Logic Pro X: A Guide to Multitrack MIDI

Recording askaudiomag.com by Joe Albano July 6, 2015

Logic Pro X has simplifed the process of recording multiple MIDI tracks. That

being said, you need to know the correct settings and quirks which is why Joe

Albano is on-hand to show you how.

We all know that Logic Pro X is one of the most powerful and flexible DAWs out

there, especially when it comes to MIDI. Along with its large collection of Virtual

Instruments, Logic brings sophisticated MIDI editing capabilities, and, for the

real tweakheads out there, extensive MIDI processing, courtesy of new features

like MIDI Scripting, as well as long-term ones like the (MIDI programming)

Environment. That makes it all the more curious when something thats often

simple to set up in other, often less capable workstations, is, to put it politely, a

little less logicalperhaps a bit more convoluted than it needs to bein Logic.

Recording multitrack MIDI performances can sometimes be one of those tasks.

Now, to be fair, it has gotten much, much easier in Logic X, and certain

configurations that used to require a trip to the Environment can now be set up

easily in the main Track (Arrange) window. But there are still scenarios that may

require a little tweaking. Im going to lay out the basic approaches in Logic to

recording multiple MIDI Instruments at the same time.

Layering vs Multi-Player modes

There are two ways you might go about recording multitrack MIDI in Logic. One

scenario is when you want to layer several Instruments together for a big, rich

sound, play the combination live, triggering three or four different Instruments

together, and record the results. There are a couple of ways to do this, and, in

Logic X, its much simpler than ever.

The other scenario is what Logic terms Multiplayer Recording. This is where you

have several (i.e. two or three) MIDI musicians performing together live, playing

on separate MIDI controllers (like keyboards and MIDI drums), each triggering

a different Virtual Instrument in Logic, and you want to record them together,

ending up with individual MIDI parts on the individual Instrument tracks when

you hit Stop. Thats also much more logical in Logic X, but its still not as

straightforward, in every situation, as it could be. Ill come back to thatfirst,

lets take a look at two ways to record layered Instruments.

Layers of sound

The easiest way to layer up Virtual Instruments is to simply record-enable

several MIDI tracks at once.

Fig 1

Several Logic Instrument tracks record-enabled for a fat, layered sound.

When you play, youll hear them all, and when you record, youll get a MIDI

Region on the selected track, and Alias Regions on the other record-enabled

tracks.

Fig 2 Four

layered Instruments, with a recorded MID Region on the top track, and Aliases

on the other tracks

Audio: The four Instruments, separately, then layered together, as they were

played and recorded, as above:

Alias Regions dont contain any data, theyre just pointers to the main Region, so

if you want to make edits to the MIDI data (quantize, pitch changes, etc), you

only have to tweak that one Region, and the other Instruments will follow. But

you do need to keep the Aliases together with the main Regions to preserve the

layering.

Now, this is pretty straightforward, but it is contingent on a particular setting in

the Project Settings for that song. Under File > Project Settings >

Recordingyoull find an option entitled Auto demix by channel if multitrack

recording.

Fig 3 The

Project Settings option Auto demix by channel if multitrack recording, which

must be set Off for layering, and On for multiplayer recording

This must be un-checked for the layering of Instruments to work as I just

describedthat is the default, but since its a Project Setting, it might be on when

you open up an older song, or get a Project from a collaborator. (This option is

actually for the other scenario, multiplayer recording, which Ill come back to in

a minute).

An even easier way to play and record multiple Instruments is by combining

them into a Track Stack. A Track Stack, as you may know, puts several tracks

under the same umbrella, making it easier to treat then as a unit. There are two

typesFolder Stacks, and Summing Stacksyou just select the tracks you want

to include, right-click, choose Create Track Stack (Shift-Command-D),

and select the type you want.

Fig 4

Creating a (Summing) Track Stack

With Folder stacks, recording layered instruments is the same as I just went

through, but Summing Stacks take a slightly different approach. A Summing

Stack creates an Auxthe Track Stack masterand re-routes the audio outputs

of all the tracks you add to it through that Aux. But it has its own Record-Enable

button, and routes any incoming MIDI to all the Tracks within it. When you

record, you get only one MIDI Region, on that Track Stack master track, but all

the Instruments within the Stack will play from that Regiona much more

elegant approach.

