No longer is it necessary to carry around stacks of CD's to enjoy a huge selection of music on-the-go Jim Williams has spent much of his 56 years working with some of the biggest names in the music business, including Frank Zappa, John McLaughlin and Stevie Wonder. He's the owner of Audio Upgrades, Vintage King co-founder Michael Nehra shares some of his love, knowledge, and practical advice for diving into the world of vintage audio gear, and then takes us behind the scenes for a walk through Bill Cheney and Jim Romney are the men responsible for keeping the amazing legacy of Spectra Sonics, a legendary, if criminally unheralded, pro-audio company alive.
Their mic preamps, summing amps, and control room Well, soon after I'd given up on Logic 7 because of its meager audio-editing capabilities, Apple released Logic Studio, which includes Logic Pro 8, a major upgrade with not only a whole new look-and-feel, but substantially improved editing features too.
Also included in the Studio bundle are MainStage live performance host application , Soundtrack Pro 2 audio post-production application , Studio Instruments 40 instrument plug-ins , Studio Effects 80 effect plug-ins , and Studio Sound Library channel strip and plug-in settings, royalty-free Apple Loops, sound effects, music beds, EXS sampled instruments, impulse responses ; but this review will focus solely on Logic Pro 8.
I asked long-time contributor and Logic user Geoff Farina to give it a go. He submitted the following opinion, and my response follows. After fifteen years of upgrades, I can say that Logic has always met my home studio needs, if significantly less demanding than those of a pro studio.
I stuck with Logic through the years as my friends were investing in expensive Pro Tools hardware, and the improved audio capabilities that came with Apple's acquisition brought vindication to we committed users. Although installation was a breeze, there were a few surprises.
The first was its sheer size, foreshadowed by a thick seven-DVD package for the Logic Studio bundle that looks more like the latest Beatles box set, complete with the Apple logo. It turns out that a "barebones" install requires about 7 GB of disk space, and a full install with the entire sample content requires a whopping 39 GB!
On the bright side, Apple has done away with the irksome XSKey, and they don't require product registration before use. Opening the program confirmed my fear that Apple has fully consumed my favorite German sequencer; "iLogic" is here at last.
Logic 7's dark facade was replaced with OS X Apple also took some cues from Pro Tools, and one could argue Apple is trying to woo both Mac and Pro Tools users more than they are trying to please existing Logic users, and this new iteration moves away from the customizable feel of earlier versions, at least on the surface. The problem is that most Logic geeks prefer to build their own interface and workflow; whereas Pro Tools tells you how to work, Logic asks you, and this has always been one of Logic's unique strengths.
I was first put off by an obtrusive toolbar across the top with giant 1" square buttons for "useful" functions. While Ableton does have the firepower to kick start fully in-the-box productions, its modular approach to arranging tracks might not be for everyone. Over the years, Logic Pro has honed a place in the middle of these worlds, offering up endless inspiration while still providing a clean workflow for recording the traditional way.
Skip to content. Copied to clipboard. Opening the DAW: what is the best software for you? Next: The Fender Jazz Bass: a modern instrument for the modern player. Project and Track Notes now support hyperlinks for internal actions, such as Key Commands. The Pan Law setting now allows for There are new commands to Slip and Rotate content in regions. Dragging a region below the last track in the Track List now creates a new track with duplicate settings. There is now a setting to auto-colorize markers.
There is now a key command to bypass all plug-ins on selected channel strips. Option-clicking the disclosure triangle of a Take folder now sets all Take folders on the same track to the same state. When loading an Alchemy preset in which the loop end point has been set later than the end of the sample.
When analyzing audio for Flex editing When the On button in the additive tab of the A source in Alchemy is clicked in certain presets. When an AUv3 plug-in that supports side-chaining is present, but has no side-chain connection yet defined. When performing tempo analysis on an Apple Lossless file at kHz sample rate. When the right border of a regions is adjusted rapidly while the Score is open in Page view. At launch after an erase install of macOS When importing a sample into Alchemy after adding a new Group.
