Assign Samples from Sample Instrument to Mac Keyboard Keys?

Question

I do a little freelance composition for commercial uses, entertainment trailers, games -- in other words, no performance at all, usually SFX or electronica-esque tracks 30 - 60 seconds in length. I've long been doing the work on dedicated digital equipment -- mixers, Korg pads and a sampler, couple small synths, a hardware sequencer, multitrack recorder, an old Drumulator (which stays, by the way; actually all of it I'll probably use here and there) -- and I've evaluated DAWs in the past, generally deciding I'd just be trading one set of complexities for another. But with after looking at Logic Pro Studio (LP 8), I can no longer make that argument.
I have a new Mac well up to the task, so I've finally decided to buy in. My wife will be thrilled (Where did all the STUFF go?) For the kind of work I do, I can't, not this early into it, reasonably justify buying a high-end control surface to expedite what I can do with a mouse and keyboard.
What I am concerned about though is needing something like one of these Akai multi-bank "drum pad" interfaces for triggering samples. I have a small keyboard with USB controller interface for parts I really need to play -- piano being my traditional instrument background. I know in GarageBand with sound effects sampled "instruments", like "radio sounds" for example, you can assign different effects to different Mac keyboard keys, hit and hold the A key for a certain sampled effect, hold it for the full sample, or release the key to cut it mid-sample, repeatedly tap for a stutter, etc., pretty much any of the basics you can do with a pad-triggered sample on a dedicated sampler, or with a pad interface to a DAW.
Can Logic do this? I'm assuming since GB samples instruments use the EXS format of Logic, and you can create GB sampled instruments in Logic, there's no problem assigning different sample files to different notes in Logic's inbuilt sample. I just don't to use the the USB-interface keyboard to play them, as I often will need to keep it free for some improvisational noodling with a synth instrument or what have you, yet still need to improv triggering the samples, too. Rather than go back and drop the samples in after recording, say, a live synth over a drum sequence. Since I don't do any live performance outside a studio environment, there's tolerance for going back and making adjustments, or re-recording.
On the one hand, I already have far too much equipment and would rather skip the pad-trigger interface if I can. On the other hand, in switching to Logic, I don't want to entirely eliminate all improv play, layering the whole thing together with a Mac keyboard and mouse, like building a Lego model kit. I mean, I can, as what I do on dedicated equipment is far more like programming a computer than actually performing live music, but having a background in piano performance, I still like a little spontaneity to creep in while composing.

Answer 1

Hey, thanks for saving me a few hundred bucks. If it turns out I'm not comfortable with it, I can always backtrack and buy a good pad trigger/control interface. But the idea is to streamline as much as possible into the Mac and Logic, make most of the dedicated gear optional rather than required. All my friends who use Logic Studio are in large-scale and/or expensively outfitted production studio environments; when I go play around, I sort of get lost tinkering with all that wild gear and forget my checklist. I called a couple of guys about this particular question and from both I got, "I have no idea, man. We use control surfaces for everything." So your answer was especially helpful.