Author: zed

As always with major version releases, there’s a bunch of new features, a bunch of enhanced features, and heaps of bug-fixes. Also in this release, there are improved optimisations for Apple Silicon on the fancy new Mac Book Pros that were just released. So, is it worth the upgrade – especially considering you need to have at least MacOS Big Sur to get it? Overall I think it is.

If you go to Apple’s official release notes here, it’s dominated by bug fixes, so here’s a slightly tidier version that highlights the interesting bits slightly more.

The first thing that hits you with this new release are the visual changes – some of it inherited from running within Big Sur (or Monterey), but there’s additional tweaks with look and feel and control bar icons and the like.

Other than that – here’s a list of the main feature updates, and also some other interesting bits teased out from the release notes. Plus a few things I’ve discovered myself.

Spacial Audio and Dolby Atmos workflow and export.
Also known as “immersive audio” or “immersive music”. This is pretty major.

Although Logic Pro has incorporated surround and binaural features since the early versions, this is much more up-to-date and enhanced, and is designed to help provide Dolby Atmos compatible music mixes to match Apple’s enhanced audio features in hardware (and on the Apple Music store).

In light of this, Logic Pro’s tracks can either be part of the surround “bed” or be one of up to 118 Dolby Atmos pan-able “objects”.

The beauty of Atmos is that the 3D mix space can be mapped to whatever the listener’s system has, plus you can have any movement automation of your objects mapped as well. It’s pretty cool and it also works really well with just headphones and earbuds, giving a sense of space and “3D” sound.

You can set your export and monitor settings to a range of outputs – anything from stereo, binaural for headphones, and various surround formats up to 7.1.4 (7 main/surround speakers, 1 sub/LFE, 4 height speakers). This is performed by the special Dolby Atmos encoder bundled into Logic Pro.

There’s also expanded pan controls on each channel strip to match this setup. 13 Logic plug-ins have been updated to deal with up to 7.1.4 channel formats. Export for Apple Music is via a special ADM BWF file.

You can now set the MIDI-In port and channel in the Track Inspector,
plus you can also select a separate output MIDI channel. This may not seem like much, but it is huge long-asked-for feature for those of us running multiple MIDI controllers, or for shared jamming into a single Logic project. You used to have to go and wrestle with Logic’s MIDI Environment to be able to do this, and it was not always the most reliable (it was actually pretty horrible) when it came to Logic placing the MIDI regions on to the correct tracks after a recording pass.

MIDI 2.0. This is a pretty huge update as it provides a lot of extra features under the hood, but you won’t see much of a difference until you start using controllers and instruments that are compatible with the MIDI 2.0 standard. It’s enabled or disabled in preferences and is backwards-compatible with MIDI v1.0. There’s not a lot of documentation yet about how it all really works and what you can do with it within Logic.

Additional content:
There’s some new spacial audio example/template projects.
2800+ new loops in a variety of genres and from some top producers – check out the Live Loop templates.
More than 230 new instrument and audio patches.
In the Patch Library – if you look up at the top, you can filter content to individual sound packs.
50 vintage and modern drum kits, including a collection of 808 samples.

Step Sequencer:
Step Sequencer has had a lot of love in this release. A LOT. Not only a heap of bug and glitch-fixes, but some powerful new features. If you haven’t tried it out yet, it’s actually pretty cool step-based editor for creating MIDI-based riffs and grooves. Also handy for ambient semi-random stuff as well.

There were a few issues that made using Step Sequencer a bit impractical for many MIDI uses, but they mainly seem to be fixed in this update. The two main ones are new Live Record mode for real-time capturing of note and automation events into rows – this is great! And there are now ways of managing quantise (using Start Offset) and velocity.

And it’s now possible to convert MIDI regions to Pattern regions – you could only go in the other direction before. This means you can use Step Sequencer to do some additional cool stuff to regular old MIDI regions.

Mono (one note only per column) and legato mode (adds an extra tick in length over 100% to force legato performances in synths and samplers).
Step record mode.
Sorting of rows.
Command + Option can now be used to tie steps together.
There’s a menu to delete unused rows.
Pattern Increment/Decrement controls can scale all rows in whatever the current edit mode is set to.
Option + Shift can now be used to ramp values between specified steps.

Related: Drum Machine Designer pattern tweaks:
Adjusting the Note/Octave values in a Drum Machine Designer patterns now changes the pitch of the sound rather than playing a different pad/sound.
Start Offset and Chance are now included by default in Pattern regions created for Drum Machine Designer. 
It is now possible to split a Drum Machine Designer Pattern region into individual Pattern Regions for each kit piece. Tasty.

General enhancements:
The count-in now uses the time signature of the bar where recording will start in cases where there is a time signature change at that bar. Very handy for working with eg soundtracks where there are different signatures between sections.
It is now possible to paste regions copied from multiple tracks to new tracks using a Marquee selection to define the starting track and position.
The Select Unused Tracks command now excludes tracks inside Summing Stacks.
Oh and it looks like they may have fixed the Track Sorting which used to unpack all your Summing Track Stacks as well.

