Apple Logic Express 9 - Manual (Page 354)

In many cases, the anchor should be placed on the amplitude peaks, rather than at the
start of the sound’s attack phase. A good example is recordings of brass instruments,
which may take some time to build to a peak. Moving the anchor to these peaks forces
the region to snap to the grid of your arrangement, using the anchor as the pivot point.
The flexible zoom settings allow you to be as precise as needed, going right down to the
level of single bits, at the highest magnification factor.
As another example, to guarantee perfect synchronization between a one-bar drum loop
and MIDI regions, the anchor must be assigned to a well-defined musical point. If the
loop begins with a significant level peak (say a kick drum beat), set the anchor to the
point where the volume of that beat is at its precise peak.
Whenever you record audio or add an audio file, the anchor and region start points are
always at the beginning of the audio file. Moving the region start point also moves the
anchor, as the anchor cannot precede the region’s start position.
You can edit the anchor of a region in the Audio Bin window and Sample Editor. The
anchor is represented by a black indicator (orange in the Sample Editor) below the region
waveform.
Anchor Anchor
To move the anchor in the Sample Editor or Audio Bin window
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Grab the small indicator below the region, then move the anchor.
Any changes to the anchor point change the relative position of the audio region in the
project. Given that the start point of a region is the default position for the anchor, you
must also take care when changing the region start point.
Protecting the Anchor Point When Moving the End Position
If you move the start or end point of a region past the anchor point, the anchor point
also moves. This is often not what you want to happen.
Hold down the Option key while moving the end marker to prevent the anchor from
moving.
Note: The anchor can never be to the left of (before) the region start point, so it will move
if you drag the region start past the anchor (to the right), even with Option pressed.
354 Chapter 12 Getting to Know Regions