LOGIC NOTES

Multi Instrument Objects

Published in SOS June 2002
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Technique : Logic Notes

In the Environment, Multi Instrument objects (such as this one for a Roland 2080) let you integrate any kind of external MIDI sound source into your Logic sequencing setup. The Environment Layer selector (in this example, set to MIDI Instruments) is to be found just above the Instrument Parameters box on the left.

A crash course for new users on creating your own basic Environment setup, plus another bundle of tips to fine-tune your working methods.

When sequencers first came along, MIDI sounds were selected by telling the sequencer which MIDI port the synth was connected to, what MIDI channel it was on, what MIDI bank the sound was in and, of course, the program number of the sound. In fact, Emagic's entry-level Micrologic AV still works in pretty much this way, but, at the more serious end of the range, Logic Audio features something called the Environment.

Though potentially confusing at first, the Environment greatly simplifies the process of patch selection, not least because all the patches in all the banks of all your synths can have their names entered into the Environment, enabling them to be called up on a first-name basis. Once you've created an Environment to suit your system, you simply save it as part of your Autoload Song (this was covered in detail in Logic Notes in SOS January 2002) so that every time you open a new Song, Logic knows exactly where all your synths are connected, and how to call up all their patches.

So, how do you go about setting up Logic in the first place? First, a few words on the main Settings to be made in the program. Your first job is to set up the MIDI port and audio I/O parameters so they correspond with the hardware you're using. The MIDI Interface Communications Settings window is accessible from the Settings submenu of the main Options menu, whereas you configure your audio driver from the main Audio menu's Audio Hardware & Drivers. Note that both these Settings are global preferences, not individual Song settings. As the Logic Audio manual tells you very clearly how to set up these things, I won't dwell on them further here.

If you have a MIDI interface that isn't directly supported by Logic and you work on a Mac, you'll need to use either OMS (Opcode's Open MIDI System), which should be supplied with the MIDI interface, or, in the case of a MOTU interface, you may prefer to use FreeMIDI. If you need to work with OMS, check the box for Use OMS If Available in the MIDI Interface Communication setup section and check that you have the latest OMS drivers for your interface. They're usually available to download from the interface manufacturer's web site. Windows PC users are spared the ignominy of OMS!

To keep the Environment tidy, it is organised into Layers and you can create more Layers if you're the daring kind of person who wants to create something really elaborate. In the first instance, though, go to the MIDI Instruments Layer by selecting Open Environment from the main Windows menu and then selecting MIDI Instr from the pull-down Layer menu (the first box below the Toolbox). The Autoload Song that appears after a fresh installation of Logic (up to v4.8) contains a bunch of single Instruments, but I find it easiest to delete the lot and start from scratch. (If you're paranoid, keep a backup of the original!)

These Environment Instruments I refer to are little icons representing the physical instruments you have connected (as well as some types of soft synth, such as QuickTime Musical Instruments) and once you have entered all the details into their associated Parameters boxes, Logic will know where to send MIDI when you want to use them. I'd recommend creating a separate Multi Instrument for each physical instrument you have plugged into the system (whether it's multitimbral or not) as you can enter patch names in Multi Instruments but not in single Instruments. New Environment objects are added using the Environment Window's New menu.

Multi Instruments look like a four-by-four matrix of numbered boxes representing the 16 different MIDI channels, but if your MIDI sound module is less than 16-part multitimbral, you can leave the unwanted channels turned off so they won't keep popping up in your list of available instruments (see below). New Multi Instruments are created with their parts turned off (there's a diagonal line through each box), so just click in the boxes to turn them on. Alternatively, you can turn parts on or off and select MIDI channels/ ports via the Parameters box that appears at the left of the Environment screen when a Multi Instrument is selected with the mouse.

Colours & Icons     Logic allows you to assign a different colour and pictorial Icon to each Multi Instrument (or part thereof) via the View menu and Parameters box. The little drum kit icons are obviously appropriate for drum machines and drum parts within a Multi Instrument, plus there are also some icons named after specific synth types. After that, it's up to you whether to choose the elephant, the parrot, the gun or whatever! A plea for some more sensible icons may not go amiss here...

