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)

Ce message a été modifié par keybie - lun. 9 avril 2007, 18:20.

[Jim Hoyland]

In the screenshot you've posted (nice touch btw), the first 8 tracks are audio tracks for the playback of audio files (ie AIFF, WAV, SD2 etc). The next 8 are audio instruments which can be loaded with one of the many synths / samplers that come preloaded with Logic (we'll come back to these). The remainder of the tracks shown are midi tracks which will address an external midi device, assuming you've got one, and that its set up correctly in OSX's Audio/Midi Setup Utility.

To play back your midi files in Logic, the simplest route will be to assign each of the tracks to an Audio Instrument track. Obviously you have only 8 showing on screen at the moment, but you may have more available in your Audio Environment (click on Windows > Environment to see this). Assuming you have more Instrument tracks available, you can change an arrangement track you don't need into one you do by clicking and holding on the track name (e.g. Audio 5 in your window). A menu system will appear where you can select (for example) Audio > Audio Instruments > Audio Instrument 9. Once you have enough Instruments, you can load the soft synth you need by selecting the track in the arrange page and clicking in the top box in the I/O section of the track view (left hand side of the arrange page). A menu will appear showing the various instruments you have available. The EVP88 is a good place to start as this will preload an electric piano setup so you can get some sound from the get go. Repeat for each track as required. Of course you may not need a seperate instrument for each midi track in which case you can assign multiple tracks to the same audio instrument.

Its worth saying that Logic is a "Pro" application, very rich in features, and can take a long time to learn. It may be worth you while to get some training.

Ce message a été modifié par Jim Hoyland - jeu. 12 avril 2007, 10:06.