Lotus Lake
New Member
Hi folks,
I've been having some serious issues with automation/MIDI writing in Logic Pro 10.4.1. I think there may be several issues I'm encountering, some of which may be a potential misunderstanding of how Logic 10.4 handles MIDI CC Region Automation vs Track Automation, and some of which seem like they might be bugs that are happening since Logic 10.4.
(I used letters to break this up so anyone responding can use them to help refer to specific sections.)
Okay. I have a instance of Kontakt (5.8) player on a instrument track in Logic Pro X (10.4.1, macOS 10.13.5) with a Spitfire Chamber Strings Cello instrument loaded and I'm using the default MIDI mappings with a CME UF80 keyboard. I record one take playing a few notes and moving the mod wheel, which is sending CC1 and controlling the dynamics.
A
I stop and play back the region with the Piano Roll open and the automation lane visible at the bottom. In Region mode I can use the "Cycle Through Used Parameters" shortcut to see what I've written, and it switches between Note Velocity and Ch. 1: Modulation, both of which have visible MIDI data, which makes sense.
When I switch to Track mode at the bottom of the Piano Roll, however, it shows me "Dynamics - d - Celli - Long CS", as though I've written automation here but there's no visible track automation information written on the lane. When I play back the region with Track mode visible, I can see the fader under "Dynamics - d - Celli - Long CS" moving, even though there's no Track automation written here. It's following the information I wrote with the modulation wheel's MIDI data in the Region, which makes sense, but I don't understand why Logic is sort of behaving like there's track automation there.
B
Much more frustrating is that when I have the new "Autoselect Automation Parameter in Read Mode" option checked and I put the automation lane in Region mode to try and edit my mod wheel CC data with my mouse while the track is playing, the lane keeps switching back to Track mode: "Dynamics - d - Celli - Long CS" making it impossible to make edits to the MIDI data in real time with the autoselect option on. So I'll turn that option off.
C
Next step! Im not quite happy with my mod wheel performance on the dynamics, so I want to re-record it. If I'm in Track Automation and put the track in Touch mode and play back the region while moving the mod wheel slowly up and down, the data it writes is not what I'm playing. It has some strange ups and downs. I'm pretty sure what's happening here is that I still have the mod wheel MIDI data embedded in the region that's it's reading at the same time that I'm trying to write conflicting information about the dynamics in the Track Automation. If that's the case, that makes sense. So I'll go back a step and pretend I didn't try to write the automation in Track mode.
D
Instead, I'll try and re-record my mod wheel performance in Region mode. Putting the Track into Touch mode doesn't work in Region mode (I guess because of the distinction between MIDI data and DAW automation?). So the only way to do this, it seems, is to hit record and overwrite my MIDI region. (I have overlapping MIDI regions set to "Merge" in my preferences.) So I hit record and start to move my mod wheel when my first note hits, but when I do, the notes and my prior mod wheel data disappear from the piano roll, so I can't see what my curve was before, or where my notes are going to start and stop, which makes it tough to time my performance right.
So I resort to using the pencil to draw in my new curves, which is fine, but I feel like there should be a way to rewrite my performance with the mod wheel easily.
E
I close the piano roll, and now I'm just looking at my region on my track. I have automation visible, and I'm back in Track Automation mode, and my track is in Touch mode so that I can write some other parameters. The current parameter being shown is still "Dynamics - d - Celli - Long CS", from before when Logic made this track automation parameter visible after my initial MIDI CC mod wheel performance. But, like before, there's no data written on that track. I start to play the track back, and Logic start's writing information into the "Dynamics - d - Celli - Long CS" lane COMPLETELY by itself. I'm watching it, and it's totally following the information that's in the Ch. 1: Modulation lane, and writing a (strangely, really rough and blocky) version of it. Remember before, up in section A, that after I wrote my initial Ch. 1: Modulation information in the region, Logic for some reason made "Dynamics - d - Celli - Long CS" visible in the Track Automation lane. There wasn't any data there, but the fader in the automation lane under the Piano Roll would move. So now, when I'm in touch mode, that fader that's moving is writing that data into the Track Automation. Not cool!
