Below you can find known accessibility issues on Logic for VoiceOver users.
This webpage is not associated with Apple any way. This is simply to track of issues that VoiceOver users discover while using Logic Pro.
If you find more issues, please comment below. It will be added to the list when verified.
Version: Logic Pro X 10.7.5
You can’t find name of inserted plugins in mixer
As you navigate through insert slots in mixer panel (shortcut x), it just says “audio plugin group”. However, in inspector, it does say the name of inserted plugin if it’s in full screen.
Workaround in mixer window (command-2): full screen with command+control+f
Can’t bring up track alternative popup menu after creating a new alternative
If you 1) press VO+space on track alternative and choose new, 2) go back and press vo+space on the track alternative, it does not bring up the popup menu anymore.
Cannot distinguish channel strip type
In mixer, tracks header, and inspector, VO cannot tell if a channel strip is an instrument, aux, audio, and so on. VO users should hear their names along with their types when navigating across mixer/tracks area.
You can only adjust by an extremely small amount for some plugin parameters.
This behavior varies from plugin to plugin, but you can frequently encounter in third party plugins. For example, slide might adjust only 0.1% at a time. This means you have to press vo+right 1,000 times to adjust from 0 to 100.
VoiceOver has two commands to adjust sliders: regular (vo+right/left) and finer (vo+shift+left/right). It would be great to be able to adjust 1% at a time with regular adjustment command, an 0.1% with finer adjustment command. Then you can hold down vo+right to go from 0 to 100 in 10 seconds instead of waiting 100 seconds.
Inconsistent plugin bypass status
When a plugin is active, VO correctly reports “Bypass unchecked” in inspector, but it says “Bypass checked” in the plugin window. It should say “Bypass checked” when plugin is inactive, not active.
Bypass status in mixer
The state of bypass checkbox in mixer panel always indicates as checked even if it’s unchecked. However, when strips are fully visible, it does work correctly.
Cannot search all UI elements with Item chooser in plugin window
When you open a plugin with many parameters such as Alchemy and switch a plugin window to control view, you cannot find all the parameters with vo+f. Also item chooser vo+i does not display all the parameters. Also, the item chooser takes extremely long when opening inside a plugin with many parameters. VO users are forced to go through hundreds of items inside the table just to locate a parameter and turn off a feature in certain cases. It is crucial to let VO users to quickly locate specific item by searching.
Cannot tell which tracks/regions are selected
It would be great if it says “selected region/track name” if selected or just “region/track name” when not selected. Also it would be great to be able to toggle the selection by simply pressing vo+space on region/track.
Workaround: use multi selection with vo+command+return.
Distracting playhead announcement
It is great to announce the playhead location when you move the playhead with key commands like rewind/fast forward. However, it is very distracting to hear playhead position whenever you play/stop especially when you try to do fine audio editing such as finding syllable from vocal track, attack of instrument, and so on. It makes it hard to pinpoint exact audio spot when VO keeps chattering playhead position against audio playback. Perhaps it could be a setting that you can toggle in preference > general > accessibility to mute playhead announcement when play/pause/stop.
Can’t adjust key limit and velocity limit in inspector.
Once you interact with a slider, VO can only change the lower limit. There should be two seperat sliders for lower and upper limit.
Workaround: double mouse click with vo+shift+space, type low limit, press space, type high limit, and press return. Mouse click with VO might not work if the item you’re trying to click is off screen.
VO Cursor gets bootted out of position Column in event list
Whenever you change position column of an event in event list, VO cursor get booted out of the control. This forces VO users to keep interacting with the slider in order to make further adjustment.
Workarounds: 1) lock mouse with vo+shift+space, adjust, unlock mouse with vo+shift+space. 2) Double click with vo+shift+space and type a full position. Mouse click with VO might not work if the item you’re trying to click is off screen.
Cannot edit zones in Multisampler
In EXS24, VO users were able to edit zones, group, and many properties in edit window. However, it’s not possible with VoiceOver in Multisampler.
Cannot access midi environment
In midi environment window, there are many unlabeled UI elements inside environment contents group.
Can’t edit flex pitch/time markers
Even though we can enable flex time/pitch and apply to a track. VO users have very limited capability of editing them. It would be nice to have key commands to move to next/previous, nudge, create, and delete flex marker with keyboard.
