«Breath of Fresh Air»
I've used Cubase for many years for my personal production and ProTools whenever I'm in the the studio. I purchased Logic Studio for 3 reasons.
- The price
- No dongle
- I wanted an upgrade from Cubase
Logic Studio met my 3 needs and surpassed them by miles! This program runs circles around Cubase for more reasons than I can count so I won't spend time there but the thing that surprised me was the out-of-the-box functionality that eclipsed anything I could've gotten in ProTools (for less than a few thousand). Plus the MIDI functionality rivaled my other favorite program, Reason 4.
I run LS on my MacBook 2.4GHz, 4GB, Leopard 10.5.5 and it runs smoothly without ANY issues. The LS track count embarrasses ProTools. So far, I've run 24 tracks of MIDI instruments (6 ReWired to Reason) and 24 audio tracks simultaneously with no clipping.
At that point, Logic Pro 8 had surpassed my expectations but once I started configuring MainStage and using WaveBurner, I was in love. I haven't touched SoundStage or Compressor yet.
There will be some arguments from the ProTools faithful. I know everyone has their personal preferences but I think it would be difficult to argue that at just under $500, LS is a steal for the out-of-the-box functionality.
Apple finally has a program that not only competes but excels. You can bet that Apple support for DigiDesign will diminish now that LS is out (I've already started to see this dropoff).
I highly recommend it!
[Wednesday, October 15, 2008]
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«A great upgrade to Garageband.»
I got an Intel iMac in 2007, and I used Garageband for about 6 months. Compared to FL Studio on the PC, I found it much easier to use, and I quickly fell in love with it. Lately, though, I have been thriving for something a little more complex and feature rich. Logic Studio turned out to be my answer. The amount of content you get for the price is overwhelming; the first 5 Jam Packs are included (a ton of instruments and loops) that alone cost what this software costs. In addition, you get Logic Pro 8, and other programs like Soundtrack Pro and Waveburner. If you've used Garageband, the interface will be a little easier to pick up. Logic definitely takes some getting used to, but it is completely worth it. With the Apple Pro Training book (the basics one), I was able to use Logic's basic functions comfortably within a week. If you're looking to produce any type of music on your Mac, you need Logic Studio. Highly recommended.
[Wednesday, August 27, 2008]
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«Best value for new Mac users »
Logic is so big that trying to describe it in a review, or to cover its feature set would be impossible. Simply put if you use a Mac and want to record or mix audio then you have got a complete solution in one box. I didn't have any previous experience with either Macs or Music and have found the software a very powerful but deep tool to use. To get started with it is not much more complex than Garage Band but it is very, very deep. The manuals that come with it are close to 2000 pages in length because of the amount of tools and options you have at your disposal.
The drag and drop interface is intuitive and the included sounds are great. They are not quite pro-level quality (i.e. Waves, Native Instruments) but they are very, very good and the Apple Units(AU) plug-in architecture is supported industry wide allowing you to easily put the pro sounds in your library.
I think the Ultrabeat drum sequencer is an excellent tool and will likely cause you to lose some sleep as you get sucked into playing with all the features. The sample loop library is huge, something like 18,000 loops so you can build a scratch track quickly to get the sound you are looking for as a base or to use as a backing track for your own recording.
The included synths are very tweakable and each has an interface that really puts their power within easy reach. If you have never looked into creating your own sound instead of simply using a sampled virtual instrument these synths will make you re-evaluate. The mixing interface is full of the controls you need and a very powerful environment and bus system allows for efficient and novel effects processing.
I use it on my 24" Aluminum iMac with a 2.4 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo chip and 4GB of system ram. I haven't had any issues of excessive CPU usage or crash inducing bugs. I am not saying some do not exist, they likely do as evidenced by the numerous discussions on Apple's own site. I just want to make it clear that the software is hardly "bug-ridden" as some people would lead you to believe.
I started with Logic Express 8 and then upgraded to Logic Studio 8, as there is no price advantage to jumping right into Studio. You get most of the features with Express and only lack a large portion of the included loop and instrument content. The full Logic Express install is around 8-10Gb and Studio comes in around 70GB. Studio took about 2 hours to do a complete install so budget some time before you fire it up on a work night at 9pm thinking you'll make it to bed on time.
While Pro-Tools is the "industry standard" for recording studios Logic holds sway over a very large number of the artists themselves. Often projects are worked on totally in Logic and only run through Pro-Tools|HD systems in the final mixing and mastering steps.
Logic Studio or Express are both tremendous values for the dollar. They are supported by every major 3rd party content supplier, receive ample magazine and web how-to article space and are used by a huge user base. this translates into being able to get answers to your questions quickly and no fear of incompatibility with 3rd party hardware or software.
Be warned Garage Band users, going from GB to Logic will cause you to want to spend more and more money on hardware and software to take full advantage of all the options in Logic Studio. It is a musician's gateway drug.
[Wednesday, August 06, 2008]
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