Smart Control Programming Bugs

Software: Current versions of Mac OS, Logic Pro

Hardware: MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2015), 2.8 GHz Intel Core i7, 16 GB 1600 MHz DDR3 Line6 KB37

 

Hey, I know I’m getting off into extreme geek territory here, but the Smart Control programming I’m going to share wasn’t purely a product of my own imagination and some of the more complicated programming was lifted from some of the stock Logic Patch Presets like the Mellotron patch. The below example is pretty specific but the problems reflected go across the board in my experiments. 

 

In this case I set up a knob to control the Velocity Processor Threshold and per an idea I ripped from the Mellotron patch, to also turn the plugin on and off at the bottom of the throw of the knob. Here’s my original setting for the patch: (sorry the paste blew the screenshot size up so large)

 

 

And here’s the original Scaling I wrote for it:

 

 

What happens is that over time, and/or after any attempt to duplicate the channel strip, Logic hijacks my settings, inverts any range parameters it doesn’t like and straightens out the scaling curve. In this case rendering my On/Off switch useless as it now occurs in the center of the throw of the pot:

 

 

Unfortunately this also happens in any setting where the Range Min is greater than the Range Maximum. I have several Control Panels setup with knobs that will for example turn down the output of an amp when the gain knob is turned up, or turn up the output of a Compressor as the Ratio is turned up. 

 

This would all be cool if the response of the models was perfectly even across the throw of the perameters, but few ever are and I have gone to the trouble to adjust the curves of the scaling to accommodate for the idiosyncrasies of each interactive parameter. When Logic sees these curves, it automatically Inverts them to suite it’s preference, thus rendering my previously adjusted scalings, worthless.

 

Is this a bug? A “Design Feature”? Or am I missing something that will correct the issue. As a grammy winning engineer/mixer buddy of mine put it after relating this issue to him, “wait… Logic’s behaving erratically? (Cynical chuckling inserted here)” And then, yeah that would be a serious creativity/efficiency boost… if it worked”.

 

One last point while I’m here: When adding Mappings I initially just kept adding as needed and adjusting the ranges in the oddest ways to accommodate the levels and responses I was getting back: then after a bit I dug into the Scalings and saw that Logic was putting the curves all over the place. Again; feature or bug? Or am I missing something there as well?

 

Any input and feedback is greatly appreciated,

 

KD

Edited September 30, 2017 by kgdukes

Could you please upload the screenshots to our server?

happy to. whats the procedure?

Click the 'Edit post' button on your original post.

Scroll down a bit until you see the *Attachments' tab. Click on it and upload the screenshots.

hey Eric, dropped the shots in at the bottom of the first post. 

I finally got around to look at this issue.

Try to set it up like this instead. 

 

 

cool. thanks much. will do and post back.

hey Eric, sad to report that that doesn't cure the track duplication problem. making that adjustment on the track will allow the knob on that track to behave as expected, but is you duplicate that channel strip (which I do a lot with vocals and guitars when building a mix) it breaks the programming and inverse those settings. Maddening. And also a huge time suck. I would like that functionality more on Vocals where one knob id turning effects on and increasing a parameter and guitars for the same reasons. Saves a lot of time and brain power ion you can just grab a knob and turn it, bypassing several mouse clicks and scrolling. I'd love to get this figured out and/or corrected.

It works fine here.

One thing that I have noticed though is that it is better to have a plateau instead of a steep slant.

 

If you want you can attach a project with one or your patches here and I'll have a look at it.

Hey Eric, thanks for the update. I’ve been going through my channels and found that your fix does work on all patches I’ve created except the vocal channel SC I set up. I’m not sure why yet. I’ll revisit later today.

Sounds great.

Keep us posted about your progress.

Hey Eric, it all seems to be working as it should for the moment. Unfortunately I just hit a serious, related snag. i have all these Smart Controls assigned to a Line6 KB37 (including custom transport assignments, etc). When I started up the rig for a session today (with a cowriter in the room) Logic had forgotten all my assignments for the KB's knobs and buttons.Ive restarted, etc but to no avail. I know this isn't directly related to this thread, but it's all of a piece for me at the moment. I'll start a separate thread if you'd prefer. 

Yes, please start another post about this.