For recording a band all at once, I want to record different midi inputs at once -- such as a drummer (electronic kit through USB), piano (electronic keyboard through USB), and a saxophone played through a midi controller (USB). Each of these is using a separate sound bank in Logic: drums, piano, sax. Each midi stream needs to be recorded on a separate channel. (Multiple audio channels would, of course, be recorded simultaneously, as well, such as bass, a couple vocals, and guitar.) Can Logic do this? My experience so far is that all midi signals being created at any one time will be recorded on any midi track that is set to record. So, whatever the drummer does will get recorded on the drum track, but whatever the piano player does will ALSO get recorded on the drum track (although it will sound like miscellaneous drums), and everything the midi controller does (a sax line, in this case) will also be recorded on the drum track, also sounding like miscellaneous drums. It will be a total drumming mess, ruining whatever the drummer played. This same mixture of the three midi streams will happen for the piano track and also for the sax track. All three tracks will be garbage. I can only imagine that Logic can route separate midi inputs to separate midi channels quite easily. Please help.

Joe, I'm so glad to reach you. Oh the anguish I've gone through on this! I just read your article. Please let me describe the situation further. What you describe -- MIDI channelizing -- is a solution I tried to pursue, but, as you say, it depends on being able to specify MIDI channels from the devices themselves. My devices should be pretty good -- new Roland drum kit, new 88-key weighted keyboard from Casio, and a standard M-Audio MIDI controller. But I couldn't find how to set each to a different transmitting MIDI channel. (They all connect directly to my Mac Mini via USB.) Here are the exact devices: DRUMS -- Roland TD-1(M)-KV -- https://www.roland.com/us/products/td-1kv/ KEYBOARD -- Casio Privia PX-350M -- https://www.casio-intl.com/mea/en/emi/products/px350m/ MIDI CONTROLLER -- M-Audio Keystation 49e -- https://www.guitarcenter.com/M-Audio/Keystation-49e-USB-MIDI-Controller-Keyboard.gc Is there a way (actually reaching Roland, Casio, and M-Audio???) to find out what MIDI channel these devices transmit on? Couldn't find it in the manuals. Or is there likely some obvious way I haven't discovered to set the channel? As far as I could discover, the devices choose a channel automatically. You address this pitfall in your article. You describe how we might have to use Environment. Please let me list two Environment solutions I've tried so far. - (7 minutes) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Itmnt-BAM6M. This guy figures out a way, using Environment, to individuate the MIDI inputs. But the tracks don't record! MIDI guys can jam together, but nothing will get recorded. After praises in the comments, people start pointing that out. Video is from a couple years ago. - (7 minutes) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ck7mF7B0YXw. Same guy two years later. He gets the separate MIDI tracks to record. I implemented this and was psyched. But guess what? If you add an audio track (I plugged in a guitar), the MIDI all stops recording. (He didn't notice this because he doesn't record audio.) The MIDI tracks are individuated, but they don't record. The audio track records, but that's all. I'm thinking this is the solution you describe at the end of your article. Hopefully I'm wrong! On another YouTube video, I saw a "Channel Splitter" tool in Environment. The guy was teaching how to use Logic as a soundbank for Reaper. I haven't tried that tool yet, and the above videos don't mention it. Your article doesn't list that exact tool. What do you think? Restatement of problem (in my studio) as it currently stands: I can get multiple MIDI devices to record separately simultaneously, but not multiple MIDI devices simultaneously with any AUDIO inputs. It all goes down the drain once audio is added to the jam. Main question: 1) Is there a Logic solution? Or 2) Will I have to do a master/slave thing with Reaper, Ableton, or some other program? (And why hasn't Logic been on this? Seems weird to not be able to record a rock band with a few MIDI inputs real easily.) Thanks so much, again, Joe. Please help me a bit more if possible! Frank

Joe, thanks a million. I REALLLY appreciate you taking the time to check and double-check this. I believe I can dive into it today, but I'm a lot less familiar with everything than you, so I'll have to go slow. It's Friday so I won't have the evening available. But I'll do the full test soon -- this weekend or Monday -- and post an update. THANK YOU, man. So great to know that the channelizing solution should work. (THANK YOU FOR YOUR RESEARCH!!!) Frank SIDE NOTE (key fact in this difficulty): I had never used "External MIDI." It's an option for a track, on the level of "Software Instrument" or "Audio" or "Drummer." I'm pretty sure it's for having Logic control an external MIDI device, maybe on stage. Logic tells the device what notes to play. For this discussion, here's what's so striking: When creating an External MIDI track, the user can specify the exact MIDI device right there in the same window. Turn on my Keystation 49e, boom, there it is, "sb," in a list of devices to choose. Turn on my Roland kit, boom, it's now there, too, "TD-1." In short, Logic is fully capable of recognizing a MIDI device in the same window for "Software Instrument." You can tell Logic, straightforwardly, where to send a MIDI signal, but you can't tell it where to receive one!

