My goal is to automate a pitch bend with my Axiom Pro61 Controllers pitch bend wheel in Logic 9. 1) Specifically, I have created a midi region with notes using the ES M virtual synth. 2) I have used the Learn function so that Logic will recognize my controllers pitch bend. 3) When I get into AUTOMATION using TOUCH mode, I select Pos. Bender Range and play back the region while turning the pitch bend wheel on my controller. I can see the information being moved up and down, so it looks like it is working. However, when I play it back in PLAY mode, I do not hear the pitch bends. Also, when I get into Piano Roll, I do not see the automation??? I need help?????

When you say you see the 'information being moved', do you see it being drawn in on the MIDI region in the arrange area? Also are you switching the automation mode back to Read after you have recorded in the automation? Also go the Piano Editor window, and show the automation lane, then switch it to the Pitch bend lane and see if you see the data there.

Hi Gary, thanks for your response. I laid awake last night thinking that the first thing I do today will by to just start from scratch with a new project and give it a whirl. As you will see in the steps I took, it went from GOOD (my pitch bend wheel worked for most of the synths) to BAD (it still would not automate) to UGLY (now all the pitch bend wheel does is control the volume fader). My steps: 1) I CREATED A NEW PROJECT WITH A SOFTWARE TRACK 2) I BROUGHT IN THE ES M SYNTH AND RECORDED A MIDI REGION. 3) I TRIED THE PITCH BEND WHEEL ON MY AXIOM PRO61 AND IT WORKED. 4) I TRIED IT FOR ALL OTHER SYNTHS, AND IT WORKED FOR MOST EXCEPT FOR THE EVB3. 5) AS LONG AS I HAD THE TRACK SET TO R (RECORD) IT WORKED. WHEN I CLICKED OFF THE RECORD BUTTON, IT DIDN'T WORK. SO, I KEPT IT ON RECORD. 6) I THEN GOT IN AUTOMATION MODE AND SELECTED POS. BENDER RANGE. IN AUTOMATION MODE, THERE WAS NO PITCH BEND OPTION, JUST POS. BENDER RANGE AND NEG. BENDER RANGE. SO, I JUST SELECTED POS. BENDER RANGE. AND I HAD IT IN TOUCH MODE. 7) SO, IN AUTOMATION MODE, I PLAYED BACK THE MIDI REGION (WITH THE RECORD BUTTON ENGAGED) WHILE MOVING THE PITCH BEND WHEEL ON MY CONTROLLER. 8) I SAW THE AUTOMATION DATA BEING WRITTEN IN THE MIDI REGION IN THE ARRANGE WINDOW, BUT I DID NOT HEAR THE PITCH BENDS. 9) I PLAYED IT BACK IN READ MODE AND STILL DID NOT HEAR THE PITCH BENDS. 10) I WENT TO THE PIANO ROLL AND, VIA THE DISCLOSURE TRIANGLE, SELECTED PITCH BEND AND AGAIN DID NOT SEE THE AUTOMATION DATA IN THE PITCH BEND LANE IN THE PIANO ROLL WINDOW. 11) NOW, ALL OF A SUDDEN I CANNOT GET THE PITCH BEND WHEEL TO WORK AT ALL FOR ANY OF THE SYNTHS. ALL IT DOES NOW IS TO CONTROL THE VOLUME?????? I HAVE QUIT OUT OF LOGIC AND GOTTEN BACK IN AND HAVE RE-BOOTED MY CONTROLLER, BUT THE PITCH BEND WHEEL STILL JUST CONTROLS THE VOLUME AND NOT THE PITCH???? 12) I JUST SHUT DOWN EVERYTHING: MY INTERFACE, CONTROLLER, MAC AND RE-POWERED THEM. I AM STILL GETTING THE SAME RESULT WHICH IS WORSE THAN WHEN I FIRST LOGGED IN TODAY AND GOT STARTED ( STEPS 1,2, 3). 13) I FORGOT TO MENTION THAT AFTER IT DID NOT WORK IN AUTOMATION MODE (AND I HOPE THIS DOES NOT MUDDY UP THE WATER ANY FURTHER) I DID A LEARN FOR MY PITCH BEND WHEEL AND TRIED IT AGAIN WITH NO LUCK. NOW, I REMEMBER THAT I DID NOT GET OUT OF HYPER CONTROL ON MY CONTROLLER WHEN I DID THE LEARN, SO THE LEARN WOULD NOT HAVE WORKED ANYWAY. HOPE THAT MAKES SENSE???? SOMEWHERE ALONG THE WAY, THE PITCH BEND QUICK WORKING?????????

