Logic and two synths via MIDI problems

thermionic · October 2022

My previous adventures in MIDI have been running an Alesis SR-16 drum machine off a 5-pin MIDI cable plugged into an audio interface and running that off Logic. Everything worked fine and I thought I understood how MIDI worked.

Now I have two synths (a Mininova and a Monologue) plugged into my iMac via USB. To keep things simple I have set one to MIDI channel 1 and the other to MIDI channel 2. My audio interface also has MIDI I/O but I don’t use that at the moment. What I’ve been trying to do is open a Logic project but set some previous soft synth parts to trigger one of the two external synths via the appropriate MIDI channel. Most of the time I get silence, but sometimes one of them works. If Logic is running I can’t seem to play either synth manually (both are plugged in to a mixer and into monitors), but even stranger, sometimes when I play the Monologue’s keyboard it generates sound from the Mininova as well… but not the other way around. If I quit Logic both synths work as expected.

Am I doing something really basic wrong here?

octatonic · October 2022

Which version of Logic are you using?
For a long time Logic had a peculiarity where all midi inputs were summed to the track you were currently on in the Arrange page.

That has changed in recent versions but you do need to be specific about where you send midi ins and midis outs.

Make the Logic sessions file available to me and I can see what is wrong.

If you are using two separate midi synths you will not usually have to set them to different midi channels- that is useful when you are chaining devices using midi out/thru.
If you have discrete USB connections they are on different midi ports so no need to change the midi channel on the device, usually.

thermionic · October 2022

It's 10.4.8, which is the newest version my ancient iMac can run.

I am going to experiment more with a fresh project, powering down one synth at a time, and see if I can narrow it down.

Dave8 · October 2022

I think setting the connections up in the OS helped this before for me

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/audio-midi-setup/ams875bae1e0/mac

thermionic · December 2022

I’m still not getting any luck with this! Sometimes I can quit Logic, restart, and it will work… then the sound stops for some reason. I set up a simple song with a drum pattern and a midi track with some notes playing an external instrument. I can select which synth it goes to, change midi channels etc., but they won’t play the notes. This is what I have:

https://i.imgur.com/XgGr0jA.jpg

If I change from external instrument to one of Logic’s soft synths of course it plays the notes as expected.

I tried audio/midi setup and it just shows the devices. The Tascam Model 12 has midi but I’m not using it, both synths are connected via USB (so I can access the sound librarians). When I first did this years ago on a simpler setup I think I could draw “cables” between the midi interface and drum machine, now the devices show up but I can’t connect them:

https://i.imgur.com/D5OQg58.jpg

I’m just trying to do something very simple here and it’s annoying that it doesn’t work. Have I missed something basic here?

octatonic · December 2022

octatonic said:

Make the Logic sessions file available to me and I can see what is wrong.

^^^

You don't need to connect them in Audio Midi setup, because you are doing it in Logic.
If the Mac can see the midi devices then it should work providing you have midi channels set correctly in the devices.
If you are using USB to connect the devices then you don't need to change the midi channel.

You only need to specify midi channel when you are daisy chaining midi devices, ie

Mac Midi Out -> Monologue Midi In
Monologue Mido Out/Thru -> Mini Nova

Try setting up the Main Window in Logic like this:

Image: https://scontent-lhr8-2.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/319329597_3037239623242624_1599082842683109181_n.jpg?stp=cp6_dst-jpg&_nc_cat=102&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=730e14&_nc_ohc=5fX5M-uQIQAAX_-_Rn5&tn=dl_i86z7EEbRSzW7&_nc_ht=scontent-lhr8-2.xx&oh=00_AfAvbi9pZbh_klxIEibxbUBQM_HM6_kFaTcRfvqSWrrgQw&oe=639BE69E

Setting the Midi out port for each of the midi instruments to their respective ports, channel All (This is key)
Setting the Audio input channels ot whatever you have them connected to,
Report back.

octatonic · December 2022

thermionic said:

I’m still not getting any luck with this! Sometimes I can quit Logic, restart, and it will work… then the sound stops for some reason. I set up a simple song with a drum pattern and a midi track with some notes playing an external instrument. I can select which synth it goes to, change midi channels etc., but they won’t play the notes. This is what I have:

https://i.imgur.com/XgGr0jA.jpg

Hold on, why haven't you specified an audio input on the external instrument?

With how you have that set it is sending midi out, but the audio input needs to be set, because you haven't specified an input.
External instrument does basically what I suggested in my screenshot above, but in one channel.

External Instrument is not audio over midi, in case you were not aware.

thermionic · December 2022

I haven’t specified an audio input because I don’t need to record them at the moment, I just want to experiment while one synth plays a programmed bass line. I just want Logic to send the notes to the synth and Iisten to the audio from the synth output which goes in to a mixer channel then to my monitors.

Do I need to set up an input channel just to hear it? When I had a drum machine I just had Logic play the notes, monitor the audio from the drum machine, then when I was happy with the part I’d record it the audio.

octatonic · December 2022

thermionic said:

I haven’t specified an audio input because I don’t need to record them at the moment, I just want to experiment while one synth plays a programmed bass line. I just want Logic to send the notes to the synth and Iisten to the audio from the synth output which goes in to a mixer channel then to my monitors.

Do I need to set up an input channel just to hear it? When I had a drum machine I just had Logic play the notes, monitor the audio from the drum machine, then when I was happy with the part I’d record it the audio.

So you need to monitor it in some way, which it sounds like you are doing.
But then, why use an external instrument, rather than just a midi track that you send to an external source?

Like I showed above.

Also, send me the logic session- I can probably figure out what is going on here but not without the session.

It could be a configuration issue, or a midi driver issue or something else.
I won't know without the session file.

thermionic · December 2022

Thanks for the help. I will have another look (bit busy tonight) and get you the session file if doing it with a midi track doesn’t work.

thermionic · March 2023

This is not the solution I wanted, but... I bought a Macbook Air a couple of weeks ago as a stopgap while I'm waiting for the successor to the M1 iMac, which meant I can run the latest version of Logic - 10.7.7 as opposed to 10.4.8 on my 2011 Intel iMac. Created a quick test project - two external midi instrument tracks, create a region in each, add some random notes to each, one track sent to the Mininova and the other track sent to the Monologue. Both play exactly what they're told.

I also copied over an old project done with Logic's soft synths (and some vocal tracks) and simply switched a couple of soft synth tracks to play the two hardware synths (audio outs routed through a mixer into monitors). This is what I initially was trying to do, and again, it works as expected.

Something definitely wrong with my old setup, which I really couldn't figure out!

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Logic and two synths via MIDI problems

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