Recording 2 MIDI keyboards

deadphish1,
I have a help file and Logic files showing how to do this. If you want to have a copy, send an email to:
mmturner
(a T)
mindspring
(D -- o ----- T)
com

Mitch

BeeJay wrote:Turn on File > Project Settings > Recording > “Auto demix by channel if
multitrack recording"

Ensure your two transmit keyboards are sending on different MIDI channels.

Set the MID channels of each audio instrument track to match the channels of whichever keyboard you want to play which part.

Shift-click the record buttons of both the audio instrument tracks."

BeeJay , I would have sworn that this is all that used to be necessary but I was at a clients house a few days ago who wanted to be able to play the drum sounds from his V-Drums and everything else from his Kurzweil in L8.0.1 and it was not working, so here it what I had to do:

1. In the Environment, I created a Channel Splitter.

2. On the Physical Input I removed the cable from the Sum to the Sequencer Input and cabled the Sum to the Channel Splitter. I then drew a cable from midi channel 10 on the Channel Splitter to his drum sources, in this case Ultrabeat and Battery 2, both assigned to midi channel 10.

3. I then cabled the Sum from the Channel Splltter to the Sequencer Input.

Now the V-Drums played his drum sources and the Kurzweil everything else.

Yep, the hardcore users will be able to rig up other ways of doing it, but these have gotchas that new users might get stumped by, so I don't suggest them.

Cabling directly from the physical is fine but them might break when the MIDI interfaces change.

The simplest way is to use the multiplayer record feature.

The reason it probably didn't work for you is the one part that often stumps new users - you have to set the MIDI channel on the channel object, because it's this that matches with the incoming MIDI for Logic to channel it there. In other words, if you hadn't set the channel object to MIDI channel 10, Logic wouldn't be able to route channel 10 events to that audio instrument.

BeeJay, c'mon, I am a Certified Trainer, do you really think I missed something as basic as midi channel assignment?

Here is what I did:

1. I enabled the option for Auto Demix etc.

2. I assigned the Channel Strip with Ultrabeat to midi channel 10 and set the V-Drums to transmit on midi channel 10.

3. I assigned his Piano sound channel strip to mid channel 1 and had his Kurzweil transmit on midi channel 1.

4. I shift selected both in the Arrange Window and armed them.

I played the Kurzweil and I heard both piano and drums. He played the V-Drums and we heard both.

So that is when I went into the Environment and did the Channel Splitter thing.

I know Jay, but we all do silly things once in a while... 😉

I was just saying it was a possibility/probability (not being there and knowing what you did) - as you've said no, you explicitly set it, then that's different, of course.

I'll rig up a similar scenario and see whether I can replicate would you saw...

Please do. If you get it to work there all I can conclude is that his template was buggy and the Auto Demix thing was not working properly.

Ok, just checked, and it works fine here.

One thing to note though is that sometimes Logic gets fooled around if you select different tracks while setting this up, so if you don't get the two instruments controlling the respective instruments, record-disable them, select the first track, and re-shift-enable them - this reinitialises the code that distributes the MIDI events to the various tracks/instruments.

(Or, to use my new word of the month, "futz" around until it works.)

So perhaps it was that that was biting you maybe?

But as I said, this aside, the multiplayer record works fine here, I have two keyboards on different transmit channels, the first playing an EFM1 on channel 1, and the second playing an EFM1 on channel 10, and it works as expected...

BeeJay wrote: Re: Recording 2 MIDI keyboards
Posted: Jan 5, 2008 9:19 AM

"Ok, just checked, and it works fine here.

One thing to note though is that sometimes Logic gets fooled around if you select different tracks while setting this up, so if you don't get the two instruments controlling the respective instruments, record-disable them, select the first track, and re-shift-enable them - this reinitialises the code that distributes the MIDI events to the various tracks/instruments.

(Or, to use my new word of the month, "futz" around until it works.)

So perhaps it was that that was biting you maybe?

But as I said, this aside, the multiplayer record works fine here, I have two keyboards on different transmit channels, the first playing an EFM1 on channel 1, and the second playing an EFM1 on channel 10, and it works as expected..."

Thanks, BeeJay. I guess that's possible but my money is still on his having a buggy template. I will be back there next week probably so I will try it again.

But my Channel Splitter solution is still a good way to go I think as once it is set up in your template, it is setup permanently so if you have a controller like V-Drums that you want to transmit on i.e. midi channel 10 and play only sounds receiving on midi channel 10, it is pretty much idiot proof.

Does it happen taht the midi data get on both tracks ...
I do not really like the way Logic handles multiple-midi ....

Aramis52

Hi, I'm new here and just wanted to clarify this:

If I'm understanding this correctly, that in setting each midi keyboard to transmit on it's own channel, lets say keyboard 1 transmit on channel 1 and keyboard 2 transmit on channel 2 and set each Instrument object's midi channel to 1 and 2 respectively.

It seems as though Instrument 2 now can only record 2-16? Can I record on Instrument 1 channel 2?
In other words, with this configuration it seems as though you cannot record 16 channels of each Instrument?

Sorry for the ignorance, but the Logic theory is quite different and until you get a grip on it, it doesn't feel Logical... 🙂 Thanks!

The idea for different transmit channels is to distribute incoming MIDI events to the instrument object you want.

If you manage to be playing 16 parts/channels worth of data at once, and still want a seperate keyboard playing 16 channels of data, then... you've got alot of hands(!)

What is it you are trying to do?

Hi Bee Jay,

I guess what I'm asking is can both keyboards record 16 channels per board without overlapping and playing each other?...

Logic has a 16-channel bottleneck when the data hits the sequencer, I'm afraid, so the most you can do simultaneously is 16-channels, irrespective of the port the data is coming in from (the port data is discarded after the physical input object).

Bee Jay, Thanks!

While chewing on a fortune cookie the concept hit me and for now seems clear
on the track/channel issue...

Just switching over from DP, the entire setup process of Logic is vastly different.
After reading many posts and threads, hats off to you! 😉

in LS8 there is something called the ENVIRONMENT
Menu Window -- Envoirement or Apple+8
for details take the big black book from page 857.
on page 868 you'll find the MIDI Signal Path in the Envoirement.
in that place you can visual connect your midi streams.