Logic Pro 8 (Anyone use it?)
Pony
2,283 Posts
So I'm ready to make the switch to a Mac this year, my PC/Protools combo is making me crazy at the moment. I've been using an iMac at work and I'm SOLD.I looked into Logic Pro 8, and from what I've seen it looks amazing. I used Logic back when I was going to school for recording/audio engineering and I HATED it, it was so hard to use and the learning curve seemed to huge to even bother with, although the MIDI capabilities were impressive.So I'd just like to know if any of you are using it and how you like it, is it easy to edit waves (I found that to be the hardest thing to do in the older versions). Also, will I be able to use all the VST's that I can't live without?
Comments
Logic seems, as the name suggests, very intuitive to me and I really like the layout. I've heard it's great with MIDI editing and using groove templates too.
You'll be able to use all the VST you need, but if you have any TDM/RTAS (ProTools exclusive) plugins you'll need to replace them with native versions.
Not to thread-jack, but I use Ableton and recently upgraded to 6 (like, 3 weeks before version 7 came out) is that Drum Racks thing part of Version 7?
The only plugs I can't live without are the Waves Diamond and the Spectrasonics (Trilogy, Atmosphere).
Yeah, just upgraded to Ableton 7 and noticed the drum rack plugin. pretty damn powerful. Only critique I have is how drastically it crushes the sound quality. That alone still makes me use Battery for my drum triggering and what not.
Re: Logic 8. Got it installed recently and have been wanting to work with it for a minute now, so I don't know much about it yet. But From what I've seen so far, you still would do the audio editing in another program that it's bundled with.
But every person that I've spoken to about how powerful it is who uses it, swears by it, so that definitely say's something.
Other people will also say a DAW is DAW, right?
ez.
i can't wait till i get a copy of OS X to install on this MAC I have so I can install Logic 8.
Logic is the end all be all to sequencing.
Can someone show me a test of this? Because I'm still not convinced, and I tend to be a snob about such things.
ez.
I don't hear it. Is this with warp mode on? My understanding is that with warp mode off there is no difference in the audio except that the panning functions act differently than ProTools or Logic.
I noticed there's a lot of Ableton fans on here, but I'm a Logic head, and I want to check this shit out.
That's not true... Logic doesn't support VST, only Audio Units.
Most plugin vendors, including Waves and Spectrasonics, make AU versions nowadays. It's still a pain in the ass sometimes. FXPansion makes a useful converter that wraps VST-only plugs as AU's.
However, they changed the AU validation for Logic 8, and a few wrapped plugins stopped working for me. Not a ton but enough to be annoying.
The wave editing is better than the older versions - I can't say they reworked it 100% but it's definitely a little nicer. The new comping features look cool too, although I haven't tried them yet.
I've been using Logic since version 3 so I'm used to the old-style workflow, and it's still available in 8 with a few annoying exceptions. I think they did a good job with the single-window interface. It'll definitely make it easier for people to start with the program. The project management / track setup / templates are well-done and speed up song creation.
The 40 gigs of sound libraries left me kind of cold. There are a some usable keyboard/bass sounds but the majority of the library is semi-useless foley/sfx stuff and corny loops.
And it's pretty stable. I've crashed it once or twice but nothing like the miserable experience most people had between 7.0 and 7.3.
Hah, I'm gonna stay on message here.
Pony, the unfortunate reality is that these plugins, as far as I know, are not cracked for Logic, let alone Mac in general.
They (especially Spectrasonics) were my babies several months ago while I was still on PC/Nuendo. Spectrasonics, until recently, was not coded for any of the UB intel macs b/c it was based on some engine that they themselves did not develop. I know Spectrasonics has released some sort of wrapper that makes it work, but I don't *think* I've seen the fix on audionews or anything. I also don't know how well it really worked, mightve introduced some latency or something..
I know for a fact that waves are not (freely) available though. That said, it's not like there aren't other 3rd party L2,L3,C4-like plugins. I miss them, but I'm still livin'! I can't think of any other critical plugs that aren't available..unless it was something obscure. I miss Voxengo plugs a lot too.
Also, there is no doubt the Spectrasonics will properly re-release Atmos/Trilo so that they runs natively w/o any bullshit accessory plugin. I know for a fact its been in development for a while--so you could always hold tight!...I personally ended up spending some money on a Roland JD-990. So sick! It's basically like a hardware Atmosphere, but x2. It's likewise designed by Eric Persing, who designed most of the Atmosphere sound library.. Can do all those absurd spacey rich pads but also kind of a secret weapon for old school bass/leads. One of the best digital synths ever.
Now, as for Logic..I was a devout Cubase/Nuendo user for over 4 years. Im pretty much fully converted. It's so streamlined, so professional, and the native plugins are for the most part really useable. Unless you want to spend time reading the manual though, I'd strongly advise copping one of those video tutorials from your favorite squirrelly outlet. Real nerdy like but it will get you up to speed pretty quickly. Learn your key commands and whatever. My workflow is generally a lot faster than it's ever been.
The audio editing has a little ways to go-- But I'd bet the next comprehensive update, 8.1, will bring all the abelton-like, elastic audioish stretching that it lacks. The automation, midi capabilities (dunno if you run any hardware), and about 100 other things far outweigh the negs for me personally.
Damn that was a lot. Holler if you got any Qs.
I stand corrected, my bad. It's pretty ridiculous that there still isn't a universal plugin format that's been standardized.
Yeah, it seems like all the players want to write their own format and use it to control the market. TDM, UAD-1, and Powercore are hardware specific; DirectX and AU are OS-specific. Logic and Ableton have their own internal formats that they never opened up at all.
Steinberg pissed a lot of people off during the early years of VST by using it to promote Cubase. They made it easy to write plugins but hard to write hosts. Sonar and Logic and the rest had buggier VST hosting than Cubase for years.
From a technical standpoint I think that the Audio Units API has a lot of advantages. It's deeply integrated into OSX and it's a nicer format to write for than VST, which is showing its age in the form of crusty Windows 3.1-style interfaces. (Although it's been a couple years since I read through the AU and VST specs so I am all ears if anyone wants to drop knowledge.)
However, Apple created a lot of extra work for plugin developers by changing the internals of AU several times in a short period with no warning, which made the format an irritation for most companies.
If your Mac is old enough that it didn't come with OSX, Logic 8 is going to be pretty pokey with audio. My 1.5Ghz / 2GB RAM Powerbook G4 won't play the demo songs. MIDI sequencing should be fine though.
If you're happy with the plugins you've got there's not so, so much different between 5.5 and 8. The automation upgrade between 4 and 5 was the last fundamental change to the guts of the program.
From there on out you get some new plugins and instruments, a new UI look, and a workflow reshuffle. The new plugins are cool, but they're a bit esoteric... sequenced multitap delay and string oscillator modelling are not things that I use all the time. The phase linear EQ is cool.
I was happily using 6.4 up until a couple of months ago. The only thing I was really missing was multiple MIDI controller learn, which got added in 7.
One weird thing about 8 is that it seems to sound a lot better. I don't know if they reworked their summing code or what, but there is a noticeable improvement in mix quality. That was what kept me from switching to Live... something always sounded screwed up in the mix when I would bounce down to stereo.
I really hate how it never catches the first note of a loop when im sequencing.
Not really a fan, but constantly thinking about getting into it.