Using an external synth, want to route audio visibly in logic

Question

Hey
So - in the early days of logic 5.5 i distinctly remembering that i had external synths, which i routed through logic, so that i could 1) Pick a midichannel that gave me the corresponding channel on the synth (like part 1), and 2) I could see a visible fader, with the EXACT same look and options on it, as any normal audio channel. Ie. i could put plugins on it, and so on.
however, ive gotten a Waldorf Blofeld af my first external synth, for use with my logic pro 8, and while i can play it using a midi keyboard, and i can see a channel for it, then the channel that it creates, is sort of a fader, with only pan settings, and rev + chorus. Ie. i cant record it, i cant use plugins on it. Furthermore ( but this may be a problem with a setting on my soundcard ? (a motu 828mkII if anyone happens to know how to fix it ) when i pan the reverb it doesnt pan at all, the sound stays in stereo. The volume fader however works fine.
So my question is: Can someone - please- explain to me, how to set it up "fully". Meaning a guide to creating the multi instrument ( as im guessing it should be ) and linking that to an audio channel in my environment, which i can then record, and use plugins on?
I sincerely hope for a fast and hopefully correct answer as this has been bugging me for two days now. Ive read alot of stuff in the manual, but cant figure it out.
/abnb2k9
Message was edited by: abnb2k9

Answer 1

So - in the early days of logic 5.5 i distinctly remembering that i had external
synths, which i routed through logic, so that i could 1) Pick a midichannel
that gave me the corresponding channel on the synth (like part 1), and 2)
I could see a visible fader, with the EXACT same look and options on it,
as any normal audio channel. Ie. i could put plugins on it, and so on.
You distinctly remember wrong (or at least, you're forgetting how you did it). A MIDI track has a MIDI channel strip, an audio object has an audio chanel strip that passes audio and can have audio plugins on it. You can't have one MIDI track with audio processing, as MIDI has nothing whatsoever to do with audio.)
What you probably did before is had a MIDI track feeding your MIDI instrument, but then had it's audio coming back into your audio interface and coming up in the mixer in realtime using an "Input" audio object.
however, ive gotten a Waldorf Blofeld af my first external synth, for use with
my logic pro 8, and while i can play it using a midi keyboard, and i can see
a channel for it, then the channel that it creates, is sort of a fader, with only
pan settings, and rev + chorus
Yes, that's a channel strip for MIDI instruments - nothing to do with audio, it sends MIDI volume, pan and other GM messages over MIDI to control remote MIDI devices.
So my question is: Can someone - please- explain to me, how to set it up "fully".
Meaning a guide to creating the multi instrument ( as im guessing it should be )
and linking that to an audio channel in my environment, which i can then record,
and use plugins on?
If you specifically need multitimbral output, then you should create a multi instrument in the environment, set up to the MIDI ports/channel, and create arrange tracks for each of the (up to) 16 parts.
(The External Instrument plugin isn't much good for multitimbral or multioutput instruments).
That handles the MIDI side. Now, you want to bring that instrument's audio back into Logic's mixer, so plug the audio into your audio interface, either in stereo, or more channels if you have them to spare. Then you can either create Audio Input objects, or use regular audio tracks in input monitor mode, to add the audio coming in from the instrument in realtime to the mix, where you can also process with plugins etc.
Note that you won't be able to offline bounce with real instruments, as Logic can't speed up the universe to faster than realtime...