Hi Gary, more info: I tried the Pitch Bend Wheel in Garageband and it worked. So, by all my manipulations in Logic 9 (LEARN, AUTOMATION, ETC) I have somehow disrupted the proper CC# being communicating between Logic 9 and my Controller. Because, now, all my Pitch Bend Wheel does is erroneously control the track Volume Fader???? Beats the heck out of me?????? Thanks, Tim

Yeah, it sounds like Logic is reading a different CC message for your pitch bend. While you're moving the pitch bend wheel and seeing it record in data, do you hear it pitching the audio? If not, then this is a good sign that its assigned to a different CC control. Try this, record in some MIDI while moving the pitch bend wheel in write mode. Then open up the Event List (Cmd-7). Take a screenshot of this and post it here. Then we'll be able to see what channel the CC message is going out on.

Here is the latest. I decided to try my pitch bend wheel using an external midi setup. GUESS WHAT? IT WORKED! Before I tried that, I tried again to use it on a regular software track and, as usual, it did not work. Now, after it worked for the external midi, it is working fine for the software track. Do you have any explanations? Enclosed is a screenshot of my external midi with pitch bend action in the Event List. I have no idea how to read this??????[url=http://www.macprovideo.com/forum/upload/upload/server/php/savedfiles/files/mpv_44405_300812_jv1010_pitch_bend.png] [img]http://www.macprovideo.com/forum/upload/upload/server/php/savedfiles/thumbnails/mpv_44405_300812_jv1010_pitch_bend.png[/img] [/url]

Now that the pitch bend wheel is working I tried to accomplish my original goal: to automate a pitch bend on a recorded midi region with the pitch bend wheel. So, I got into automation mode, set it to TOUCH, and moved the wheel while playing back the track in RECORD mode. Result: I heard the pitch bends but it did not write the automation data????????? Here is a screenshot of the action. [url=http://www.macprovideo.com/forum/upload/upload/server/php/savedfiles/files/mpv_44406_300812_reg_pitch_bend.png] [img]http://www.macprovideo.com/forum/upload/upload/server/php/savedfiles/thumbnails/mpv_44406_300812_reg_pitch_bend.png[/img] [/url]

Glad you finally getting it to record pitch bend data. Is the pitch bend data showing up in the Piano Roll Editor, if you view the automation lane, and then change it so that it shows the Pitch bend lane, and not the Velocity lane (which it is set by default)?

