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# How to Export MIDI From Logic Pro: Formats and Handoff
- URL: https://logicpros.net/logic-pro-export-midi/
- Published: 2026-10-25T17:48:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-25T17:47:59.000Z
- Description: Send the performance you intend: prepare the MIDI data, choose the right file format and verify timing and tracks before handing it to another musician or app.
- Author: Marcus Sullivan
- Tags: Recording, Tutorials, Features & How-To

To export MIDI from Logic Pro for Mac, select the MIDI regions in the Tracks area and choose **File > Export > Selection as MIDI File**. Choose a folder, name the file and click Save. The normal result is a Format 1 `.mid` file. For a device that needs Format 0, enable the single-region option in **Settings > General > Project Handling** and export one prepared MIDI region.

[Download](#)

The menu command is the easy part. Before you send the file, make sure it contains the played notes, intended timing and controller data, and doesn’t lean on settings that exist only inside the Logic project. I’d prepare the export in a separate project copy, then open the result before handing it over.

## Choose MIDI when the recipient needs editable notes

A Standard MIDI File carries performance instructions. Apple lists [events and their positions and channels, track names, markers and tempo changes](https://support.apple.com/guide/logicpro/standard-midi-files-lgcpdf6a3851/mac) among its contents. It doesn’t package the audio produced by your software instrument, its sample library or the whole Logic channel strip.

| The recipient needs                         | Send                                                                                                           |
| ------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Notes and controller events they can edit   | A Standard MIDI File, plus a reference recording when useful.                                                  |
| The piano, synth or drum sound as it is now | An audio render; include MIDI separately if they also need the performance.                                    |
| The complete editable Logic session         | A properly collected Logic project and the required assets, rather than expecting a .mid file to reproduce it. |

For the sound itself, use the [audio stem export workflow](https://logicpros.net/export-stems-logic-pro/). A MIDI export can be correct even when another instrument plays it very differently. That difference isn’t evidence that the notes were lost.

## Prepare the regions in a separate project copy

Save a separate copy before applying permanent commands. Apple’s [MIDI region parameter instructions](https://support.apple.com/guide/logicpro/midi-region-parameters-lgcpf7c0d270/mac) explain that Apply All Parameters Permanently writes settings into the data and returns playback parameters to normal values. It reduces your ability to revise those region edits later. The [Logic backup guide](https://logicpros.net/back-up-logic-pro-projects/) covers preserving the working project.

In the export copy, select the intended MIDI regions and follow Apple’s [MIDI export preparation sequence](https://support.apple.com/guide/logicpro/lgcp77376cad/mac):

1. **Apply the intended region parameters.** Control-click the regions and choose **Functions > MIDI Region Parameters > Apply All Parameters Permanently**. A playback transpose or velocity offset needs to become part of the performance data you are handing off.
2. **Apply the intended quantization permanently.** Apple’s export task gives **MIDI > Apply Quantization Permanently** in the region shortcut menu. This commits the quantization you already chose; it is not a reason to impose a new grid on an expressive performance.
3. **Replace aliases with real regions.** From the Tracks area menu bar, choose **Functions > Region Alias > Convert Alias to a Copy** for any aliases being exported.
4. **Make the loop repetitions real.** Select the looped regions, then Control-click and choose **Convert > Convert Loops to Regions**. Apply All Parameters does not handle the Loop parameter.
5. **Join within each track.** Choose **Edit > Bounce or Join > Join per Tracks** to make one continuous MIDI region per track. Keep separate arrangement parts on their own tracks for a multitrack handoff.
6. **Include instrument MIDI settings as events where needed.** Choose **Functions > Insert Instrument MIDI settings as Events** from the Tracks area menu bar. These are MIDI settings, not an export of your software instrument’s plug-in preset or audio.

Inspect multichannel parts before and after applying parameters. Apple notes that Apply All Parameters can change stored event channels to the track instrument’s channel, or ask about converting mixed channels. Do not accept a channel conversion without checking what the receiving instrument needs. Apply All Parameters also doesn’t apply every advanced quantization parameter. Follow the separate quantization step instead of assuming the first command covers everything.

The Track inspector is a separate check. Its Transpose, Velocity Offset and Delay settings act on the whole track, and they’re track settings rather than the region parameters Apply All Parameters writes into the data. If an offset should travel with the file, reset it there in the export copy and set the equivalent region parameter before applying.

## Export a multitrack arrangement as Format 1

Select the prepared MIDI regions you want to send, then choose **File > Export > Selection as MIDI File**. Save one descriptively named file, such as `SongName_arrangement_v03.mid`. For a MIDI-only project, select all its intended MIDI regions to export the arrangement through the same command.

One file doesn’t mean one musical track. Apple’s [Format 0 and Format 1 definitions](https://support.apple.com/guide/logicpro/standard-midi-files-lgcpdf6a3851/mac) say Format 1 can contain multiple tracks with independent data, while Format 0 puts the data in one track. Neither format preserves the division of a Logic track into separate regions. So if the regions come back joined or continuous after reopening, that alone doesn’t mean the export failed.

For one file per part, select and export each intended prepared part separately and give each file a clear name. Selecting several regions at once won’t produce a batch of independently named files.

## Use Format 0 when the receiving device requires it

Open **Logic Pro > Settings > General**, click **Project Handling**, and select **Export MIDI File command saves single MIDI region as format 0**. Apple’s [Project Handling setting](https://support.apple.com/guide/logicpro/project-handling-settings-lgcp43defb63/mac) applies to a single selected region. With it deselected, that region is saved as Format 1\. The choice is not a general format selector in the Save dialog.