When the Create button is clicked in the New Tracks dialog. When the Gain is changed in the Audio File Editor. Occasionally when a project is opened without closing the current project. Occasionally when a sequencer mod source is loaded into Alchemy, playback in Logic is started and then Sequencer 1 is selected as the mod source from the source Transpose button.
Occasionally when left sitting idle. Occasionally when dragging one audio region over another. Occasionally when installing items using the Sound Library Manager. When a Marquee selection within a folder is copied. Occasionally when loading a project that contains an Aux that has a send that routes to itself.
Occasionally after moving a window from an iPad Pro back to Logic when using Sidecar. Logic no longer experiences occasional hangs when saving a project after adding notes to in the Score to a region on an external MIDI track. Logic no longer hangs when selecting the Untagged Loops tab in the Loop Browser in certain projects. Fixes an issue where Logic occasionally quits with certain plug-ins. Performance Creating notes in the Score is no longer sluggish on systems using a high-density display.
Scrolling of plug-in parameters in Controls view using a mouse wheel is now smoother. Performance when dragging regions in projects that contain a large number of small regions is improved. Playback and recording no longer stop unexpectedly when a content package is finished downloading.
Performance when importing assets from the All Files browser in large projects is improved. Adjusting values by scrubbing with the mouse is no longer sluggish when an Event List Editor window is open.
Dragging files into Logic via the Finder no longer interrupts playback. Audio Unit scans are now much faster. Performance in the Mixer is improved when switching between projects.
Fixes an issue where Logic occasionally becomes sluggish after recalling multiple screen sets. Fixes an issue where automation of plug-in parameters in projects with a high sample rates could cause clicks, pops or other audio anomalies.
Alchemy patches that use Spectral effects now consume less CPU when on the live track. Start-up time at launch has been improved. Improves responsiveness of editing in the Tracks area when the Project Audio window is also open. Accessibility VoiceOver now properly announces the first column in the Loop Browser. VoiceOver now announces the state of the Direct Monitoring button in the Mixer. VoiceOver no longer announces disclosure triangles in Inspectors as button.
VoiceOver now positions plug-ins in the correct slots when inserting more than three plug-ins consecutively. The Part box in the Score is now accessible with VoiceOver. VoiceOver now announces the note position and pitch in linear view in the Score. The pop-up menu for creating a Software instrument no longer requires a mouse click interaction with VoiceOver.
Fixes an issue where channel strips sometimes remain unexpectedly selected when navigating the Mixer using VoiceOver. VoiceOver now speaks the track name when using the up and down arrows to navigate the track list.
Favoriting an Apple Loop no longer causes the focus to unexpectedly jump to a different loop when using VoiceOver. Mixer Option-clicking the Group slot on a channel strip now selects all other channel strips that are members of the same group.
Right- or Control-clicking a group slot now opens a contextual menu with group settings. Enabling editing for a Group in which a member contains a selected region now immediately selects all other relevant regions on other members of the Group. It is now possible to store a user default mixer configuration by right-clicking a channel strip. Notes and track numbers now immediately reflect changes made to the track color.
The External Instrument plug-in now opens immediately when inserted when the "Open plug-in window on insertion" preference is enabled. Software Instrument plug-ins no longer open when inserted if the "Open plug-in window on insertion" preference is not enabled.
Changes to Drum Machine Designer channel strip icons are now immediately visible on Mixer channel strips. Changing a track icon in the Track list now also immediately changes it in the Mixer. Dragging all tracks out of a summing stack now reroutes their outputs to the main output pair.
Long names for Groups now display as expected in the Mixer. It is now possible to create an Aux by right- or control-clicking the name label of a channel strip in the Channel Strip Inspector. Opening a track stack in the Mixer is now instantaneous.
