Logical Sequence?

You think its time you moved to something more serious to put your musical ideas together and produce a decent recording, but making a logical move in this direction doesn't seem that simple. There is a war out there among DAW manufacturers and their avid supporters as to which one is the best! You can't seem to differentiate between a sequencer, audio editor and a digital audio workstation! If this is a familiar situation, the following review might help you to better understand one of the contenders, Logic Pro 7 from Apple.

Since its earlier days as Emagic-Logic, Logic has undergone significant changes under the current Apple parentage. Those of you who knew Logic from its earlier days may note that from a powerful sequencer it has emerged into a Digital Audio Workstation and Apple rightly calls it Logic Pro.

For this review, I used Logic Pro 7 installed on a MacBook Pro 2.0 running Mac OS X 10.4.9 and 1.5GB RAM, while the minimum requirement is G4 or above with OS 10.3 or later, 512MB RAM and 4GB disc space. Installation was trouble free from the DVD and once launched, the set-up assistant guided me through the various preference settings. For a first timer, some of the settings may seem alien, a pointer that this software needs you to have some serious audio knowledge to master it.

Logic had no trouble in accepting either the built-in sound card or M-Box 2 pro audio interface or EMU X-Board 25. Logic Pro 7, being from the Apple stable is compatible with GarageBand and Apple Loops. Good news for those who are looking to upgrade from GB. I started by opening a GB project and it appeared as a Logic session. As one would expect, the main workspace in Logic is the arrange window. The track parameters can be viewed and modified from the track mixer, which has a more familiar mixing console look and feel and routing is simple and intuitive.

Logic Workspace

As you get deeper into the workflow, you encounter one too many different windows popping up for various tasks with their own menus. This could seem like a clutter, and perhaps one reason to dislike the interface. However, Logic has something they call Screensets to alleviate this scenario. Screensets allow you to store and recall favourite screen views using the number keys on your keyboard.

Logic is shipped with an impressive collection of more than 70 Plug-ins, 1000 Apple loops and 1100 samples. It also features an array of impressive software instruments and samplers like the EVB3, EVP88 and EXS24. In fact, Logic is perhaps the only application in its category that ships with everything under their belt as standard feature. With similar applications, you may have to buy extra instruments and plug-ins for a comparable configuration. This makes Logic an excellent tool to teach synthesis and music design.

Sculpture Modelling Synthesizer

Logic also has a score feature that will allow you to create, edit, and export music in the form of scores. It is not a match for Finale or Sibelius, but does its part fairly well. Extensive MIDI editing can be done via the Matrix edit and MIDI events list. You can also define environments to better manage your workflow, but this should be looked at as a power user feature.

Logic supports video and surround sound. Sweet. Think, when you are considering a surround project with the awesome software instruments and samplers and probably video, you are thinking way too far from the minimum system requirements we talked about. Instruments like Sculpture and EXS24 are DSP hogs! Apple has devised a clever technique of distributed processing via standard gigabit Ethernet enabled G4s or G5s that are connected together. This means you could offload some DSP tasks to another Mac in your network. Obviously there is latency involved so not a smart thing during recording.

Logic has some neat audio plug-ins and effects including a pitch corrector, a Guitar Amp simulator, extensive metering and analysis tools and linear phase EQ among many others. Mixing and automation is very much like other DAWs and Logic accepts most third-party plug-ins. A mastering application called WaveBurner is also bundled.

Guitar Amp Pro

Now you probably know where we are heading. Yes, Apple's total logical solution for music. However, this very intention has made it a bulky program to master and use. You will notice that as features got added on to an existing program to take a different direction, the means and terminology used contributed some degree of difficulty and confusion. For e.g. in Logic, SPL is Song Position Locator and not Sound Pressure Level, Cycle a region means loop it, while loop means something else.

Logic is a Mac only application, either limiting or forcing users to go Mac. There is also a shortage of well-developed getting started material such as videos, tutorials etc. Apple has a training program for Logic, which is expensive and not available locally in many countries. Not an advantage for many prospective users. This coupled with the learning curve and slightly complex user interface, Logic Pro 7 could be a challenge to master for beginners, especially for those musicians with very little experience in professional audio software. Technical support is available from Apple and there is also a users forum.

Having said that, you will not find another application that will offer you all that Logic can offer, and it comes at a very affordable price. Logic Pro 7 was retailing at US$999. Academic pricing is available for students, academicians and schools. Apple released Logic Pro8 recently and it is now part of the Logic Studio bundle and is priced at US$499. Upgrades are available for US$199. An absolute value for money! Logic can be bought from local Apple dealers or from the Apple store online.

Logic Pro 7 is a little bit of everything, it is a great sequencer, functions fairly well as a DAW, and has notation capabilities and some CAI value. Equally likeable and difficult at the same time, so I'd give a score of 7 out of 10 for Logic Pro7.