Fig 5 A

Summing (Track) Stack, with four (layered) Instruments all receiving MIDI data

from the MIDI Region on the Track Stack master track

Fig 5 A Summing (Track) Stack, with four (layered) Instruments all receiving

MIDI data from the MIDI Region on the Track Stack master track

You can also close the Stack so only the Stack master track is showing

(independently for the Arrange and Mix displays), to consolidate space in a busy

mix/arrangementthe internal tracks still play normally. Summing Stacks are

also great for a multi-Instrument like a big drum kit, with different drums in

different Instruments.

The band plays on

The other MIDI multitrack scenario, Multiplayer Recording, is also easy enough

to implement now, in Logic X, but it is a bit less elegant. Again, this is when you

have a MIDI band, of several players on individual controllers, triggering

different Logic Instruments, and you want to record them playing live, ending up

with separate MIDI Regions for each Instrument/track. Many DAWs simply let

you choose a different MIDI input (from the available MIDI devices) for each

Virtual Instrument track, arm them all, and Bobs Your Uncle. But Logic is a

little more restrictive..

Logic forces you to channelize, in order to assign the different MIDI controllers

to different Instrument tracks. This means utilizing the old-fashioned MIDI

Channel data thats still part of every MIDI message (which Logic conveniently

ignores when recording one Instrument at a time). There are 16 MIDI Channels

in the spec, and each Logic Instrument must be set to receive MIDI data on a

different Channel number. This is set in the Track Inspector pane, on the left of

the Main window.

Fig 6

Setting the (receiving) MIDI Channel for a Logic Instrument, in the Track

Inspector pane

The MIDI players MIDI controllers must then be set to transmit their MIDI data

on the correct corresponding Channels, to address the various Instruments

separately. And, finally, that Project Setting you saw earlier, Auto demix by

channel if multitrack recording (Fig 3), must now be enabled (checked) for this

to work properly (remember, I mentioned that it was intended for multiplayer

recording).

Demix for Success

When all this is set up, you can once again record-enable several Instrument

tracks. The correct player will now be routed to each Instrument (independently,

with no layering), and you can record them live, as a group. During recording,

youll see only one MIDI Region being recorded, but when the recordings done,

and you hit Stop, the MIDI (performance) data will automatically be split up by

MIDI Channel, and different Regions will appear correctly on each matching

Instrument track. These are independent regionsno Aliasesand the result is

the same as if youd recorded the parts one by one.

Fig 7 Three

MIDI Instrument tracks recorded together live, as described above

Even though this is less straightforward, conceptually, than the simpler MIDI-

input-per-track method, it does work well. The only wrinkle is if you find

yourself with one or more MIDI controllers that dont transmit on any channel

except Channel 1unlikely nowadays, but still possible, especially with some

older gear or certain consumer-oriented MIDI piano controllers. In that case,

you may have to pay a visit to the (sometimes scary) MIDI Environments Click

& Ports layer, where you can grab the individual controllers MIDI data streams

from the Physical Input object (which represents the actual MIDI hardware

devices that Logic sees hooked up to your computer), and re-channelize the

incoming MIDI data there, with real-time Transformers, before sending it all on

to the Sequencer Input object, which represents (all) the selected, record-armed

Instrument tracks.

Fig 8 MIDI

Data from three MIDI controllers, being channelized in Logics Enviroment for

multiplayer recording, before being sent on the Sequencer Input, which will

distribute the data from the different performers to the correct Instrument

tracks with the matching MIDI Channels

Fig 8 MIDI Data from three MIDI controllers, being channelized in Logics

Enviroment for multiplayer recording, before being sent on the Sequencer Input,

which will distribute the data from the different performers to the correct

Instrument tracks with the matching MIDI Channels

Fortunately, this is not too likely a scenario these days, and, though its easy

enough to do, its even easier if you can just set things up directly in the main

window, as described.

So, thats a quick look into the world of multitrack MIDI recording in Logic.

Long-time Logic users have always considered certain aspects of this to be kind

of a kludge, but Logic Pro X has taken significant steps to simplify these

procedures, so, once youre familiar with the necessary settings and occasional

quirks, it should be easy enough to either dial up big fat layers of sound, or

record that slammin live MIDI band, with a minimum of fuss.

askaudiomag.com by Joe Albano July 6, 2015