Automation – lots of bug fixes, and:
You can now record Automation while recording  Audio regions (as well as MIDI regions as before).
It is easier to copy/paste automation plug-in data between tracks.
Enabling the bypass button for automation in the channel strip now dims the automation data instead of hiding it.
Automation is now reliably chased and displayed in the track header control when playback is started at any point in a project.
It is now possible to record automation with regions on the main track of a Track Stack.
Holding Option while selecting or deselecting “Record Automation with MIDI Regions” now sets all compatible channels to the setting.

Chase – various bug fixes and improved reliability, including;
Regions with Clip Length enabled no longer cause unexpected notes to be chased at the start of playback.
Note events at the start of a region are no longer chased if the left corner of the region starts after the note on.

Track Stacks – various bug fixes and minor improvements.

Flex Time/Flex Pitch – lots of bug-fixes, including;
Fixes an issue where the Reset All Flex Edits command on a set of Grouped tracks in Slicing mode could throw the regions out of sync with one another.
Fixes an issue where audio regions set to Flex: Mono mode could sometimes exhibit crackling noises after the region borders are adjusted.

Alchemy – a few bug-fixes.

Library:
You can now filter to individual Sound Packs and Producer Packs.
The Patch Merging filter remembers its previous settings when you hide it then open it again (Finally – I’ve been waiting years!)

Plug-ins – lots of bug fixes and some minor enhancements;
The disclosure triangle for advanced plug-in parameters is now available when the Advanced Tools preference is not enabled.
Pedalboard now has a mono->stereo mode.
Fixes an issue where Audio Unit V3 MIDI plug-ins could show up multiple times in the plug-in list.
Resolves an issue where IRs in Space Designer could be unexpectedly truncated after the project sample rate is changed.

Mixer – various bug-fixes and;
Plug-in insert slots now show a little arrow indicator when plug-ins are using a side-chain input.

Groups – various bug-fixes and;
Group settings now offer an option to create a default set.

Drummer/Drum Machine Designer – various bug fixes and;
Saving a patch based on a new instance of Drum Machine Designer on a track with a custom track name now uses the track name by default.
Drum Machine Designer sub-tracks can now be sorted.

Takes and comping – various bug fixes and;
It is now possible to split multiple selected takes in a disclosed Take folder at the same time.
Splitting or copying Take regions that have been renamed now appends a number to the name of the new segment.
Transpose settings in the MIDI region defaults are now applied to recorded Takes.
Region solo now works for selected Quick Swipe comps in Take folders.
Take Folders recorded over a tempo change are now the correct lengths.

Track Alternatives – various bug fixes and;Recording MIDI to a track showing inactive track alternatives no longer creates aliases on the inactive alternatives.Dragging an inactive track alternative to the area below the last track in the Tracks Area now creates a new track at the expected location and places the region there.

Fades
When a crossfade is edited, the right side of the fade now visibly updates as expected.

Smart Tempo – various bug fixes and;
Logic now displays a warning to switch the Smart Tempo mode to KEEP when starting a MIDI recording with a cycle enabled in AUTO mode in projects that have no tempo reference.
There are new key commands to navigate in the Smart Tempo Editor: Forward by Bar, Rewind by Bar, Forward by Beat, Rewind by Beat, Forward 8 Bars, Rewind 8 Bars.

Sound Library – various bug fixes and;
It is now possible to use an alias to refer to sound library content manually moved to a non-default location.
The Sound Library can now be relocated to volumes on Box.

Content – various bug fixes and;
The setting to enable Patch Merging in the Patch Library is now remembered when the library is closed and then reopened. (Finally!)
It is now possible to filter the Sound Library to show patches from specific sound packs.

Import – various bug fixes and;
When importing Music XML files, Logic now asks whether to import the tempo map or keep the current tempo.
Logic now supports importing the new Final Cut Pro fcpmld XML file format.
Drummer regions are no longer changed to MIDI regions when importing a Drummer track from another project.

Export and bounce – various bug fixes and;
A progress bar now displays when converting multiple audio files to a compressed format in the Project Audio window.
Track numbers are now appended correctly when “Export all tracks as audio files” is performed while one or more Take folders are open.
Add to Apple Loops Library and Export now generates a 24bit audio file.

Auto Sampler – various bug fixes

Key Commands – various bug fixes and;
The Key Command editor now displays Touch Bar icons for those key commands that offer them.
The Key Commands editor now resets any selections when it is closed and re-opened.
It is now possible to assign multiple Key Commands to the same MIDI message.
The “Select muted regions/cells/events” command now only selects muted items within selected regions, or within a marquee selected area.
Unpacking folders and Take Folders is now performed with the same key command.
There is now a key command for Custom Row Name in Step Sequencer.