![General Project Handling control with Export MIDI File command saves single MIDI region as format 0 selected](https://logicpros.net/content/images/2026/10/logic-pro-export-midi-format-zero.webp)

This setting applies to a single selected MIDI region. Clear it to save that region as Format 1.

If the intended data is split across several regions, join it into one region in the export copy with **Edit > Bounce or Join > Join**, then select that region and use Selection as MIDI File. Be deliberate here, because joining different arrangement parts isn’t the same as joining the regions within each track for Format 1\. One MIDI file track also doesn’t necessarily mean one MIDI channel.

Check the receiving hardware’s own import instructions for format, channels, storage and filenames. Apple warns that some hardware sequencers may need an 8.3 filename such as `proj0001.MID`. That’s a compatibility condition to check for that hardware. It isn’t a naming rule for every modern app.

## Keep song positions or make a reusable phrase

Decide what the file’s beginning is supposed to mean. For a whole-song handoff, keep the parts at their arrangement positions and tell the recipient the song start, first musical entrance and tempo. For a reusable two-bar phrase taken from bar 17, I’d move a copy to bar 1 in the export project and state the intended phrase length. Moving it deliberately changes its relationship to the song. Don’t move every part of an arrangement to bar 1 independently.

Check an exported arrangement with **File > Open**. Apple documents that this creates a new project containing the file’s stored event positions, track names, markers and tempo changes. **File > Import > MIDI File** inserts at the playhead instead, rounded to bars. Dragging uses the drop position. So importing into the middle of an existing project is a different check from opening the file on its own.

An older [discussion of MIDI start-position confusion](https://www.logicprohelp.com/forums/topic/150372-best-strategy-for-exporting-midi-files/) shows why that distinction matters. Its later replies correct the initial dummy-note advice by separating opening from importing. Reports like that are a reason to verify the destination’s behavior. Do not add fake notes or hidden controller messages as the default fix for an alignment problem.

Look past the region’s left edge to where the first actual note begins. Verify the last note and any intended silent space, too. A MIDI file’s region boundaries aren’t a reliable substitute for a written loop-length or start-position note.

## Capture generated notes before exporting

If an Arpeggiator or another MIDI effect turns held notes into a moving pattern, inspect the region’s actual events before export. To record the processed output, Apple provides [Record MIDI to Track Here](https://support.apple.com/guide/logicpro/record-midi-to-track-lgcp423beea5/mac). Click the arrows near the right edge of the last MIDI effect you want to capture, choose that command, then record the sequence to a MIDI region. The capture position appears as two small yellow triangles below the selected plug-in. Effects after it are left out.

In the export copy, inspect the captured region in the [Piano Roll](https://logicpros.net/logic-pro-piano-roll/). Bypass the generating MIDI effects when checking the captured notes so they are not processed a second time. Preserve the original trigger region and settings separately. Export the captured performance after the region preparation above.

For a Session Player part, Control-click its region and choose **Convert > Convert to MIDI Region** in the copy. Apple’s [Session Player conversion instructions](https://support.apple.com/guide/logicpro/convert-session-player-regions-midi-pattern-lgcpcde743bf/mac) say the result behaves as a regular MIDI region and can be edited note by note. Audio regions are a different task. Use [audio-to-MIDI conversion](https://logicpros.net/convert-audio-to-midi-logic-pro/) where it fits, or send audio. Changing a WAV extension to .mid doesn’t create note events.

## Check the exported file before sending it

Open the saved .mid file in a new project, and check it in the intended receiving app or device when that is available. Opening it in Logic normally assigns suitable GarageBand instruments, so compare the performance and timing separately from the patch’s tone.

| What looks wrong                             | Check before re-exporting                                                                                                        |
| -------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| The instrument sounds different              | MIDI transferred the performance. Load the intended instrument or use the accompanying audio reference.                          |
| Only the held trigger notes appear           | Capture the MIDI effect output, then inspect and export that recorded region.                                                    |
| Transposition, timing or repetitions changed | Permanent region/quantization preparation, converted aliases and real loop regions in the export copy.                           |
| A long gap or displaced entrance appears     | Actual note position, intended song/phrase origin, and File Open versus insertion into an existing project.                      |
| Parts are not divided into the old regions   | Standard MIDI Files do not preserve Logic’s region divisions. Check tracks and events rather than expecting the original blocks. |
| The receiver rejects the file                | Its supported Format 0/1, the single-region setting, MIDI channels and device-specific filename/storage requirements.            |

Check sustain, pitch bend and any patch or volume changes that matter to the performance. Do not assume every Logic automation lane or instrument parameter becomes a portable MIDI event. If a change matters to the sound but is absent from the receiving performance, include an audio render and explain what the editable file supplies.

On iPad, use the separate [MIDI track export workflow](https://support.apple.com/guide/logicpro-ipad/lpip53ffa1a7/ipados): select the MIDI tracks, tap Projects then Export, choose MIDI, set Export Selection as MIDI File on for selected tracks or off for all MIDI tracks, then tap Export and Save to Files. The Mac Settings path above does not describe that interface.

Send the file with its version name, tempo or tempo-map note, intended starting bar, first-note position and a reference recording. For a phrase, include its intended length. For hardware, name the target format and channels. Keep the export copy and original project so a requested revision has a clear starting point. The [Record & Edit library](https://logicpros.net/logic-pro-recording-editing/) covers the recording and editing tasks behind that handoff.