Even with Apple’s OS X 10.5 Leopard arriving this Friday, I’ve been completely preoccupied with the new Logic Studio which shipped a month or so ago.I only got my copy recently, so I’m still only getting into it.
I’m still a Digital Performer user too, but already I’ve explored the various ways to interchange multitrack projects between the two applications. It is possible – though you will have some work to do reassigning plug-ins and so on. The nice thing is that audio interchange standards are actually getting somewhere beyond bouncing each track to disk to be re-imported into a different DAW.
Logic has some substantial workflow differences over Digital Performer 5.1, for better or worse.Logic 8 is the first time Logic has had a clean UI since I can remember. This is the update that shows the Apple influence on the interface.There are pages of refinements based on user feedback as well, so it seems to be a really worthwhile update for the dedicated user with pretty new hardware.
Notably, the price is less than half of what Logic used to retail for and the super annoying USB dongle copy protection is now simply a serial number. The death of the dongle might be one of the largest factors that sold me on this upgrade. I’ve hated dealing with Logic 7′s dongle using vital USB ports.If nothing else, the update is probably worth the price for the 32 gigabytes of stock audio samples alone. This includes the virtual synthesizers and the EXS sampler which can import AKAI, Gigasampler and more formats that are not usually so easy to access without older hardware. Seriously, there is a ton of content here and even though few of us will use all of it, it’s always important to have a wide palette in front of you.
One new addition that got me upgrading was a new bundled app called Mainstage that is aimed at live music setups. It is pretty neat and possibly perfect for my live improv sessions with The Seattle Improv Meeting.
Apple has included the nifty Soundtrack Pro 2 with Logic Studio. I already have used Soundtrack since before it was “pro” as it came with Final Cut Pro initially. Bundling SP with Logic Studio makes the package quite the Swiss Army knife when it comes to options. Soundtrack can arrange, edit and master audio in addition to Logic. It’s another tool with different ways of doing the same things, albeit much more focused.
Having done a forced transition to Digital Performer from Studio Vision Pro many years ago, I feel a sort of irony that I’ve chosen to bounce between two different DAWs. If anything it’s forcing me to keep my projects updated while learning new processes. Logic Studio is a great bargain. It is also going to consume a lot of time if you’re coming from “lite” software like Garageband, or even if you’re migrating from ProTools or DP like myself.