leelbest

Logic Express 7.0

Hey all, I know, get an upgrade to LE 9 at least, or 9 pro. Or another title, will have to start researching. Hard times financially at present, yada yada. Getting something out the door with what I got. Working on a voice over for an audio book. I am using my LE and it seems to be more satisfying than anything else I have right now, Audacity, Garage Band. Problem is, it appears to have hosed it's self (after pages and pages have been read, with many more to go).

I would really appreciate any insight as to how to fix the problem and hopefully remain in LE for the projects duration. If nothing else, at least find a way to bounce what I have to use it again with Audacity.

I can't understand how this happened or how to fix it? OK, the prob;

I have a large voice recording, probably a half hour to an hours time. LE used to show the main window (where the tracks show up with the instrument settings to the left) with the recorded sound file as a bar as far as it went. Most of my time however has been spent in the window where I can edit the sound wave form. That window shows the audio wave and is still intact. I can click on the sound clip anywhere, hit the space bar and it all plays beautifully as it should. However, there is no sound bar showing at all in the main window. Worse, if I hit record or play from the transport bar, it sees the main window as empty so it plays nothing, or records as though there is nothing there. And, I Can't bounce or save anything out as the bounce sees a blank file as well, although it takes a very long time to bounce as it is really following the size of the recorded track but seeing apparently nothing.

I have tried selecting all and copying, and copying just a snippet to see if I could re-paste in another window. Nothing is getting this wave form out of Logics apparent ghost window.

Please, if anyone knows I could use some help with this. It looks Like I am so behind on this project already I am going to have to just jump in and do it over in a less preferable but more stable application.

Thanks if you can help at all.

Soundblaster Mp3 Keyboard

OK, I just picked up a Sounblaster MP3 keyboard. It was in a second hand store for very little money so if it doesn't work out, no real loss, it was a donation to a good cause anyway. Having said that, I need to find a manual and at least ask about midi cable advice. I have an email in to Creative as well but I am hoping I will find Mac friendly folk here that may know more about the Mac side of things.

This keyboard appears to have no battery/power hook up so I am assuming that MIDI is like USB in that it can carry current as well as data. Is this true? I have also seen threads on mac that suggest there is a midi to usb dongle which can be purchased to do this with this unit.

But, I already have a FocusRite Saffire DSP Interface and that allows me to use a "real" midi solution, as far as I know. The keyboard has a 5 pin MIDI out, which would be good enough to connect to the FocusRite Saffire Firewire Interface, "IF" this is what the keyboard needs for power as well.

The keyboard also has a game port and a midi port, which are very different looking than the round 5 pin midi port (out). This second midi port is trapezoidal and appears to use 15 pins. It is male and the game port looks just the same but is female. Both of these last two ports look like a monitor output port - well, the game port looks like a monitor output port where the "midi" is the same shape and size but is all pins (male).

Can anyone please help by pointing me to a manual and perhaps commenting on the different kinds of ports I am referring to here? And most of all, can anyone say if a round 5 wire midi cable (standard) will carry power?

Thanks

ADDED: I found the manual online. It says it is powered ONLY from a PC sound card. It says the 5 pin midi cable is for external midi controllers.. Am I out of luck here? I will borrow a midi cable tonight when I play but if that doesn't work, are there cheap cards that will work in a Mac and allow me to plug power into this board? I do have an MDD with LOTS of empty PCI slots.

BlasterKey MP3 consists of the BlasterKey MP3 MIDI keyboard and the BlasterKey
MP3 control panel software. The BlasterKey MP3 keyboard must be connected to an
audio card in your computer. The audio card should be connected to your computer
speakers or to a headphone. BlasterKey MP3 functions solely on the power supplied to
it by its connection to your audio card.

System Requirements
Your BlasterKey MP3 requires:

❑Pentium 133MHz or faster processor
❑Intel or 100% compatible motherboard chipset
❑16MB system RAM (32 MB strongly recommended)
❑ Windows 95, Windows 98 or Windows NT 4.0
❑Sound Blaster Live! audio card installed

All I want is a working Midi keyboard. I assume this will let me compose songs in Logic or transpose for music for those I sing with. I am NOT assuming the software that came with this board will do me ANY good, just the working MIDI keyboard will make me quite happy. - Merci

Boss To Saffire To Mac Le

Hey folks. Time to get learning. I got 7.0 Logic Express and worked with it till I got frustrated with the learning curve. Now taking a new try at it. First off, I am trying to see how to use my Boss DR-550 Rhythm box to send data to my mac. Never done this so maybe it is really easy? I need direction from someone who knows, please?

I have two outs on the front of the Focusrite panel filled from the Boss Stereo out put jacks (1/4"). The Focusrite is FW through a FW drive and into the Mac. Mac is a 1.25 DP G4 running 10.4.11, memory 2 Gigs.

SaffireControl software shows beats hitting the panel so it looks like it is going through. But I cant get a sound from this setup on my mac? I tried using Logic Express to record or to monitor but, no sound there either,

Sorry to be so dense but unlike many musicians, have a very limited understanding of how the tech side of this stuff really works. More of a right brains sort of guy.

Thanks very much if anyone can help.

David

Tunings

Hello, This is my first post on this forum. I am new to recording and after some study have purchased what I think should do a good job of getting out my first CD of original music - or produce a credible demo if nothing else. I bought Logic Express and after being bowled over by Garage Band's simplicity, this LE is taking no small getting used to. I am sure I will have more questions but my current one is this.

I can change the tuning of most sampled riffs in the loop browser in LE. A piano riff in C can be easily changed to a piano riff in D, etc. But, when I drag the C part to an audio track and then drag a D part from the same clip with the tuning changed from C to D in the loop browser, it reverts back to the original chord when played in LE.

I know there is a feature in LE that I assume can be turned on and off that will automatically force me not to make bad music, that is, will automatically adjust any added tracks to the same key.

Is this just on by default and I haven't learned how and when to turn it off? Or am I trying to do something that I am misunderstanding that really can not be done?

I should mention that I am starting this project with no midi or keyboards and I play guitar and sing. So I am trying to build around what I want by selecting basic bass and filler riff lines in the loops to accompany my music performance.

Thanks and I hope I managed a clear question in all of that.