Logic Pro X: A Guide to Multitrack MIDI

Recording
askaudiomag.com by Joe Albano July 6, 2015

Logic Pro X has simplifed the process of recording multiple MIDI tracks. That
being said, you need to know the correct settings and quirks which is why Joe
Albano is on-hand to show you how.
We all know that Logic Pro X is one of the most powerful and flexible DAWs out
there, especially when it comes to MIDI. Along with its large collection of Virtual
Instruments, Logic brings sophisticated MIDI editing capabilities, and, for the
real tweakheads out there, extensive MIDI processing, courtesy of new features

like MIDI Scripting, as well as long-term ones like the (MIDI programming)
Environment. That makes it all the more curious when something thats often
simple to set up in other, often less capable workstations, is, to put it politely, a
little less logicalperhaps a bit more convoluted than it needs to bein Logic.
Recording multitrack MIDI performances can sometimes be one of those tasks.
Now, to be fair, it has gotten much, much easier in Logic X, and certain
configurations that used to require a trip to the Environment can now be set up
easily in the main Track (Arrange) window. But there are still scenarios that may
require a little tweaking. Im going to lay out the basic approaches in Logic to
recording multiple MIDI Instruments at the same time.

Layering vs Multi-Player modes

There are two ways you might go about recording multitrack MIDI in Logic. One
scenario is when you want to layer several Instruments together for a big, rich
sound, play the combination live, triggering three or four different Instruments
together, and record the results. There are a couple of ways to do this, and, in
Logic X, its much simpler than ever.
The other scenario is what Logic terms Multiplayer Recording. This is where you
have several (i.e. two or three) MIDI musicians performing together live, playing
on separate MIDI controllers (like keyboards and MIDI drums), each triggering
a different Virtual Instrument in Logic, and you want to record them together,
ending up with individual MIDI parts on the individual Instrument tracks when
you hit Stop. Thats also much more logical in Logic X, but its still not as
straightforward, in every situation, as it could be. Ill come back to thatfirst,
lets take a look at two ways to record layered Instruments.

Layers of sound
The easiest way to layer up Virtual Instruments is to simply record-enable
several MIDI tracks at once.

Fig 1
Several Logic Instrument tracks record-enabled for a fat, layered sound.
When you play, youll hear them all, and when you record, youll get a MIDI
Region on the selected track, and Alias Regions on the other record-enabled
tracks.

Fig 2 Four
layered Instruments, with a recorded MID Region on the top track, and Aliases
on the other tracks
Audio: The four Instruments, separately, then layered together, as they were
played and recorded, as above:
Alias Regions dont contain any data, theyre just pointers to the main Region, so
if you want to make edits to the MIDI data (quantize, pitch changes, etc), you
only have to tweak that one Region, and the other Instruments will follow. But
you do need to keep the Aliases together with the main Regions to preserve the
layering.
Now, this is pretty straightforward, but it is contingent on a particular setting in
the Project Settings for that song. Under File > Project Settings >
Recordingyoull find an option entitled Auto demix by channel if multitrack
recording.

Fig 3 The
Project Settings option Auto demix by channel if multitrack recording, which
must be set Off for layering, and On for multiplayer recording
This must be un-checked for the layering of Instruments to work as I just
describedthat is the default, but since its a Project Setting, it might be on when
you open up an older song, or get a Project from a collaborator. (This option is
actually for the other scenario, multiplayer recording, which Ill come back to in
a minute).
An even easier way to play and record multiple Instruments is by combining
them into a Track Stack. A Track Stack, as you may know, puts several tracks
under the same umbrella, making it easier to treat then as a unit. There are two
typesFolder Stacks, and Summing Stacksyou just select the tracks you want
to include, right-click, choose Create Track Stack (Shift-Command-D),
and select the type you want.

Fig 4
Creating a (Summing) Track Stack
With Folder stacks, recording layered instruments is the same as I just went
through, but Summing Stacks take a slightly different approach. A Summing
Stack creates an Auxthe Track Stack masterand re-routes the audio outputs
of all the tracks you add to it through that Aux. But it has its own Record-Enable
button, and routes any incoming MIDI to all the Tracks within it. When you
record, you get only one MIDI Region, on that Track Stack master track, but all
the Instruments within the Stack will play from that Regiona much more
elegant approach.

