to want to change that audio object assignment. And I can't see why I would EVER want to change the output channel assigned to a track object.
Is there some way to lock these settings so they aren't easily changed by an errant mouse click in the arrange window ? I want to leave the object parameters visible so I can change the instrument name easily, but having those object and channel settings immediately available to be changed seems like a problem waiting to happen. If either of those settings gets changed to match another arrange track, I'm likely to have what are effectively overlapping regions, so I'll stop hearing regions that are still visible in the arrange window.
Is there any way to lock these settings so they can't be screwed up once they're set ?
Alternatively, is there any way to get Logic to identify audio objects that are incorrectly assigned to the same output channel ? And is there any way to get Logic to identify audio regions that aren't literally "overlapping" on the same arrange track, but are nevertheless still effectively "overlapping" because they're assigned to the same audio object ? I'd like to be confident that everything I see in the arrange window is actually going to play, and it seems like there are a bunch of ways this can go wrong.
I'm new to Logic, and I'm still getting a feel for the workflow--thanks for any tips!
James
[email protected]
Dual 1.25 G4   Mac OS X (10.4.8)  

Answer 1

I was also wondering if it made sense to rename the
environment object, or just add a track name. It
seems
like it will be less confusing to keep the
environment
object as created: Audio 1, Audio 2, Instrument 1,
Instrument 2.
That's the way I like it, but other tastes differ. I
like to know on what and where I'm putting my audio,
but I have seen other people not care about this -
they just find a free track, regardless of where it
is and of they go.
Interesting--my concern is that since the output channels can still be changed easily, the default instrument names (Audio 1, Audio 2, etc.) seem less useful to me. i.e. your object might be called "Audio 1," but that doesn't necessarily bear any relation to anything physical inside or outside the computer. Maybe I'm not conscientious enough about managing my tracks, but the way I see it, I really shouldnly RELY on the instrument names to reflect channel assignments if this is something that I (or any musician touching the computer during a break...) can easily screw up. I'm leaning toward naming the objects with typical track names ("Lead VOX," etc.), especially since that gives me meaningful audio file naming without the need for separate track names (Use Audio Object Name for File Name).
But, the saving grace in all of this for me may be "Create Multiple..."
"Create Multiple" does exactly what I WISH "Create with Next Instrument" would do (too bad the names are ambiguous): "Create Multiple" creates a new track (or several) with an unused instrument--it grabs an object out of the Environment if one exists, and it creates a new object if the Environment doesn't have one. Perfect! ("Create with Next Instrument" may or may not assign an unused instrument--that's not very useful in my opinion... seems to me that when you need a new track, you very clearly want either a used instrument or an unused instrument--you don't want uncertainty, or to have to reference the Environment to see what instruments exist...)
Anyway, since I found I can set the default inputs and outputs for objects in the "Audio Configuration," I'm thinking maybe there isn't much point in having extra objects in the Environment at all. Just use "Create Multiple" to create a new track, and you automatically get a new, unused output object. Simple. And the "Create" command works great when you want a new "take" for an existing instrument.
As a new user to Logic, I was left with the impression that the "right" way to work is to create enough objects in the Environment to handle most expected work. But for audio and instrument tracks, personally, I'm thinking it's WAY less confusing just to use "Create Multiple" to create tracks and objects only as I need them, rather than to start with a "big job" environment as created by the Setup Assistant.
Hey, this frustrated me for a while, and I found a solution that is working for me, so I thought I'd share, in case anyone else finds it useful.
There is one problem, though--I haven't figured out how to control which Environment layer gets the objects made by "Create Multiple"... I'll post a separate question about that.
Thanks for all the advice, Bee Jay, and iSchwartz!
James
[email protected]