MEANWHILE - Is it really logical?

After using Ableton Live for quite a while, I get the feeling it really isn't... But the journey is just starting! :D

Since I got back to the studio, the one piece of gear I spent more time with has been my old iMac G5.

It's actually not that surprising as it is the perfect computer to edit some of my synths, since it has a nice 20" screen, and plenty of software I need run on it natively, so no need to use Wine or some new third party editors (that most likely are just not as nice as the originals...).

Along with a bunch of nice synth editors, there is also a very cool "vintage" DAW installed in it, Logic Pro 8!

Well, I guess it's not old enough to be called "vintage" yet, but it surely looks quite different from the current Logic Pro X!

I got this old DAW second hand some years ago, complete with box, CDs and manuals, but just ended up never doing much with it...

So now it seemed like the perfect time to start giving it some use and using it along some of the synths I want to edit with that computer!

Actually, since I also have the original Korg Legacy installed in that computer (and still have the original Korg MS20ic controller for it) and Logic Pro 8 comes with a nice selection of synths and effects, I started thinking I could just try to use my Sequentix P3 to control a bunch of soft-synths in Logic and make some cool tracks that way!

It sounded like a good idea, right? 

The computer isn't that powerful (it's an old iMac G5 after all), but it still can handle 8 soft-synths playing at once plus some effects, so it sounded like a good match for the Sequentix P3!

After trying it a bit today, I can say it definitely seems like a good match, but it took me quite a while to be able to use this setup...

Unfortunately, Logic, or at least Logic Pro 8, isn't the most logical DAW available...

In Ableton Live 9, I would only have to check the MIDI settings to enable my MIDI interface and then choose which MIDI port and channels I wanted to use in each of my virtual instrument tracks.

With Logic Pro 8, it is quite different... You have the Environments that let you process the MIDI data that reaches the sequencer, but you can't send that MIDI data to a specific track...

Each of the tracks in Logic Pro 8 can have their own MIDI channel, but if you set different MIDI channels to the different tracks and start playing, all the tracks will play the same...

Why? Because someone thought it was a good idea to have a setting named "Auto demix by channel if multitrack recording", bury it in the Settings (in the Recording submenu, rather than in the MIDI submenu in Preferences...), and not have it active as the pre-defined setting... 

All you need to do is to activate that setting and you can play something different for each of the different tracks without any problems, just change the MIDI channel and it's really easy! 

If you don't, what you get is all tracks playing all the MIDI data you are sending into Logic Pro 8, and therefore, playing the same thing...

Why anyone would prefer that as the standard setting is beyond my understanding, as you could easily set everything (MIDI devices and virtual tracks) to the same MIDI channel and get the exact same result...

But unfortunately that's how it is, and it took me more than a week to find out the answer...

Sorry about the "little" rant, but I'm still a bit frustrated this took so long...

Trying to search for information online is pretty hard as most of what you find ends up being for a newer version of Logic Pro, and not for this older version...

I tried to ask around in some groups, but the best I got was a suggestion to check a particular Youtube channel (which actually helped).

I couldn't find any post about this particular problem or an equivalent one, like for instance, how to use a nice MIDI controller with a keyboard split to control 2 virtual instrument tracks at once...

I am surprised, since this seems like something I'd expect most users to be interested in doing, and I had the impression Logic always had a pretty large base of users... But doesn't seem to have translated into many (any...) posts about this...

The good thing is, the issue is fixed and I am now looking forward to explore Logic Pro 8 a bit more!

I am a bit worried it's not going to be that intuitive, as that issue wouldn't even be an issue with Ableton Live 9 (the interface is so clear you really know how to make it do what you need it to do...), but I hope it will be an interesting journey!

And if you happen to have the same issue, now you know how to fix it thanks to this post!

Actually, if that's the case, leave a comment, it will make me really happy to know I helped someone!

I hope to get something interesting to show from this "new setup" in the next days!

Until then, keep on SYNTH-ING! :D