Multiple tracks for one Ultrabeat Instrument question...

[weeddigger]

I want to be able to have mutliple tracks on the arrange page that play sounds from one Ultrabeat kit. I opened up UB as a multi-timbral instrument, I lay down different sequences on each track, and everything seems groovy, but... The manual, pg. 186 says:

"the software instrument inserted in the instrument channel must be multi-timbral for this to be useful. None of the included Logic Pro instruments are multi-timbral"

...

Now, am I just not reading this right, or is the manual not accurate?

I seem to be getting what I wanted, which is to not have to have multiple Ultrabeat instances open in an effort to split up each voice to a seperate track. The mixer is responding how I think it should respond. One UB channel, that I can open auxes on as part of a multi-output UB.




Thanks for your time.

[Stayboy Stereo]

Hi Weeddigger-
When you create a new Ultrabeat, you do it as a multi-instrument, right? (i think it's multi-instrument; i'm not in front of logic right now.) So, when you open the mixer, you see a little "+" sign on the lower part of the Ultrabeat strip, right?
Click that once, & it creates a new aux. Then, go up & assign a voice in the instrument to that new aux (3-4).
Now, i've never done this before, so don't know if it works, but you should be able to create a new track from the mixer pulldown from the new aux channel that you just created. Does that work/help at all?

I'm also not sure of this, but i think you should be able to split/demix a pattern that you've dragged into the arrange window from your ultrabeat instrument.

Let me know if i'm full of sh*!t or not
cheers

stuart

[CCTMusic]

Hi

You are confusing "Multi-Timbral" and Multi-Output channel!

Multi-Timbral:

Plays more than one sound (eg piano, bass, banjo...) on separate MIDI Channels.
This is like having several synths in one box.

There are only two multi-timbral plug-ins in Logic 8.


Multi-Output

One 'Instrument' can route sounds (kick, snare in the case of Ultrabeat) out through different audio outputs. In Logic, this is done with 'Multi-Output' plug-ins. The outputs are accessed using Aux channels in the mixer.


There is only one multi-timbral + multi-output Instrument plug-in in Logic 8

Ultrabeat is Multi-Output... it responds to 1 MIDI channel, but the individual sounds (voices) can be routed to different audio outputs.

Hope this helps!

CCT

[weeddigger]

Thanks for the prompt feedback guys... Now...



Let me give you a couple of scenarios...

A- Let's say I open a new project, and make one software-instrument track, then add a multi-output UB to that one track, I know I can use the plus sign in the Logic mixer to add aux channels for each voice, and that's always worked great, but when I tested out adding tracks thru the mixer using options>create arrange tracks for selected channel strips, this doesn't do what I want. Or, I'm not doing it right.

With the one multi-output UB instrument, I'll open five aux's, but then whatever region I have on the arrange page, does not trigger any sound out of UB. I've made sure that UB voices are assigned for a particular aux channel strip in the Logic mixer, which now have their own arrange page tracks, but still, no sound.

B - Now, on the other hand, when I start up a new Logic project, and open a multi-timbral software instrument set of tracks (16 for example), I seem to be able do what I want. I load a multi-output UB into the multi-timbral channel strip, and using the Logic mixer, I open up my aux channels, which are assigned to play individual voices in UB.

I now have 16 tracks on the arrange page, and I'll load single voice sequences from UB into seperate tracks. In the Logic mixer, I will only have one channel strip channel for UB, but can of course, add aux channels for the individual voices. Once everything is split right (voices going into particular aux channels, similar to my A scenario) all seems groovy.

But of course, according to the manual, this doesn't seem like it should be possible. Unless I'm just not understanding the manual, or it's not accurate.

Either way, I think I now have what I wanted, so what difference does it really make on how I get there? Well, I hope this way would not screw up things later on... Not sure...

[weeddigger]

And just to make sure this all makes sense, what I really want out of all this is to have one track on the arrange per UB sound, and one mixer channel for said track and sound.

[Fred B]

B - Now, on the other hand, when I start up a new Logic project, and open a multi-timbral software instrument set of tracks (16 for example), I seem to be able do what I want. I load a multi-output UB into the multi-timbral channel strip, and using the Logic mixer, I open up my aux channels, which are assigned to play individual voices in UB.

I now have 16 tracks on the arrange page, and I'll load single voice sequences from UB into seperate tracks. In the Logic mixer, I will only have one channel strip channel for UB, but can of course, add aux channels for the individual voices. Once everything is split right (voices going into particular aux channels, similar to my A scenario) all seems groovy.

But of course, according to the manual, this doesn't seem like it should be possible. Unless I'm just not understanding the manual, or it's not accurate.

One could argue that you are "misusing" the multi-timbral instrument feature since Ultrabeat is not multi-timbral and MIDI channels don't matter. So the more "logical" approach would be choosing 'New with Same Channel Strip/Instrument' to create 16 (or even 25) tracks in arrange assigned to the same instance of Ultrabeat.

[weeddigger]

I guess it does make sense that I am using the Multi-timbral instrument incorrectly, but it actually does work to my favor when I combine that with a multi-output UB.

I tried Stayboy Stereo's suggestion to use the options in the mixer to get an arrange track for each aux channel that was assigned to my UB voices, which makes perfect sense; but that didn't work for me.



I just hope this doesn't present a problem later on, cause I'm probably going to keep misusing things...

[fader8]

I'm probably going to keep misusing things...

And that's OK. The only difference between these methods is that the MIDI on each track gets channelized or not. But UB receives as "omni" so it doesn't care what the channel is.

[weeddigger]

Thanks Fader... Much appreciated re-assurance there!

And thanks to the other guys who've replied.

[Astar]

I think Fred's answer will help you out:

"choosing 'New with Same Channel Strip/Instrument' to create 16 (or even 25) tracks in arrange assigned to the same instance of Ultrabeat."

This way you'll see different tracks in the arrange window for the same instance of Ultrabeat.

[weeddigger]

Damn it... I guess I misread Fred's post earlier.

Thank you Astar, and Fred.

Track>New with Same Channel Strip/Instrument (Option+CMD+S) is exactly what I've been looking for and needed.

Although the multi-timbral thing seemed to do the same thing, because it is a different process for Logic, I figure that could potentially screw something up down the line for me.

Thanks a million!