A friend of mine is trying to take Logic on the road. What he want to be able to do is to use different softsynths and change between them without actually touching the computer. Does anybody have any experiences/ideas how this is best achieved. Henrik hkc@...

Treat the laptop like a MIDI multi-instrument. Set up a Logic song with the softsynths activated then use some Environment magic to route incoming MIDI data to them, one per channel. Then he can use any competent MIDI keyboard controller to set up splits, layers, and send program changes while he's playing. To be extra-clever he can assign control mappings also in his Environment to control other parameters. He should also know what he plans to do if the laptop crashes during a performance ;) rijstafel > A friend of mine is trying to take Logic on the road. What he want to be able to do is to use different softsynths and change between them without actually touching the computer. Does anybody have any experiences/ideas how this is best achieved.

Thoughts from the mind of rijstafel, 03-03-2002: >>A friend of mine is trying to take Logic on the road. What he want >>to be able to do is to use different softsynths and change between >>them without actually touching the computer. Does anybody have any >>experiences/ideas how this is best achieved. > >Treat the laptop like a MIDI multi-instrument. Set up a Logic song >with the softsynths activated then use some Environment magic to >route incoming MIDI data to them, one per channel. My guess would be that the "environment magic" part is precisely the core of the original question :-) The problem will probably be that a VSTi track will only sound if it's selected. So you want a way of remotely selecting a different track. Fortunately the commands "Select next track" and "Select previous track" are available as key commands, so you can assign MIDI Remote commands to them: 1. In the keycommands window, enable "MIDI remote" (and leave it enabled afterwards) 2. Press "Learn MIDI" 3. Look up "Select next track" in the keycommands window. 4. Send the preferred MIDI command from the master keyboard 5. Repeat 3-4 for the "Select previous track" command 6. Deselect "Learn MIDI" 7. Close the keycommands window Now pressing the master keyboard button (or whatever) should let Logic jump to the next track. So if your VSTi's are on tracks 1-4, all instruments can be reached by a few keypresses on the master keyboard. Tricks like remotely controlling a Cable Switcher to send MIDI to the various VSTi's will probably not work since VSTi's don't function properly when they're not selected (i.e. the active THRU instrument). That's the same problem as when you want to split your keyboard over 2 VSTi's -- just won't work. Therefore this track-selection kludge seems to me to be the only feasible workaround. In order for this to work your master keybaord has to have a way of sending a specific midi message that you don't use for anything else. I.e. some controller or something like that. A low note on the keyboard will also work, except that you then probably will hear the note being played. Pitchbend doesn't seem to work (weird...). What does work is modulation: set the "next track" command to controller 1, value "off", and set "previous track" to controller 1, value "on". Experiment to see what it does. -- Hendrik Jan Veenstra <h@...> Omega Art: http://www.ision.nl/users/h/index.html

These are good ideas but I think he is thinking more about being able to address the different softsynth by changing midi channels on his master keyboard. Is there a way to make Logic only respond to the incoming midichannel number. If that´s possible he will be able to address the different instruments just by changing midichannels. It must be possible since this is in many ways exactly what the logic control thing is supposed to do I just can´t see how it´s done without changing the tracks in arrange. Henrik hkc@... ----- Original Message ----- From: "Hendrik Jan Veenstra" <h@...> To: <logic-users@yahoogroups.com> Sent: Monday, March 04, 2002 9:20 AM Subject: [LUG] Re: LAWP Live Setup > Thoughts from the mind of rijstafel, 03-03-2002: > > >>A friend of mine is trying to take Logic on the road. What he want > >>to be able to do is to use different softsynths and change between > >>them without actually touching the computer. Does anybody have any > >>experiences/ideas how this is best achieved. > > > >Treat the laptop like a MIDI multi-instrument. Set up a Logic song > >with the softsynths activated then use some Environment magic to > >route incoming MIDI data to them, one per channel. > > My guess would be that the "environment magic" part is precisely the > core of the original question :-) > > The problem will probably be that a VSTi track will only sound if > it's selected. So you want a way of remotely selecting a different > track. Fortunately the commands "Select next track" and "Select > previous track" are available as key commands, so you can assign MIDI > Remote commands to them: > > 1. In the keycommands window, enable "MIDI remote" (and leave it > enabled afterwards) > 2. Press "Learn MIDI" > 3. Look up "Select next track" in the keycommands window. > 4. Send the preferred MIDI command from the master keyboard > 5. Repeat 3-4 for the "Select previous track" command > 6. Deselect "Learn MIDI" > 7. Close the keycommands window > > Now pressing the master keyboard button (or whatever) should let > Logic jump to the next track. So if your VSTi's are on tracks 1-4, > all instruments can be reached by a few keypresses on the master > keyboard. > > Tricks like remotely controlling a Cable Switcher to send MIDI to the > various VSTi's will probably not work since VSTi's don't function > properly when they're not selected (i.e. the active THRU instrument). > That's the same problem as when you want to split your keyboard over > 2 VSTi's -- just won't work. Therefore this track-selection kludge > seems to me to be the only feasible workaround. > > In order for this to work your master keybaord has to have a way of > sending a specific midi message that you don't use for anything else. > I.e. some controller or something like that. A low note on the > keyboard will also work, except that you then probably will hear the > note being played. Pitchbend doesn't seem to work (weird...). What > does work is modulation: set the "next track" command to controller > 1, value "off", and set "previous track" to controller 1, value "on". > Experiment to see what it does.