Global Tracks – various bug fixes and;
Shift-clicking the lower left corner of a Global Track now resets its height, just as with other tracks.

Impulse Response Utility – various bug fixes

Selection-based Processing
Selection-based Processing now works on Take folders.

Smart Controls – various bug fixes

Score – various bug fixes and;
User-created Text Styles can now be deleted from a project.
Notes are now pasted to the correct position in the Score editor in projects that start on a beat sub-division.

Editing – various bug fixes and;
Track automation can now be copy/pasted in the Piano Roll using key commands.
The Event Float window now opens the first time a note is double-clicked in the Piano Roll.
MIDI CC data in the Piano Roll automation lane can now be quantized.
The Event List editor now properly updates to display newly loaded Articulation Sets.

Undo – various bug fixes and;
Undo now works for parameter changes in the Mapped Instrument editor.
Undo now works for routing changes applied to stomp boxes in the Pedalboard plug-in.
Changes to the Surround Panner now create Undo steps.
Changes to Mixer channels with Record Automation with Regions enabled now create undo steps.

Video – various bug fixes and;
If the frame rate of a movie is changed while importing, and the audio is not imported as a separate track, a blue frame indicating the video contains embedded audio is now displayed in the global track as expected.

Logic Remote – various bug fixes.

Control Surface and MIDI controller support – various bug fixes and;
The Control Surface preference window now includes a column to display the Lua script version number.
Control surface buttons now reliably reflect the states of key commands assigned to them.
LUA scripts can now connect to virtual MIDI ports.
MIDI device scripts that contain an image of the device no longer show a generic image for the device in Logic.

General – various bug fixes and;
In Logic pro preferences, rather than all the separate groups of advanced preferences, there’s now a single advanced features tick-box: “Enable Complete Features”.
Better Flex analysis.
Step Input now preserves the MIDI channel sent by an external MIDI device.
The main menu now remains fully functional when the Template Picker window is open.
Engaging Track Protect on an armed audio track will now disarm it.
The “Separate by MIDI Channel” command now uses existing sub-channels of a Multi Instrument.
Sustain pedal events performed during playback now override recorded sustain pedal events.
The playhead now displays at the correct position when switching from Skip Cycle to Cycle mode while playing.
MIDI Modify in Step Input now works with the Musical Typing keyboard.
Quick Help settings can now be accessed directly from the Quick Help button in the Control Bar.
The Clean Up Project command now removes unneeded DUP files resulting from creating audio file backups.
Tracks with MIDI FX plug-ins are no longer silent if frozen in Source Only mode.
Engaging record with a single-tick length Marquee zone no longer engages Auto Drop. (Finally!)
MIDI events in track regions are now displayed more consistently at all vertical track zoom levels.
Hyperlinks added in Notes fields now open a web browser as expected.
There is a new preference setting to adjust Logic’s light/dark appearance independently of the system setting.
Settings in the File Browser are now retained after the Browser is closed and reopened.

I see this sort of question coming up all the time – especially on social media. Will my (insert model here) Mac be good enough to run Logic Pro? That kind of thing. Regular group participants get sick of this type of question. So here’s my version of an answer to it.

Almost any Mac will run a version of Logic Pro, but maybe not the latest version of Logic Pro.

Update Feb 2022

MacOS Monterey has been out for a few months now, and Apple have released several more Apple Silicon-based devices. One of the features of the new updated M1-Pro and Max chips are increased memory size, which lays to rest some of the issues people had with purchasing them for pro audio and video tasks. There are numerous YouTube videos comparing performance of the different MI-based models and with the Intel-based units, and the M1-Pro and Max based systems kick ass. There’s still some compatibility issues though – see below.

As of Feb 2022 only Big Sur and Monterey are the supported MacOS versions. So for a start you need to make sure your Mac will run one of these versions. Ideally the very latest version for additional future-proofing. I’m currently running Monterey and it only broke a couple of less-used audio plug-ins. I kept an image of my Big Sur system just in case.

Get MacTracker to see what your existing or potential-purchase Mac is compatible with. Then you can think about your actual hardware details.

Note that Apple are still in transition between Intel chips and their own Silicon-based products. Intel is currently better for compatibility purposes with existing hardware/drivers/apps/plug-ins, but is more expensive and runs hot/consumes power. Apple Silicon is very fast, runs cool and is cheaper than Intel equivalents, but is not natively supported (yet) by some hardware/drivers/apps/plug-ins.

General consensus seems to be that getting M1-based Mac now is generally fine (still a few incompatible things yet) but will likely be even better and more compatible in the future.

