Please comment on my thinking - MIDI Matters and Logic

[nrand]

I have been trying to move into adding more electronic sounds to my recordings for some time but I am still unclear on some of the theoretical applications of midi.
I have all the bits assembled [ below] so I wanted to ask these questions before I try to integrate everything.

Firstly, my MIDI side of my desk feeds to a stereo pair of Speck Electronic ASC 4 band EQs, into the audio inputs of my EMU 404 USB then to Logic Pro.
The music for the project is mainly geared towards ethnic/world trance and meditative grooves.

My Stack-O-midi devices are:

Patch:
emagic amt8 - to EMU 404 and Logic

Modules
YAMAHA TX81Z FM sound module - mainly for bass and some percussive sounds
Kawai XD-5 - drums
Roland XV5080 with cards for ethnic drums, strings, voice pads
Korg Wavestation A/D - some leads and pads
Yamaha EX5R - more leads and ambient pads

Keyboards:
ROLAND A-500 PRO
KORG 707 - For percussive attacks [bass and drums] to layer with other synths.


My questions are:
1. With this many devices, but given I will generally only be using two at a time to record audio tracks into Logic, should I assign different MIDI channels to the various devices, and if so how would others prioritise these numbers?

2. I am guessing that the non-keyboard modules only need to receive midi data.

3. If the 2 keyboards are set-up to send and receive [through the AMT 8] will this cause confusion with Logic?

4. Do I need the Roland A-500 at all given the midi parameters are set in Logic as well? To clarify, I am thinking I can use the Korg 707 to 'tap in' real time dynamics, with sound, into Logic; which in turn can be edited in matrix - so what aspects of midi information would still be useful to be controlled by the Roland? How would others approach this setup?

 

[Moses188]

Generally remember that a synth will only respond to the midi channel it's set to receive on and will pass everything bar sysex messages on to its out and thru ports. With that emagic amt8 of yours just plug everything in and set them to receive on channels in order of left to right or up to down on how you've set them up in your room, maybe even label them so you you know which synth is which midi channel. Then you can make a midi track for each synth in logic and send on the corresponding midi channel. If your interface has heaps of individual ins you can have individual audio in channels for each as well and save that as a template in Logic.

Unless you're using your thrus and outs to daisy chain synths just use ins on modules, and Logic only sends and receives on the channels you tell it to so you won't get any midi feedback loops unless you do something funny (which could be interesting).

Hope that helps.