newbie question on FG and Logic Express setup

Well, I'm fairly discouraged and ready to chuck it at this point.

I don't understand why it's so difficult to set things up in Logic so that playing the Fantom records MIDI tracks that invoke individual Fantom patches. I've messed around in the Environment window, in the various track settings for port/channel and such, and I just don't get it. I must be a complete idiot, since everyone else seems to have no trouble with this.

I just want to be able to go to Logic, set up a MIDI track, and record, say, the sound that is made by patch #852 from the Fantom. Why is this so impossible to achieve??

Hi canadave.

I don't know how much help I can be as I have Logic Pro 9.1 and a Fantom-X8. However, here's how I do things.

First, you should be aware that in Patch (or Single) mode, the Fantom can only play one sound at a time, so you won't be able to record multiple MIDI tracks and have them all play back at once. For this, the Fantom would have to be in Performance mode (or whatever the multi-timbral equivalent mode is on the Fantom-G) which means you may loose some Patch-specific effects. To avoid loosing effects, I record only one MIDI track at a time. Once done, I record the audio output from the Fantom to an Audio track (while Logic plays the MIDI track through the Fantom), then mute that MIDI track and go on to create another MIDI track and repeat.

Logic has some rather unintuitive quirks surrounding MIDI (cary-overs from the early days of Logic on the Commodore Amiga, waaay before Apple bought Emagic and it's Logic software). MIDI instruments are not automatically defined in Logic. In the Logic Environment, you have to create a new Multi-Instrument (or a regular single-channle Instrument). Multi-Instruments are usually used for multi-channel MIDI gear like the Fantoms. Of course, Logic doesn't know anything about the Fantom, so when you create a new Multi-Instrument in the MIDI Instrument layer of the Environment, it assumes it's a General MIDI device. There's nothing wrong with that, as it'll work with any connected MIDI instrument, but it might be confusing. Also, when recording a MIDI track, you have to turn off the Local Switch setting on your Fantom because there's no intuitive way to prevent Logic from echoing every MIDI message it receives to whatever MIDI instrument is assigned to the selected track. Additionally, Logic remembers MIDI patch information on a per-MIDI instrument and per-MIDI channel basis, not on a Logic track basis. This means that if you have multiple MIDI tracks that all send to the same MIDI instrument on the same channel, whenever you change the patch on one track, that patch change will be reflected in all other tracks sending to the same instrument and channel. This is intentional, so that the tracks correctly reflect the patch on the instrument to which data is being sent, but it's also frustrating when you intend to only play one External MIDI track at a time through that instrument and just want to remember the patches for each track.

Personally, I just rename each track the name and number of the Patch that's supposed to be associated with it (e.g. track 1 name: "PR-A 001 So true...", track 2 name: "USER 101 My Patch", etc). You can change track names by double-clicking on the name of the track. This works for me because of my recording process as described above.

One way you might have Logic remember the patch numbers on each track is to record the patch change at the very beginning of each track. You could do this by selecting the patch just above or below the one you want to use on the Fantom, hitting record, waiting for any lead-in time to pass, then hitting the down (or up) patch selection button on the Fantom to select the patch you intend to use. This will record the appropriate Bank Select and Program Change messages for that patch onto the track.

Regards,
Nathan

[rant removed] )))))

Nathan, thank you thank you thank you!! I'm away from my keyboard just at the moment, but everything you wrote makes perfect sense to me. I'll try your suggestions as soon as I can--I think I was "expecting too much" from Logic regarding its intelligence about MIDI external synths.

Now that I read your post, which seems to confirm my suspicions about what might be going wrong in Logic, it's incredible to me that such an allegedly "pro" program has such horrid external MIDI support! These "kludges" (having to record a MIDI program change at the beginning of a track??? really??? In 2010???) are ridiculous for a DAW of Logic's stature.

Anyway, here nor there I suppose. I'll try out your methods, they look like they will work for me. cheers!!!!!

canadave..

Patch selection within a DAW is a common problem.

there are plenty of folks who have a clue.. but given this is solely a user>user forum you need more patience in waiting for a reply, particularly as your question is solely to do with the use of Logic.. and actually has nothing to do with the Fantom G

Sorry, I should've been clearer in my rant--I meant that I had searched the Internet for the last two days in vain, and found many people who danced around the answer, but never really said what it was. Not that people HERE don't have a clue

If you've ever been frustrated, hopefully you'll understand

Glad that was of some help. Hope you're able to figure it out okay.

Regards,
Nathan

@ canadave..

"If you've ever been frustrated, hopefully you'll understand "

of course I have..... I own a fantom G!

lol

heh.....touché!