Whichever model Mac you have or intend to get, there are three aspects to focus on:

1. CPU type, speed and number of cores. If you’re not just going for a speedy M1-based Mac (and to be honest, right now I’d go that way) , then it’s an Intel-based system.
   There are various model types, but for pro audio you’re going to need as many CPU cores as you can get – with at least four. Avoid the dual processor Intel i5s as they often don’t even do hyper-threading (virtual cores). NB. Some later laptop i5 versions do. Other models of Intel CPU have two virtual cores for each real one, so if you have four real cores you get 8 virtual cores. This improves processing efficiency through multi-threading (eg running application processes in parallel). CPU speed does make some difference but not as much as it used to. You’re probably better to go with more cores and slightly slower max speed if it’s a choice between the two.

2. Storage (aka Hard Drive/SSD) size. This should be enough to be useful, as it is becoming impossible to upgrade later in many new models. I wouldn’t go less that 1TB now. And 2TB would be even better if using large sample libraries etc. I run both Logic and Ableton Live and the combined full factory libraries of these two alone are nearly 200GB. Note also that SSD wear is lower on larger size drives, so conceivably they will last longer.

3. Memory (aka RAM). When you run apps/sample libraries etc, they are loaded into RAM. When your RAM runs out of space, data is swapped out to Storage/Hard Drive as you switch between threads, apps or documents. It happens all the time regardless, as the OS will always try to keep the RAM full, but if it’s happening too much your computer will struggle and be slow. Nb This is also why upgrading your old hard drive to a sprinty SSD can make such a big difference. So in regards to memory, 16GB would be the minimum and ideally it would be 32GB or more for those using large orchestral sample libraries. It’s not unheard of for composers to be running Mac Pro’s with dual 12-core Xeon processors and 384GB of RAM. I use 16GB with several sample libraries loaded and it’s mostly fine.

Don’t get confused between Storage and Memory, even though they appear similar and are becoming blended together somewhat within the Apple Silicon systems. In other words, if you get warning messages about memory running out, don’t start deleting files and plugins from your storage system (unless your hard drive/SSD is almost totally full!).

So which model type should you get (if you don’t already have one now). Whether you get an iMac, Mac Mini, Mac Book Pro or Mac Pro comes down to the performance you want and where/how you will use it.

If you’re planning on performing live or you travel a lot, then a laptop is very useful, but you’ll want to max out some of the specs as much as you can afford – ideally get plenty of storage. You can often get away with a small screen if you use an external monitor, but 15″ or more is best for live use. Mac Book Pro hardware is better than plain Mac Book or MB Air and has more connectors. Expensive – but if you have one you’ll never want to not have one. If you know what I mean? Personally, I’d go for an Apple 16″ MBP M1-Pro with 10-core CPU, 16-core GPU and 16-core Neural Engine, 32 GB Unified Memory and 1TB of storage. The 16″ models apparently run cooler/quieter. But that’s just me after watching numerous videos on which is best for audio.

For home systems, iMacs are pretty good value as you get a nice built-in screen, and some models are upgradable in regards to memory or storage. Basically just pick the screen size you want and the optimum specs for the items above.

If you already have a decent screen, the Mac Mini is very good value (I have the 6-core Intel model). The downside with these are that they don’t have a separate graphics card/chip so they struggle with lots of large monitors and graphics-heavy apps. I find that I sometimes get graphics corruption after running Logic for a while, and it’s like a fan heater when running large Logic sessions. I’m hanging out for a new grunty M1-Pro based model to replace it for my studio.

For rich, serious or pro users (perhaps those running professional studios) the Mac Pro might be a useful investment as they can be upgraded and can also accept PCI-e cards – useful for certain high-end audio interfaces, RAID arrays etc.

But with the rumoured upcoming high-performance Apple Silicon-based Mac Pro on the horizon, it might be worth waiting to see what comes out next.

Note: Apart from the major 10.5 update, all the others are mostly bug-fixes.

Yes I know it’s a little late to the gate on this post, but it seems every person and their cat/dog whipped out a review when it was released. So in this review, I will for the sake of completion briefly touch on the new “glamour” features, but I’m also going to look at more of the cool but less-obvious additions.

Although the main focus on the v10.5 update was new features, there were also a slew of workflow and interface optimizations – for example better scrolling, dragging and window centering. Also plug-in and Apple Loop scanning have been sped up significantly. If you use ARA (like I do with Melodyne) it now works much more reliably.

Drag and Drop. Many of the new features within Logic are designed to work with an enhanced Drag and Drop function – it’s so much easier to import samples and drop them into a sampler, Drum Machine Designer, or Alchemy. If you drag files onto a track header, it gives a variety of possible ways to import the sample to the devices listed above, and can include what mode you want to import them with.

Live Loops: This is probably the most dramatic new feature. Logic is now a bit like Ableton Live in that you can now record, compose and perform mixing in cells rather than regions. The cells work with all the usual types – audio regions and samples, MIDI, Drummer and the new Step Sequencer regions. You can switch between the two operational modes per track if you like and you can render a Live Loop performance onto the Main Window tracks. Or copy a region across from either direction. The Live loop window feels like Ableton’s clip view mode laid sideways. There are various ways to trigger the cells individually, or as groups (“Scenes”), with quantization on the start and end triggers, loop length etc. Currently compatible with most of the Novation Launchpad series.