Even a little weirder about this is that when it's in the middle of automatically writing this data on its own, if I switch from Track mode to Region mode, and then back to Track mode, there's a big gap in the data where it didn't write anything while I was in region mode. So it's only doing this when I'm in track mode watching the fader move.
F
I have a hunch that there's a conflict between Logic's host automation and MIDI CC data happening here, so trying to solve this issue I open Kontakt and go to the Host Automation settings. The first 14 are assigned to controls in my Spitfire Cello, which Logic has done automatically. I delete the first one, which is dynamics. This totally solves the problem of the automatic writing of Track dynamics information. Now when I play back in Touch mode, nothing happens unless I hit a control. That's good, but does that mean I have to delete the host automation parameters from every instrument before I use it? That definitely doesn't feel right.
If I'm remembering correctly, these issues just started happening after I upgraded 10.4, so it seems like they could be related to a conflict between Host Automation and MIDI automation. But I don't know because I've never had to go into the Host Automation section of Kontakt before, so I don't really understand how that section works. I always used the built in MIDI CC mappings for virtual instruments until now, and I never seemed to have any problems like this until the reorganization of Track/Region/MIDI data in Logic 10.4. Is there a place in Kontakt or Logic where you can globally remove Host Automation to avoid this problem?
Lastly, (I promise this is the last thing) is that this really all started for me after 10.4 when I was pretty sure I was seeing Kontakt instruments receiving MIDI data when I wasn't sending any I would just play back and see several MIDI channels' red lights constantly flashing in the MIDI Automation menu. It was really intermittent, like it would happen in one project but not another. And if I would record on a track while it was happening a bunch of information would be written by itself. After really digging into this problem with the stuff above, I'm wondering now if it was related to this, where maybe there was some automation information that had been written without me knowing it that was causing the problem, just like above. It's totally possible, but if anyone out there has had Kontakt writing on its own or receiving MIDI messages like that, I'd love to hear about it.
All of this, by the way, has been duplicated in two totally separate studio setups with different sample libraries, and I've definitely tried removing all external MIDI controllers from the equation to make sure those weren't causing the problems.PLEASE. School me on something if I'm totally missing part of the equation, or share any similar experiences you've had. This is driving me completely crazy.
I've been having some serious issues with automation/MIDI writing in Logic Pro 10.4.1. I think there may be several issues I'm encountering, some of which may be a potential misunderstanding of how Logic 10.4 handles MIDI CC Region Automation vs Track Automation, and some of which seem like they might be bugs that are happening since Logic 10.4.
(I used letters to break this up so anyone responding can use them to help refer to specific sections.)
Okay. I have a instance of Kontakt (5.8) player on a instrument track in Logic Pro X (10.4.1, macOS 10.13.5) with a Spitfire Chamber Strings Cello instrument loaded and I'm using the default MIDI mappings with a CME UF80 keyboard. I record one take playing a few notes and moving the mod wheel, which is sending CC1 and controlling the dynamics.
A
I stop and play back the region with the Piano Roll open and the automation lane visible at the bottom. In Region mode I can use the "Cycle Through Used Parameters" shortcut to see what I've written, and it switches between Note Velocity and Ch. 1: Modulation, both of which have visible MIDI data, which makes sense.
When I switch to Track mode at the bottom of the Piano Roll, however, it shows me "Dynamics - d - Celli - Long CS", as though I've written automation here but there's no visible track automation information written on the lane. When I play back the region with Track mode visible, I can see the fader under "Dynamics - d - Celli - Long CS" moving, even though there's no Track automation written here. It's following the information I wrote with the modulation wheel's MIDI data in the Region, which makes sense, but I don't understand why Logic is sort of behaving like there's track automation there.
B
Much more frustrating is that when I have the new "Autoselect Automation Parameter in Read Mode" option checked and I put the automation lane in Region mode to try and edit my mod wheel CC data with my mouse while the track is playing, the lane keeps switching back to Track mode: "Dynamics - d - Celli - Long CS" making it impossible to make edits to the MIDI data in real time with the autoselect option on. So I'll turn that option off.
