Logic Pro Tips: Recording External Instrument

In this Logic Pro Tips video, Jono Buchanan shows you how to record an external instrument into Logic Pro. You'll learn how to route MIDI to your hardware synthesizers and other compatible gear and then record it into Logic as audio. You'll also learn how to resolve latency issues that may arise from recording external sounds.
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0:00 Start
0:41 Setting up an External MIDI Instrument
2:26 External Instrument window
3:02 Configuring the external instrument
4:35 Setting up a recording track
6:05 Recording the Moog Sirin
7:15 Latency rears its ugly head
9:05 Recap

[@vewilli]

Fantastic, this is also valid for using sounds of my external midi modules (Korg tr-rack and Yamaha rack module) and so great help to me. 👍🏻🙏🏻

[@valium-fm7236]

Hey Jono, just leaving a comment to feed the algorithm. These short vids have been priceless. Thank you 🥸👍🏻

[@juanmico4085]

Very well explained. Another option is to set the recording track to get the audio from the External Instrument utility via a bus, instead of directly from the interface input, so it prints whichever inserts you happen to have in there. I get no discernible latency that way either.

[@angusbabb4913]

Thanks you ! great video , love the 2millisec trick and new key command , Great teacher!😊

[@lisan1010]

thank you for this explanation!

[@NaweedQadirdotcom]

As usual, every video you publish Jono is so informative and helpful. Thank you so much.

[@danny951386]

you save my life thx a lot beard man!

[@larrysunshine]

Holy shit thank you so much! I knew recording via busses was a bad idea.

[@joewilliams5396]

Nice one, I look forward to your presentations they're great. The semi colon trick is brill. Thanks 😎👍

[@ritchie1983]

You really have a knack for teaching! Appreciate all the work you put into producing these tutorials.

[@adamingraham7468]

great teaching the only thing he missed was what if its a stereo instrument like an external keyboard that has a left and right? this is for only mono only

[@timburmeister6596]

Hey Jono, these and the masterclass video have basically taught me how to use Logic properly. From one educator to another: Thank you!

[@jonobuchananmusic]

Great to hear, Tim, thanks. If you want more content like this, I have my own channel now too: kzbin.info/door/-RFQtqWAG6kFPRkumqn7rA

[@ronallen2458]

Another good one! Thanks Jono!

[@kikiu2619]

Great stuff!

[@MintaCreativeArts]

Great video, so well explained. Thank you

[@Keyboardnut99]

Thanks Jono that is a very useful key command and not one I knew! Bravo

[@futur_sunds]

This is such an underrated series of tutorials!

[@johnbubu8310]

Thank you Jono. The semicolon did it for me :)

[@NatLifeSounds]

Thank you, very clarified tut

[@LewisDalton]

Really helpful, thanks!! 👍🏼

[@cyclingtroll]

Great presentation, as usual. :-)

[@brianvassallomusic]

very well explained thank you.

[@peterwaringofficial]

Another excellent video, thank you. 👍 I didn’t know about the selemi colon command

[@garygimmestad4272]

Oh, I know how to do this, says me. But I didn’t know the semi-colon bit. Well worth the time because it will save me time AND be more accurate. Thanks, as always!

[@larshemmerling4582]

Thank you. Great and precise tutorial, well explained. Compared to some US guys, who doing Logic Pro X tutorials, you are straight on the point. Truly Professional. It was very helpful.

[@michaelkelly6583]

Thank you. I just purchased an Emerald Virtuo and am anxious to use its midi capabilities.

[@laskholt]

Great, thank you!

[@toddlask]

great demo! please consider a vid on doing this with an ipad or iphone synth.

[@philipmarsh3522]

Suddenly my MinBrute is making music! Thank you!!!!!

[@shawnshark8460]

what a nice video! thanks. sir, I d like to know if converting midi to audio is the only one way to save external instrument sound?

[@ricardojsgw]

Best explanation of external instrument plug-in I've found so far. Thanks!! It's important to highlight the benefits of using one track for both MIDI and audio for external instruments. Just one thing. I've found it better to route the output of the MIDI-Audio track to a bus and set the input of the audio track to that bus. That way, if I set Logic audio effects in the MIDI-Audio track I won't need to set them again in the audio track. What do you think?

[@synthmaven]

That's the best workaround. shame on Apple for not providing a quicker easier way !

