EXS 24 Logic Sampler Users Group

erkdemon wrote:
> I didn't think there were any issues with VST instruments and MIDI
> program change commands,

True. Works fine in Cubase since almost ages.

> but emagic's own proprietary-format
> instruments (as of v5.2) don't seem to respond to the things at all.

Not only that, in Logic you can't even use program changes for instruments
which are working fine in other programs.

The problem here IMO is the different format of presets. In Logic you
basically have all your existing presets available through the preset
pulldown. This means that MIDI program changes may not be sufficient to
adress them all because you can easily have tons more than only 128 patches.
In Cubase, before being able to use program changes, you gotta load an FX
bank into the synth first - almost like with hardware synths. This means
you're limited to 128 available presets at a time.
Whether this is an advance or a drawback depends strongly on your working
style I think. In Logic you allways have all your presets available, nicely
sorted in submenus. In Cubase you have to load banks first (which IMO is a
drawback), but after that you can select your patches straight from your
MIDI controller, which is nice. And of course Cubase also allows to switch
patches during a song.
For selecting patches I usually prefer Logics method, especially now that
you can setup keycommands to scroll up/down through them. But I can also
clearly see the advances of Cubase's handling.
Would be the best to have both options I think.

> IMO emagic really need to fix this evetually, and if they don't do it
> with v5.3, perhaps they might do it when (or if) they port to OSX AU.

I don't think that this has got anything to do with AUs vs. VST - as other
hosts show, better MIDI handling (both patch and controllerwise) can be
implemented right now. But maybe they take this sort of paradigm change as
an occasion to integrate a more elegant and flexible method of handling all
that.

Regards,
Sascha