Logic , Midi Question

[Nilsefix]

Hey! I am playing in a band called Secret Rivals of Lama . Its an electronic orchestra hehe .. and the thing is , that lately we have gotten quite a few cool gigs . And before we had any gigs we didn't really think of what we would do live , since its pretty much all midi
and we did some gigs and it was fine , but i really want to be able to have 2 different softsynths playing at once in logic. I have one keyboard connected via an Edirol UM1 midi interface , and another one wich is a midi synth i got with my wonderful Korg Legacy Collection (usb) ...

so i searched my logic manual , but didnt find any help , so here goes nothing : Can someone help me ,so me and my friend can play each our synth at once with one pc\logic running .. ? it would be the best in the world..

Thanks
Nilsefix

[Andywanders]

This is fron the Logic User Group FAQ at Yahoo...

How do I play multiple softsynths simultaneously?

I. With Logic 5.x and up (having the I/O plug-in):

For those of you who have wanted to be able to play/layer multiple softsynths live, this is the procedure:

Macintosh:

Create a neutral object, like a Monitor, in the Environment, and cable it to all the Audio Instruments you want to play simultaneously. Select the Monitor, and check its Icon checkbox in the parameter pane (left side of window).

Insert the I/O Plugin on each Audio Instrument except the one to which you cabled first. Set an Input and Output on each I/O Plugin (i.e. don't leave I/O at the default "---" settings), and finally bypass the plugin.

Assign the Monitor to an Arrange track, and hit Play or Record and play your multiple softsynths in realtime. Note: Logic has to be playing for this to work -- in Stop mode, nothing happens.

Windows:

The same instructions as above, except for #2 above: you need to place the I/O Plugin on all Audio Instruments, including the first one.

This procedure also allows you to change AI tracks while playing without any audio glitches or cutouts. If you want to get deeper into the environment, you can create splits, layers, etc. with transformers and channel splitters.

There are a couple of catches:

Logic must be in Play or Record for this to work. If you're looking for non-stop performance, just running Logic in a short cycle will do the trick.
Keeping synths "live" like this has a heavier CPU load than simply normal playback, so be forewarned.

Note: There has been some controversy on the LUG regarding #2 above. Some people claim that on Macs the 1st Instrument should also have the I/O plug-in inserted, while others claim that it doesn't make a difference whether you give the 1st Instrument an I/O plug-in or not. Then yet others said that the Windows and Mac instructions should be swapped. Somehow the thread died out before the controversy was resolved. You should try this out for yourself: if you notice that the 1st instrument doesn't play "in sync" with the others, simply try to insert or remove the I/O plug-in from the first instrument.

[jones-y]

Logic 7 can play multiple softsynths without having to jump through hoops. Details in the manual.

[Nilsefix]

i dont have 7 only 5.5
but to the first post :

THANK YOU!!!!!!!! i will check it out!
wow . this is great

but it really seems like i cant play one VSTi with one keyboard ,and another with another keyboard. but i will check it out!
Nilsefix

[jones-y]

i dont have 7 only 5.5
but to the first post :

THANK YOU!!!!!!!! i will check it out!
wow . this is great

but it really seems like i cant play one VSTi with one keyboard ,and another with another keyboard. but i will check it out!
Nilsefix

Sorry to hear. You must be PC based (I know you have an extra $3000 burning a hole in your pocket )

Anyhow, I've heard the success stories about this technique, but that FAQ is missing a one vital piece of info, if you want to play them individually from keyboard zones, as opposed to layering them in one big super-patch:

For each Audio instrument track, select a unique MIDI channel in the Parameter box. The MIDI channel that your keyboard transmits chooses the VST (or AU in my case) to trigger. From there, its easy to set up keyboard splits on your controller, or even two or more controllers with keyboard splits.

That means, if your PC can handle it, you can play up to 16 VST's at once.

[Beardedone]

If you are on a PC then forget Logic and look into Brainspawn Forte. It is designd for live SoftSynth performance and will host as many as your cpu ad RAM can handle. www.brainspawn.com

[Sascha Franck]

You could also split the incoming MIDI signal straight at the "physical in" object, in case you're using multiple MIDI ins, then proceed as described.
In case you're using only one MIDI in, the method mjones described is the way to go.

One thing to mention though: As ALL Logic versions prior to L7 have to be in play/record mode to get away with this workaround, you need to make sure you're not cycling too much (preferably not at all) because sustain pedal messages will be cut off on cycle jumps.