C
Next step! Im not quite happy with my mod wheel performance on the dynamics, so I want to re-record it. If I'm in Track Automation and put the track in Touch mode and play back the region while moving the mod wheel slowly up and down, the data it writes is not what I'm playing. It has some strange ups and downs. I'm pretty sure what's happening here is that I still have the mod wheel MIDI data embedded in the region that's it's reading at the same time that I'm trying to write conflicting information about the dynamics in the Track Automation. If that's the case, that makes sense. So I'll go back a step and pretend I didn't try to write the automation in Track mode.
D
Instead, I'll try and re-record my mod wheel performance in Region mode. Putting the Track into Touch mode doesn't work in Region mode (I guess because of the distinction between MIDI data and DAW automation?). So the only way to do this, it seems, is to hit record and overwrite my MIDI region. (I have overlapping MIDI regions set to "Merge" in my preferences.) So I hit record and start to move my mod wheel when my first note hits, but when I do, the notes and my prior mod wheel data disappear from the piano roll, so I can't see what my curve was before, or where my notes are going to start and stop, which makes it tough to time my performance right.
So I resort to using the pencil to draw in my new curves, which is fine, but I feel like there should be a way to rewrite my performance with the mod wheel easily.
E
I close the piano roll, and now I'm just looking at my region on my track. I have automation visible, and I'm back in Track Automation mode, and my track is in Touch mode so that I can write some other parameters. The current parameter being shown is still "Dynamics - d - Celli - Long CS", from before when Logic made this track automation parameter visible after my initial MIDI CC mod wheel performance. But, like before, there's no data written on that track. I start to play the track back, and Logic start's writing information into the "Dynamics - d - Celli - Long CS" lane COMPLETELY by itself. I'm watching it, and it's totally following the information that's in the Ch. 1: Modulation lane, and writing a (strangely, really rough and blocky) version of it. Remember before, up in section A, that after I wrote my initial Ch. 1: Modulation information in the region, Logic for some reason made "Dynamics - d - Celli - Long CS" visible in the Track Automation lane. There wasn't any data there, but the fader in the automation lane under the Piano Roll would move. So now, when I'm in touch mode, that fader that's moving is writing that data into the Track Automation. Not cool!
Even a little weirder about this is that when it's in the middle of automatically writing this data on its own, if I switch from Track mode to Region mode, and then back to Track mode, there's a big gap in the data where it didn't write anything while I was in region mode. So it's only doing this when I'm in track mode watching the fader move.
F
I have a hunch that there's a conflict between Logic's host automation and MIDI CC data happening here, so trying to solve this issue I open Kontakt and go to the Host Automation settings. The first 14 are assigned to controls in my Spitfire Cello, which Logic has done automatically. I delete the first one, which is dynamics. This totally solves the problem of the automatic writing of Track dynamics information. Now when I play back in Touch mode, nothing happens unless I hit a control. That's good, but does that mean I have to delete the host automation parameters from every instrument before I use it? That definitely doesn't feel right.
If I'm remembering correctly, these issues just started happening after I upgraded 10.4, so it seems like they could be related to a conflict between Host Automation and MIDI automation. But I don't know because I've never had to go into the Host Automation section of Kontakt before, so I don't really understand how that section works. I always used the built in MIDI CC mappings for virtual instruments until now, and I never seemed to have any problems like this until the reorganization of Track/Region/MIDI data in Logic 10.4. Is there a place in Kontakt or Logic where you can globally remove Host Automation to avoid this problem?
Lastly, (I promise this is the last thing) is that this really all started for me after 10.4 when I was pretty sure I was seeing Kontakt instruments receiving MIDI data when I wasn't sending any I would just play back and see several MIDI channels' red lights constantly flashing in the MIDI Automation menu. It was really intermittent, like it would happen in one project but not another. And if I would record on a track while it was happening a bunch of information would be written by itself. After really digging into this problem with the stuff above, I'm wondering now if it was related to this, where maybe there was some automation information that had been written without me knowing it that was causing the problem, just like above. It's totally possible, but if anyone out there has had Kontakt writing on its own or receiving MIDI messages like that, I'd love to hear about it.
All of this, by the way, has been duplicated in two totally separate studio setups with different sample libraries, and I've definitely tried removing all external MIDI controllers from the equation to make sure those weren't causing the problems.PLEASE. School me on something if I'm totally missing part of the equation, or share any similar experiences you've had. This is driving me completely crazy.
Last edited: