This is related to another post regarding finding some "country" friendly instruments in ESX24 in "out of the box" config of LP8. For example Harmonica. I thought that I was going mental when I could not find one (please note that I did not say Apple Loops, I know there is a plenty of blue-loops there along that line.) But in Sculpture, there really was a "Pedal Steel", but in the Library Search when Software Instruments was selected, it never popped up. Now this makes me worry that I may not be finding what I actually have in all software instruments I got. Obviously most (if not all) of the ESX24 samples can be searched this way. And even other ones like ES2. This is more of a question about how these "presets" from various software instruments get into the library search index. Is there something I can do to have them included, and also how do I know all the presets are searchable?

Hi Manabu, This is a really good question. I hadn't really thought about this before, but because Logic 8 is soooo context sensitive I think the following might explain it: Select a blank software Inst channel. Now when you search in the Library for "pedal" you're searching ONLY the Channel strip settings (combinations of instruments with effects)... and you should get no results. Open Sculpture. Now when you search in the Library for "pedal" you'll find the pedal steel guitar preset for Sculpture! It seems like there is no way to include all instrument presets and channel strip settings in the same search :( Luckily, knowing a little about the sound producing capabilities of each instrument / synth makes it easier when searching. By the way, the EXS24 has it's own "Find" feature within the Instrument selector menu. Cheers Rounik

Another idea (a workaround): You can use Spotlight in the Finder to search for settings too: Here's a quick mock up of a spotlight window to find any presets of any Logic instrument containing the name "pedal" [img]http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/9646/picture2oo6.png[/img] If you want to search for channel strip settings, then the extension is .cst and EXS24 instruments end in .exs I'm guessing a nice automator script could be useful... Hope this helps :-) Rounik

Rounik: Thank you again for the detailed response. There are two "peace of mind" information that you made me realize. The first one is that when I am "searching" in a blank Software Instrument Track, I was looking for the Channel Strip presets. This is an important distinction, and hope that this is also covered in Logic 8 - 101 Course. I did just what you have indicated and now the search did find it. This also answered the implied question of "Why there is no search within the Sculpture or other SIs." During this research I've seen so many other posts from other forums along the line of "RTFM! Use the Search." But I certainly did not realize this. Second peace of mind is that I too was using Spotlight to find, for example, "Pedal", but you pointed out to look for the ".pst" and that's something I did not know, but thanks, I know now. Thank you so much! BTW: There still is no answer posted on the Logic Forum at Apple!

My pleasure Manabu! Thank you for the kind comments. We hope these forums are (and become) a good resource for Logic & all the app's, and most of all are a friendly and helpful community where knowledge and creativity can be shared... Take care, Rounik

Hi Manabu and Rounik, This IS a really good question... And the answer was up to the usual standard... : )) This will certainly improve my workflow... Many Thanks... Bj

Just FYI & Fun; Hi, I have just composed, mixed and sharing a 50-sec clip of ostesiblly the "country rock" sound idea. [url]http://homepage.mac.com/WebObjects/FileSharing.woa/18/wo/m51yoEnNd2Ghh9aP.1/0.2.1.2.26.31.97.1.35.0.1.1.1?user=stokemaster&fpath=DemoClips&templatefn=FileSharing1.html[/url]

thanks for sharing :)

Hello, I read your post on searching instruments and loaded in the Pedal Steel Guitar but I don't think that sounds anything like a Pedal Steel Guitar. Is there a tweek you came up that you like? Thanks, Alan

The typical tweaks that I'd use for something like this entails. - Echoing, Delay Designer, reverb. This seems to go a long way. - Tube amp simulations. - Do need to work that pitch bending stick and I'd also use Hyperedit to smoothen things up a bit. - Turn up the LFO depth a bit more. - Dyniamics. Volumes. I think having a volume peal here is really helpful. And I'd blend it in as the part of the arrangement and I would never feature it as the solo instrument.