Sampler and Quick Sampler: The old EXS24 is finally gone, to be replaced by these two new samplers. “Sampler” is effectively the new EXS24, and is compatible with all the old EXS patches. It also has way more features, like flex and the ability to recognise pitch automatically. It also has more filters, more modulation mapping, good zone mapping options, it’s easier to set up round-robins, and better waveform editing. “Quick Sampler” can only have one sample at a time, but it still has a couple of import modes and longer samples can be automatically sliced. Between the two versions there are some excellent features. And they look much better.

Drum Machine Designer: This is a completely new version of DMD that works slightly differently than before. It is still basically a special macro instrument – sort of a track stack with a fancy pad interface, with each pad being assigned to a note and having a separate instrument/channel strip usually populated with a Quick Sampler instance. Apple have made this much easier to use than the old one and also way more powerful, so in a way you could think of it as another sampler option – much akin to Native Instrument’s Battery. They’ve addressed complaints from many users and now one of the cool things you can do with this new version is play/record each pad’s sound on its own MIDI track and pitch it up and down by where you play it on the keyboard.

Auto Sampler: This has been available in Apple’s MainStage for a couple of years now, and has now been ported to Logic. It is a specialised sampler designed for auto-sampling other instruments. It basically sends out a set of MIDI notes (you can decide on how many across the keyboard and whether you want to do velocity layers as well), then it records the result as a set of mapped samples. It can also auto-loop sustained notes. You can use it for external hardware synths, or MIDI instruments, depending on where you place the plugin.

Step Sequencer: The other hyped new device in Logic. Although those of us who come from the early days of Logic will recognize the similarity with the old Hyper Editor window in GM drum mode. This is a much more powerful version of that. Basically it is a highly detailed step editor where you can create tracks and assign notes, or various other features like note repeats, ties and skips. You set the chance a note will play. Each lane can have a different length and even direction. You can use it for drums or to create melodic/chordal patterns. You can even automate parameters within it in step fashion (it can glide between settings though). There is a whole new section in the Apple Loops browser for this features with heaps of new loops.

Drum Synth Instrument: This is like the synth part of Ultrabeat. It has a bunch of different types of drum and percussion sounds (kicks, snares, percussion, cymbals, and hi-hats) that you can tweak. It’s very handy and sounds good.

Remix FX Plugin: Pretty much a “DJ” jammer plugin. It’s actually quite good fun and can be automated and also played using the iPad Logic Remote.

Improved Logic Remote: This has had a bit of a tweak as well, with more functions added.

More content: As usual with these larger updates, Apple have added even more patches. And of course new patches for the new features as well. To quote Apple: Over 2,500 new loops in a variety of instruments and genres covering modern and classic hip-hop, electro house, reggaeton, future bass, techno, and transition effects. 17 Live Loops starter grids covering a range of electronic and hip-hop genres. More than 70 new Drum Machine Designer kits. Over 1,500 new patches. And this Logic version’s demo track is the multi-track project of Billie Eilish’s “Ocean Eyes.” There’s some good tutorials provided for the new features as well.

Cool Less-Obvious Stuff:

MIDI capture when stopped: One of my favourite new features! If you play MIDI while Logic is stopped, you can use the Capture Record button or key command to capture what you just played onto the selected track. It times-out after about 20 secs of not playing anything though. Combine this with Logic’s Smart Tempo editor (which can now use MIDI regions as well as audio) and you can also map your song tempo to the MIDI part you just played.

Content Slip and Rotate in regions: Slip: This menu item and key command allows you to slip the content of an audio or MIDI region left or right within the region boundaries. When you do this with audio it creates a little fake folder that the audio slides within. Note that with this mode, your audio region has to be smaller than the full audio file for it to work – otherwise there’s no extra content to slip with. And as with Take Folders you can Unpack or Unpack and Merge when you’re finished tweaking. Rotate: Almost the same, but now when it disappears off one side of the region it reappears on the other side as you “rotate” the contents. This one works fine with audio regions the same length as the audio file. I’ve been waiting for this feature for years.

Piano Roll Chord Analysis: You can analyse chords in Piano Roll by selecting notes anywhere – you now only need two (or more) notes instead of three. 

Double and Half the cycle and region length: There are now key commands to double and halve the current cycle length as well as region lengths.

Alignment guides now extend into Global Tracks: A position guide line is now displayed when adjusting the left or right edge of a Marker in the Marker Track and the vertical guide line when dragging regions now extends into the Global Tracks.

Record automation with MIDI recording: This is quite a significant one. You can now record a MIDI performance and also automate parameters with automation at the same time. There is a new sector under automation menu.

