Apple Releases Logic 7, New Jam Packs

RadRafe writes "Apple today introduced Logic Pro 7 and Logic Express 7. Logic Pro now features Distributed Audio, a clustering tool (Xgrid-based?) to exploit the DSP power of multiple Macs, and Sculpture, the long-awaited component-modeling synthesizer. Also out today are two new Jam Packs for GarageBand - though they work in Logic too, now that Logic supports Apple Loops."

Comments

Very busy user interface

[caseih]

The UI looks quite complicated. I imagine that means there is a lot flexibility at your fingertips. I wonder, though, at the wisdom of making computer user interfaces attempt to mimick the traditional analog interfaces. Knobs that you turn, for example, are pretty stupid, yet the screenshots for Logic Pro show loads of such controls. With a wheel mouse i suppose turning the knobs is easy, but apple has only one button from the factory. Will this UI make it in the User Interface Hall of Shame?

Re:Very busy user interface

[trollus_and_cressida]

The looks quite complicated because it is quite complicated. Logic is probably the most user unfriendly sequencing/audio program out there. It's also the most powerful. Because of this its the favorite of music technology geeks - think of it as the OpenBSD of music software.

Very very steep learning curve. If you've never used a sequencing program before I'd give you a small chance of getting some sound out of the program within a few days. If you're familiar with another program (MOTU or Cubase) you can probably get sound out of it in a day but certainly won't be able to get it fully up and running in a day. The features and flexibility of it are pretty much unmatched by anything else. Like everything, there's a tradeoff between simplicity and ease of use versus power and features. If you want the former, Logic is definitely not for you. If you're a geek, you'll love logic. Just don't plan on installing it and immediately, or even a in couple of weeks, getting to making music. Drum and Base, techno people tend to be logic guys.

More user-friendly is Mark of the Unicorn's (MOTU) Digital Performer. Nice looking and not as feature packed - it tends to be the choice of those scoring films and tv. Having worked as MOTU tech support I can tell you that MOTU tech support is the absolute worst! Oh god, they're laughably horrible. However, there are some good user MOTU forums which will help you out should you encounter any trouble.

As for the knobs that you turn issue, it does look a bit silly if you're trying to control a bunch of knobs with one mouse. But most serious users of Logic or any digital workstation will buy a hardware controller with a number of knobs. Logic has something called the "Environment" which pretty much allows you to control anything with anything else. Powerful, flexible, and, again, will take time to learn.

Personally I like Logic the best, been using it for a while, and would say am still only using 5-10% of what its capable of. You will not outgrow Logic.

Re:Very busy user interface

[danigiri]

" With a wheel mouse i suppose turning the knobs is easy, but apple has only one button from the factory."

Oh, come on!

You mean you are an experienced audio pro, making solid cash and cannot spend like $50 on a multibutton scroll wheel mouse?

Moreover, since when are you using factory-supplied mice on a PC? They are crap! First thing anyone should do is trash them!

On the other hand, when telling my mum over the phone to mail me some stuff, one-button mice would be a blessing.

Of course, I have a trusty Logitech gizmo-enabled mouse to bring up all my favorite Eclipse contextual menus *and* bring up Expose with the central scroll-wheel click.

User-unfriendly Logic

[Psychic Burrito]

Does anybody know why Logic has to be this complicated to use? From the top of my head:
- A second menu bar? Why? It is unintuitive, defeats Fitt's Law and is just plain awkward.
- Init files: to have a standard way of organizing, you have to save a project in a certain way with a certain name to a certain folder which I always forget. Apple's GUI guide simply states "after an app starts up, make it appear like when you left it"
- Often times, Logic doesn't redraw correctly.
- Icons vary widely in quality: Some are Aqua-esque, other's are 8bit-like, and even others are pure b/w... ?!
- Hundreds of icons that do not line up, or overlap each other... looks sloppy
- Sometimes bouncing works, sometimes it does nothing
- Timestreching crashes Logic from time to time

These errors are all present in the (until now) most recent version of Logic. Emagic is aware of these problems: They have a buglist feature that all registered users get access to (I wonder why others don't... let me guess: because it might hold them off from buying it?).

Anyway, my point is: Now Apple owns Logic, and this app still does not behave in the way Apple asks apps to behave... it's just silly...

Anybody know why after all these years, Logic is still extremely unlogical (don't let me go into details about *these* things), yet they don't care?

Re:User-unfriendly Logic

[piecewise]

You say Logic is this, this, this, and that.

Are you referring to previous experiences with Logic - or do you say you've used the product that came out today and it's improved on none of these problems?

Re:Cubase SX 3

[jsoffron]

Just wondering (honestly, because I don't know) - does slahdot usually post about music software updates? It seems an odd thing to show up on the front page, because I didn't see anything (which, again, might have been something I missed rather than something that didn't happen) about the new Cubase on here, which I think is as/more popular than Logic, or anything about adobe audition when it came out, or anything about the other myriad music programs on the market. Why is this slashdot news-worthy?

Re:Review.

[E-Lad]

Mod this down.

There is no such thing as a "Altivextreme" card. Dual 2.5Ghz G5s even with 4GB of ram do not cost $12,000. Someone who does use Logic doesn't refer to their stuff as a "music file". There is no DMA enable/disable in MacOS, and it is enabled by default. And running Logic on a G3 iMac... what did you expect??

This is just a AC posting negative drivel out his bum for whatever reason. /dale

Re:Unbundle GarageBand and reduce OSX price

[javaxman]

99.99999% of OSX users have no interest in creating digital music. Maybe a small percentage fire it up a couple of times to make some fun noise but thats it. Apple should unbundle this and slash the price of OSX.

While I doubt your market research, and your ability to recognize that OS X sells separately from iLife, I understand the source of your confusion.

iLife is bundled with new Apple hardware, so you get a copy when you buy a new iBook, iMac, PowerMac, etc.

Now, maybe you won't use GarageBand, but I'm going to guess that 99.999999% of OS users have some interest in one of iPhoto, iMovie, or iDVD. Ok, mainly iPhoto. But do you really think Apple would be able to drop the price of their machines by much if they excluded a single program that costs less than $50 ?? Why am I answering this troll?

Really, GarageBand is there for semiserious users of iMovie and iDVD- so you can put together a little tune for your home movie project. It's totally useful and doesn't affect the price of the overall package much at all.

Re:Is this a replacement?

[33degrees]

Not at all. Although you could do most of what you can do in soundtrack with logic, they're really aimed at different markets; Logic is very powerfull but has a steep learning curve, whereas soundtrack is ideal for people who aren't neccesarily musicians, but who need pro-level software for background music to their projects.

Goodbye Emagic

[wheatwilliams]

Logic 7 is referred to as Apple Logic 7.

All previous versions were referred to as Emagic Logic.

Today the existing Emagic web site essentially went away (although there is some new information there).

Emagic is a German company and Apple bought it two years ago and stopped its development of Windows products.

So this release of Logic 7 represents the culmination of a huge realignment of music and audio software on the Mac platform, with profound implications for the market and third-party companies that make competing and complimentary products.