Need help with customized control surface

[jamsden]

I'm thinking about using Logic Pro X and an Audio I/O interface as a flexible digital mixer for our 4 piece acoustic band. I play mandolin, acoustic guitar and some electric guitar and switch instruments each set. I'm currently using a POD HD500X as my input device and plugging into an Alesis iO|26 that acts as a multi-channel direct box or snake head for input into Logic. That's all working great, and is simple and flexible. I can use the same track templates we use for recording in the live setup, and have a screenset that just shows the mixer with the tracks we use live.

 

Here's my problem: I can plug the mandolin, acoustic guitar (a Variax 700 acoustic) and electric guitar (Strat) into the HD500X and go through the SPD/IF output into the iO|26. I have three tracks setup in Logic, one for each instrument. The electric guitar uses the S-Gear plugin for the amp simulation - I only use the HD500X for a few front of the amp effects that I tend to prefer over the Logic pedalboard.

 

What I want do is configure control parameters to turn the proper mutes on and off for the instrument I'm using. I use three patches in the HD500X, one for each instrument. Changing the patch sends a MIDI program change message. I can map these to the Mute parameter of the correct track using the track index. But I'm missing two things:

1. How to map the program change message to a specific mute on/off value, not just a toggle

2. How to map the same program change message to mute off for the instrument that goes with that patch, and mute on for the other two instrument tracks.

 

I can see how to use Learn Mode to capture the program change message and map it to the mute for the correct track, but it always toggles the mute, I want to set it to on or off depending on the instrument that corresponds to the particular program change message.

 

I tried using learn mode to add multiple mappings of the same program change message to multiple parameters, but Logic keeps jumping back to the first one instead of creating another parameter mapping from the same message.

 

Is there a way to do this?

 

I'm currently using one one track for the HD500X, and have the patches configured for each instrument using effect and amp blocks in the HD500X. That works OK, but the HD500X doesn't have a good acoustic amp (the one that's include in the 2.6 update isn't useful), and S-Gear sounds quite a bit better than any amp model in the HD500X. So I'd rather just use the HD500X as an input device and configure everything in Logic tracks. Its simpler, more flexible and sounds better. But I need to be able to easily switch instruments with footswitch press and no have to mute and un-mute three tracks in Logic. That's too much to do in a live situation.

[shivermetimbers]

When using the LEARN function for mute, press the controller button twice instead of once.

 

For the other issue, have a look at this solution …

http://www.logicprohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=596242#p596242

[jamsden]

I got it. To control mute exclusively on 3 tracks you need 9 controller assignments, 3 for each instrument. In each set of 3 controller assignments, two have the mute turned on and one has the mute turned off. I found you can use MIDI Program Change messages for controller assignments, and the value is the program number, you can use a different program number for each instrument and that program change number is the value for the set of 3 controller assignments for that instrument. That was the simple part.

 

The hard part was finding a way to assign a specific on or off value to the mute switch so it would be on for the instrument track I wanted to sound, and off for the other two and so that pressing the same footswitch again for the same program change number (or patch on th HD500X) would not toggle the mutes.

 

What I found is that turning the mute off required Format:Unsigned, Multiply:0, and Mode:Toggle. Turning mute on required Format:Unsigned, Multiply:1.00, and Mode: Relative.

 

I'm not sure exactly why that works, but it seems reliable. I now have three patches in the POS HD500X for each instrument, and selecting that patch turns the mute switch off for the instrument track associated with that patch, and turns mute on for the other two instrument tracks.