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Logic Track Note Pads


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Hi ... I am learning Logic Pro 10.5 on the 90 day trial before I decide to buy. Have used Pro Tools for years. The transition hasn't been easy and I must say I prefer the simplicity of PT but are slowly getting there. My question is about taking External Midi Track notes in the Notepad .... If I have say 5 external Midi tracks created for one synth I can't seem to write a different set of notes in the Note Pad for each track .... Whatever I write appears in all of the 5 Track Notes .... alter one they all alter. It doesn't matter if they are on different Midi channels. If I then create some more Midi tracks for say an external Drum Machine .... same thing just for that. It seems like I can only take notes in the Note Pad Track per device not per track. What am I doing wrong? How do I write different notes for different tracks?
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Indeed if your tracks are assigned to the same object then they share the same track notes. You're not doing anything wrong. You can write different notes only for different tracks assigned to different objects in Logic's MIDI environment.

 

This next thought is triggered by your username. As you learn a new software, it may seem obvious that some things aren't designed the right way. However it doesn't matter which software you're using: you will, at some point, have that feeling for one function or another. Where one software may be better than an other, it's bound to be weaker than that same other in another domain. Pick your poison. ;)

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Wow ... ok . I find that hard to believe. I thought great ... a decent size area to make notes on tracks but now its pretty useless. I suppose this way of thinking is also why I can't see 5 midi tracks in the mixer on 1 device .... only one?

You see tracks in the Tracks area and channel strips in the Mixer. The distinction matters because there's not necessarily a 1:1 relationship between tracks <==> channel strips. Each situation is unique, I'm not sure exactly what you're looking at or what your settings are, for example in the Mixer there's a setting that you can toggle in the menu: View > All Tracks with Same Channel Strip/Instrument.

 

For example you can have multiple tracks routed to the same instrument (same channel strip). Imagine programming drums and you want one kick drum track, one snare drum track and one hi-hat tracks, all routing their MIDI data to the same Drum software instrument: that's three tracks assigned to the same one channel strip. Or imagine two audio tracks to record your vocals, one for your verses, the other for your choruses, both assigned to the same one channel strip that processes and routes all the vocal recordings on both tracks exactly the same way.

 

On the other end of the spectrum, imagine one single track where you've programmed kick, snare and hi-hat, routed to one instrument channel strip that has 3 separate audio outputs (3 more Aux channel strips), one for the kick, one for the snare, one for the hi-hat.

 

Just a couple of examples where there's no 1:1 track <==> channel strip relationship.

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Yep. You can do what you want, but Logic offers many useful efficiencies over other platforms that have a fixed track:channel relationship. It's a great feature actually, and one of the things I always loved about Logic since the beginning, but for people that don't understand some of these fundamentals, it can definitely appear confusing.
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Ahhhh ..... didn't have the View > All tracks with same channel strip turned on so now I can see them. But they are still linked obviously as you said as it's a channel strip. So I can individually mute them but why can't I see a solo button on the external midi tracks in the mixer window? I will be mainly using hardware synths, drum machine etc and don't use soft synths. But are really interested in using Sampler and Drum designer. Both are great .... and I have a good idea how they work .... the step sequencer is fantastic too. I am so used to the simple way PT works and ironically find it far more logical where Logic just seems to create a million tracks you didn't ask for. Being able to view just plain Midi tracks unrelated to each other in the mixer window in PT is a great way for me to play around and compose. I am hanging in there but really finding Logic unnecessarily over complex and kinda feels like its become a bit of a cobbled together monster over time. But enough negativity .... I am still learning and can see it offers far more in creative tools than PT. As you said there is strengths and weaknesses in all of them.
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That's because you see Logic from the perspective of ProTools.

I go the other way around, and my perspective of PT is vastly different (and not that positive).

 

Learning a new system is always complex, particularly when you have how a previous system works so ingrained in your brain - you expect the new thing to work the same way, and resist when it doesn't.

 

It's a process you get over, and you learn the fundamentals, and stuff you don't know or don't feel in control of resolve themselves - and then usually, you get too "well actually, this is so much better than how I did it on the old system" in many ways... it just takes a learning process you have to get through.

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  • 7 months later...
Well its 7 months later and I bit the bullet and just ended up buying Logic as I got fed up with the never ending cash merry go round of various incarnations of PT. ... etc. Have got my head around it now and really enjoying working with Midi in it. Still not that comfortable working with the channel strips in the mixer section and the way that all works compared to PT.... but getting there. I can see how creating in Logic and mixing in PT would be the best of both worlds .... I understand why people do this. If I could change one thing in Logic it would still be that stupid "Track notes" .... it's such a handy feature but it's not "Track notes"... its "DEVICE" notes!!!! Just doesn't make sense .... I mean I am looking at tracks in the tracks area and its called TRACK NOTES .... I wish they would change it or at least give me the option. It would be such an easy fix.
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but it's not "Track notes"... its "DEVICE" notes!!!! Just doesn't make sense ....

Logic was conceived from the ground up as being an object based environment. You create and cable objects together in the MIDI Environment, then you assign some of those objects to tracks. When you press play, the data on a track is routed to the object assigned to that track.

 

When Apple bought Logic they released Logic 7 and tried to simplify the user interface, so objects were sort of hidden from the Tracks area, except .. well they're still here of course, but they were just renamed... "Tracks". So now that oversimplification means that some things don't seem to make any sense at all ... until you understand that the Track inspector is not a Track inspector but an Object inspector allowing you to see parameters for the object currently assigned to the selected track (see: viewtopic.php?f=1&t=157962&p=829097#p829084). Same with the Track notes, they're actually notes for the object that is assigned to the selected track.

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