I spoke too soon! Here is the summary. If you need more info I have included the details further down. Sorry for the short story! IN SUMMARY: The bottom line is regardless what I do, I have never been able to automate the pitch bend wheel on a recorded midi region.    4 carved in stone facts: 1) automation not working regardless 2) I completely loose my pitch wheel function when I do a LEARN and forget to get out of my controllers HYPER CONTROL.    This seems to really mess things up.      3) It seems to  RESET things properly when I go into EXTERNAL MIDI mode (recorded a midi region with external midi sound module).  4) Last, but not least, I did the LEARN correctly this time; tried to automate and instead of staying in POS. BENDER RANGE (the object of the automation), it keeps 'jumping out' and replaces it with PAN.    Now, all the pitch bend wheel does is PAN, including when I am recording with an external midi? THE GORY DETAILS: IT RECORDS THE PITCH BEND DATA AND I SEE THE DATA ON THE PIANO ROLL SO, I RECORD A MIDI REGION, THEN PLAY IT BACK, STILL IN RECORD MODE, AND I HEAR THE PITCH BENDS WHEN I TURN THE WHEEL. I DO NOT HEAR THE PITCH BENDS WHEN I AM NOT IN RECORD MODE. I GUESS THAT IS NORMAL???? AGAIN, WHEN AUTOMATING ( TOUCH MODE AND AUTOMATION SET TO POS. BENDER RANGE) THE PITCH BEND DOESN'T WORK. I HEAR IT WHEN I MANIPULATE THE WHEEL, BUT IT DOES NOT RECORD AUTOMATION PITCH BEND DATA. AND I DO NOT SEE IT WHEN GO TO THE PIANO ROLL (PITCH BEND LANE). I JUST DID A LEARN FOR THE PITCH BEND WHEEL, BUT DURING THAT, I FORGOT TO GET OUT OF HYPER CONTROL ON MY CONTROLLER. WHEN YOU DO A LEARN, YOU HAVE TO BE OUT OF HYPER CONTROL AND IN TRANSPORT MODE. BECAUSE OF THAT, I NOW DON'T HEAR MY PITCH BEND WHEEL WORKING AGAIN. THIS IS WHAT HAPPENED YESTERDAY. SO, THAT (DOING THE LEARN WHILE STILL IN HYPERCONTROL) SEEMS TO BLOW ME OUT OF THE WATER. I JUST DID A LEARN IN TRANSPORT MODE (WHICH IS THE WAY IT'S SUPPOSED TO WORK) AND WHEN I DID THE AUTOMATION, IT WROTE THE AUTOMATION DATA, BUT I DID NOT HEAR THE PITCH BENDS DURING THE AUTOMATION AND DURING PLAYBACK. SO, NOW, I AM BACK TO WHERE I WAS: THE PITCH BEND WHEEL IS NOT WORKING. NOW, WITH THE KNOWLEDGE THAT THE PITCH BEND WHEEL WAS WORKING AND SEEMED TO SOLVE THE PROBLEM BEFORE WHEN I RECORDED AN EXTERNAL MIDI, I TRIED THAT AGAIN, AND THIS TIME NO LUCK. STILL NO PITCH BEND WHEEL WORKING. HOWEVER, I JUST REALIZED THAT I WAS IN PERFORMANCE MODE AND THE CHANNEL WAS SET TO 10 ON BOTH THE CONTROLLER AND THE SOUND MODULE (FROM EXPERIMENTING EARLIER). I SET BOTH CHANNELS BACK TO 1 AND PUT THE SOUND MODULE INTO PATCH MODE AND NOW IT WORKS. I WILL NOW TRY TO DO THIS AGAIN, THIS TIME, REMEMBERING THAT I NEED TO BE IN TRANSPORT MODE WHEN I DO A LEARN. I TRIED THIS, AND NOW WHEN I AM IN AUTOMATION MODE, AND CLICK ON POS. BENDER RANGE, IT JUMPS TO PAN WHEN I DO THE AUTOMATION???? REGARDLESS, WHAT I SET THE AUTOMATION TO, IT JUMPS TO PAN?? NOW, WHEN I AM COMPLETELY OUT OF AUTOMATION MODE, THE PITCH BEND WHEEL JUST DOES A PAN. I AM STILL IN TRANSPORT MODE ON THE CONTROLLER. I WILL NOW GET BACK INTO HYPER CONTROL AND SEE IF THAT CHANGES ANYTHING. RESULT: IT STILL JUST PANS.

Good news! THE FIX: LOGIC PRO /PREFERNCES / CONTROL SURFACES / REBUILD DEFAULTS THIS GOT BACK MY PITCH BEND TO AUTOMATE PITCH BEND WITH PB WHEEL: 1) RECORD A MIDI TRACK 2) AUTOMATE - DON'T CHANGE THE OPTION FROM VOLUME. PUT IT IN TOUCH MODE. I AM GUESSING THAT SINCE THERE IS NO AUTOMATION OPTION FOR PITCH BEND (JUST THE PITCH BEND RANGE) YOU LEAVE IT SET TO THE DEFAULT OF VOLUME. 3) ACTUALLY RECORD THE PITCH BEND WHEEL MANIPULATIONS OVER THE ALREADY RECORDED MIDI REGION. I WAS SURPRISED THAT YOU ACTUALLY RECORD THE AUTOMATION. DOES THAT SURPRISE YOU? 4) PLAYED IT BACK IN READ MODE AND IT WORKED. ALSO, THE ONLY PLACE YOU WILL SEE THE AUTOMATION DATA IS ON THE PIANO ROLL. I HOPE THIS HELPS SOMEONE ELSE WHO ENCOUNTERS THIS PROBLEM.