Rhythm tracks (drums, bass, etc.) were recorded at 155 BPM at a pro studio, using Logic. The vocalist then recorded vocal tracks at home, using Logic on a different computer, and using a rough mix of the studio session as a guide, imported as Track 1. On the vocalist's home computer, a click wasn't used. The rough mix was imported with the global BPM for the file simply set to the default, 120. Many separate vocal tracks were then recorded, and volume automation was used extensively to sync up the various vocals. All of these vocal tracks, with automation, need to be sent back to the pro studio for mixing. The automation can be printed into the stems, but ideally the automation tracks could be left intact, so the studio engineer can adjust automation as needed. However, if the global BPM is changed to 155, to match the studio's file, the automation remains attached to the 120 BPM grid. That is, the volume automation does not stay with the recorded signals. A YouTube thread indicates a solution for having automation move with tempo. It is to convert track based automation (TBA) to region based automation (RBA), and/or to "unlock the automation folder." But I haven't found any instruction on how to convert TBA to RBA, nor can I find an automation folder. I've tried simply cutting-and-pasting the volume automation (copying it from track-based and pasting into region-based), but this doesn't seem to paste anything. I've never used RBA and this is all new to me. I would indeed have thought that automation would move with any global tempo change by default. Under Functions, I have locked SMPTE, but this makes no difference: the automation stays immobile on the timeline while the audio expands outward as BPM is increased. I'm guessing there's a simple solution. Hope so! Many thanks.

Joe A, what an excellent reply. THANK YOU. I'm waiting for an electrician to stop by in a few minutes, but will get on this later today. Main thing your reply clears up is what is supposed to happen. I may well have some sort of glitch. The evolution of the project does include the potential for glitches: 1) Rhythm tracks recorded in studio away from home (155 BPM, Logic, as described). 2) Vocalist imports rough mix into GARAGEBAND (sorry, I was simplifying), and records many vocal tracks. 3) I work on the file with her in GarageBand, recording more vocals and then adding lots of automation. 4) I notice limitations in GarageBand, so I bring the file over to my studio, Logic Pro X. 5) I do more automation in Logic Pro X. 6) Weird glitches, seemingly from starting in GarageBand, make me decide to reconstitute the file in a new Logic file. 7) For example, I can't monitor a synth instrument while recording it. 8) I first make stems by hand (joining regions from 1111 to the same point on every track). 9) I copy and paste the tracks into the new file. The last three steps aren't entirely relevant, except for that they show I suspect glitches from having started with the GarageBand file. They're not entirely a part of the issue I posted about because, whether I work on the new file or the one I made the stems in, the automation still doesn't expand along with the global tempo shift. Another weird thing (may just show my inexperience) is that, when I copied the stems (track by track) into the new file, you could see the automation, but it looked like it wasn't enabled. 10) When I made the new file, I specified its BPM as 155. This made me think that the automation just wouldn't copy correctly. After coming back to it a day later, I realized that if I changed that new file to 120 BPM, the automation would line up perfectly. I'll go step by step through your description, especially re: using Flex, and see if it was just that that I overlooked, or something else you specify. I've of course attempted to bring Flex into the solution, but I may have done it wrong. Thanks a ton so far! You really addressed everything in my note!

Actually, I think I did all of the automation in Logic at my house, but also recorded a lot of vocal work here. (It was all recorded with 120 BPM in the background.) But the main vocal work was recorded at the vocalist's house in GarageBand. Point being, in Logic (after Garageband), different computer, both recording and automation were done. All of the recorded files (whether recorded in Garageband or Logic) have the same trouble with automation not tracking with tempo changes.

Joe, I was able to get to the file today. I quickly realized there was more to the problem that I hadn't made clear. I did Flex for all of the tracks and, like you said, automation tracked any tempo changes without a hitch. But the speed of the recording increased as well. That's the complicated thing about this situation. All those vocal files I mentioned are at the right speed (right speed to the human ear) (so is the rough mix which is their guide). If you hear them, they sound right, and they sound right because they have no relation whatsoever to the project BPM. The project BPM is 120 (the "BPM" as visible in Logic), but the "real world" BPM is 155 (the BPM that we're tapping our foot to). So the best way to say the problem: We don't want the speed of the audio to change at all. We simply want to change the grid that underlies all of the audio. Automation should start and stop where it always started and stopped -- but in relation to the moments of the real-world song. But if the moments of the automation are tied to a 120 BPM grid, and the moments of the AUDIO are ALSO tied to that 120 grid (even though they're actually proceeding at 155 BPM to the human ear), now we have the problem. The programming of Logic is interpreting everything as first being at 120 and now being expanded to 155. Logic simply speeds up the audio and then the automation tracks along with it. Except, we can't allow the audio to speed up. Ideally we could lift all of that audio (tied to its automation) as if it had no tempo printed on it at all. We lift it, we stick it on a 155 BPM grid, and now we let Logic reinterpret everything with respect to that new grid. But the coding doesn't seem to work that way. The brute force solution I probably need to do is copy and paste all of the tracks into a new 155 BPM file (removing all tempo information first) and then, by hand, move the automation to be in sync. Not hard to do, but a bummer. If I do that, I still have one issue. The automation, when I paste the tracks into the new file, seems disabled. I don't know how to enable it. It looks like faint lines (out of position of course), instead of bold yellow lines with nodes. Thanks for your very clear help thus far, Joe. I did try converting track-based-automation to region-based-automation, but, as you said, it behaved the same.