The Mixer now immediately updates when tracks are hidden or unhidden. The Settings button is now available on Output and Master channels in projects that include Surround channels. It is now possible to see the presets for a plug-in in the Sound Library by Shift-clicking it. Shift-clicking to add Mixer channels to the selection now works reliably. The Mixer now consistently updates displayed channel strips when Filter buttons are enabled to change the view.
Fixes an issue where the click zone to control Stereo Pan is unexpectedly small. There are now commands to remove all plug-ins, all bypassed plug-ins, all empty insert slots or all sends from selected channel strips.
The Mixer no longer shows device controls when using audio devices that do not support direct control from within the Logic Mixer. Typing a hyphen with a space before and after now forces a line break in a Channel Strip name. VCA slots now immediately appear on channel strips when creating a new VCA from the contextual menu by Ctrl- or right-clicking on a channel strip. The volume display indicator now displays as expected on Folder Stack faders in the Inspector.
Changes to Channel Strip text labels are now retained when clicking outside the label to exit editing. All buttons and controls on the Mixer now remain visible when after changing Screensets. Frozen stereo Software Instrument in Pre-Fader mode tracks no longer play back in mono. Creating a Software Instrument track, dragging it to the top of the Track List and then selecting a patch no longer sometimes causes an audio track at the bottom of track list to convert to a Software Instrument track and load the patch.
The Freeze cursor now displays when hovering the cursor over Mixer plug-in slots on a frozen track. The cursor now displays properly when adjusting Send, Pan or Volume on the mixer when another window has focus. It is now possible to type in values that include a period. It is no longer possible to add plug-ins to or change Software Instruments on frozen tracks. On a Mixer configured to hide Pan controls, toggling Read mode on a channel no longer causes the Pan control to show up unexpectedly.
Groups created while the Groups Active checkbox is turned off now work as expected when the "Groups Active checkbox is turned back on. Adding and then removing a second instance of the Scripter plug-in on a channel strip no longer leaves a graphic remnant of the second instance.
Touch automation now properly records the release of a fader in Sends on Fader mode. The track numbers for channel strips in the Mixer now correctly correspond to the numbers in the Track List. When the patch library is focused on a secondary Aux channel in the Channel Strip Inspector, adjusting a send on the Track no longer causes the library to shift focus to the Track.
The Mixer now shows the correct track numbers for channel strips in All view. The Mixer in Logic Remote now follows the selection of Aux tracks. Meters on the more now immediately switch to their correct positions relative to the faders when the Pre-fader Metering setting is toggled.
Dragging the left border of a quantized audio region no longer causes the quantization to be calculated multiple times. Turning quantize off for flexed regions that have been trimmed no longer causes the regions to go out of sync. It is now possible to adjust the left border of a Flex Pitched region after it has already been adjusted and then the vertical zoom level has been increased.
Fixes an issue where deleting a selected flex-pitched note in a Take sometimes deletes the entire Take region. It is now possible to edit flex-pitched notes in Take regions at all vertical zoom levels that display flex-pitch. Play from Selection now works with Flex-pitched regions. Placing the cursor over a Flex marker in a Take no longer causes all other Flex markers in the Take to be highlighted. Multiple selected Flex Pitch notes now remain visibly highlighted when any Flex Pitch adjustment is made to one of the notes.
Flex Markers in flattened Take Folders now display handles correctly. Audio waveforms now render reliably on tracks using Flex Time Slicing mode. Fixes an issue where transients in Take Folders on tracks set to the Flex Time mode Slicing move to unexpected positions when the project tempo is changed. Flex Timed Take regions on tracks that are members of a group now continue to play back flexed when "Quantize Locked Audio " is disabled for the Group, and the perfect tempo is changed.
Fixes an issue where splitting an audio region occasionally causes Flex Pitch noise detection to disappear in the portion of the original region to the right of the split point. Editing two regions from the same audio file in Flex mode no longer sometimes causes unexpected large position shifts of flex markers.
Dragging the right edges of multiple flexed regions now places the ends of the regions where expected if "Snap Edits to Zero Crossings" is enabled. Regions now display correctly when Flex mode is toggled. Fixes an issue where detected transients are sometimes shifted slightly to the right. Reset All now reliably removes all Flex edits.
