Program Change problem with Logic Pro X & Roland Fantom XR

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midlandmusic
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Joined: 20:39, 22 February 2015

Program Change problem with Logic Pro X & Roland Fantom XR

Post by midlandmusic »

Hi everyone,

I am giving music production lessons to a client of mine who wants me to help him use his hardware synths and gear with his iMac and Logic Pro X. I have a lot of experience but I haven't really done much work with external hardware synths and samplers. I used to work with an Access Virus TI but this, as many of you may know, has a software plugin interface that made it easier to work with as though it was just a plugin, which made things easier.

Along with the iMac, he's using his Roland Sonic Cell as an audio interface and via a MIDI cable, he is using his Roland Fantom XR to play back the sounds. At this point its not a issue to get the sounds playing back through the Sonic Cell and its connected speakers. We've connected the Fantom XR to an additional speaker system to hear it playback.

Here's the problem. I've exported some regular MIDI files of the parts he has created for his song in Sibelius and imported them into Logic. This was easy and after creating an External MIDI track in Logic, it triggered the Fantom and started playing back sounds. The first sound we had was a bass part so I browsed the presets on the Fantom, found a good bass sound and thought all was well. Then I pressed the 'Go to Beginning' button on Logic's transport panel and this made the sound on the Fantom change to something else which isn't something I wanted at all! My initial intention was to set up all the sounds and then save the song file directly on the Fantom's internal memory. This way he can recall, and possibly edit, the song's sounds whenever he needed to. All he has to do is load up the Logic project and fire up the Fantom.

I have not done anything else to make this happen and I'm really stuck. So far as I am aware there is no information in the MIDI file or any kind of automation data to make this Program Change happen. Does anyone else have any ideas? I'd really appreciate it because I have no idea.

Many thanks in advance!

Simon
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LA Keys
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Joined: 05:59, 22 July 2014
Location: LA

Re: Program Change problem with Logic Pro X & Roland Fantom

Post by LA Keys »

Humm, Are you playing the midi in performance or patch mode???

If it is in performance mode you then have to save the performance with all the selected instruments.
midlandmusic wrote: So far as I am aware there is no information in the MIDI file or any kind of automation data to make this Program Change happen.
Program changes are usually in the very beginning of the midi files. Most software will add some PC to the midi files, I'm pretty sure Sybelius will do. Did you inspect the midi files with a midi list editor to make 100% sure that there's no PC in the beginning?

I personally manually strip all the midi files from anything but the notes and sometimes pitchbend.

Also, I suggest that you download midi-ox. (It is free). This will allow you to see exactly what is sent from Logic.

LA
midlandmusic
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Joined: 20:39, 22 February 2015

Re: Program Change problem with Logic Pro X & Roland Fantom

Post by midlandmusic »

Thankyou so much, I'll check on that. Logic has a list editor so i'll let you know what I find. I didn't realise that most software added the program change info to the MIDI. Good to know!

Yes it was in Performance mode. Once I have all the right sounds I will save the song file on the Fantom, assuming that is the right thing to do.
rcraven
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Joined: 14:36, 9 September 2007
Location: Melbourne Australia

Re: Program Change problem with Logic Pro X & Roland Fantom

Post by rcraven »

When using an external sequencer you might like to create a template Performance and save it in the User bank.

To create it start with one of the SEQ presets and use the Mac's Fantom editor to turn off the RCV PC (receive Patch Change ) and the RCV BS (Receive Bank Select) for each part.
Save this performance in the User Performance Bank as your template for any new song.

When starting a new song select the template Performance.
Open the Fantom editor and select the Bank and Patch you want for each Part as well as any extra MFX or reverb settings you might need and save this to the Mac with the song's name.

Royce
midlandmusic
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Joined: 20:39, 22 February 2015

Re: Program Change problem with Logic Pro X & Roland Fantom

Post by midlandmusic »

Hi Royce,

Thanks for that. Sounds like a great idea, thanks for the info. I've attempted to use the editor software for all of his Roland products so far but I've had problems with each for different reasons. Unfortunately the Roland Fantom XR editor software editor has not been updated yet and it won't work on my client's iMac. He has Mavericks OS on his machine and roland have not released an editor which supports this version of OS X. I'm not if they will update it either because according to the Roland website, the Fantom XR has been discontinued.
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LA Keys
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Location: LA

Re: Program Change problem with Logic Pro X & Roland Fantom

Post by LA Keys »

Ok... rcraven idea of turning off the receive program changes and bank select is probably the easiest way to make sure that the midi file will not mess up your performance.

Best is that you actually don't need the editor to do that. This is in the system menu of the fantom XR. See the manual at p.157 for that.

LA
midlandmusic
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Joined: 20:39, 22 February 2015

Re: Program Change problem with Logic Pro X & Roland Fantom

Post by midlandmusic »

Thanks LA Keys, I thought to myself last night that there must be a way to do it on the hardware itself. I'm seeing my client tomorrow afternoon so I will let you know how I get on. Thank you so much for all of this help guys!
midlandmusic
Posts: 5
Joined: 20:39, 22 February 2015

Re: Program Change problem with Logic Pro X & Roland Fantom

Post by midlandmusic »

Hi everyone. Problem solved, thank you!

I switched off the 'Rx Program Change Message' on the System MIDI menu and now its all okay. I really appreciate this help because now my client no longer has this problem on the Fantom but also no longer has it on his Sonic Cell either. We followed pretty much the same procedure on that too and got the same result.

Now we are waiting for Roland to update their Editor plugins to iron out the bugs on the Mac...

Cheers!
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