Logic Environment - Lesson 1

[DanV]

Okay, it's a Thursday - 2pm, I should be getting some work out of the way - but I decided you Logic Slutz need a lil schooling.

Lesson 1: How to control any vst parameter via midi notes.

Okay, so we all know that midi has 128 steps.
Most vst's in Logic will react quite favorably to these steps - typically 128 will equate to the full-ON position of any parameter in a vst - and 0 will be OFF. There are exceptions,, for instance - if a parameter's control is bipolar, often 64 will become the 0 point.

In Logic there are a lot of different ways to tap these functions.
You can use the touchtracks, you can use folders, you can use all types of shat ok? But for starters here is a pretty simple one.

The following method can be applied to any vst, but for the sake of simplicity I will be using Logic's ultra-crappy platinum verb since it comes stock in platinum. Today we will just focus on switching between an off and on setting via midi notes.

Okay, load up yer vst synth - vst sampler - or simply import a wave. Then insert the platinum verb.

Scroll down a bit in the environment window so you can still see your channel but so there is also a lil empty working space.

Create a new instrument.

Flip to the arrange, double click on the empty space all the way at the bottom on the left and call up a new arrange track. Make sure to keep that track as the highlighted track.
Flip back to the environment, select the midi port cursor from the little tool-box window and then click on the "instrument" you just created. Now select the regular cursor again.

Get into the arrange and drag the track that now says instrument up so that it is beside your track with the plat verb we are about to automate.

Back to the environment...

CLick on the instrument deal we made.
A box will pop up on the left with important parameters for your instrument. Where you select your midi output, make sure to select no driver.. this way you wont accidently trigger anything in yer rack.



Now create a transformer.
Patch the instrument into the transformer.
Patch the transformer into the channel where plat verb resides.

Now create a monitor object.
Patch the channel's out into the monitor.

Next, open up platinum verb and move the wet-dry fader.
You will see the monitor reports back the behind the scenes fader data that is going on.



It will read something like:

F3 0 1
F3 0 10
F3 0 20
etc.etc. until it hits 100..

F3: means it is a fader message and that it is on channel 3.
The 0 means that the -1- piece of the fader must be set to - you guessed it 0 for things to hit the wet/dry and not the room size or something else.
the -2- part is just the fader position.

So now open up your transformer and make it look just like this:



What you have just done is made it so that any midi-on note entering the transformer will flip the verb to a full wet position.

Get back to the arrange,, get sound to come out of the channel we are operating on,,
then sequence a couple sparse short notes for the track entitled "instrument".

Flip back to the enviro and open up plat verb,, if you did everything right the wet/dry will be doing a happy little jig. And you will hear that excuse for verb kick in on cue.

This is a crap effect and I would never put it on full wet in an insert,, but I think you should see where I'm going with this at this point. This method I've just explained can be applied to any part of any vst,, and you don't have to just do full on or full off settings.... we can make it so which note you play translates to what position the fader is... we can do all types of things.....

Learn to love your enviro,, and make sure to get fully aquatinted with how the transform works, and find out how other enviro peices can talk to eachother. The logic help section on this is actually quite good.

When I find more time I'll get to a more sophisticated lesson.

Cheers!!!

[carmen]

so basically...you can automate the send wet/dry or mute via standard host automation...or you can do this ridiculously convoluted approach in the environment. hrm. i'll stick with the former. dont get me wrong i appreciate your tutorial, but as an ex logic user i never found the environment particularly useful for much of anything other than working around host limitations which shouldnt have existed to begin with. for a much more flexible approach to midi and audio manipulation than logic's environment, try pure-data. it works standalone on any platform..osx, linux, win32, and on win32 as a vst plugin. afaik logics environment cant do anythign audio related at all, ie, peak followers controlling midi cc data, etc (even fruity loops can do that..)

logic is dead!

[six_wax]

appreciate the effort you put into this, danv.

looking forward to lesson 2!

(carmen, keep the sequencer wars off this site, please.)

[DanV]

Originally posted by carmen
for a much more flexible approach to midi and audio manipulation than logic's environment, try pure-data.

Pure Data is a totally different animal, apples and oranges man.
Once you make the thing in the enviro it is totally re-usable. It's not like you have to start from scratch every time or something.
Thanks for your heckle though - buddy.



There aught to be a way to get audio to convert to logic data ,, it would take a plugin that could convert vu to logic fader messages.

[faeflora]

Cool Dan! I never figured out which fields did what in the transformer. I guess each field corrosponds to what you see in the event viewer?

More more!

[fatty]

Originally posted by carmen
logic is dead!

damn! and i've recently been doing the best work of my career since switching to logic. what will i do now!!!??!!! help me carmen!!!!

[C.Lambrechts]

very cool idea for a thread ... onto the next lesson please DanV1983 ...

class ... pay attention and be quiet ... and raise your hand if you have a question.

[carmen]

the only reason pd was mentioned is because it is primarily written by the same author who 20 years ago developed a system which later inspired the creation of logic's environment to begin with. not offhand platform war spam, but a historical context to an idea which saw some commercialization in logic, but arguably never reached a similar level of usefulness & flexibility. and the dead comment while largely sarcastic, has some truth when speaking of not only logic itself, but the logic environment in particular, which seemingly hasnt seen any real development in about a decade. figured someone who might find the environment interesting, might also find a tool which can do infinitely more stuff to your midi or audio, enabling the infusion of much more realtime control and depth of expression, all while breaking the composition process out of the needlessly obsolete 'timeline' aesthetic, on the platform of your choice, even if that platform is a vst plugin host, and for $0 instead of $699, would be worth a mention...

long live logic!!

[nbutter]

hey danv, speaking as a new logic user (and by "new," i mean, only 2 years, so i'm just starting to feel comfortable )...

awesome tutorial - i'm gonna spend some time following it - THANK YOU!

i definitely know that logic is capable of much more than i'm able to use it for, this helps a lot