Visit our Forums. Skip to Main Content. Navigation menu Close navigation menu. Close navigation menu. Dolby Vision Post-Production. Expand search. Search Search. Log in. Logic Pro X Stories July 5, This time of year tends to bring a number of half year sales and things of that nature on plug-ins, software instruments, FX, and even some hardware gear for Logic users and music makers of all kinds. Logic Pro X Stories June 28, Justin Kahn - Jun. While those two might be running the audio recycling operation here, the powerful new Logic Pro X tool known as Auto Sampler is not to be overlooked.
Now available to all users, the plug-in can automate the sample creation process like Logic Pro X has never seen before. Logic Pro X Stories June 21, Among the latest If Quick Sampler can completely change the way music makers interact with just about every little clip of audio they can get a mouse pointer on, Sampler can do all that and more, automatically transforming collections of samples and melodic phrases into coherent virtual instruments with artificial intelligence levels of automation.
Logic Pro X Stories June 14, Justin Kahn. Not unlike something found in vintage drum machines and hardware sequencers, we can now program our software instruments in the new Logic Pro X Its introduction continues the trend of bringing powerful new workflows to Logic Pro X inspired by popular vintage products and other DAWs, but with that particular Apple touch of course.
Logic Pro X Stories June 7, Logic Pro X Stories May 31, Apple introduced a collection of amazing new features and products in Logic Pro X Logic Pro X Stories May 24, The new feature is just that, a fresh way of interacting with your tracks and loops in Logic Pro X that is designed to work in tandem with the existing workflow, not instead of it.
Directly integrated with the main Tracks area and familiar left to right timeline workflow, Live Loops provides creatives with a free-form, modular point of view of music making that can then be either performed into or immediately copied over to the familiar timeline where the musical parts can then be fully edited as they always have been. Logic Pro X Stories May 17, More on Logic Pro X Rather than displaying a fully open second slot when the first is in use, there's now just a tiny area visible, which is where you click to add the next plug-in.
Alternatively, you can drag the first plug-in into this area, as before, to move it into the second slot. Send slots also get the mouse-hover-bypass control, and Channel Strips now feature a gain-reduction meter, positioned just above the EQ display. This is a nice touch, but it isn't quite as powerful as the one featured in Pro Tools it's not located in such a useful position, and it only works with Logic's own dynamics plug-ins.
Following on from Logic Pro 9's Flex Time, which allowed you to correct the timing of recorded audio, Logic Pro X introduces Flex Pitch to let you correct or otherwise adjust the pitch of recorded audio. To edit the pitch of an Audio Region, you double-click it to open it in the new Audio Track editor. This isn't the new name for the old Sample editor, which is still there and is now known as the Audio File editor, but a new audio editor designed to edit Audio Regions in much the same way you might edit MIDI Regions in the Piano Roll editor.
Enable Flex mode on the Audio Track editor's toolbar, choose Flex Pitch from the pop-up menu, and Logic will present that familiar Melodyne-esque display of a piano-roll-style note display superimposed on the audio waveform. You can also edit Flex Pitch information in the main window, which is neat, though I really don't know why you'd want to, as the Audio File editor makes this kind of manipulation so much easier.
You can change the pitch and timing of the notes in pretty much the same way as you would in the Piano Roll editor, including being able to split and merge notes. More advanced editing is equally simple, because as you hover over each note in the editor, a number of so-called 'hotspots' appear around the note that you can click and drag to adjust more specific properties. Above the note are three hotspots for dealing with pitch: pitch drift in, if you want to bend into a note; fine pitch, to adjust the note pitch with more granularity than semitones; and pitch drift out, to bend out of the note.
What's nice about the handles is that they update the display in the editor as you drag, making it easy to see what you're doing. Below the note are three additional handles for controlling the gain, the amount of vibrato, and the formant shift of the note. Of course, Flex Time isn't necessarily about pitch correction.
When this is enabled, playing a note on your MIDI keyboard will transpose the note under the playhead to the note that you played and then advance the playhead to the next note. This generally works well, although sometimes I found that the initial note's timing was off just enough for it not to fall under the playhead.
Generally speaking, the quality of the results was really good, although I found that sometimes notes were detected in the wrong octave, especially high bass notes. Significantly, the Staff Settings window has been redesigned and, in addition to making the settings much clearer to see and work with, there's a handy preview display of how the currently selected Staff Style will appear.
Also, in addition to Linear View where the score appears in continuous horizontal staves and Page View, there's a new Wrapped View that's something of a cross between the two, wrapping the score to fill all the available editing area in the score editor. Looped Regions are now visible in the score, with notes that are part of the loop appearing in a fainter grey colour on the stave. Logic Pro's instrument and effects plug-ins have always been affectionately regarded, even though the cobwebs from the Emagic days have become more apparent in the last few versions.
In Logic Pro X, Apple have taken the opportunity to update some of these plug-ins, as well as adding a few new ones including Drum Kit Designer, which is mentioned in the main text. Sadly, the plug-ins designated for a spring clean might not necessarily be the ones you might hope for: EXS24, for example, seems untouched, at least as far as I could tell.
The EVB3 organ emulation has been renamed Vintage B3 and given a brand-new user interface, which is a massive improvement in terms of aesthetics and usability — well, come on, who doesn't like Hammond-inspired skeuomorphism?!