Joe, Thanks for guiding me through. I'm gonna use the brute force approach, as we touched base on. But I can't figure out the first obstacle. Your automation showed up perfectly yellow with nodes when you copied it, but mine is grayed out. It would seem that the automation is disabled, but no matter what I've tried, I can't get it to turn yellow with nodes. It's just a faint line. There are several discussions I've referred to online, but, as far as I can tell, Logic "thinks" that automation for the track is turned on. If I click on the track, it offers up a new yellow active line. (This doesn't erase the faint grayed-out line; it's still there.) If I go to the mixer view, all of the tracks have green "Read" buttons, not grayed out buttons which would mean automation is disabled. When I right-click the track button in the header, it gives options like "consolidate relative and absolute automation" and "delete all visible automation on track." If I select either of those, nothing happens. Truly nothing, because if I go up to the Edit menu to undo, it doesn't even show that I did anything. However, in that same right-click menu under the Track button, if I select "Delete All Automation," the gray line will in fact disappear. That's something, hallelujah.... So I know Logic thinks SOMETHING is there, SOME form of automation. Well, perhaps the volume automation is actually on? Nope. If I play the track, the volume fader does nothing. Would love your help. Frank

I'd like to attach a screen shot here (showing the grayed out automation lines), but I can't figure out how. The only buttons are "Submit Post" and "Attach a video." If I drag the photo into this text space, or into the space that "Attach a video" offers, the photo expands to take up the whole screen and there are no buttons to push to send it.

Joe, thanks. I think I'm looking in the places you're saying. When I look at the main track, we see the gray, actually brownish, automation line. At 155 BPM, it's way out of place, to the left of the signals its supposed to modify. But at 120, it moves into position. We see the brownish faded line on the main track, but if I click the triangle to open up the companion automation track, there's no brownish line visible there. This is true no matter what parameter I select: Volume Absolute, Volume Relative, Pan Absolute, Pan Relative, Solo, or Mute. A new horizontal line is introduced for each of these parameters, but nothing that shows the faded brownish automation data. That line remains visible on the main track, but only there. If I select these same parameters using the button on the main track, the results are the same. New faded horizontal lines are introduced, but none of the parameters turn the brownish faded line into an active line. On the main track, if I change the Track button to Region, the brownish faded line disappears. On the main track, if I disable the Track button, the brownish faded line becomes thinner, but doesn't disappear. This would suggest that Logic does read it as Track automation. There are several other buttons in the header. If I click, I, R, S, M, or H, nothing happens to the brownish faded automation line. This file was created in order to reconstitute a file that had originated in GarageBand. The very original recordings were done in Logic in a pro studio, 155 BPM, but the singer only had GarageBand and she simply imported the engineer's rough mix as Track 1 and then recorded lots of vocals. This file was then brought over to my studio, and saved in Logic, where more vocals were recorded on it, and all of the automation, with the file still at 120 BPM. Because I couldn't monitor MIDI instruments while recording them, couldn't monitor guitar effects while recording them -- though I could hear the dry guitar -- couldn't record more than one track at once, Iet alone the problems with BPM 120 vs 155, I decided to reconstitute the track in a new Logic file. As the most effective way of dealing with the BPM problem, I made all of the tracks the same length in the converted GB file by putting dummy audio at the beginning and end of each track and Joining the regions. I then simply copy-and-pasted each track from the suspect Logic file into the fresh Logic file. The active automation, heavy yellow, with nodes, is definitely still in the suspect Logic file. Perhaps there is a more certain way of copy-and-pasting the automation from each track of that file onto the tracks of the fresh file. In any case, whatever the brownish faded automation line is being understood as by Logic, it definitely is there. It disappears if I "Delete All Automation," it becomes lighter if I disable Track automation. But it can't be selected with the mouse. If it can somehow be made active in that file, presumably it can be copied onto the correct parameter. Maybe I'm not looking in the right place. Sure do appreciate your help. Frank