Souns ringing out in logic

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kwood84
Posts: 2
Joined: 10:52, 23 June 2017

Souns ringing out in logic

Post by kwood84 »

I'm just using my fa in logic for the first time. I've gone through all instructions from the manual and the readme file from the driver. I'm trying to record audio and midi into logic but each time I try I get a note ringing out, I think this is a c0 note on controller message. I've been trying to reset the midi driver in logic but nothing happens. I'm wondering if it might be to do with confusing messages from my focusrite interface. I have the audio input set to Roland fa in logic, and the output as my 2i4 Scarlett interface. Has anyone else had this problem, does anyone know a fix?
stevel
Posts: 520
Joined: 07:08, 17 May 2015

Re: Souns ringing out in logic

Post by stevel »

So, there are a couple of issues here you need to clear up, namely, what type of track it is and when it occurs, as well as if it's always the same note in the same place, or if it's random.

Basically speaking, you can do the following in Logic:

Use the FA to play its own sounds and record them to an AUDIO track, just like you would a guitar, or microphone signal, etc.

Use the FA to trigger an internal Logic Instrument, which you record to a track as MIDI. It's a MIDI input and MIDI recording, but produces AUDIO output.

Use the FA to record a MIDI track that then goes back and triggers the FA to make its own sounds which you can run back into Logic as an AUDIO track and can record as AUDIO - this is just like the first one except that you're not recording the live performance, but a pre-recorded MIDI track.

Now, it sounds like "stuck notes" to me.

MIDI has two types of messages (they're not Controller (CC) messages though):

Note On - this message is sent when you play a key.

Note Off - this message is sent when you release the key.

Basically, every Note On needs a Note Off message to go with it. They're an inseparable pair.

As far as a synthesizer is concerned - doesn't matter if it's the FA or an internal Logic Instrument (Virtual Synth) once it's told to play a note, it does. And it keeps holding that note until it's told to stop!

So if the Note Off message gets lost for some reason, the synthesizer hasn't been told to stop playing the note yet!

This can actually happen in a number of ways:

1. You edit a MIDI clip (region) and accidentally cut off the end where the Note Off message is. If you do something like cut and paste on clip on top of another where you cut off the end of the first one, or you select most of the first one but miss the end bit, or you overlap them and don't realize it, the Note Off message doesn't get sent until much later, if at all.

This will result in the same error in the same place all the time. This will only happen when you play back the Sequence (the track in Logic). You have to find the missing off message, or delete and re-record making sure it plays right each time.

2. Computer processor just lags and the off message just doesn't get sent or gets lost along the way. MIDI does have a limit to how much information can be sent at one time and if a file has a lot of MIDI messages going on it can just overwhelm the system.

This will result in the error happening randomly usually. This can happen during playback and recording. It may get recorded right but not play back correctly, but it might get recorded wrong and will playback wrong every time thereafter. One method is to "thin" data - but under normal circumstances this really shouldn't be an issue. If it's the computer's processing power, then the fix is a little trickier. It may boil down to your only being able to do 2 or 3 tracks before this happens. But you can do things like turn off Bluetooth and Internet, and any other apps that are running and that sort of thing to offload the processor as much as possible.

3. Duplicate messages - sometimes you have something "looping" through the system and the message gets sent twice, slightly out of time. Sometimes one of them gets "masked" by another or just simply lost in the process.

This can often happen just when you're playing into the system - not even recording. That's a dead giveaway that it's probably this issue. But it can happen that it's OK while recording and then shows up on playback. But the usual cause of this and the fix is that Local Control is ON and it's sending a message from the keys directly to the internal sound module in the FA, and the computer is also taking MIDI in and sending it through and back to the FA. This doesn't happen with internal Logic sounds though so that should help troubleshoot it. You have to either turn Local Control OFF, or change the way the "thru" (monitoring) works on your armed tracks.

So you need to break it down to find where the problem is - is it only with Logic Instruments, or is it only with FA sounds and not LI. Or does it happen only on playback or during recording as well - or even when you're just playing.

I should mention that in a lot of DAWs if you do something like change the sound while you're playing notes it will get stuck notes then because all those off messages get cut off when you change the setting.

So make sure you're not doing anything else on screen.

I would just setup 1 track, send it to Logic Instrument, and then see what happens while playing. Then record it and play it back, and see what happens.

Then I'd try to record a MIDI track and send that back to the FA to trigger its sounds and see what happens there with the same practices.

Try to troubleshoot a little more and let us know specifically when it's happening and under what conditions.

HTH,
Steve
Skijumptoes
Posts: 681
Joined: 11:08, 21 June 2010

Re: Souns ringing out in logic

Post by Skijumptoes »

That c0 note sounds like a controller message signal that Logic may be throwing out, check that you haven't got the FA setup incorrectly as a Control Surface in logic. Do you know how to check that? Most likely to be the wrong port you've used, or the FA has become the default port for another Control Surface you have installed.
stevel
Posts: 520
Joined: 07:08, 17 May 2015

Re: Souns ringing out in logic

Post by stevel »

Oh, yeah, I was thinking c0 as a controller not a pitch.

Sometimes when you do something like press "Play" on a control surface it sends out a note number like that.

C0 would be a really low note though.

Skijumptoes's suggestions are right on.
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