Hey there. I'm a podcaster who has created episodes in both Garage Band but have upgraded to Logic Express. My podcast (Julian Fleisher's Guilty Pleasures) is an interview format, with lots of bells and whistles. In GB, you can map sound files (say, applause, laughter or a stinger) to a midi controller (like my little M-Audio Ozone) by dragging each sound file to an individual key on GB's virtual keyboard. You can then trigger each one "live" by playing either the on-screen keyboard, or the Ozone itself. (Here's a link to a demo of this [url]http://www.insidehomerecording.com/?p=169[/url]) In Logic Express, though, I have to go back and insert each episode's sound effects, music cues and other audio decorations [i]after[/i] the interview is over. Or in certain cases, I ask my interview subject to "hold" while I ready a cue and then try to time it out "live". I would like to be able to trigger those sounds live in LE as I can in GB -- while the interview is happening. Ideally, I'd have most of the sounds available on a keyboard (such as my Ozone or even a virtual one, as in GB) and just play the appropriate key at the appropriate time. Otherwise, I'd settle for a playlist in iTunes that I can keep at the ready and have it wired into its own track in LE. Can it be that something so simple in GB is not available in LE? Any thoughts? They'll be most appreciated!

Hi! This is a very cool feature of GB and it is so easy to use! If you had Logic Pro, you could use the EXS24 to create or edit Sampler Instrument to trigger your samples. Unfortunately, the EXSP24 of Logic Express does'nt allow this... I think your best bet would be to buy a 3rd party sampler or drum machine. There is the iDrum from Izotope... a great value at 69$. And you can try it before you buy. [url]http://www.izotope.com/products/audio/idrum/[/url] Even cheaper at 39 $ there is Vsamp [url]http://www.vsamp.com/[/url]

Interesting. I downloaded iDrum, which is very cool. But not certain yet how to map it to my keyboard. Hope I can figure it out since it would be a MUCH cheaper solution than upgrading to Logic Pro. Thanks!

It's very easy... just click on the folder icon of the iDrum interface (located at the left of the sample names) and navifate to the sound file you want on your hard drive. You can also drag and drop the file on the iDrum interface.