No more adding key signature changes inadvertently by changing LCD display key: In cases where the project contains only one key signature, adding a key signature in the LCD now always changes the project key signature rather than inserting a change at the current playhead position.

Region drag to create duplicate track: Dragging a region below the last track in the Track List now creates a new track with duplicate settings. It is also possible to copy a track by Option-dragging it below itself in the Track List. (I’m sure I have done this before anyway) – you can do it with multiple tracks though.

Auto-colour Markers: There is a preference for auto-colouring created markers.

Removing fades from audio regions: It is now possible to selectively remove Fade-ins, Fade-Outs, Crossfades or all Fades from the contextual menu on regions.

Extra Smart Control Tabs for Aux and Masters: When you open up the Smart Controls pane, you’ll see some extra tabs for the Aux returns the channel strip is connected to, and the Main out channel strip.

Missing audio files: The Project Audio window now shows the last known path for missing audio files

Upbeat event playback: There is a new menu item “Reactivate Upbeat Event Playback” to allow MIDI notes that are ¼ note or less before the start of a region to play, in cases where the left edge of the region has been edited. Note that having this on can mess with you sometimes as well.

Channel EQ Plugin Updates: Slightly new interface and fixed some bugs and finicky things so it works better. There is now a contextual menu for switching the EQ range, Analyzer Resolution and Analyzer Mode in the extended parameters section. The frequency setting can now be adjusted in finer increments. The vertical scale display now adjusts dynamically, depending on how much boost or cut is applied. The range of the Analyzer in the Channel EQ and Linear Phase EQ is now switchable between 60db and 120 db.

New Key commands:

• Rotate and slip content of Piano Roll by grid.
• Can bypass all plugins on a track.
• Hide all but selected tracks.
• There are now separate key commands available to apply each possible quantization value.
• There are now key commands to double and halve the current cycle length.
• There are now separate Key Commands to select the members of each Group and Key Commands to show/hide up to 64 groups.
• Color by Articulation.
• Forward by Nudge Value and Rewind by Nudge Value.
• Menu Items in the Take Folder drop-down menu now display their equivalent key commands.

Mixer: Heaps of bug fixes and general improvements in responsiveness. You can do a couple more Mixer functions using the channel strips in the Inspector pane on the Main Window as well.

Here’s a bunch of the new Mixer stuff:

• There is now a key command to bypass all plug-ins on selected channel strips.
• There’s now 64 mix groups. Option-clicking the Group slot on a channel strip now selects all other channel strips that are members of the same group.
• It is now possible to see the presets for a plug-in in the Sound Library by Shift-clicking it.
• Fixes an issue where the click zone to control Stereo Pan is unexpectedly small (This was a real pain but is a lot better now).
• There are now menu commands to remove all plug-ins, or all bypassed plug-ins, or all empty insert slots or all sends from selected channel strips.
• Typing a hyphen with a space before and after now forces a line break in a Channel Strip name.
• Right- or Control-clicking a group slot now opens a contextual menu with group settings.
• The Pan Law setting now allows for -4.5 dB and -6 dB compensation (This option is in Project Settings).

Name Labels in Piano Roll: Drum names now show up in the piano roll properly.

Apple Loop enhancements:

• It is now possible to drag a mixed selection of MIDI and audio regions to the Loop Browser.
• Flex-based transients are now used when regions are exported as Apple Loops.
• The minimum duration for Untagged Loops to be recognized as loops rather than one-shots has been lowered to 1.7 seconds.
• Untagged Loops can now be edited in the Smart Tempo Editor.
• Enabling Follow Tempo on Apple Loops and Untagged Loops now reliably sets their Flex Markers
• When audio Apple Loops are dropped into project they match the playback level in the loop browser.

Input the tempo of audio files in the Project Audio window. There’s now a tempo column that you can type into to enter the audio file tempo.

Improved Logic Pro Help: Available from the Logic Pro X Help Menu, it is now available in PDF or Apple Books format. This replaces the clunky “help app” pop-up overlay window which was out of date and atrocious to navigate. Importantly – like the original biblical set of paper manuals, it now has a glossary at the end which makes it easier to find terms. As always, there’s a manual for Logic app itself, plus other separate ones for the Logic Pro Effects and the Logic Pro Instruments. There is also an online-only help section for Control Surfaces support.

Lately it seems like Logic updates have primarily been about bug-fixes, accessibility improvements (eg improved Voice Over functions) and minor function updates. Perhaps Logic Pro v10.5 is on the horizon – who knows.

All the detailed notes are here.

Dynamic Plug-In Loading.

Enabling the “Only load plug-ins needed for project playback” project setting means that only those plugins and instruments currently needed will be activated on loading the project. These latest updates fix a whole bunch of issues that arose from this cool feature – including things like some third-party sample libraries failing to load after tracks being frozen and weirdness from using objects in Logic’s Environment window.

Mixer

Option-clicking an empty EQ thumbnail on a channel strip now inserts a Channel EQ into the first plug-in insert. Handy!

