Hi!
I had posted this problem on the XF forum yesterday: LINK. I was not sure whether my problems were due to congestion on the Midi connection, or whether this method cannot handle ARPs, etc.

Here is the method earlier suggested:
Method 2: SEQ-to-SEQ
Real time transfer - this involves setting up the DAW as Master clock, set the Motif XF to slave and transfer the data using QUICK SEQUENCER SETUP #2: Recording Sequencer to Computer. Works for any DAW

Anyway, I got help from Bad_Mister and he said that it should work but that it probably is due to some setup in Logic where channels/tracks are not mapped correctly. I later tried to see if there was anything else in Logic to manipulate but I could not figure it out. My impression is that the mapping between Logic and the XF is: (in Pattern/Song Mode) track 1 in XF communicates with Midi channel 1, track 2 with midi ch.2 and so on. and that’s what I have now.
So here is my actual question I’d posted on the other forum:

THE PROBLEM
In Pattern mode, I made a simple pattern based on a Performance, plus one voice track (4 tracks in total) and I recorded 3 small sections.

I went for Method 2, above, i.e. SEQ-to-SEQ, with QUICK SEQUENCER SETUP #2, as recommended. In Logic, I started a new Project with 4 external instrument tracks assigned to channels 1-4. I set Logic to be the clock master (sending Synch to the Motif). I started Logic, recording the 4 tracks all at once. In the beginning it sounded OK, since the 1st section had data only in one track. But as soon as I reached subsequent sections with data in more the one track, things started to sound funny..  So I decided to try recording one track at a time, but I got the same results! It starts out OK with data only in one track and then becomes garbled as soon there is data in more than one track (even if Logic is listening to/recording from one track only).

Are there any other parameters I need to set in Motif apart from Q SETUP #2 (transmit/receive ch, omni, all, etc. I did try to manipulate these but made no difference)??

Please let me know if you require more explanation of the setup, but perhaps this is clear enough to a Logic user.

Thank you in advance!

Omar,
I do not use pattern mode but, I know that I have answered this question more than once in the Logic forum regarding the XS which, for all intensive purposes, functions exactly as the XF… Do a search and I am sure you will find it…

This however, is still more simply done as I believe Bad_Mister suggested., by recording the pattern as MIDI and then exported the MIDI as an SMF an importing into Logic…

One other thing, there is a parameter in logic called Auto-demix. It is this parameter that will allow you to record MIDI data on one track and then automatically split it into the respective MIDI channels…

One other thing, there is a parameter in logic called Auto-demix. It is this parameter that will allow you to record MIDI data on one track and then automatically split it into the respective MIDI channels…

Hi motif8mine!
Thank you. The Auto-demix param seems to have done the trick and did get things moving. I’ve managed to transfer the song (pattern) from XF to Logic in Midi format. However, I faced the following problems which I managed to get around. What I’d like to know is why am I facing them and if I’m doing things unnecessarily or incorrectly:

My pattern (created by recording a performance) had:

- drumkit in track 1
- bass in track 2
- Heavens Door (ARP) in track 3
- Grand Piano in track 4

I recorded from XF into logic using method #2 as mentioned earlier. XF’s sequencer had QUICK SETUP #2. In Logic, “Transmit Midi Clock” was set to send to the XF midi port and Auto-Demix selected.

For playback, I switched off “Transmit Midi Clock” (otherwise the XF sequencer would trigger and I would have double playbacks).

Here is what I got during playback:

1) tracks 3 & 4 (Midi ch. 3 & 4) sounded perfect all the way.

2) track 2 (Midi ch. 2) was completely silent. I got it to work by switching off the main ARP in the XF! The LED was on and I just switched it off and my bass track started working fine! Why? I have no explanation!

3) track 1 (Midi ch. 1) was also completely silent (no drums)! That was more complicated to fix. For some reason I seemed to remember reading that track 1 (Midi ch. 1) in XF had something special. So I thought of moving the drum track to a new channel (e.g. 5). So all I did was to create a new Logic track (assigned to ch. 5) that called the same sound in XF, i.e. the same drumkit. I then moved the region created in track 1 to track 5! Everything worked fine!

The question is, is this how it should work? Should I avoid playing back from Ch-1 in Logic? I don’t recall having a problem with channel 1 when I recorded/played back using the keyboard (i.e. not using the XF’s sequencer).

Thanks again!

As mentioned, I do not use pattern mode. But, is seems you have it working, at least to some extent. I no longer attempt to record MIDI into Logic via the Motif’s sequencer because it is a time consuming process. And, depending on the length of the song, I can save it as an smf file, import it or open in Logic, assign the proper XS or software instruments to the tracks and either save it as a Logic Project or start auditioning it before the sequncer would have finished playing.

And I bypass any of the hassle you are speaking of. As for the Channel 1, there is no reason i know of not to record on it. However, look at the following quote regarding recording into Logic. Back when I was recording the sequencer live, this ‘trick’ was an immense help to me. Though it talks about Reason, the principle still applies…

If you are using Logic software instruments while triggering Reason instruments simultaneously, remember to use a blank instrument that stays selected. Why?

From the manual:

When Multiplayer Recording: Incoming MIDI events are distributed to the various record-enabled tracks, in accordance with transmitted MIDI channel numbers.
-The channel of the incoming event must correspond to the channel of a record-enabled track, in order for this functionality to work.
-If no track with a corresponding channel number is found, the event will be routed, and recorded, onto the selected track. 

**Logic will interpret midi channel information going to Reason as midi channels with no destination, and therefore trigger the last selected track as explained above. This is why I use an empty software instrument that stays selected. Logic programmers need to get rid of this illogical function. Pro Tools doesn’t do this. The pro tools instrument/midi tracks only respond to channel information they are set to. There is no “I guess I will just trigger the last selected instrument since I don’t know how to ignore it.”

**UPDATE: Instead of using blank software instruments, you can also right click on the aux you created for the Reason instrument in the mixer and create/select an arrange track for that particular Reason instrument aux. This aux arrange track will not record audio nor data, but it can act as a visual represenation of a Reason instrument. It can also serve the purpose of a blank selected instrument as explained above (due to the way Logic handles midi message with “no home” to go to). Remember, you can’t record audio or midi onto this track, It is just a place holder, and you therefore need to route this aux to an audio track with a bus to record the audio from Reason.

However, look at the following quote regarding recording into Logic. Back when I was recording the sequencer live, this ‘trick’ was an immense help to me. Though it talks about Reason, the principle still applies…

Hi motif8mine!
I tried the trick you suggested above (in the quote). Not sure if I got everything right, but what I did was to create a SW instrument track along side my other 4 external instrument tracks. I kept the SW instrument track selected while the other 4 tracks were set to “record”. I then started recording. This did not help either unfortunately!

Anyway, I played around with various other possibilities both in Logic and XF but only to get similar results, i.e. in the end, the contents of channel 1 were always silent.

Finally I thought of trying something else:

I copied the contents of track 1 into track 5, but this time in the XF sequencer!!, and in Logic I set tracks 2-5 to record, and then I repeated the recording. This time everything worked fine!

So as long as I keep away from track 1 (ch 1) everything works fine!

This probably sounds like something in the XF settings, don’t you think so? Any ideas?

Perhaps Bad_Mister can help with this too! Do you suggest I put this again on the XF forum or can he jump in here too?

Many thanks..