If you turn a part on by mistake, you'll need to untick the box to the left of the icon in the Parameters box to turn it off again. If the Parameters box doesn't appear at the left of the screen, it's because Parameters is switched off in the window's View menu. Note that you don't have to turn on all the parts in a Multi Instrument if you don't intend to use an instrument to its full multitimbral capability. For example, I have a couple of Wavestation modules, but because their polyphony is so restricted, I only activate two parts on each module so as not to clutter up my system with choices I'm never likely to make.

Though the Logic manual tells you about the different and wonderful things you can do using virtual cables, you don't need to use them to get your basic system working. You will need one Physical Input cabled to one Sequencer Input to get MIDI into Logic, but this already exists on the Click & Ports Environment Layer. You may wonder why this is necessary at all, but the theory is that more advanced users can interpose other Environment objects between the Physical Input and the Sequencer Input to do all kinds of weird and wonderful MIDI processing before the MIDI data even hits the sequencer.

The main task is to create Multi Instruments corresponding to the physical instruments you want to connect and to assign them to a MIDI output, which you can do quite easily without the need for any cabling at all. Just fill in their associated Parameters boxes and tick the Vol (MIDI volume) and Prg (MIDI program) boxes so that you automatically send the appropriate volume and patch change messages to the external synth when a track is selected or played back. Logic also has an Environment MIDI Metronome Click object that can be used as a metronome by driving an external drum module sound. There is no need to cable this object, as it has Port and Channel fields in its Parameters box from which you can choose the correct MIDI interface, output socket and MIDI channel. You only need to cable it when it needs to drive virtual instruments. Note that a MIDI Metronome Click object appears by default on the Environment's Click & Ports Layer. You could just use a plain monitor click from the computer, but a drum machine side-stick and/or hi-hat is generally nicer to work with. In my case, the object feeds an Alesis D4 drum module, but some musicians use drum samples from Emagic's EXS24 instead.

That's all for this month, but stay tuned for more practical Environment advice in next month's column.

Current Versions     * PC: Logic Audio Platinum v5.1. * Mac: Logic Audio Platinum v5.1.

Preferences & Settings     Some configuration settings reside with the program's Preference file while others are stored with your Song. Using Emagic's terminology, Preferences are global configuration details saved as part of the Preferences file, and which apply to all Songs. On the other hand, Settings are saved only within the current Song. Both Preferences and Settings are accessed from the Settings submenu of the main Options menu. Whether something is a Setting or a Preference is usually fairly cut and dried, but the audio record path, accessible from the main Audio menu, can be either — which one it is will depend on whether you select Global or Song Recording Path in the pull-down menu within the Set Audio Record Path dialogue box. Most Settings can be left at their default values, but it is important to choose the right settings for your MIDI interface and also to set whether a double-click on a recorded sequence opens the Matrix Edit, Score, Event List or Hyper Edit windows. Once changed, your new settings prevail until further changes are made — there's no need to save changes.

Logic Tips     If you're an EXS24 sampler user and need to combine two different instruments, either to layer the two sounds or to combine sample sets that have been split into note ranges, there's a dead easy way to do it. Firstly, load the instrument you want to add and open the EXS24 Instrument Editor window. Then simply use the keyboard command for Select All and copy it to the clipboard. Now you can open the instrument to which you want to add the part you've just copied, open its Instrument Editor window and paste the clipboard into place. If you want a repeated part to play until halfway through the song and then stop, you don't have to copy and paste it. Simply select On in the Loop field of the track's Parameters and the part will loop indefinitely. To make the loop stop, use the Pencil tool to insert an empty sequence object into the track at the point where you want the loop to stop playing. When you import a MIDI drum loop from a library, such as those available from Twiddly Bits, it's easy to create a Groove Template from the file so that all your other parts can be made to play with the same feel. Select the track from which you want to extract the groove, then go to the Options menu. Select Make Groove Template from the Groove Templates submenu. Your new Groove Template will then show up in the quantise options.