The Leslie emulation has also been improved, and, as always, can be used as a stand-alone effect by using the Rotor Cabinet plug-in. Logic Pro X also includes a new synth plug-in: Retro Synth is a voice synthesizer offering four different oscillator types: analogue, sync, wavetable and FM. But the straightforward structure of the synth remains the same, regardless of the oscillator, making it easy to tweak and program sounds, though I found the analogue and sync oscillators most rewarding.
Turning to effects plug-ins, Pedalboard includes seven new stomp boxes — complete with garish designs — like the wonderful Tie Dye Delay a reverse delay and Flange Factory, with its Miami Vice-inspired appearance that even includes a pink flamingo. Sound-wise, I quite liked the simpler, warm and dirty Grit distortion pedal. With a choice of three amps, six cabinets plus two direct outs and three mic models, Bass Amp Designer sounds pretty decent, and Apple have also added inline compression and parametric EQ to help you craft the right bass sound.
One feature that will appeal to users who like creative sequencing is the ability to add MIDI plug-ins to Software Instrument tracks.
In the early days of Logic, this was the kind of functionality that was handled by the Environment, which included all manner of interesting objects to do arpeggiation, chord memorisation, delays and so on.
But while the Environment still works, it hasn't really been a promoted part of Logic for some time, so there was definitely a need for a more modern approach to handling MIDI effects.
This confused me initially, since I thought it meant you could only have one MIDI plug-in, but it's actually possible to have eight — you just need to click when a green line appears on the bottom of a slot. The factor they all share in common is surprisingly large user interfaces; in theory, you can scale these down within the plug-in editor, but because the text is significantly smaller than the controls, it can become hard to read the labels and displays.
This plug-in makes it possible to roll your own MIDI processors in JavaScript, so you'll need to have a little programming experience to be able do this, but there are plenty of examples included that you can enjoy without having to get your hands dirty with code. Some interesting examples include Harpeggiator, which is a fun way to program somewhat realistic harp glissandi, although it is possibly more run to use this on instruments like piano for that full-on Liberace effect.
Drum Probability Sequencer is a pretty neat drum machine where you specify the probability of a note playing on a given beat for four separate voices. Personally, I can't wait to delve deeper into Scripter, and I'm sure we'll see online communities popping up for people to demonstrate and share their ideas with others.
Logic Pro X introduces a new Project file format, with the '. This means that while Logic Pro X can load songs from previous versions of Logic back to Logic Pro 5 and Logic Express 5, according to Apple's web site, showing that not everyone has done their homework!
One of the benefits of the new file format is that more data can be saved within the project file bundle itself. For example, when you save a Project, the assets for that Project can now be saved within the project file bundle so that everything is contained in a single file. You can also still save a Project as a folder, just like in previous versions. Additionally, Projects can now contain alternate versions. So if you're the sort of person who saves successive Project files as v1, v2, v3 and so on, you could now save and recall these incremental versions as Project Alternatives within a single Project file.
You can also later rename and remove older versions via the new Edit Alternative window. Another improvement is that Logic Pro X now has a proper auto-save implementation that works in the background, so you don't have to worry about losing information if something bad happens and you've forgetten to save.
I only had one crash after updating to Fortunately, auto-save seemed to have kicked in right before the crash, and nothing was lost. This is obviously a big improvement upon Logic Pro 9. Logic Pro X introduces a new interface and a large number of powerful, inventive, and musical features, but not all existing users will feel their needs have been met with this release.
Mixed Improvements The user interface changes in Logic Pro X see some attention paid to the mixer controls. Flexible Pitch Flex Pitch makes it possible to edit the pitch of notes in monophonic audio. Notice the hotspots for making more detailed adjustments, the pitch-drift line, and also how pitched notes are ever-so-slightly highlighted, as in the case of the lowest note in the editor.
Arpeggiator is a surprisingly capable MIDI plug-in, and probably my second favourite in those provided. What makes it really useful is that you can define your own patterns, and there are many good presets supplied to get you started. Used in conjunction with Logic's synths, it's a great deal of fun.
Chord Trigger allows you to trigger chords by playing a single note, just like the old Chord Memoriser Environment object. Modifier lets you use an incoming event to modify another type of MIDI message; for example, velocity to scale the mod wheel. Modulator is a modulation source for MIDI events featuring both LFO and envelope generators, although you don't have to use both at the same time. Note Repeater is a MIDI delay effect where you specify the number of repeated notes and the velocity curve they should follow.
Randomizer randomises the specified type of incoming MIDI event and allows you to offset the output value. Transposer lets you transpose incoming notes and optionally make them conform to a user- or pre-defined scale.
Velocity Processor offers a way to adjust the velocities of incoming note events. You can compress or expand them, limit them, or scale and add or subtract a constant value from them. Best of all, it's also possible to set an overall minimum and maximum velocity range for the processing. Pros New user interface makes Logic easier to use than ever before.
Drummer is the best integrated virtual drummer yet seen. Track Stacks help to organise the Track List and also add creative possibilities.
Includes MIDI plug-ins, with the facility to script your own. Cons Existing users might not appreciate every change in the new interface. Image: Apple This suggests that the next version of Logic will have GarageBand iOS tools, and there could be greater flexibility when transferring projects between the two programs. Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Next Up In Tech.
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