Logic X Name Support

Not to be negative at the start but, to be clear, compared to DAWs such as Cubase and Sonar (Cakewalk), Logic X has extremely weak name support. While these other DAWs allow for instruments to be defined with a virtually unlimited number of banks, Logic's limit per instrument is 14. This means that for instruments with a large number of banks such as the Korg Kronos or Yamaha Montage or MODX, it is not possible to create an instrument definition that includes all of the banks.

Even though Apple developed the .midnam file structure that a number of DAWs use to provide patch names, Logic has never supported it. There is no external text format such as .midnam, .ins, or patchscript files that Logic will read to simply and easily import patch names. In addition, Logic only supports patch names up to 15 characters so if the instrument uses a format longer, the names are automatically truncated.

At the time of writing, this is the easiest procedure to follow to add custom names to Logic that Sound Quest is aware of.

One time - To add custom names, it is necessary to be able to access Logic's MIDI environment. By default, the MIDI environment is not available. Follow these steps to make it accessible.

1/ Open Preferences
2/ Click on the "Advanced" tab
3/ Check the "Show Advanced Tools" option if it is unchecked
4/ Check the "MIDI" option to enable it if it is not already checked
5/ Close Preferences

To add custom names:

1/ Open or create a project
2/ Ensure that you have at least one MIDI track created that is set to the MIDI port for the instrument whose names you want to add (eg. Korg Kronos). If not, create it.
3/ Go to the "Window" menu and choose "Open MIDI Environment". (note: if Preferences isn't properly configured, this menu option is not displayed)
4/ The "Environment" window will open
5/ In the upper left of the Environment window,  there is a layer selector. Set the selected layer to "MIDI Instr."
6/ The Environment will now show a graphic of each MIDI Out port currently used by the project
7/ Find the MIDI OUT port object that you want to add names to and double click on it
8/ A window will open to assign names to a given bank number
9/ Click on the selector beside "Bank" to select the bank number to assign names (Logic may request that the bank be created - respond "Yes")
10/ Go to Midi Quest, context (right) click in the bank whose names you want to copy to Logic
11/ From the pop-up context menu choose "Export Bank Names in / Names to Clipboard"
12/ Midi Quest will copy the bank to names to the clipboard
13/ Activate Logic and the names window will appear
14/ Click on the "Options" pop-up menu and choose "Paste All Names"
15/ Logic will paste the names from the clipboard into the bank
16/ Ensure that "Bank Message" is correctly configured. In most cases "Control 32" is the correct option but it will vary by instrument.

Repeat steps 9 to 16 for each bank of names to add to the instrument. When complete, save the Logic project to store the assigned names.

Once the names are assigned, the object can be copied from project to project so that all projects using the instrument case correctly display names.

Note: support for other versions of Logic will be very similar as described above.