[@pgtips4240]

This was a brilliant and straight to the point video, thank you. Can I just ask, why can I not control the mixing levels of the midi from my external piano? Is this just something that can't be done? Do you need to always convert the track to audio for mixing? Also I am using only usb for everything because my piano the RD2000 is classed as an audio interface. I am wondering if I would be better to route my piano audio back to my mac through an audio interface? Midi is so confusing to me.

[@turtlefeet7722]

❤ thanks

[@FLH3official]

Good & interesting video. What I'm waiting next: "How to synchronise external MIDI instruments" and" How to synchronise with other DAW or video editing softwares" (the free ones, davinci resolve or imovie) either in the box or in an other computer. 😃

[@mattisopen]

Similarly, I need to synchronise with an external MIDI instrument that contains BPM information. Is this possible? I've tried a number of convoluted methods and none have worked so far without much painstaking work of manually trying to get Logic fit in with the fluctuations of the external MIDI tempo. I love a video or a clear explanation of how to do this, please?

[@motomuso]

And to play it in directly as an external instrument I imagine we can skip the part where you use an audio inst to create the part?

[@ryanperrault8174]

This is what I can't figure out. I record my Prophet Rev 2 and midi at same time and it records both, but audio is off...so I want to quantize it and then re-record it quantized so it better fits the beat. But when I try and do that, nothing records. I can't figure out how to get it to recognize the midi and match it to the audio. I'll try this approach later and see what happens. Thanks for making this video, hopefully this works for me.

[@BenLeedsCarson]

Do you have a video for configuration of the external instrument? Logic doesn't seem recognize my Behringer MS-1. I don't have it as a menu option, appearing the way your Moog does here. I've got the MIDI connected, just not sure what step I'm missing. Thanks,

[@sigrid_x]

Hello Jono, I did every setting in my Logic in the video, unfortunately for some reason the new track can't be recorded. My synth can be played on this track since the volume green bar raise up, but once the recording started, the track would still be grey and empty. What kind of problem may it has? Please don't hesitate to enlighten me. Thank you!

[@magnuseriksson8081]

Great content as always, but I was a bit confused with how you recorded and how you got that early bit that you could work with to make sure it started at the right time, might make more sense when I try it myself, but does that mean you always need to make sure the playhead always start at your second bar?

[@lingonberry8295]

I think you’ve got it man. Leave it one bar late and you’ll get the whole thing

[@HagaseCiudadano]

I have a Yamaha PSR-S950, which has various midi styles. A midi style consists of 6 midi instruments, which I’m sure logic can record on one midi track. Cubase 8 has a menu selection under the EDIT drop list which can DISSOLVE the one midi style track into 6 midi instrument tracks. This really speeds up production. My question is, does Logic Pro X have the same feature capability? Plz advise asap because I’m on the fence if I should purchase Logic Pro X or Cubase 12. Thanks….

[@S3DA_Music]

Hey, I have this white noise coming out of my focusrite, any ideas how to fix it?

[@rmonlu]

Is there a way to save external synth patches in the logic project?

[@donahuea]

I'm trying to learn Logic Pro and getting stuck connecting a new MPK miniplay to my laptop so that I can record its built-in sounds into Logic. I connect the device, and I see that I can now use it as a Midi controller to control Logic software instruments. But when I choose External MIDI and select MPK mini Play mk3 - All as the MIDI destination, and Output 1 + 2 as the Audio Output, Audio Input remains "No Input" and is disabled. (Device is listed as MacBook Pro Microphone.) What am I missing here? I just want to connect all my hardware instruments in such a way that their output can be recorded directly into Logic.

[@abdullamalalla9357]

am trying to connect my koronos to logic via usb it’s working but always crashing in logic ! any idea?

[@colinowenuk]

Didn't know the semi colon trick...

[@ToddMichaelSoule]

Having a MIO, midi connceter with a MIDI keyboard, can only get the sound out of the speakrs of the instrument, and not logic.

[@erdemylmaz.]

semicolon short keys is: , or ;

[@seanmcdermott7256]

Huh...I can't get it to work. I don't hear anything.

[@phil-good]

Strange …. I never have any latency. I do have a Mac-mini M1 which is a latency killer.

[@schoovaertssimon7904]

I get MAD latency

[@schoovaertssimon7904]

actually it's not latency, it's latency compensation or something....my external midi stuff plays before my plugin stuff.

[@schoovaertssimon7904]

you can't tell me that we have to place all the audio we record manually....it can't be true...This would make Logic absolute useless.