Using two different MIDI ports at the same time? HELP!! :-)

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Level 1

17 points

Using two different MIDI ports at the same time? HELP!! :-)

Hey everyone,

I've just switched over to Logic from Cubase and for the most part I love it...
But I've hit a snag with trying to set up various different INPUT ports for the various MIDI devices I run (two synths and Roland V-drums)...

What I am trying to do is simply record two musicians' MIDI data at the same time... one player on keyboards (coming IN through *Port A(in)* and going out through *Port A(out)*), and another player on drums - recording to a different MIDI track with different ports selected (Roland V-drums coming IN through *Port D(in)* and going back out through *Port D(out)*.
This lets me record two players at once, as MIDI data... each onto their own MIDI track.

At the moment, Logic will let me record two MIDI tracks at once, and assign the MIDI OUT ports to A and D respectively. However, the incoming MIDI signals from the keyboard and the V-drums just gets *mixed together*, and then sent off to ports A and D as a combination of both player's playing ... sounding of course like a jumble of sound!

Without a way to choose incoming MIDI ports for each MIDI track, in other words to say "MIDI track X will record and MIDI playing coming from Port A, and MIDI track Y will record playing coming in from Port B", there is no way to record two MIDI devices at once.

I had a look on the some other posts on this forum, this link suggests that other people want to do what I am trying to do and that in fact there is NO WAY to selecting incoming ports for MIDI. Apparently whatever MIDI data is coming in, from ANY connected MIDI device, is ALL summed together and transmitted to whatever MIDI OUT PORT is selected in individual track listings... here's the link... http://discussions.apple.com/search.jspa?q=midi%20in%20ports&objID=f1201&dateRan ge=last90days&forumID=1201&rankBy=10001&threadID=1910518

What is amazing is that this was SO easy to do in Cubase... each MIDI track's inspector column on the left has two drop down boxes... MIDI port IN and MIDI port OUT. Simple!

If anyone can shed light on this I would be stoked, as everything else about Logic is perfect!!

Cheers,
Mike

iMac 2.4GHz, Mac OS X (10.5.6), Logic Pro 8

Posted on Mar 1, 2009 9:15 AM

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Answer 1

Mar 1, 2009 9:25 AM in response to yeloop

yeloop wrote:
What is amazing is that this was SO easy to do in Cubase... each MIDI track's inspector column on the left has two drop down boxes... MIDI port IN and MIDI port OUT. Simple!

If anyone can shed light on this I would be stoked, as everything else about Logic is perfect!!

Cheers,
Mike

Hi,
Logic cannot recognize more than one Midi port as source (except for the Logic Control or other controllers)

the only way is:
using different MIDI incoming channels

So: only 16 Channel can be recorded simultaneosly by using song setting recording preferences

G

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Answer 2

yeloop Author

Level 1

17 points

Mar 1, 2009 2:33 PM in response to Community User

Hi There,

Thanks so much for the quick reply!

Sounds like there is a solution to this issue afterall, which is great.

I have another question though - how do I determine which incoming MIDI channel is sent to which MIDI track that is recording, when I am recording multiple MIDI channels at the same time?

Thanks again,
Mike

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Answer 3

Mar 1, 2009 3:07 PM in response to yeloop

That is automatically done by responding midi instrument.. When you go to record, have drum machine/player sending on MIDI 10, and the keyboard players output is MIDI 5. So you end up with a midi event list consisting of events on channel 5 and 10.

Set your drums to respond to only MIDI channel 10, and keyboards to MIDI 5. Each instrument will respond properly.

After you have recorded the midi performance, you can split by midi channel and assign that to the proper instrument, so that your session looks more 'logical', and will be easier to ascertain what is going on, for another engineer, of if you want to work on the file months later.

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Answer 4

yeloop Author

Level 1

17 points

Mar 3, 2009 2:42 PM in response to Mark Styles

Hi again

Thanks for your reply - really appreciate that.

I've come up against another roadblock with this though... even though I can separate incoming MIDI by channel, it still recording all the MIDI together.

