Can't disable pitch bend automation lane

[RichTea]

Hi folks.  I have some pitch bend automation I want to disable (not delete) in a Region on a Sampler instrument track.  Turning off the pich bend automation lane doesn't work, even turning off Read for the Track and/or Region dont work.  The automation line goes grey (as shown in the attachment) but the pitch bend can still be heard on playback.  Any ideas?

Logic v10.7.7 Rosetta, Monterey 12.6.3, M1 mini 16Gb.

[wonshu]

I would copy the region, mute the original region and actually delete the pitch bend...

[RichTea]

Good idea wonshu, that'll get me going, thanks.  I guess what I really meant to ask is .... is this behaviour to be expected?  I'd have thought the entire reason for having an on/off switch per automation lane is to enable/disable them, rather than a faffy workround.

[David Nahmani]

1 hour ago, RichTea said:

Turning off the pich bend automation lane doesn't work, even turning off Read for the Track and/or Region dont work.  The automation line goes grey (as shown in the attachment) but the pitch bend can still be heard on playback.  Any ideas?

Same behavior here. 

Another workaround would be to temporarily convert the pitch bend event into some other kind of event such as program change for example, assuming you're not using program changes on that track. Then you can convert them back to pitch bend. 

[RichTea]

1 minute ago, David Nahmani said:

Same behavior here. 

Another workaround would be to temporarily convert the pitch bend event into some other kind of event such as program change for example, assuming you're not using program changes on that track. Then you can convert them back to pitch bend. 

Thanks David.  I had seen a similar workround elsewhere.  It just seems odd that it behaves like this, although I understand Pitch Bend is a "special" kind of controller so it may not be so simple to handle under the hood.  That said, turning the lane off does make the line go grey so my expectation is that it's inactive and shouldn't be being applied to the instrument during playback.  I just tried the same with "Modulation" and that doesn't disable either - I think I might be missing something fundamental?

[scg]

While we're waiting for more answers to your underlying question about disabling MIDI automation data, here are some more possible workarounds:

- Add the 'Modifier' MIDI plugin, set 'input' and 're-assign' to pitchbend, and set scale to 0%. Bypass the plugin when you want pitchbend, un-bypass when you don't. (This has the advantage of being nondestructive and not having to fiddle with other parameters.)

- Set the pitch bend range for the instrument to 0.

- Use track alternatives, and create alternatives with and without the pitch bend. If you want pitch bend for some regions and not others, then this may be what you want, as the other solutions will apply to all regions (unless you add appropriate automation, but that's getting fiddly again).

[David Nahmani]

2 minutes ago, scg said:

Add the 'Modifier' MIDI plugin, set 'input' and 're-assign' to pitchbend, and set scale to 0%. Bypass the plugin when you want pitchbend, un-bypass when you don't. (This has the advantage of being nondestructive and not having to fiddle with other parameters.)

I really like that workaround. Has the advantage of being able to toggle the plug-in off and on to bypass the pitch bend data. 

20 minutes ago, RichTea said:

It just seems odd that it behaves like this

Apple wanted to unify the interface and make MIDI CC look like track automation, but they don't work the same or have the same capability, so some of the track automation parameters (like that on/off button) don't work for MIDI CC. 

[RichTea]

39 minutes ago, scg said:

While we're waiting for more answers to your underlying question about disabling MIDI automation data, here are some more possible workarounds:

- Add the 'Modifier' MIDI plugin, set 'input' and 're-assign' to pitchbend, and set scale to 0%. Bypass the plugin when you want pitchbend, un-bypass when you don't. (This has the advantage of being nondestructive and not having to fiddle with other parameters.)

- Set the pitch bend range for the instrument to 0.

- Use track alternatives, and create alternatives with and without the pitch bend. If you want pitch bend for some regions and not others, then this may be what you want, as the other solutions will apply to all regions (unless you add appropriate automation, but that's getting fiddly again).

Modifier plugin is a really neat way of achieving what I want (I wanted to hear the instrument without its pitchbending, as a "preview") - thanks scg.  I'll mark is as the solution.  Cheers.

38 minutes ago, David Nahmani said:

I really like that workaround. Has the advantage of being able to toggle the plug-in off and on to bypass the pitch bend data. 

Apple wanted to unify the interface and make MIDI CC look like track automation, but they don't work the same or have the same capability, so some of the track automation parameters (like that on/off button) don't work for MIDI CC. 

Thanks for your help everyone.  David - thanks for the help and the information about unifying the interface.  Interesting.

[JakobP]

FWIW, the on/off button works fine with cc1 modulation here, pitchbend doesn't. (just tried it with Grand Piano in Sampler...)

[David Nahmani]

10 hours ago, JakobP said:

FWIW, the on/off button works fine with cc1 modulation here, pitchbend doesn't. (just tried it with Grand Piano in Sampler...)

Well then, it's definitely a bug. I've reported it. 

[RichTea]

13 hours ago, JakobP said:

FWIW, the on/off button works fine with cc1 modulation here, pitchbend doesn't. (just tried it with Grand Piano in Sampler...)

 

3 hours ago, David Nahmani said:

Well then, it's definitely a bug. I've reported it. 

Thanks guys, much appreciated.  To confirm, pitch bend and CC1 don't on/off with my "Sunburst Power Chords" sampler preset, HOWEVER, CC1 on/off works with "Grand Piano" but pitch bend doesn't.  Weird.

[RichTea]

My apologies - Modulation on/off is working as expected.

[David Nahmani]

9 minutes ago, RichTea said:

My apologies - Modulation on/off is working as expected.

Confirmed. Same here. Definitely some kind of bug.