The accuracy of Transient detection is improved. Flex pitch notes are now displayed on flattened takes. Improves Flex Time analysis for audio files with low levels Enabling Flex Time after a new tempo analysis has been performed on the audio file now uses the newly created Tempo Flex Markers.
Fixes an issue where the section of an audio region before the first Flex marker is unexpectedly stretched or compressed after Smart Tempo analysis. It is now possible to accurately set the position of the Playhead on the Smart Tempo Editor while working in trimmed regions.
Fixes an issue where the Catch Playhead Position controls in the Smart Tempo Editor occasionally activate unexpectedly. Fixes an issue where adjusting the left border of an audio region in ADAPT mode, in projects that contain time signature changes, occasionally causes audio in the region to go out of sync. Monitoring level in the Smart Tempo Editor is no longer reset sometimes when using key commands to start or stop playback. Alchemy Alchemy now tunes each note based on the sum of its detune offset and the tuning table.
Disabling an Alchemy track and then performing Consolidate Project no longer adds an unexpected. Alchemy now includes a Limiter switch in the header. Text in the Alchemy search filed now persists when a patch is selected. MP3 files can now be dragged directly into Alchemy. Option-clicking oscillator controls in Alchemy now sets them to Plug-ins The "Clear all Pads" command in Drum Machine Designer now immediately removes all icons and labels from the window.
There is now an option to prevent the Gain setting from affecting frequency display in the Channel EQ. It is now possible to adjust the Q setting on the selected band in the Channel EQ by moving the cursor. The scaling of EQ gain values when dragging a band Wirth mouse has been improved to make fine adjustments easier when the Gain Range is set to 30 dB.
The scale view in the Channel EQ is now maintained when a plug-in setting is loaded. The frequency setting in Channel EQ can now be adjusted in finer increments. The vertical scale of the Channel EQ display now adjusts dynamically, depending on how much boost or cut is applied. Using the MIDI Randomizer plug-in to randomize release velocity no longer sometimes causes unexpected hanging notes new notes.
The Size parameter in Space Designer is now available in the surround configuration. Bypassing Autofilter no longer causes an unexpected change in signal level. The Retrosynth polyphonic glide parameter now behaves predictably when playback is started. Logic no longer scans Audio Units at every launch on some computers. There is now an option to initialize plug-in and Software Instrument settings.
Changed settings in the AU Roger beep Audio Unit plug-in are now accurately displayed when the Sensitivity is changed while in Controls view and then the view is switched to Editor. Ultrabeat now displays in higher resolution on high density displays.
The Vintage Organ now offers a switch to change the Scanner Mode. Automation on tracks using Audio Unit V3 instruments no longer causes hung notes at certain buffer settings. Plug-ins now continue to work on computers with more than plug-ins installed. Fixes an issue where scrubbing the Delay Time parameter in the Tape Delay or Stereo Delay plug-in sometimes causes the parameter to jump to its minimum setting.
Resolution of the Gain setting in the Limiter plug-in has been increased to 0. ES1 settings that use noise now play correctly when the sound is re-triggered. The cursor now reliably shows the correct glyph when adjusting controls in the Channel EQ. When running Sculpture in HD mode, the string sound no longer unexpectedly undampens while using the maximum Inner Loss setting. The view in the Clarinet instrument now updates properly when Default is selected from the plug-in menu.
Fixes an issue where turning the length parameter down in Space Designer 1. Channel strips are now added to the track stack in the track list when adding sounds to empty pads in Drum Machine Designer. Parameters for exclusive groups in Drum Machine Designer are now available in the contextual menu. Drum Machine Designer cells can now be dragged to new position to exchange their sounds.
