Apple Logic Pro 7

A Logical Yet Impressive Upgrade to a Powerful Piece of DAW Software

By David Leathers

August 1, 2005    Source: Studio Monthly

About half the video editors I know are musicians or former musicians. The percentage gets even higher in audio post. Apple’s Garage Band and Soundtrack programs have really captured a lot of attention lately in the community of editors, post sound mixers, and independent media makers of all descriptions. Soundtrack Pro, which Apple unveiled at NAB, has generated its own buzz with its intuitive, visual interface. The technology in all of these programs has its roots in Logic, including the implementation of software instruments, Apple Loops and advanced filters and effects. While Logic spent many years improving under its original German developers, Emagic, it’s found new life in this first Apple version of the tool and as part of the Apple suite of production tools.

What makes Logic different than the other programs is the vast range of features it includes in one package. A full software-only digital audio workstation (DAW), it provides a vast array of music composition and sound design tools that can record, edit, and mix audio, utilize loops and filters, supports video and includes a robust set of internal software instruments and scoring features.

Music First

Whether the end product is going to be a music CD or the soundtrack to a movie, Logic is designed for creating and manipulating music. The software instruments are decent enough that I’ve seen many pro musicians use them on stage for live performances. A MIDI keyboard, a FireWire audio interface and a Mac laptop loaded with Logic is the basic set up in those cases. Logic is also used to compose all kinds of music. Lots of musicians use it for affordable composition and audio post in their home recording studios; it’s also running on large-scale Pro Tools HD hardware in studios.

It is a great environment for composing music to picture. The compatibility with the other Apple programs is very tight, making the experience of using Logic with Final Cut and Apple’s other audio programs relatively simple. Say you have a 30-second spot that needs a music background and also requires a few sound effects. You can start by importing a QuickTime movie of your spot created in Final Cut Pro into Logic’s video track. The video will play on the desktop or through an external FireWire device. The audio tracks from the video are placed in their own audio tracks in the timeline, where they can be mixed and processed as necessary.

At this point, you have a number of choices of what to add next:

• You can record additional audio tracks through an audio interface.
• You can import Apple Loops from a browser that’s similar to Garage Band. The loops can be stretched, retimed, rekeyed and manipulated in all the same ways as in Garage Band.
• You can import an entire Garage Band project, with full access to all instruments. When GarageBand songs are imported, all the GarageBand instruments load as plug-ins, letting you maximize the performance or make modifications as needed.
• You can set up and record MIDI tracks for controlling outside MIDI devices.
• You can set up and record tracks for MIDI "audio instruments" that control the bank of software instruments that are internal to the program. You can record as many tracks as your project requires. The instruments and loops provide a huge audio palette to work with.

Once you have recorded the musical parts, Logic brings you into a fairly standard mixing window. The mixing has full automation and can be controlled via an excellent tactile interface from Mackie (Mackie Control); during my test, this gave me access to flying faders and most Logic functions. For many projects, you may decide to finish your mix in Logic itself. However, mixed tracks with the video can also be exported as a QuickTime movie to Final Cut Pro or Soundtrack Pro if you want to tweak them some more. Or, you could use Logic’s score window to output printed scores of the MIDI generated tracks and use them for conducting live recording sessions with studio musicians.

If you decide to finish in Logic, you can also import sound effects files, voiceovers or any other audio files and spot them into tracks that give you sub-frame accurate placement before creating a final mix. There are several special tools in Logic’s arrange window that make this a breeze.

Tech Specs Under the Hood

Logic supports audio at 16- and 24-bit resolutions with sample rates up to 192 kHz for both audio recording and playback, with a maximum of 255 audio tracks.

There are two main operational windows in the program. The Arrange Window is a horizontal timeline with unlimited tracks and the Mixer window is an emulation of vertical channel strips in a mixer format. Each channel strip has a full compliment of effects sends. Whatever underlying bus structure your project requires can also be created in software. There are over 70 built-in effects plug-ins that range from guitar-amp modelers to a variety of EQ’s and dynamics. Logic’s new Distributed Audio Processing (DAP) lets multiple computers on a network share the computational load of plug-in DSP calculations for Logic instrument and effects plug-ins inserted in audio and instrument tracks (but not AU plug-ins).

Logic is fully compatible with AAF, XML and OMF import and export as well as a number of lesser-used formats. You can also export complete songs or individual audio tracks or regions. Logic can extract soundtracks from QuickTime Movies and replace a QuickTime movie’s soundtrack with rendered audio from a Logic song. There are advanced Bounce functions for mastering to most audio formats, including MP3 and AAC encoded files. The Waveburner application is included for burning audio CDs.

Software Instruments

Logic includes nine distinct internal synthesizers. Six are from previous versions of Logic and three are new. ESM is a simple monophonic synth. ESP is a polyphonic synth that generates classic analog synth sounds. ESE is for generating ensemble and atmospheric pad sounds. ES1 and ES2 are more complex virtual analog synths. The EVOC Polysynth is a combined real-time vocoder and polyphonic synthesizer.

The three newest synthesizers are EFM1, a powerful 16-voice FM synthesizer; Ultrabeat, a 25-pad drum module; and Sculpture, a very interesting sound-design tool.

Looping

Logic comes with a bank of unique Apple Loops. Garage Band Loops and Acid Loops can also be used directly in Logic, including the new Jam Packs from Apple. With the four current Jam Packs and the original Garage Band and Logic loops, there are over 6,000 loops ready to go. You can find even more from third-party providers, now offering them commercially.

Apple Loops are stored in the Loop Browser. The Loop Browser window is very similar to Garage Band. Apple Loops can be searched by various keyword categories and then immediately auditioned by a single click. You can then drag your selected loops directly from the Loop Browser into the Arrange or Audio windows, where they automatically adapt to the tempo and key of the song and any subsequent tempo or transposition changes.

Some Apple Loops are pure audio. Others are Midi tracks. When Apple Loops with MIDI information are imported to virtual-instrument tracks, Logic automatically installs the plug-in instrument, effects and settings necessary to reproduce the audio file. You can then make pitch and tempo changes, adjust the sound of the instrument, or modify the performance with no quality loss.

The problem with canned loops is that, while you can produce immediate results, it can be difficult to find the perfect loop for your purpose at any given point. That’s why I like the Apple Loop Utility, which you can use to create your own loops from any audio or MIDI region. Once created they become real Apple Loops and take on all the flexibility of the commercial ones. Here’s another tip: Add your own descriptive metadata to the loop and you’ll be able to search for it again. It’s the best way I know to create an extensive personal loop library.

Logic 5 was getting to be a truly powerful program and Logic 6 was better. However, those earlier versions were developed on the cutting edge of MIDI and were conceptually difficult for many users to get their heads around. Logic 7 is an even more powerful program and is another fine example of the Apple method of refining the interface to make it at once both elegant and user friendly. It’s not perfect, though. There are still some features and workflows that will benefit from further refinement. But what Apple has done to the interface has improved the workflow overall. New users, in particular, won’t have much of a learning curve either.

SMART ADVICE

• For many projects, you may decide to finish your mix in Logic itself. However, mixed tracks with the video can also be exported as a QuickTime movie to Final Cut Pro or Soundtrack Pro if you want to tweak it some more.
• If you don’t want to finish in Logic Pro, mixed tracks and video can also be exported as QuickTime movies to Final Cut Pro or Soundtrack Pro.
• Add your own descriptive metadata to your personal loops and you’ll be able to search for them again. It’s the best way I know to create an extensive personal loop library.