Using Folders

Folders let you group many Arrange window Objects into one tight unit that you can edit just like any Audio or MIDI Region. In essence, a folder is a Region that contains other Regions in much the same way a folder in your computer's Finder can contain other folders. Video editors familiar with Apple Final Cut Pro might like to think of a folder as a nested sequence for Audio and MIDI Regions. Basically, a folder is a way to create a song within a song.

Folders provide a great way to group similar Objects together, such as the Audio Regions that make up this song's beat. It's therefore often beneficial to pack all the Objects that make up a chorus into a single folder, and all the Objects that make up a verse into a single folder, and so on. Once the folders are packed, you have only to arrange folders in the Arrange window, and the song is done.

1.	Press CmdA to select all of the Audio Regions in the Arrange window.
2.	Working in the Arrange window's local menu bar, choose Region > Folder > Pack Folder (CmdF). Logic packs all of the selected Audio Regions into a folder one bar long.
3.	Press the spacebar to start playback. You can hear the beat, so where are the Regions?
4.	Grab the Arrow tool and double-click the Folder Object. Logic opens a lowerlevel Arrange window to display the Objects in the folder. Notice that this Arrange window has only three tracksthe three tracks you packed into the folder. In essence, this folder now shows a song within a song, and the new song has its own Arrange window one level down from the main Arrange window. You can now edit these tracks and the Objects they contain just as you'd edit tracks in the main Arrange window.
5.	To get back to the main Arrange window, do one of the following: Double-click anywhere on the background of the lowerlevel Arrange window. Click the Levelup button in the top left corner of the lowerlevel Arrange window. The main Arrange window comes back and displays the packed folder.

Working with Tracks and Folders

With the folder packed, you have a few empty tracks still populating the main Arrange windowspecifically, the Kick, Snare, and HH tracks. These tracks have already been added to the folder and are now just taking up space in the main Arrange window, so let's delete them.

1.	In the main Arrange window, select the Kick track.
2.	Press the Delete key. The Kick track is deleted.
3.	Delete the Snare and HH tracks. Only the folder is left in the Arrange window.
4.	Press the spacebar to play the song. The audio in the folder still plays, even though there are no Audio Regions or tracks displayed in the Arrange window.
5.	Press the spacebar to stop playback.

Unpacking Folders

There may come a point in time when you need to unpack the folder to rearrange your song. This process is just as easy as packing the folder in the first place. Let's try it.

1.	In the Arrange window, make sure that the folder is selected.
2.	From the Arrange window's local menu bar, choose Region > Folder > Unpack Folder (Create New Tracks), or press ShiftCmdF. Logic unpacks each Audio Region to its own track in the Arrange window. You now know how to unpack folders. However, we want these Audio Regions to be packed in a folder. So let's repack the folder and delete those extra tracks one more time.
3.	Press CmdA to select all of the Audio Regions in the Arrange window.
4.	Choose Region > Folder > Pack Folder (CmdF).
5.	From the main Arrange window, delete the Kick, HH, and Snare tracks.