It is now possible to independently set the input and output note for each pad in Drum machine Designer. Drummer regions that are inside folders can now be converted to MIDI regions. Drum Machine Designer cells now respond to mouse clicks while Logic is playing. There is now a preference to create an empty kit when adding a Drum Machine Designer instance to a project. Drummer regions created by the "Copy Section between Locator" command are now fully editable.
Drummer no longer allows the Kick and Snare to be set to follow its own track. Pasted automation now includes interpolated events.
It is now possible to change the automation mode for multiple selected tracks at once using a Key Command. If a track is currently showing Track Based Automation, and Autoselect Automation is enabled, editing notes in the Piano Roll no longer changes the automation display to with to Velocity in the Tracks area.
Fixes an issue where selecting an Aux in the Track List and then another channel no longer causes incoming CC7 messages to continue to control the Aux. Auto Select Automation Parameters now excludes Solo.
When track based automation is changed to region-based automation, or vice versa, the automation display now switches to show the newly converted automation type. Grabbing a scrubber style control in a plug-in with Automation Autoselect enabled now sets the Automation type to the control consistently. It is now possible to selectively disable interpolation for specific automation nodes by Option-clicking them with the Automation Curve tool.
The secondary channel in the Inspector Channel Strip now consistently shows the expected channel when Automation View is on together with "Autoselect Automation Parameter. Fixes an issue where the key command for activating channel strip Volume automation could incorrectly activate MIDI channel 1 volume Relative Automation is now displayed when Autoselect Automation Parameter is enabled. After splitting a region that contains a Region-based automation ramp, moving an automation point to the start of the resulting right-hand region now reliably overwrites the existing automation.
Switching on Automation view in the Audio Tracks Editor now sets the correct default tools. Resolves an issue where automation points sometimes unexpectedly jump when dragging them. Flex-based transients are now used when regions are exported as Apple Loops. Dragging an Apple Loops into the Tracks Area while Logic is playing with the metronome enabled no longer causes the metronome to stop making sound for several seconds. Dragging multiple Apple Loops into a project with a different tempo now places them in the expected position.
The minimum duration for Untagged Loops to be recognized as loops rather than one-shots has been lowered to 1. Untagged Loops now play in sync in projects that have been saved with assets. Untagged Loops can now be edited in the Smart Tempo Editor. Dragging multiple Drummer loops to the Tracks area now works correctly. Apple Loop collections are now sorted alphabetically in the Loop Browser. Changes to the size of the Descriptors section of the Loop Browser are now retained when a project is reloaded out a screenset is recalled.
The default playback level between factory installed Apple Loops is now much more consistent. Dragging loops with the same name from the Tracks Area to the Loop Browser no longer fails on every other attempt.
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.
The "Stop or Play and Go to Last Locate Position" key command now continues to work after the playhead has reached the end of the project. There is now a key command "Select Tracks of Selected Regions. Menu Items in the Take Folder drop-down menu now display their equivalent key commands.
ARA edits are now maintained in copied Tracks and comped Take folders. Dragging a second instance of the same audio file into a track no longer causes Melodyne ARA edits on the first instance to be lost. Region selection is now transferred to ARA plug-ins. When a project that uses ARA is selected to be opened while another project using ARA is already open, Logic now presents a dialog offering to close, and if necessary, save the current project, ARA on a track is now updated properly after Selection Based Processing is performed.
Score Alternating margins are now displayed correctly in the Score. Using the pencil tool to insert pedal markings now alternates them between on and off as expected. Muting a track now immediately hides it in the All Instruments view in the Score. The original position of an Auto Slur is now displayed as dimmed while editing it. Auto Slurs are now reliably placed correctly when printing a score. Auto Slurs now display correctly in Linear view when zooming in. Fixes an issue where editing an Autoslur causes other Autoslurs to change position slightly.
The Staff Size and Transpose parameters now immediately update in the Styles List when changed in the editor panel. The Staff Editor now immediately appears as expected when switching to a Screenset that includes it.
