Logic Pro 8 soundcard advice

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eliza73

Logician
I use Logic for film music creation and have been using the basic soundcard that comes with my mac but obviously need to get a proper one. I really don't know what to get and any advice would be greatly appreciated. I used to use audiowerks with my old mac G4.
I don't need multiple inputs or outputs - only record one voice instrument in at a time because I go to a professional recording studio for bigger recordings. But I want to run logic well, also with kontakt, and be able to record from the computer back in.
I have a mac pro mac 10.5.6, 2x2.66 GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon
2 GB 667 MHz DDR@ FB-DIMM
 
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What features do you expect? Do you already have a little mixer/preamp to feed the soundcard or should it come with some of those?

- Sascha
 
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HI thanks Sascha. I have a little mackie mixer that my keyboard and computer goes through to an amp. I have to admit I'm a bit confused as to what the soundcard actually entails! I want I think 2 in 2 or 4 out. I want to have good sound, record in, and be able to record one sound that's coming out of the mac back into logic. Hope this all makes a bit of sense. I've used logic for years never quite understanding some of the technical stuff! Also I dont' know if it the soundcard is a factor in this but I just bought the kontakt sampler so that I could get a whole lot of better sounds but it just crashes logic when I try and use it within logic. Maybe that's a case of a soundcard?
Thanks very much, eliza
 
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also just to say maybe it's an audio interface I need, dont' really mind I have something external or internal. At the moment the midi connects via a mark of the unicorn midi express xt which I've had for years.
 
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I think the best idea would be to get a small PCI interface, such as M-Audios Audiophile. They are known for stability and good drivers, and with the latest models, the converters seem to be quite decent, too. And they're very affordable, too. Also, they offer very low latencies, which is great if you plan to do some software audio monitoring.
In general, it's a 2 in/out card with additional MIDI I/O and digital I/O (so if you really needed more outs, you could use the digital outs and run them through an external converter). Your Mackie mixer should be happily feeding it.

Fwiw, PCI solutions are still a little better in terms of latency and CPU load than comparable USB/FW things. And with a desktop computer it really shouldn't matter much (would be another thing if you also wanted to use the interface with a laptop), more to the opposite as there's no additional device requiring space.

Regarding your problems with Kontakt, hm, I'm sure it's got nothing to do with the soundcard. I'm using it as well, both through the internal interface of my Macbook and through various external audio interfaces.
When exactly do those crashes happen?
Also, there's a public beta for version 3.5 released just a few days ago, maybe you should give that a try.

Cheers
Sascha
 
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It's just a thought, and I'm sure some will probably agree, there are better solutions but if you're not doing field recording or not wanting to make a huge potential investment in something like an RME card etc

you might have a look at the following

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/audio/audio_interfaces_control_surfaces/usb/

the usb mic and line in plugs I can vouch for as working exceptionally well for in room use if your just looking to pipe something in quick and easy, say one instrument and a mic and just move along. Personally I do use both and 003 and an RME interface, but occassionally when i've had a quick pick moment where i couldn't roll down to the studio and setup (or didn't want to) I've hooked both into an MBP and been very pleasantly surprised at the results
 
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Hi guys, thanks so much for the replies, it's really useful advice. I think the M-Audios Audiophiles seems to be the ticket.
As far as the kontakt issue goes - Logic doesn't seem to recognise it as an audio unit and then when I try and locate it and validate it through the audio units manager it crashes the validation and logic so I haven't been able to use it within Logic at all yet. Where is the best place to keep Kontakt in the computer?
Thanks a milllion, Eliza
 
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eliza73 said:
Where is the best place to keep Kontakt in the computer?
Click to expand...

I keep all my Native Instruments stuff in a subfolder of my program folder (NI allows for creating subfolders during installation), the component file is obviously in disk/library/audio/plugins/components.
My samples are located on a separate partition.

Really, make sure you've got the latest update. And also make sure to repair your disk permissions before installing it.

- Sascha
 
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ilLOGICalMETHODS said:
I think you can run Kontakt as a standalone. This would prevent compatibility conflicts.
Click to expand...

Yeah, but it'd contradict the concept of a total recall system. And it'd also ake using Logics effects quite more of a thing to have some real thoughts about.
Let alone it'd require some wicked virtual MIDI routing via the IAC bus.

- Sascha
 
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eliza73 said:
As far as the kontakt issue goes - Logic doesn't seem to recognise it as an audio unit and then when I try and locate it and validate it through the audio units manager it crashes the validation and logic so I haven't been able to use it within Logic at all yet.
Click to expand...

Which versions of Logic, Kontakt, OSX and Pro App Support are you using?


kind regards

Mark
 
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Hello Mark,
I'm using: Logic Pro 8.0.2
Kontakt 3.0.0
OSX 10.5.6. And I'm afraid I don't know what Pro App Support is!
Thanks a lot, eliza
 
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If you're online with your studio machine, the automatic software updates should show you whether your version of Pro Application support is up to date. In case it's not, you may want to update. You find it in the Apple menu.

As another idea: You may want to download Onyx from here (it's free):
http://www.titanium.free.fr/pgs/english.html
Run all of the maintainance scripts (read what the descriptons say before doing so, but usually the standard settings are fine, unless you have lots of stuff in your Finder sidebar, which, by default, will be removed). Might take quite a while but it's really an excellent application.
After (or even before) that you may want to manually remove the Kontakt component. It's in library/audio/plugins/components. Also, just to make sure, remove the Kontakt standalone, which should be somewhere in your applications folder
And you may as well want to remove the Kontakt 3 plist file, you'll find it under library/preferences, it's called "com.native-instruments.Kontakt3.plist".
Then you may want to re-install Kontakt (no need to reinstall the library, you can keep it where it is and re-assign the path after the installation) and re-authorize it. Try to start Kontakt in standalone mode to make sure authorization worked. Then install the latest Kontakt update (as said, you may even want to go for the 3.5 public beta, which should be available when you log into your Native Instruments account).
When done with all that, start Logic and see what happens.

There are certain quirks with Kontakt and Logic, but it not passing AU validation at all has most likely to do with the plist file being sort of wrecked up, perhaps due to whatever initial crash that you apparently have experienced.
Fwiw, it's always a good idea to open all NI programs in standalone mode first, before you load the plugin version for the first time.

After all, this sounds like quite some work, but what'll take the most time is Onyx cleaning up your system - might as well be an hour or so, just make sure you've got no computer work to do in that time.

- Sascha
 
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eliza73 said:
Kontakt 3.0.0
Click to expand...


Hi Eliza

The current release version of Kontakt is 3.0.2.004 - I suggest you run NI's Service Center and update your Kontakt to the current version. Otherwise you are fine with 8.0.2 and 10.5.6. It's seems a little strange that Kontakt won't AU Validate, but try the update first and see if that solves this.


eliza73 said:
And I'm afraid I don't know what Pro App Support is!
Thanks a lot, eliza
Click to expand...

http://www.apple.com/logicstudio/download/

New in Pro Applications Update 2008-05
Pro Applications Update 2008-05 is a revision to Final Cut Studio 2.0. This update includes Color 1.0.4. The software addresses general performance issues and improves overall stability.
Click to expand...

It is generally a good idea to always have the latest pro app support installed when you are running any Apple Pro Apps.

Oh, and Sascha just mentioned something important - you should definitely run any newly installed or updated NI software in standalone mode first before trying to load it in logic. In fact, if you use 3rd party commercial libraries (I have EWQLSO Platinum and the Chris Hein horns amongst others) you have to load a preset of one of these in standalone mode before running them in logic in order to activate the authorisation.

kind regards

Mark
 
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