Fig 5 A
Summing (Track) Stack, with four (layered) Instruments all receiving MIDI data
from the MIDI Region on the Track Stack master track
Fig 5 A Summing (Track) Stack, with four (layered) Instruments all receiving
MIDI data from the MIDI Region on the Track Stack master track
You can also close the Stack so only the Stack master track is showing
(independently for the Arrange and Mix displays), to consolidate space in a busy
mix/arrangementthe internal tracks still play normally. Summing Stacks are
also great for a multi-Instrument like a big drum kit, with different drums in
different Instruments.

The band plays on

The other MIDI multitrack scenario, Multiplayer Recording, is also easy enough
to implement now, in Logic X, but it is a bit less elegant. Again, this is when you
have a MIDI band, of several players on individual controllers, triggering
different Logic Instruments, and you want to record them playing live, ending up
with separate MIDI Regions for each Instrument/track. Many DAWs simply let
you choose a different MIDI input (from the available MIDI devices) for each

Virtual Instrument track, arm them all, and Bobs Your Uncle. But Logic is a
little more restrictive..
Logic forces you to channelize, in order to assign the different MIDI controllers
to different Instrument tracks. This means utilizing the old-fashioned MIDI
Channel data thats still part of every MIDI message (which Logic conveniently
ignores when recording one Instrument at a time). There are 16 MIDI Channels
in the spec, and each Logic Instrument must be set to receive MIDI data on a
different Channel number. This is set in the Track Inspector pane, on the left of
the Main window.

Fig 6
Setting the (receiving) MIDI Channel for a Logic Instrument, in the Track
Inspector pane
The MIDI players MIDI controllers must then be set to transmit their MIDI data
on the correct corresponding Channels, to address the various Instruments
separately. And, finally, that Project Setting you saw earlier, Auto demix by
channel if multitrack recording (Fig 3), must now be enabled (checked) for this
to work properly (remember, I mentioned that it was intended for multiplayer
recording).

Demix for Success

When all this is set up, you can once again record-enable several Instrument
tracks. The correct player will now be routed to each Instrument (independently,
with no layering), and you can record them live, as a group. During recording,
youll see only one MIDI Region being recorded, but when the recordings done,
and you hit Stop, the MIDI (performance) data will automatically be split up by
MIDI Channel, and different Regions will appear correctly on each matching
Instrument track. These are independent regionsno Aliasesand the result is
the same as if youd recorded the parts one by one.

Fig 7 Three
MIDI Instrument tracks recorded together live, as described above
Even though this is less straightforward, conceptually, than the simpler MIDIinput-per-track method, it does work well. The only wrinkle is if you find
yourself with one or more MIDI controllers that dont transmit on any channel
except Channel 1unlikely nowadays, but still possible, especially with some
older gear or certain consumer-oriented MIDI piano controllers. In that case,
you may have to pay a visit to the (sometimes scary) MIDI Environments Click
& Ports layer, where you can grab the individual controllers MIDI data streams

from the Physical Input object (which represents the actual MIDI hardware
devices that Logic sees hooked up to your computer), and re-channelize the
incoming MIDI data there, with real-time Transformers, before sending it all on
to the Sequencer Input object, which represents (all) the selected, record-armed
Instrument tracks.

Fig 8 MIDI
Data from three MIDI controllers, being channelized in Logics Enviroment for
multiplayer recording, before being sent on the Sequencer Input, which will
distribute the data from the different performers to the correct Instrument
tracks with the matching MIDI Channels
Fig 8 MIDI Data from three MIDI controllers, being channelized in Logics
Enviroment for multiplayer recording, before being sent on the Sequencer Input,
which will distribute the data from the different performers to the correct
Instrument tracks with the matching MIDI Channels
Fortunately, this is not too likely a scenario these days, and, though its easy
enough to do, its even easier if you can just set things up directly in the main
window, as described.
So, thats a quick look into the world of multitrack MIDI recording in Logic.
Long-time Logic users have always considered certain aspects of this to be kind

of a kludge, but Logic Pro X has taken significant steps to simplify these
procedures, so, once youre familiar with the necessary settings and occasional
quirks, it should be easy enough to either dial up big fat layers of sound, or
record that slammin live MIDI band, with a minimum of fuss.
askaudiomag.com by Joe Albano July 6, 2015