Adjusting the left corner of a region no longer sometimes causes custom text to disappear in the Score. The Camera Tool now works as expected in Wrapped View. Fixes an issue where the Automation view button occasionally does not work correctly Music XML files exported from Logic that contain mixed staff styles no longer cause Siblelius to quit unexpectedly when opened.
Symbols for Auto Slur objects no longer jump unexpectedly when editing other objects. All elements in large scores are now captured reliably by the Camera tool. Margins on even numbered pages in the Score now display at the correct positions. Insert Multi now inserts events to correct positions in regions that have had their left corner and positions changed.
Inserting line breaks using the contextual menu now works as expected. Auto Slurs no longer display outside the page margins. Autoslur settings are now retained when the start or end note is modified.
Fixes an issue where graphic artifacts could appear in the Score area after scrolling and opening a print preview of the window. Undo An Undo step is now created when switching the channel input mode on a channel in the Mixer.
Undo now works as expected after a line break is created in the Score. Undo now reliably undoes the creation of Marker Sets. Adding a ReCycle file no longer causes Undo to stop working. Undo now works in the Staff Styles window as expected. Deleting a group in the Project Audio window now creates an Undo step.
Undo now works properly after writing Pan automation. Fixes an issue where performing Undo after making several Flex edits in quick succession sometimes removes multiple edits. Undo after recording now works on grouped tracks in cases where the last track in the group is selected, and the Take folders in all other tracks in the group are disclosed. The "Copy Regions to Focused Track" command and Marquee selection now work in Track Alternatives when a Take folder is disclosed Auto-colorize takes now assigns the correct colors to takes recorded on tracks other than Audio 1.
Crossfades rather than fadeouts are now applied as expected to region boundaries of regions manually moved within Take folders. Dynamic Plug-in Loading Plug-ins in frozen tracks that were selected when the project was saved no longer are active when the project is reopened. Tab to navigate between fields in the Bounce dialog now works correctly.
Ties to chords now display properly in exported XML files. Logic no longer prompts to save a project after bouncing in cases where "Add to project" is turned off. Logic projects at a sample rate higher than The Bounce in Place dialog now remembers the previous used destination track setting. Automation is now reliably copied to new tracks created when bouncing in place. MIDI files are now exported with note events in their correct positions in cases where the project starts earlier than 1 1 1 1, and there is a Folder track containing sub-tracks.
Tempo is now correctly imported from audio tracks imported from another Logic project. Levels on Track Stacks are retained correctly when they are imported to a different project. Drummer regions in projects imported from Music Memos no longer show chord names. Duplicating a track stack no longer causes associated Smart Controls to stop working on the original and the duplicated track stack.
Performing Undo after using the "Delete all Patch Mappings" command in the Smart Controls now restores the mappings and expected. Fades It is now possible to create fade-outs on multiple regions in a group of tracks when the regions already include fade-ins. It is now possible to selectively remove Fade-ins, Fade-Outs, Crossfades or all Fades from the contextual menu on regions.
However, since Logic 7 you can choose from three different pan laws: 0dB, —3dB where the signal will be attenuated by 3dB when panned centre , and —3dB Compensated, which keeps the signal at 0dB in the center, but increases it by 3dB when panned hard left or right.
At this point I decided to take a step back and try something more basic. Just to be sure about the panning, I made a second set of bounces with one track panned halfway left and the other panned halfway right, and these also phase—cancelled perfectly.
I went back to the high—frequency noise audio and bounced it using the Channel EQ plug—in in both Logic 7 and 8. Finally, I bounced the Logic 6 demo song again, but this time without any Channel EQ instances, and this time the mixes of the song created in Logic 7 and 8 did indeed phase—cancel correctly.
Well, almost. The basic point of all these tests is that the mixer sounds identical in Logic 8 when compared to previous versions, and that the differences people are noticing are due to changes in the Channel EQ and other widely used plug—ins, along with the fact that the default pan law for a new project is different.