Stereo width and panning can now be adjusted using the scroll wheel on a mouse. In case you missed this on a previous update – Logic channel strips can now change a stereo balance to a stereo pan knob. If you Command-click on a stereo pan, you can swap left and right sides.

VCAs can now be stored as part of the User Default channel strip configuration. VCAs are awesome and keep an eye out for an upcoming tutorial on how to use them.

Automation

Using Option + Shift to create a ramp when dragging automation now works consistently.

Audio Unit v3 plugins can now be automated, and Logic’s automation will handle third-party plugins and instruments much more reliably.

Export/Bounce

It is now possible to bounce a track in place in a project that has not yet been saved. Although we all save our projects first, eh?

It wasn’t quite the Logic v10.5 update we were all hoping for, but this is still a pretty solid update nonetheless.

Here’s some of the main features:

More Tracks

Lots of tracks. 1000 of each type! 256 of each of Audio or Instrument tracks has usually been enough for me, but apparently power-users and film soundtrack people still ran out. So now we have 1000 of each type of track, and this also includes 1000 Aux channels strips and 1000 external MIDI tracks as well.

And since this huge number of tracks becomes hard to navigate in the Main window, you can (via the Preferences/Display/Tracks “Show Track or Bar Number While Scrolling”) turn on a pop-up display that shows which track you’re scrolling down to as you go (and the same for Bars when scrolling sideways).

In related Mixer window news, Apple have increased the number of sends per channel strip to 12 – up from the 8 we used to have. Nice.

They’ve also finally added a “User Default” setting for the Mixer’s “Configure Channel Strip Components” menu. Since they already had this handy User Default feature for the Track Header, Control Bar and Display and the Toolbar, it was always something I bemoaned as missing. Especially as I would always have to go and tweak a few things manually – like making three lines for the Track Name instead of one. Try it!

Oh and now apparently you can get rid of all those pesky External MIDI tracks that you don’t need in the “All” view in the Mixer.

Performance and Responsiveness

This is where Apple seem to have spent significant time and energy in the latest release, as the overall performance and responsiveness has improved amazingly in Logic. Things like starting up Logic, and scrolling, opening or switching windows is much faster and more responsive, especially with Mixer and Event list views.

Apple have optimized Logic’s performance ready for the new Mac Pro including support for up to 56 threads.

Alongside this, there are some options for controlling loading and unloading of plug-ins. For example, Option-clicking the On/Off button for a track now loads/unloads the plug-ins on the channel strip, and Freezing a track now unloads its plug-ins to free up resources.

The new project setting “Only load plug-ins needed for project playback” reduces load times for large projects or templates.

Projects with numerous Flex Time edits and/or tempo changes perform much more efficiently.

Plug-ins

“De-esser 2” is a new de-esser plugin with extended features such as relative level sensing for reducing sibilance problems on vocals and hihats and suchlike. Looks like it is a lot better than the fairly basic original Logic de-esser.

The Expander plug-in has had a retina facelift and the resolution of the Sculpture interface has also been increased – it looks really nice again. I guess Apple are still slowly working their way through the instrument and plug-in catalogue and zhooshing them all up.

MIDI Stuff

You can now send MIDI clock or MIDI Time Code to up to 16 different MIDI ports, each with its own timing offset and plug-in delay compensation.

Not sure if it was added in the this update or the previous ones, but I notice that you can now export All MIDI Tracks as a MIDI File. The old method just had export of MIDI “selection”.

Automation

The display of automation point values has been improved at low zoom levels.

When regions with region-based automation are split, automation points are now added to the right-hand region to maintain consistent playback.

Pan or Volume Automation written in Touch mode is now reliably shown when adjusted using the Track Header controls.

Operational Improvements

The Loop Browser can filter by loop type (Audio/MIDI/Drummer) via a little button above the Loop icons, and also allows drag-and-drop of multiple loops into your project simultaneously. Other enhancements include: It is now possible to drag more than one folder simultaneously into the Untagged Loops browser. Apple Loops now continue to loop after jumping to a different position while previewing. Preview apparently now sequentially plays all selected loops in the Loop Browser but I couldn’t make this happen.

Shift-double-clicking the background of the Tracks area now toggles playback from the clicked position – very handy!

Clicking on Flex Pitch notes now makes a sound. I’m sure it used to do this at one point anyway. Or maybe that was just Melodyne.

The Mixer now offers an option to disable its automatic scrolling to channel strips of selected tracks. This can be handy on large sessions.

The Recording section of Project Settings offers a new option “Auto-erase Duplicates”, which removes duplicate MIDI notes at same playback position when merge recording MIDI in cycle mode. So you don’t that huge clumping of overlapped notes so much.

Pressing Option + Shift while rubber-band selecting in the Piano Roll now creates a new Time Handles selection.

