Another glaring omission?

[jtnyc]

In Logic 9 overdubbing midi in the piano roll is a bit of a nightmare.With the link button off, you will see the notes already recorded while overdubbing, but you won't see the new ones until you hit stop. With the link button on, you not see the notes already recorded, but you will see the new notes as you record them. Far from perfect, but I got used to it. Why the position of the link button has this effect is a mystery to me.

 

In Logic X it's worse! Firstly, there is no link button in the piano roll. I like to record with the piano roll open and I often will want to add/overdub some notes to an existing take and it's nice to see what's happening in real time. Forget about it in X. When you hit record wether it's the first take or an overdub, you can't see anything. As soon as you start playing the playhead visually stops in the piano roll (not in the main window) and you can't see any midi notes until you stop recording. I've tried fooling around with the link buttons in the event editor and the one in the main window with no luck. I have the midi recording options set to "join with selected tracks" which is where it should be.

 

I just don't get it. So many reviews out there said nothing was removed in X, only added. Do these people actually make music with the app as part of the review process? Between this piano roll issue, no "new track with next midi channel", no custom colors, no custom icons (maybe with a complex hack)..... what's next? I do love the new look, but this is just getting worse and worse. I'm hoping there are solutions to some of these issues, but I'm not to confident right now.

 

If anyone can set me on the right path with any of these issues, I would greatly appreciate it.

 

Thanks

[jtnyc]

UPDATE: It seems that if I use a detached piano roll window it will let me see notes as I record them, but if I'm overdubbing, I can't see the notes that are already recorded, just the new ones as I play them. A slight improvement, but.....

 

why oh why. Illogical behavior.

[jtnyc]

Update: The malfunction in the Piano roll I was describing was a glitch caused by the fact I was using an old L9 template. Not sure what it was exactly, but it was something.

 

The behavior now is - When "merge with selected regions" is selected, you see the notes of what your recording going down in real time. When you add/overdub, you can see the new notes as you play them, but can't see the original pass until you stop. I understand now that the piano roll displays regions separately, so you can't see both at the same time until your done and they merge. This is not a good way to handle midi IMO. It works great in Protools. You can see the notes that were already recorded while you adding new notes and you can see those new notes being added in real time. You can see everything all the time. I just got used to working that way. Seems much more logical to me

[vanhaze]

+1

[JCcares]

It would be great if we can view each overdub by being able toe elect the overdub number.That ways I can quantize only the overdubs I need to.Now I am trying to figure out how to view just my 2nd hihat overdub .

[mysticfm]

I've taken to doing what I've seen done elsewhere, which is to just play along with the track without being in Record mode, which allows me to see the existing track contents, and then if I liked my additions, use the Capture Recording button to turn that performance into a new region that I can then merge with the existing contents. Seems to work okay. No, it still doesn't allow you to see the notes you are playing appear in the piano roll as you play them, but that doesn't hold much value for me.

 

By the way, as far as the missing "Duplicate Track with Next MIDI Channel" piece goes, in LPX all you need to do is create a multi-timbral instrument with one channel and then select "Track / Other / New Track with Next Channel", which accomplishes exactly the same thing (or use the handy key command Ctrl-Return for the same thing, which has become just about my favorite LPX shortcut). Except that this method is even better, because, having created the multi-timbral instrument already, you don't have to remember to change the MIDI channel of the first track from Omni to channel 1 first, like you did in LP9. (I was fired up about this omission at first as well, until I learned that the needed functionality was just moved into a nicer, less task-specific command.)