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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."
I'm honestly kind of pissed about the bug fixes thing. I bought the top-of-the-line version of Logic when 6 came out. Shortly afterward suddenly they redid the pricing structures so there's no longer a Platinum, just a Pro and an Express. A year later I find that they're issuing updates to Pro 6 that they aren't issuing to Platinum 6, even though on would expect these to be the same product. Meanwhile despite them being introduced not long after Logic 6 I still can't use Cocoa-view AudioUnits, a basic feature which you'd think Apple would support in their own software and a feature which I need. Now that 7 is out I can pretty much be guaranteed that Cocoa-view audiounits are not coming to Platinum 6, no?
Irritable, left-wing and possibly humorous bumper stickers and t-shirts
This actually is a *BIG* thing. Built in distributed computing infrastructure that is easy to enable without a ton of scripting and custom coding has been a holy grail of distributed computing for a while. Programs like Pooch from Dean Dauger have helped considerably, but distributed computing built into applications that take advantage of an OS supported computing "grid" are another level entirely. Certainly folks that use film rendering and such can benefit, but so can users of Photoshop, not to mention a whole cadre of folks in scientific computing (like myself) for image analysis and clustering analysis (of images) and molecular simulations, particle based modeling etc...etc...etc...
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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?
I used to use Logic on Windows (when that was available). It's a grade A nightmare to use. Even the musicians I know struggle with it. It can do nearly everything you could possibly imagine, but it'll make you pay for it every step of the way. I never got very far without my head in the manual, which was a serious blow to my geek credibility (in front of pretty musician I was setting it up for I might add)....
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?
GarageBand isn't bundled with OS X.
It's bundled with the iLife suite of applications...
As below, so above and beyond, I imagine drawn beyond the lines of reason. Push the envelope. Watch it bend.
I prefer Froot Loops. They also taste lemon, grape, orange, etc. instead of just apple.
GarageBand is not included in Mac OS X.. GarageBand is included in the iLife package, and if you buy both Mac OS X and iLife at the same time you it will cost $50 less than if you buy them separately.
Notice how they advertised infinite loops as a feature. Seems like they're copying Microsoft advert strategies now...
read the bunni comic
"Only 192kHz?"
This is not mp3 bit rates here. This is Pro Audio level sound quality.
An Audio CD has a sample rate of 44.1kHz.
"If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it?" - Albert Einstein
Thanks a lot by the way..now I probably can't keep moderating this quite interesting thread ;-)
"You know you don't act like a scientist, you're more like a game show host." Dana Barret
Mod this down.
/dale
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.
I guess that means you didn't read the pages of online documentation of download the PDF, because I see many new features. Add to the list:
A new drum synth, an FM synth, a component modeling synth, an amp modeling plugin, match EQ, linear EQ, new ring modulation, pitch correction, vocal modulation, multi-meter, spectrum analyzer, phase correction, AAC support, ID3 support, global tracks for tempo and key adjustments, automatic cross-fade, QWERTY MIDI control, DSP templates, external instrument tracks, Apple Loops support, etc etc etc.
RTGDFA
Standing on the shoulders of giants.
And, of course, there are the experiments done by (IIRC) Pioneer with a cobbled-up double speed DAT machine in which samples of Harmon-muted trumpet, which has significant harmonic content past 20-30 kHz, were played by for test listeners. EEG's indicated that the brain activity differed between recordings bandlimited to 20 kHz and recordings which contained the higher frequency content. None of the listeners could hear the difference, but they appeared to respond to it nonetheless.
What the underlying cause and effect were, I don't know.
Personally, I'd feel pretty confident that a 24/96 medium, with relatively sharp Nyquist filters, would qualify as being completely transparent compared to the rest of the signal chain. There certainly aren't going to be many mike/preamp combinations exceeding 120 dB s/n!
I suspect that the use of a 192 kHz sample rate allows for both extended bandwidth past the conventionally accepted limits of human hearing, and for shallower, gentler Nyquist filtering. The sampling's certainly cheap enough now, unlike 1983 when most CD players used 14-bit D/A converters!
Ce n'est pas un vrai mouvement de robot!
It's the beowolf cluster of those that makes it newsworthy
To expand on this for people who are missing the distinction: mp3 rates are bit rates, meaning that the audio stream is reduced to a certain number of bits per second. The sample rates for digital pro audio equipment refer to how many samples (of varying width, usually 16 or 24) are taken represent the analog audio stream.
;)
So, one can see intuitively that a stereo 24-bit 192Khz audio file will be 24 times larger than a stereo mp3 file that is 192kpbs. The difference in clarity will be almost as striking as the size difference.
Free yourself. Everything else will follow.
Yeah, but how long does it take you to make a copy of a 22MB Photoshop file? That's what I really want to know. I bet it takes forever.
:-P
Free yourself. Everything else will follow.
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.
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.
I've been using Logic since version 2, and I have watched it evolve from a do-everything MIDI sequencer to a full-fledged DAW suite.
I'm frustrated to read so many negative comments from people who have obviously never used serious music software before, so I'm going to address a few things:
First, this is very relevant to apple.slashdot.org because Apple owns Logic, and a lot of us have been very eager to see just what Apple was going to do with Logic for version 7.
Is it anything like Fruity Loops or Garage Band? No, not really. You could probably pick up any of the above to create a piece of dance music, but Logic is the only one of the three that is wide open - if there's something a computer can do with audio, Logic Pro can probably do it.
I doubt Cubase is more popular than Logic in the studio. Once you get used to working in Logic, Cubase feels like a toy. I'll admit I haven't used it in a few years so maybe it has improved.
Somebody posted that Logic is unstable and doesn't draw right a lot of the time, but this has not been my experience - in fact version 6 has been rock-solid for me. I know that cracked copies of Logic tend to not work very well.
A few people have said that there aren't a lot of new featured, but I downloaded the Logic Overview PDF from the Apple site, and I see TONS of stuff:
Broadcast Wave is actually becoming the standard audio file format for the film industry. It is used in most of the new digital field recorders (Aaton Cantar, HHB PortaDrive, Zaxcom Deva and the various Fostex field recorders.
The support of this format in Logic is significant as it's the first Apple software to support it. Hopefully this means will see it soon in Final Cut soon.
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