Hello all, Pretty new to all of this and I could do with some advice on connections. I have just purchased a Logic Gold Production Kit along with a G4 and a Roland XV5050 to which I have connected my midi keyboard. My question is how do I connect all of this together correctly, i.e. there is USB on ALL the devices. Do I connect the keyboard via USB to the EMI 6|2m, likewise with the XV5050 then the XV5050 to the G4 via USB. On the AUDIO side, am I write in saying that the audio comes out of the XV5050 in to the EMI 6|2m then down the USB cable to the G4? But this is where I start to feel a bit lost! So what happens when the G4 sends out the midi signal to the XV5050 (via USB) does the audio then go down the USB cable to the G4 and then back up again to the EMI 6|2m and out to my AMP and monitors?? If any of you good people could shed some light on this I would greatly appreciate it. Many many thanks! Steve steve@...

> My question is how do I connect all of this together correctly, i.e. > there is USB on ALL the devices. Do I connect the keyboard via USB to > the EMI 6|2m, likewise with the XV5050 then the XV5050 to the G4 via > USB. I find organizing all this stuff much easier to understand if I have a single point of entry into my computer via USB. Sure, you could plug all of your devices into the USB hub individually, and that would probably help ease congestion on any individual line (experiences, anybody?) but I've never had trouble with plugging my MIDI/Audio interface into my computer and then everything else into that. If you follow that setup (6|2 into computer, keyboard -MIDI> 6|2, 6|2 -MIDI> XV5050, XV5050 -AUDIO> 6|2, 6|2 -AUDIO> monitors/whatever), you just have to remember that the computer treats the 6|2 as two different devices, audio and midi, even though all the data is going over the same pipe and all the ports on on the same box. Keep this in mind with the following: The data path would be something like this: You press a key on the keyboard. The midi goes to the 6|2, which brings it into Logic's environment (via USB). The environment wires the incoming midi data to an environment object, usually a midi instrument or a midi bank. These environment objects can be the targets of tracks in the arrange page and can record the midi data into your song file. These objects also have a destination routing -- you'll want to rout them to the MIDI out of the 6|2 (again, via USB). Then any midi you play live to that object or any recorded sequences you play back get sent out the 6|2 to your XV5050. the XV5050 makes audio and sends it back to the 6|2. After traveling from the 6|2 over USB to the computer, the sound gets sent by Logic to the environment again, this time as audio. Because it's audio that's come from an audio interface, the environment sends it to an audio input object (that corresponds to the USB audio input of the 6|2). You can now insert effects on the audio, send it to a bus or two, "bounce" it to disk, record it to an audio track, or just pass it out to your monitors. That's all very confusing looking to a beginner, I know, but it makes a lot of sense once you get into the right mind-set. Expect that one day after reading the Logic manual for the third time and reading the LUG you'll have an "ah ha!" moment. Cheers, -Josh Emmons