Logic Pro 8 Help! Using Logic and/or Mainstage as live back-up

[ricklaw123]

I have been trying to get answers on this for about a month now and am at my whit's end!

I want to perform (guitar and vocals) live using midi instrument tracks as back-ups. I would like the "live" audio tracks to send midi instructions to both my NI Guitar Rig 3 as well as my Digi-Tech Vocalist Live 4 so that as I play along to the tracks (mostly drums and bass), my outboard effects can change settings automatically. i.e. Guitar effects, vocal settings and lights change according to automation signals from Logic. I was told (or at least it was my understanding), by an "Apple Genuis" yesterday that I would be best to do this via Mainstage. I asked them specifically "I can load my Logic tracks into Mainstage and that will control my effects and play the tracks?" However, in RTFM (Reading The F'n Manual), it clearly states the Mainstage does not send ANY midi signals. Obviously, I'm pretty new to this computer doohickey thing (Macbook Pro 2.2 Ghz) but have used it to process my guitar sound live quite successfully via Guitar Rig 3 (with Rig Kontrol).

I'm not a keyboard (piano) guy whatsoever and am really finding this to be quite a daunting endeavor and I'm thinking "This shouldn't be this difficult!" Any help or tips as to where I might find help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Per Boysen]

Hi,

Since you want to sequence the patch changes as well I suggest you look into using Performances in Logic. Set up your NI Guitar Rig sound patches as channel strips in Logic and save the channel strips as perfomances ("Channel strip local menu/Save as Performance"). The hook with performances is that they load to the selected track according to MIDI Program Change number coming in over MIDI Channel 1. So this gives, you can use a midi track in the arrange window to through out MIDI regions containing the corresponding MIDI Program Change number events at strategic spots. Set this track to output the PC to OS X IAC Bus and the selected track's channel strip will immediately change to the one saved to the corresponding (Performance) number.

I have personally used this system on stage back in Logic 7, but gave it up when Apple dropped MIDI Clock slave sync, which my system depended on.

 

[Peter Ostry]

I would like the "live" audio tracks to send midi instructions to both my NI Guitar Rig 3 as well as my Digi-Tech Vocalist ...

Mainstage is not a sequencer, there is no timeline nor a track where you could put your MIDI instructions. Mainstage expects you to switch sounds on demand. For automatic actions and sequence-related stuff, use Logic.

In addition to Per's suggestions: In Logic you can have one or more MIDI tracks with your messages for the external devices. Route them to the individual devices and they will automatically change settings while the playback runs.

I was told (or at least it was my understanding), by an "Apple Genuis" yesterday that I would be best to do this via Mainstage.

Only if you change patches and all your hardware settings on demand, by stepping on a controller or sending MIDI otherwise. Mainstage as a live application expects to be controlled. It does not do anything on its own.

I asked them specifically "I can load my Logic tracks into Mainstage and that will control my effects and play the tracks?" However, in RTFM (Reading The F'n Manual), it clearly states the Mainstage does not send ANY midi signals.

a) You cannot load Logic tracks into Mainstage. In Mainstage 2 you can play audio files.
b) There are no tracks in neither Mainstage version that can send MIDI events themselves.
c) Mainstage 1 has no MIDI out. Mainstage 2 can send MIDI messages on demand.

Doesn't that hurt? 🙂

 

[ricklaw123]

Thank you for replying Per and Peter! Yes Peter, it does hurt! hehehe But it has been a problem finding answers that should be easy...I know it has a lot to do with being new to all this and not asking the right questions. One problem that I am having with using Logic as a sequencer is that it will occasionally stop playing and give me a warning that the soundcard is overloaded and could not process all the tracks. Obviously, in a live situation, this cannot happen. Thinking that this was a hardware problem (possibly I needed a bigger CPU) was the original reason that I was in the Apple Store. The girl checked my computer and said all was OK hardware-wise. She thought it might be a software issue and asked the "Logic" girl to take a look. Of course in the store the song ran fine! (UGH!!) The Logic girl said it was because, as I was playing the tracks, Logic would re-load the effects on top of each other and this was the cause of the overload. I asked "Why?" and she didn't know. Is this normal for Logic?

Is there a program or sequencer, piece of hardware anything that would be better than Logic for this purpose (playing live)? I notice that it takes a bit of time to upload my songs and would like to be able to play 2-3 in a row but this lag time makes that seemingly impossible.

I've been trying to track down the info but unless you know exactly what all the terms are for the equipment...I apologize for not knowing this stuff but at 43 it's quite a bit to get a grasp on.

Thank you again
Rick

 

[ricklaw123]

Oh and the Logic girl also suggested that Freezing tracks would help this overload situation as well.

Rick

 

[ricklaw123]

System Overload.
The audio engine was not able to process all required data in time.
(-10011)

This is the warning I get and then there is a "continue" button to click.

 

[Patrick Randall]

System Overload.
The audio engine was not able to process all required data in time.
(-10011)

This is the warning I get and then there is a "continue" button to click.

Wow - I sometimes get these in my Logic 5.5 (fast, lean PC of course) setup - I'd assumed that current Logic versions were well over this - not true?