Logic Control
and Logic Control XT
A new control surface
for Logic Audio 5.0 and above
(now Mackie Control Universal)
by Rich the TweakMeister
Emagic
writes: The Logic Control hardware units provide quick and easy operation
of your Logic System. The Logic Control units are the ultimate tools for turning
your existing studio space into a professional working environment. The Logic
Control hardware is, quite plainly, a revolution for anybody who wants to
streamline their workflow with the Logic family of music production software.
Tweak: That's the blurb from
Emagic. Now I'm going to tell you of the dream behind all this.
First I want to take you to Digidesign's site.
Let's look at some ProTools automation systems, one's that many of us will
never, ever be able to afford. Go ahead, click this url:
http://www.digidesign.com/products/mix/ and here's some
digidesign control surfaces with their prices. But don't let
those prices fool you. To get that 12 grand Pro control to work your going
to need a lot more stuff, your cost will be way over that by the time you
are done. Now it should be coming clear. The dream is to get this
kind of moving faders, 100% flexible total automation control on a dedicated
surface that allows it to be created, manipulated, and recorded.
Logic Control costs around 1/10th of what a ProControl would cost, and, unlike
DD's stuff, the Logic Control blends in easily with your existing studio.
Logic Control, for now, only works with Logic
Audio 5. You can't use it with Cubase or Sonar, or with previous versions
of Logic. Yes, the faders have motors under them. They move.
The way you work with an automated fader, for those of you who have never played
with one, is that as soon as you touch it, it starts writing data to the track
and can be set to overwrite any data already there. So if you botch a
fader movement just go over it again and grab the fader at the appropriate time
to make it go where you want it to go. The faders are touch sensitive.
They know when you are touching them and when you are not from the electricity
on your fingers.
By hitting some buttons, you can define which
parameters the faders and V-pots are controlling. You can control 8 EXS
parameters with the faders just as easily as you can control volume. And
don't think you are limited to 8 tracks because there are only 8 faders.
By hitting a single button you can jump to the next bank of 8 tracks, and so on.
Logic control can control as many tracks as you have in your Logic song.
Of course, some of you are going to want to have more than 8 faders and 8 v-pots
available at once, so Emagic has made the Logic XT version. This
adds another 8 faders and v-pots. You can add multiple XT's if you want.
Each unit will take up a full MIDI port (all 16 channels), so if there is one
thing you may need to check before you get a LC, it is whether you have
enough MIDI ports. Emagic recommends using it's own interfaces for Logic
Control. I advise you trust that. LC will work on any MIDI port, but
personally, I would not try it on a spare soundcard port.
Logic Control is not an audio interface.
It is a 100% MIDI controller that controls the operation of Logic Audio and your
audio interface. The audio is still going in and coming out of your audio
interface/soundcard. All the dramatic things that can be done to the sound
are done in Logic's virtual mixer. It's important to understand that Logic
control is NOT an audio mixer. You cannot connect audio cables to it.
However, Logic Control works "inside" your audio interface and can route inputs
to outputs, through virtual sends and returns in Logic's mixer, through the
plugins, sidechains, s/pdif outs--whatever you have defined there. If you
have a mixer, Logic control will work along side of it. If you have an
audio interface well endowed with pre amps and inputs, Logic Control will
alleviate the need to buy a separate mixer. For myself, I still use my
Mackie 1402 as the front end of my audio interface and Alesis studio 32 for my
large arsenal of MIDI synths. I route the Alesis through one of my Delta
1010's input pairs which are represented as one Logic's Audio Input Pairs in the
environment. This lets me control the audio coming out of the Alesis with
Logic's mixer, and therefore Logic Control. This way, i can balance all
the MIDI tracks with all the audio tracks and audio instruments all on one
surface. This is just one way to use it that suits me. You might
find other ways to interface it with your gear. If you are running a software
only studio, for example, Logic control might be the only external device you
need other than your audio interface and keyboard.
Update 2/04
Logic Control Units can now act as Mackie
Control Units and vice versa. To enable Mackie Control features on your
Logic control go to www.mackie.com and download the Mackie Control universal update.
Keyboards and Modules Index
Keyboards: What you need to know
Multi-Timbral Synths Compared
Choosing a Controller
MIDI CCs Explained
MIDI Modules
The Triton Family
The Motif Family
The Fantom Family
Keyboard Price List
Triton Rack and EXB Expansion Boards
Novation ReMore 37 SL
On Programming Synths
Emu Xtreme Lead -1
Proteus 2000
Korg Electribe EA1
Roland JV1010
Emu Planet Earth
Roland SRX boards
About MIDI Interfaces
Poll: Best Synth Under $600
Poll: Triton vs. Motif vs. Fantom
Forums: Korg M3
Forums: Trance Synths
