Losing MIDI on count-in in Logic Pro

Question

Here's the scenario. I'm recording a MIDI part in Logic Pro (say, a keyboard part) and as I'm playing I make a mistake. No problem. I stop recording, move the playhead to where I want to start recording over again, set a count-in to something comfortable like 2 bars so I can hit record and get my hands in position, and then when I get to the bar where I had set my playhead, I start to play.

But Logic is stupid and for some reason considers my 'count-in' region live, so there's 2 bars of silence, which completely overlaps and replaces my previous take. So I just destroyed 2 bars of a good take and this is completely unacceptable.

What Logic doesn't seem to understand is it's a "count in". It's supposed to punch in where the playhead was, otherwise what's the point of a count-in? I could have just put my playhead 2 bars earlier if that's what I wanted to erase.

"Use punch-in or autopunch" you say. No, that's not right - I mean, yeah if I just want to fix a mistake for a fixed number of bars. But I don't need to punch OUT - I just want to keep going and not think about how long the song is going to be or have to fuss with out points or project length markers.

I'm sure there are outrageous workarounds like multiple tracks, take folders etc. That's all just inefficient and adding cruft to a very simple workflow. All I want it: count-in to not record MIDI data, or at least, to not replace the midi data under it so I can at least go back and adjust my region borders after the fact.

I would even settle for allowing count-in to record MIDI data so long as i could come back and then drag the start of that new region to where my playing ACTUALLY started and not lose the MIDI data that was "under" that two bar lead-in. But I have been playing with the recording preferences for hours now (hence the frustrated tone of my post - apologies folks) and haven't hit on the combo that will allow me to do even this.

Answer 1

I use Logic Pro and haven't run into this but... I think I know a solution! In Logic Pro preferences, go to recording. Make sure you have your Midi cycle on and off set to Merge and not overlap!

Answer 2

Well, this is one (of the many) quirks of LPX that I'm just going to have to work around and accept, given the breadth of the software (and its price point).

In case anyone else finds this, here is how I now record MIDI performances in this type of scenario:

1. I'll record a section using takes, and then if I want to keep a portion of that take and start recording with a count-in, I'll

2. shorten/trim the recently recorded region to exclude the end of the track that I don't want to keep.

3. Then I'll duplicate the track with the same settings (there's an easy right-click command for that). This duplicates the track without duplicating the region.

4. Then I make sure count-in is OFF and

5. manually set the start point to 1 or 2 bars ahead of where I want to record the new MIDI data.

6. If I mess up later and want to repeat this process, in order to conserve tracks (and my sanity)

7. I'll select both regions and choose Join (CMD-J), which pulls up the second region into the first track and merges them.

8. This frees up that second track to then record into again, using the same process as 4-7.

The workflow isn't horrible. It's silly that it has to be this way, but it's not too odious.