Yesterday I purchased (used, but original nonetheless) Logic Express (9.1.8) and I have two problems:
1) When I try to load an instrument other than the internal ones (East West, Kontakt, but also simple synths), I cannot do it from either the browser on the right or the mixer; in practice, the names of the instruments are in gray and I cannot click on them.
2) I don't understand how to import a project from Garageband.
The instructions included with the package, the help files, and the complete manual on the Apple website are rather vague and incomplete regarding this matter.
I thank Simone or anyone else who will want to help me in advance.
I seem to remember (bad for me) that virtual instruments, in order to be read by an Apple OS, must have a different extension than the one used by Windows; there are VSTs, DXIs which software like Sonar reads, and AUs, which, if I'm not talking nonsense, should be the extensions that an Apple software like Logic should recognize. If not, I think Simone will be able to explain well why this inconvenience occurs; perhaps there is an application to convert VSTs and make them readable by Logic.
I seem to remember (bad for me) that virtual instruments, in order to be read by an Apple OS, must have a different extension than the one used by Windows; there are VSTs, DXIs which software like Sonar reads, and AUs, which, if I'm not talking nonsense, should be the extensions that an Apple software like Logic should recognize. If not, I think Simone will be able to explain well why this inconvenience occurs; perhaps there is an application to convert VSTs and make them readable by Logic.
Thanks Piccinesco, but I already know that the native type for Logic is AU. Although I know there is a way to open VSTs as well (but I won't go into detail...).
1) To use VSTs inside Logic you need a VST - AU Wrapper. Search on Google...
2) Unfortunately Logic 9 does not allow opening Garageband projects... I recommend installing version 8. Open the Garageband project in there, save it as a Logic 8 file and reopen it inside Logic 9. I don't know if converters exist but I don't think so.
1) Thanks Simone, but I wasn't referring to VSTs (I knew they don't run on Logic), but specifically to AU; Play by EW, for example, is both VST and AU, but I still can't open it. To be clear, when I launch Logic for the first time, it "verifies" the validity of the plug-ins and, in effect, recognizes and "validates" them. Then, however, nothing. Do I have to move them manually into the components folder, as micamahler says? It seems strange to me, though: between instruments and effects, there must be about a hundred... Garageband recognized them and made them immediately available without problems; why should Logic be so... "illogic"?
2) For GB, it's not possible...?! Fortunately, the package I purchased is an 8 with the upgrade to 9, so I should be able to do it by uninstalling the 9.
Thanks Frank, I read it. But I don't have Logic Pro 9, rather I have Logic Express 9.1.8 (which, if I'm not mistaken, is the "stripped-down" equivalent of Logic 8).
Simone was certainly confused as well. In fact, I just tried, before uninstalling the upgrade, to select a Garageband project and to "open with" Logic Exp. 9. It works; the project is imported with all the original sounds. Those of the external instruments appear in the sequencing with a separate icon, specifically a black quarter note on a green background; and the track is also green.
I still need to understand how to create this type of track from scratch, which accommodates external AU instruments. It's a simple "how to," but I can't find the answer in the included manual, nor in the video course (where reference is only made to Logic's internal instruments).