When Apple released Soundtrack Pro 2 a couple of months ago, it featured redesigned GUIs for the included former Emagic effects, and there was much speculation that the same designs would be used in the next version of Logic. The pop—up menus that allow you to switch between different plug—ins now have more meaningful titles, and buttons for the next and previous settings commands, along with the copy and paste commands, have been added to save you having to navigate the preset menu to access these functions.
Since most plug—ins often incorporate the name of the effect or instrument into the design of the interface, I wonder why Logic has to add its own naming bar in way that takes up more pixels than is necessary. Logic itself is still compatible with multi—output Audio Units, but the application has become stricter in how it distinguishes whether an Audio Unit has multiple outputs or whether it has a surround output or both.
For this reason, most Audio Units plug—ins need to be tweaked for multiple—output versions to be used in Logic 8, although Logic 7 songs that use Audio Units plug—ins with multiple outputs will work perfectly in Logic 8, keeping the multiple outputs intact.
If you have a studio Mac and a laptop, the new ability to share Logic 8 Settings over the Internet or a local network will be very welcome. The Bonjour network sharing is very slick indeed. Mac sharing is equally useful, but sometimes needs a nudge to update Settings.
Logic Pro 7 introduced Logic Node, which distributed audio processing tasks over a network. In addition to Logic Pro 8 and all of the content mentioned in the main text, Logic Studio also includes:. Originally introduced with Final Cut Studio 2 earlier in the year, this latest version of Soundtrack Pro is aimed at those who need to edit or create a soundtrack for a media project.
A new utility for creating your own impulse responses for use with Space Designer. This is a really neat tool and effort has been made to provide an easy—to—use interface, along with a full electronic manual explaining what to do.
Logic 8 installation went pretty painlessly for me, though the newly installed version insisted on re-checking all installed AU plug—ins, which can take some time. As is often the case, some of these failed first time around but were passed when the AU validation process was persuaded to take another look at them.
A nice improvement is that Logic no longer has to close down while the AU validation process is running, and when you do open Logic from cold, it seems to fire up rather quicker than before. In my view, the GUI redesign is no bad thing, though the slightly bland colouring, combined with acres of grey background, can make the screen look somewhat unexciting, and some of the text is actually harder to read than previously because of reduced contrast with the background. Plug—in setting menus also come up white on black, which I find really hard on the eyes compared with the more usual black on white.
On the whole, though, I like the new look, and having more things accessible via tabs rather than having to search in menus really speeds things up. I also really like the new panel of pictorial track icons as they now cover just about all instrument types.
Those two Channel Strips really improve workflow, although the ability to turn off the second one would enable laptop users to make better use of their screen space.
The new—look plug—ins appear a bit clinical, but new features, such as the choice of gain—reduction types and the switchable limiter in the compressor, make them even more versatile. New fast edit controls in ES2 are also very useful for quick and dirty editing, while Delay Designer looks to have a lot of creative potential.
A facility for importing instrument names directly from hardware would be better still. All those tool icons that you can add to the toolbar are welcome as they again speed up workflow, but existing users need to be aware that a few of the existing ways of doing things have been simplified, and now you often need to Control—click to bring up a menu, instead of scrolling the mouse over some none—too—evident portion of the screen.
The Audio main menu has also gone, so if you want to find the Hardware and Drivers pane, you need to look in the audio preferences under Core Audio. I spent ages trying to figure out how to open the CPU monitor window; it turns out you click in the transport window, which is actually a lot easier that searching for it in a menu. Iit is now much easier to create channels and tracks without having to venture into the Environment, and better still, actions such as configuring sends across multiple selected channels can also be carried out directly from the mixer window.
There are also fixes for things that were more frustrations than bugs in earlier versions. For example, if you aborted a bounce, you used to have to fill in the file name and destination boxes again but now the previous ones are retained. It only took me around an hour to feel comfortable using the new version, and so many tasks are made easier and quicker by the revised interface.
Nevertheless, the streamlining of the interface is a major step forward and will be of benefit to all users. Paul White. For long—time Logic users, the new version is a bit of a mixed bag.
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