Cannot confirm selection with audio
There should be a key command for logic to play to selection end and stop. Sshift+space plays from the selection, but you cannot confirm where the selection ends by listening. You can move to selection end with control+end, but it would be nice to be able to confirm with audio as well.
Cannot access global tracks
Some of them (tempo, signature, and marker) have list view, but other global tracks such as arrangement have no other workaround.
Cannot locate automation control consistently
After pressing “a to show automation” in track header, VO can get to the automation enable button only when approaching from left to right, and “show region based automation” can be reached only when VO approached from right to left.
Cannot find track Selection Count
When multiple tracks are selected, it would be nice to indicate how many tracks are selected in the track inspector same as how it appears for region inspector.
Cannot adjust project start marker
VO cannot adjust project start marker in the ruler. It simply appears as a button instead of a slider.
Strange values for punch and Locators in Control Toolbar LCD display
Punch in/out left/right locator in control toolbar have “000” front of actual value. If it is bar 1 beat 1 division 1 tic 1, it should just read “1 1 1 1” instead of “000 1 1 1 1 “.
Cannot access performance meter in Control Toolbar
Performance meter in LCD display is not accessible when you check it from customize control bar and display setting.
Wrong announcement in HMS Playhead in Control Toolbar
When you change hour/minute/second of playhead in control toolbar LCD display with VO cursor, it sometimes reads MBT position instead of HMS. Logic wants to announce MBT as playhead moves, and VO wants to announce the value of the slider. Two announcements are fighting each other.
VO reads “send button button.”
In inspector, send control has the word “button” in label, so it says “button” twice once from label again from role type. It says “send button button.”
Some controls always have the word “off”
Group, VCA, Volume in both mixer and inspector always have the word “Off” in the beginning.
When pressing command+s, VO says nothing
VO should say “save” to confirm the action like how it does for copy and cut.
When pressing control+i to toggle input monitor, VO says nothing
It should announce the on/off status like solo/mute.
Keyboard Focus gets stuck on text edit fields
When VO cursor lands on a text field such as track/region name, the keyboard focus sometimes stays there even though you stop interact and go somewhere else. This causes users to edit the name when pressing x to open mixer, e for open editor, and so on. You can easily end up with track name xe by mistake.
Minimize keyboard interaction to trigger a loop cell
Now, you have to interact with a cell/scene and press play/trigger in order to trigger the cell. Playing live loop requires time sensitive interaction, so minimizing number of keyboard interaction is crucial.
Live loop Cell should indicates playing status
Now cell says “selected looping, play/stop”, and you have to interact with it in order to check it’s playback status. It would be nice to be able to tell if a cell is playing or not without interacting with it.
Plugin window name should have plugin name
Plugin window only has name of the track. It would be nice to have name of the plugin in the window name as well. Especially this would be very helpful for automation script to identify which plugin window is open.
Input, plugin, send, output should have clearer label
Some of the controls only have value. It would be nicer if it had label as well as value. For example, if output of channel strip is assigned to a bus 1, it just says “bus 1 button”. It would be nice to say “bus 1, output button”. It is Same for input, send, insert, and so on. If assign “input 1” as value, “input” as label, and “popup button” as role, it should say “Input 1 input popup button”. If assign “Channel eq” as value, “Plugin” as label, “group” as role. Then it should say “Channel EQ Plugin Group”. If assign “Bus 1” as value, “Send” as label, “group” as role, it should say “bus 1 send group”.
Fixed
Inconsistent status of Record enable in track header
When you check record enable for an audio track, VO reports the status as checked depending on when the indicator is flashing. This causes VO to report sometimes checked sometimes unchecked even though the track is record enabled. If it’s record enabled, VO should always report as checked.
Track alternative control is not visible to VO
VO cannot find track alternative control after you check track alternative from track header components.
Cannot assign a track as a groove track
In track header, VO can tell which one is groove track, but you cannot reassign another track as the groove track with VO.
When pressing control+r, it doesn’t speak the status
It should say on or off status just like how VO now announces mute and solo status when pressing m or s.
When toggling Switch controls, VO announces old state
When pressing vo+space on controls identified as switch (Mute, Solo, Record, Monitor in mixer and inspector), VO announces old state instead of new state. The checkboxes in track header don’t have this problem. It now reports as on off switch instead of checkbox.