I see that there is a "separate by channel" option for MIDI data, but it seems like a rather round-about way of recording two MIDI parts... inputting them through different channels on each MIDI instrument, recording them into one MIDI file, and then having to split that file...

Is there any way to separate the MIDI channels onto their own tracks as they come in to Logic?

Cheers
Mike

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Answer 5

Bee Jay

Level 6

10,900 points

Mar 3, 2009 3:23 PM in response to yeloop

Yes, you need to enable multipplayer record mode, as described on page 382 in the manual (yes, I have the page number memorised...)

Logic then distributes events in real time to record-enabled tracks based on MIDI channel, so you can play up to 16 instruments independently.

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Answer 6

Apr 2, 2009 2:10 PM in response to Community User

Can this be possibly done in the Environment Window? I really, really hate the fact that Logic doesn't segregate different MIDI ports.

Has anyone tried to hardcode this using the Enviornment Window?

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Answer 7

yeloop Author

Level 1

17 points

Apr 2, 2009 8:40 PM in response to J-MacBook

If anyone has done that, it would be brilliant.

I am still finding it fiddly and overly complicated to do it this way, when all Logic needs is a drop down box for every MIDI track that says "MIDI IN PORT A" or "MIDI IN PORT B"... etc...

SO SIMPLE! How have they overlooked this?

This is the one (and only, actually) area where they could do worse than taking a leaf out of Cubase's book, which just has a simple MIDI-in port drop down menu for every MIDI channel...

If there IS a way in the environment to set something up for each physical MIDI port, I would love to hear about it...

Cheers,
Mike

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Answer 8

Fred B

Level 3

575 points

Apr 3, 2009 2:06 AM in response to yeloop

yeloop wrote:
If there IS a way in the environment to set something up for each physical MIDI port, I would love to hear about it...

I believe there is no general solution using the environment. If you just want to play the instruments, you can cable individual ports from 'physical input' directly to the corresponding instrument channel strips. But for recording the MIDI must also be routed in some way to the sequencer..

Bee Jay, as an environment expert can you please comment on this?

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Answer 9

Apr 4, 2009 8:26 AM in response to yeloop

Ok, Ok, I just recorded a DVD yesterday and sat down at Logic and gave the multiple MIDI recording one more try.....Ok guys actually it's not that bad! I'm
coming around Bee Jay (Seeing we have passed heated discussions about this topic). Ok here is what you would do in a live scenerio if you need to switch live. Mind you, I don't play keyboard sounds anymore, I only use Loicig and Mainstage Live to record. So it's pretty simple:

1. Do as fermusic said by Auto Demuxing to be able to record. The trick is to enable more than one virtual instrument.
2. Just pick 3-4 virtual instruments and choose different Channels.
3. Make sure you arm them ALL
4. Now on your keyboard go to your Song Mode, Sequencer Mode,Pattern mode, or whatever mode you use on your keyboard to record sequences on your keyboard.
5. Now all you have to do is select each channel. So if you armmed a EVP on channel 2 of Logic, just simple go to channel 2 and so on.

It's actually a very fast way to switch between instruments live...Actually even faster than Mainstage.

Now for you Motif users you have a special treat with with Master Mode. You can actually set zones on the Motif so that one half of the keyboard can transmit on one channel and the other half of the keyboard can transmit on a different MIDI channel.

Or...Simply hit Pattern or Song Mode on the Motif and select the channel buttons and you can switch between recording different racks or at the same time.

So...It's not so bad as I thought.

PS: For those of you who want to play sounds from your keyboard, then you just have to program your keyboard's sequencer sounds. Requires some planning...

So...Not so bad!

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Answer 10

Apr 4, 2009 8:32 AM in response to yeloop

I do agree yeloop with you! All of the other DAW's I've used, which include DP, Sonar, both have a pulldown menu where you can select specific ports. Would be much easier Agreed.

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Answer 11

Jun 27, 2009 6:39 PM in response to J-MacBook

Hey all - looks like a lot of midi knowledge here. I just put up a post which is driving me nuts! Let me know if you have any thoughts. Thanks

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2060629&stqc=true

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