If all the currently selected tracks are routed to a bus, creating a Summing Stack from them now creates an Aux routed to the same destination.

The list of key sources in the plug-in side chain menu is now sorted into sub-menus by audio channel type (eg Input, Instrument, Bus)

The number of available busses for Multi-Output Audio Unit software instruments has been increased to 25.

Voice Over has a lot more control over Logic functions.

A bit more awereness of Cycles and markers has been added – there is now a key command “Create Marker by Cycle Area.” Finally! And the “Play From Selection” key command now takes selected markers into account.

There is now a key command “Copy Section between Locators (Selection).”

There are new key commands “Nudge Selected Parameter Up” and “Nudge Selected Parameter Down.” Apple have also integrated the nudge and transpose key commands that apply to MIDI notes, automation control points, and regions in the Tracks area. Mostly it uses combinations of Option & up/down/left/right arrow keys to either nudge left and right or transpose up and down. Add Shift for octaves up and down.

Key Commands that specifically affect region automation now function on all selected regions, even if some of those regions are on tracks currently set to display Track-based automation.

The focused track in a group of selected track is now always indicated when color bars are displayed, and when track numbers are not displayed in the Track Header.

Stability and Bug fixes

A lot of items that caused random crashes in Logic have been fixed – including a quite a few ARA2-related things.

And as usual there are too many bug fixes to list here individually (go here for the full list), but some of the ones I think are important are lots of Flex Time and Flex Pitch improvements, and ARA now seems to be able to handle things like Project Alternatives and project and audio file duplication.

ARA edits are now reliably saved in projects created from project templates and are reliably maintained when Save As is used. About time!

Smart Tempo and Flex and Follow have had a heap of tweaks and fixes as well.

Logic now apparently correctly plays back all channels of third party ambisonic audio files.

The EXS24 now consistently finds samples in those cases where the samples are in the project package and the EXS instrument file is in the User Library.

It is now possible to undo IR file selection in Space Designer, and the Wet control now automates properly as well.

Undo/Redo and Compare support with Audio Unit plugins is improved.

Plug-ins again consistently load their default settings when instantiated.

“Save as” now always defaults to the current project type (Package vs. Folder).

Conclusion

This is a pretty solid Logic Pro X update from Apple. I’ve had a quick play with some of my larger projects using this version, and they do seem a lot more responsive.

There’s still a few niggles that I’m hoping that they’ll address sometime soon- the perennial desire to be able to move tracks in the mixer, for example. And the magic Single Undo history feature has vanished.

Spectrasonics just released the v2.6 update for Omnisphere.

It has some cool new features:

• The updated list of supported hardware now supports 65 hardware synths as controllers for Omnisphere – including the Roland D-50. This also means matching hardware sounds in Omnisphere for these synths. BTW – you don’t actually need any of these synths to access their hardware samples in Omnisphere – although it’s even cooler if you can. There’s 1,600 new patches in the Hardware Library.

• The Arpeggiator has been greatly upgraded with some cool new features, plus you can drag and drop MIDI patterns.

• The Synthesis engine has been upgraded, with more layers per patch, more filters, more LFOs, more wavetables, enhanced granular synthesis, and improved control over modulation routing.

• Drag and drop your own samples onto the interface to add them. Much simpler.

• More sounds – 14,000 so far.

• More effects units. There’s now 57.

• High-resolution graphics.

• Live mode interface for touch screens

• Enhanced Orb with attractor mode.

So – there’s plenty there to play with. I’ve already written a new (slightly-80’s) song within 24 hours of the update release just playing with some of the new patches.

If you already have Omnisphere 2, download this free update. If you don’t have Omnisphere 2 yet – it’s worth every penny just to have access to all those rare and expensive hardware synths.

These two Logic Pro X updates were definitely in the bug-fix category. There were numerous glitches that were fixed. See here for more details.

For those of you who had tried using Logic v10.4.2 with ARA2 and Celemony Melodyne v4.2.1, there were some serious issues that appeared around suddenly losing all your Melodyne edits when opening a project and “saving-as” without hitting Play first.

This mostly appears to be fixed but there’s still some problems that haven’t yet been completely sorted yet. There’s still some oddities with not being able to import tracks with Melodyne ARA plugins, plus not all the issues have been resolved with Track Alternatives and Melodyne ARA.

Actually, I notice there’s still some bus-routing problems with importing Track Stacks from other projects as well.

Apart from bug-fixes, there were no new features apart from a new MIDI port-based input filter in the MIDI Preferences.

Quite handy really, especially if you’re doing some tricky MIDI routing between audio apps or plugins using IAC (Inter-Application Communication) busses and the like. By default, Logic just accepts every MIDI input, so it’s very useful being able to turn off a bus that’s for sending data from Logic so it doesn’t create a MIDI feedback loop. Up until now, it meant some trickery with patching to fake objects in the MIDI Environment.

Here’s hoping Apple fixes a few more of these niggles next time around.