Midi Routing/effects, Trying out Express for the first time Options

[keybie]

I'm considering Logic Express and have played around with the 30 day demo. I've imported the Garageband demo songs so I can get to know it, and also MIDI files, but without a manual and no prior experience with DAW software I'm stuck and need some help:

1) It seems that you can only use 5 effects per track -is this true?
Someone told me that equalizing/tone controls also counts as effects, so 5 seems very limiting to me.

2) I currently don't have any MIDI interface with my Mac, but thought I'd be able to try out the MIDI capabilities of Logic by having it play Quicktime instruments and/or some sort of soft-synth like Garageband has, but I'm not getting any audio output at all. I assume I have to assign instruments/channels somewhere.
Where/how do I do this?

(I'm on a 1.67GHz PowerBook G4 with MacOS 10.4.9)

This post has been edited by keybie: Mon 9 Apr 2007, 18:20

[Jim Hoyland]

Sorry for the delay in replying, been a little snowed under at work.

The "mono / stereo / multi-channel" thing in Logic refers to the number of discreet outputs used by the audio channel / instrument. So a mono instrument only requires a single channel, stereo needs two and multi-channel will require as many as have been pre-defined in a session's multi-channel set-up (usually 5.1, 6.1 or 7.1 - that is the number of "full-range" channels plus a sub-woofer). It can get a bit confusing, but basically Logic's synths are mono-timbral and polyphonic, in that they can only play one patch at a time but allow several notes to be simultaneously played.

In terms of which audio / midi device to get, with the exception of the ProTools / Digidesign hardware requirement the field is pretty open. OSX is fairly open in terms of support for audio devices. You need to check that a device is supported by "Core Audio" which will allow communication between the operating system and the device. As you are using a PowerBook you are restricted to USB / FW devices and as a rule I would recommend sticking with FW as the constant data rate is far superior to USB (even USB 2).

Most of the devices in this bracket come with 8 ins and 8 outs, and many support expansion either thru daisy-chaining FW or by connecting other hardware digitally ( for example, many have optical "light-pipe" connections which would allow you to use an Alesis ADAT or similar to provide an additional 8 ins and outs). If your mixer has group outputs, you will be able to connect these to the Audio ins, allowing you to send any channel(s) from your mixer to any input. Whilst in theory you'll need 8 channels to connect the outputs from your audio device, in practice many (most?) people work with only a pair of outputs connected and do all their mixing within their software.

I'm going to stick my neck out and recommend that you stick with Logic, mainly because its owned by Apple and will therefore always work closely with the capabilities of your computer. In a similar vein I'd recommend that you look at the Apogee Ensemble as an Audio interface. Apogee have been working very closely with Apple on the development of both this and the Symphony system so they tie-in very nicely with both Logic and OSX. It isn't the cheapest (by a long way - £1,300!), but you also get some really sweet Apogee convertors.

For a midi interface the most important question is how many devices you need to connect. If you only want to use one keyboard as a master controller then you only really need a couple of midi inputs (it's best to have a spare in case someone turns up with some midi drum triggers or a guitar synth). You'll also need as many midi outs as you have midi devices. That said, most rack units support 8 ins and outs and they don't cost the earth. They're all pretty reliable too. I've used Unitors, AMT8s, Opcodes and MOTU units and never had any break down. The only consideration is whether you're likely to need to synchronise to something like a 24 track reel-to-reel tape machine or a pro-level video player in which case you'll need something with SMPTE, wordclock, video genlock etc. The MOTU Midi Timepiece AV is perfect for this (but expensive - £520!). Otherwise something like the MOTU midi express (£130) will be dandy.

To quickly go back to the top of this thread, your PowerBook is a really sweet machine and will be able to handle a lot of fairly complex audio tasks for a good time to come. However, as software becomes more powerful and demanding you may find it begins to creak a bit. The full version of Logic comes with a really nice reverb plug-in (Space Designer). When that came out we were forced to upgrade our single processor G4s (1st generation 450mHz) to G5s as they just couldn't cope with the additional processing. We now have a mix of MacPros and G5s that cope really well, although sometimes we need to encourage our students not to put a seperate reverb on every single track. The current range of iMacs are also very powerful and are proving popular with our students when setting up home studios. I guess what I'm trying to say is that software is always going to push the abilities of hardware, and, unless you can afford to constantly upgrade to the very latest piece of kit, you need to find a system that does what you need and stick with it, trying not to feel too envious of someone who can run 256 instances of Sculpture, render his latest home movie to DVD and carry-on a three way iChat conversation simultaneously.

This post has been edited by Jim Hoyland: Sun 15 Apr 2007, 12:35