> A friend of mine is trying to take Logic on the road. What he > want to be able to do is to use different softsynths and change > between them without actually touching the computer. How about a channel splitter routed to the necessary instrument objects? Your friend could just change midi channels. There may be some internal problems with latency with this method. I know that has been the case with other environment objects and soft synths. I suppose you could map midi event to the key command to 'arrange next track' (or whatever the down arrow is usually assigned). If they have the memory to have all the instruments they need open at once they that might be a quick fix too. Regards, Nathan ___ Nathan Rosenberg music production The Doghouse NYC www.doghouseNYC.com

Sadly you´re right, there is quite serious latency issues with this method. This is one of the things that may improve a lot with 5.0 though so that could be the way to handle it. Henrik hkc@... ----- Original Message ----- From: "the Doghouse NYC" <nat@...> To: <logic-users@yahoogroups.com> Sent: Monday, March 04, 2002 3:50 AM Subject: RE: [LUG] LAWP Live Setup > > > A friend of mine is trying to take Logic on the road. What he > > want to be able to do is to use different softsynths and change > > between them without actually touching the computer. > > How about a channel splitter routed to the necessary instrument objects? > Your friend could just change midi channels. There may be some internal > problems with latency with this method. I know that has been the case with > other environment objects and soft synths. > > I suppose you could map midi event to the key command to 'arrange next > track' (or whatever the down arrow is usually assigned). If they have the > memory to have all the instruments they need open at once they that might be > a quick fix too.

Thoughts from the mind of HKC, 04-03-2002: >These are good ideas but I think he is thinking more about being able to >address the different softsynth by changing midi channels on his master >keyboard. Is there a way to make Logic only respond to the incoming >midichannel number. If that´s possible he will be able to address the >different instruments just by changing midichannels. It must be possible >since this is in many ways exactly what the logic control thing is supposed >to do I just can´t see how it´s done without changing the tracks in arrange. You'll still have the problem that a VSTi won't respond properly to incoming MIDI when its track is not currently selected. Of course you can connect a channel splitter to the Physical Input object, and then cable its various outputs to different VSTi's, but I'm afraid that this just won't work for the above reason. Now it might be possible to make some environment patch that selects a particular track based on the channel of the incoming midi data -- *that* would solve the problem of course. However, this will be tricky. Suppose tracks 1-4 contain VSTi's that are to be controlled by midi channel 1-4. When switching from channel 1 to e.g. channel 3, the only way to select the proper track is to send 2 consecutive "select next track" commands (i.e. 2 times "arrow down"), whereas switching from channel *2* to 3 would only require *one* "next track" command. Etc. Not completely straightforward... -- Hendrik Jan Veenstra <h@...> Omega Art: http://www.ision.nl/users/h/index.html

Wondering how well the Digigram VX Pocket card works with Logic on a Powerbook. How about latency? Problems? Highlights? Any info would be great thanks! Don