Anyone knows how to make a synth editor in enviroment??

[danieloux]

Or do you know of some sort of tutorial for that , thanks in advance!

[ski]

Which synth?

[danieloux]

It's a nord lead 2x

[ski]

I have a Nord 2. Hopefully I'm not wrong in assuming that there's going to be some similarity between the 2 and the 2x. If that's not the case then I guess I got a little more typing practice in... But try the following out for yourself and see...

 

The easiest things to program an editor for are the various knob settings on the Nord. If you turn any knob (filter cutoff, resonance, etc.) and look in Logic's MIDI monitor (in the transport) you should see the CC number associated with that knob. Every knob has a unique CC number. It might even be a good idea to sit down with a pencil and paper and write them down, going section by section.

 

Then, in the Environment, you'll need to find (or make) the "instrument object" that represents the Nord. Then you'll create Environment faders (New > Fader > Vertical 1) and program each one to output the CC number that corresponds to the Nord knob. You'll cable each fader directly to the 2x instrument object.

 

You can find the output section of a fader by selecting it and looking in the Inspector on the left. You'll see "input" and "output".

 

So start by turning knobs on the Nord and looking in the transport. If you see CC numbers then what I wrote above will work for you.

 

Recording the output of those faders is another story, but let's start by seeing if you get the basics to work first.

[danieloux]

thanks a lot for the tips I'm gonna try the things you said, see if I can get it to work !!!

[ruari]

Those tips can be applied to other synths as well as the Nord

 

This may be a really dumb question, apologies if it is.

 

If I have the physical synth close at hand what would the benefit be of creating a synth editor like this in the environment?

 

The reason I ask is that I do play about with Reaktor quite a bit trying to make my own virtual synths. Because of this I've often thought about creating a virtual interface for some of my hardware synths in the Logic environment but have always went on to try & learn about something else as I haven't yet felt that it would benefit my workflow by taking the time to do this.

 

What do you guys think?

[fuzzfilth]

If you have a synth a) close at hand which has every parameter b) on its panel and c) well within reach and d) uses regular MIDI CC controller numbers to make them easily automatable, the benefit is nil.

 

But in all other cases, a bunch of on screen controllers can help you tremendously.

 

Christian

[ruari]

That makes sense.

 

Thanks Christian.

[danieloux]

I finished the editor, it's a little messy but it works ! how do you record the output of the faders?? hehe! to answer the question about what is the benefit of having the editor in the enviroment, at least for me it is sometimes useful to see the values I send with those knobs , or not always having to go to the synth to make some automation or edit something, maybe it's because i got so used to using logics softsynths , who knows but to me it's useful , cheers!!!

 

 

(By the way I love reaktor , building simple synths and that kind of stuff!)

[ski]

That was fast!!

 

One way to record the data is to run a cable from the output of your programming to the Sequencer Input (located in the clicks & ports layer). Then you can record control moves to tracks. However... the way you've got things programmed right now is going to make that a little problematic, because all of your controls are cabled to the Nord instrument itself. Cabling the output of the Nord directly to the Sequencer Input has the potential to create a MIDI feedback look.

 

So let's modify things a little bit... Select the Nord, note the Port setting, and then set it to OFF. At this point the Nord instrument (a multi-instrument, actually) is no longer an instrument but a "terminal" into which all of your programming comes together, or "terminates".

 

But of course, you still need a Nord 2X represented in the Environment. So create a new multi-instrument, name it "Nord 2X" and assign it to the port that the original Nord instrument was set to. You'll now assign IT (or its sub channels) to your various tracks.

 

Finally, name your original Nord something like "Nord Control".

 

...OR...

 

Disconnect all of the cables from all of your controls and cable them to a brand new object (like a monitor) to act as your "terminal". That's going to be a lot of work, hence my suggestion above.

 

And now to recording...

 

Cable the output of "Nord Control" multi-instrument (now a "terminal") to the Sequencer Input in the clicks & ports layer of the environment. Then assign a track to "Nord 2X" and the MIDI channel of your choice. Now you can record your control moves to these tracks. Suggest you get into the habit of creating "new tracks with same channel strip/instrument" so that you can record different controls on different tracks. You can have as many of these 'duplicate' track assignments as you like too.

 

The only thing to be careful of here is that you don't move the controls when you've got a track selected that's not assigned to one of your 2X tracks. This is because many synths respond to the same CC's as you're outputting from your Environment programming, but not necessarily in a way that's equivalent to how the 2X responds.

 

Yet another way to record the data is to assign an output of "Nord Control" directly to a track. And here you could very well assign one of the sub-channels of "Nord Control" to a track which, if I'm not mistaken, will channelize that data so that it will be assigned to the correct multi-timbral slot in the Nord.

 

Hope that makes sense.

[danieloux]

Cool I'm gonna try that see what i come up with hehe , thanks!!!

[danieloux]

I was messing around with the editor and found out that when i hit record and move the faders they actually get recorded without modifying anything, no midi feedback loop , do you know why this happens?

[fader8]

I was messing around with the editor and found out that when i hit record and move the faders they actually get recorded without modifying anything, no midi feedback loop , do you know why this happens?

Sounds like the MIDI is being echoed by your synth, which would then be recorded by the track.