Recording Mac's Internal Audio To Logic, How To

Many people who do Pod Casts may know this already, but we sometimes have a need to record Mac applications' audio-out into Logic. You could do this with a pair of cables to loop back the audio out but it can also be done via a piece of software.

You may be wondering why you'd want to do this. Here are some examples;

You may want to do this for recording online telephone conversations, or if you want to use Mac's speech system's output into a cool effect.

One such software is SoundFlower which is Open Source and the information is at this site: http://cycling74.com/products/soundflower/

As with any digital recording technology, you do need to respect the copyrights of commercial works as you do this.

Another Option is to use AudioHijack Pro (free download to try but it is crippled until you pay) and record the computer audio into an MP3 or AAC file format. This is a convenient method if you do not need to live record other channels on the Logic.

Update on M3 FireWire with Apple Logic

Previously I have discussed M3 with its Firewire Board (FWB) and today I have finally came to the arrangement that works fully digitally.

The key is that solved the main problem was that I was insisting on sending the output to M-Audio FastTrack device. As soon as I have eliminated that from the audio chain, I was able to do pretty much what I wanted.

The problem was that

• It was almost impossible to rout the output sound to FastTrack
• M3 can directly play back the sound coming out of Mac.

In my situation, what made possible to monitor both the Logic (samples and software instruments) and M3 to send the output to my keyboard monitor was to send the Output from Mac to the Individual Out 1/2 (or 3/4).

Turn the volume of all your external sound equipment to zero just in case.

To do this, first set the input mode on the M3;

• Press GLOBAL
• Press PAGE SELECT
• Select Basic Setup Page (P0)
• Press the AUDIO tab at the bttom
• On the Top section with a (>) select FireWire
• Then for Input 1 under Bus Select, select 1/2
• For Input 2 select 1/2 also

Do not send the signal to L/R. This will cause the output of Logic to feed back into the input of the Logic.

You are not quite done yet...

• On your Mac, launch the M3 Editor
• When it starts up. Press the GLOBAL button on the M3 Editor window
• Under the Audio Settings
• Audio Driver is set M3 (0164) <- This number may vary for your card
• Audio Output: Individual 1/2
• Buffer Latency (4 ms works for me but experiment with it)
• CPU Load (High setting works for me but experiment with it)

Now connect the external monitor speakers to the Individual Out 1 and 2 then you can hear what Mac is sending out. You can even enable Software Monitoring.

As for the Buffer Latency you need to experiment with it until you do not hear clicks and pops from skipped or missing samples.

Note: I have not quire figured out how to turn off the FireWire MIDI. Even the MIDI setting on the M3 Editor says USB, right now if the USB MIDI is connected the keys double up (i.e., if you press a key the same not appears twice in the Event List). I am using it without USB for the time being which is just fine for my applications.

Logic 8 - Audio Track Stop Playing When You Moved To Another Computer

I use two different Macs for my project. I have a "Studio" Laptop which I use to compose and record tracks. Once I am basically done with it, I move the project to my Desktop iMac. It is much more comfortable to make some tweaks and do the mix on a big desktop machine.

When you copy a project from one machine to another though you might run into a problem of an Audio track not playing another machine. This happens to happen to me just about every time very consistently! May be the fact that I have a KORG M3 EXB-FW Firewire interface driver on my laptop. But, I don't know.

This has puzzled me for a good 3~4 hours and finally I have figured out at least what to do to correct the situation (not necessarily perfectly fix it.) If you are reading this and know exactly the best way to fix this, I would like to know, but here is my version of how to prevent and fix the issue.

Prevention -- Always Leave the Universal Track Mode On

Apparently this is important when you are moving project from one machine to another. So on all your projects, before you start them be sure to go to the Audio setup and be sure that the Universal Track is turned on and left being on.

How to Remedy If Your Audio Track Does Not Sound

• First from the Arrange window know which Audio Track number is the one that does not sound.
• Next, open the Environment window
• Find the channel strip servicing the "dead" audio track.
• Go to the left panel that where you are going to filled with it.
• First check the Driver setting. This should correspond to the Audio driver that you are using on the second machine. Most likely Core Audio but you may have other devices.
• Next try to assign this strip to another unused Audio track number. In my case just doing that make the sound to start feeding to the normal output channels.
• If above does not work, click the Universal Track mode on/off, save the project, come back and turn it on/off again, save the project until you can turn it back on, and try the above steps. (I think there really is some bug in Logic along this line!)

OK, good luck and enjoy!

Logic 8 - Record Each Separate M3 KARMA Track

Desired Effect:

You want to record KARMA output into Logic but want to create a track per channcel.

Do This:

• You need to check how many MIDI channels are used in a COMBO
• Create multiple External MIDI tracks
• On Logic Go to File > Project Settings > Recording > Auto demix by channel if multitrack recording" option.
• Go to M3 and Make the synth to MIDI LOCAL CONTROL only.
• Press the Record Enable button on the Logic on all Tracks you created.
• Record

Logic 9 How To Prevent MIDI Echo (Thru)

Symptom:

You got both MIDI in and out connected through a MIDI interface to your Synthesizer keyboard and every time you hit a note the note doubles up. You may even know that the MIDI signal your Logic takes in is being echoed back to the keyboard.

Fix:

I found this part of Logic not very intuitive to me and took a while to figure out, or more like for it to sink in to my brain and accept they have done it this way. I fixated myself that there ought to be a Midi-Thru OFF switch on the Inspector panel and stare at the UI and hunted for the switch for good 30 min. That was a total waste of time.

Here is what you need to know with MIDI recording.

• You do not need to Record Enable to record an External MIDI track. All you basically need to do is to highlight the track and press the Record button on the transport.

• If you press the Record Enable button like the picture below (you see that [R] button of the [R] [M] [S] buttons is enabled) on the track strip the track will enable Midi-Thru and all the notes will echo back and if you are lucky you will hear that rich unison sound. In this case you don't want that effect.

Instead you make the [R] button of the [R] [M] [S] buttons is disabled and so it is grayed out on the track strip then the Midi-Thru and Midi Thru will stop.

You may ask "How can I record when the record enable is off?" That's what I am saying how non-intuitive this part is. Take my words. Once it has been turned off, you can press the Big Red Circle Record Button (on the Transport) while the track is highlighted like above illustration and it will definitely record incoming MIDI. Give it a try!

A lot of people want to try these things on their project you spent a lot of time on. Don't! Just start a blank project and try out these few things instead of destroying your project! At a minimum save the project first!

Another Way

Most people do recommend that if you are using a Logic 8 or other Digital Music Workstation type software to make your Synth in a Local Control only mode in your MIDI setup. If you have a question about that on your KORG M3, just write a comment requesting for that information and I will write about it on my next article.