Review: Logic Pro X DAW - Music Making Software by Apple

If you’re a musician, producer, recording engineer, or composer, Logic Pro X contains some gorgeous innovations and features that worth your attention. Bellow are presented some new features of Logic Pro X that make the difference between this software and other DAW programs in a very competitive market. Who and what is the best?…is your choice!

In Logic Pro 9, you could have playback skipped over part of the arrangement by dragging backwards across the bar marker above the arrange area. Although it looks like this may have disappeared in Pro X, it hasn’t. It’s now accessed by Cmd-clicking an existing loop marker, or Cmd-dragging a new skip zone.

Logic Pro X includes a new Global Track called Arrangement that should not be overlooked. This allows us to define sections of the song and then shuttle them around quickly to adjust the overall structure. Features include move, copy and replace, and moving sections, will re-position others to fill the space vacated. Markers can be named, and once you’re done, you can fold away the Arrangement Track.

Logic Pro X improves your options when playing instruments from your computer keyboard. The Musical Typing window (Cmd-K) can display either a small, clickable keyboard or a QWERTY keyboard. The latter includes pitch-bend, sustain, modulation with six positions, and a selection of velocity settings.

Logic’s new Drummer and Drum Kit Designer make a terrific combination. Even so, there may be times when you’d rather use other sounds. Thankfully, by selecting the kit region and choosing Convert to MIDI Region (or by copying/dragging the region to a MIDI track), we get the region in MIDI form, complete with the playing style you selected in Drummer.

Logic’s Compressor plugin is highly flexible but easily overlooked in the rush to use third-party emulations. It includes manual and auto gain makeup, extensive sidechain options, output saturation, output dry/wet mix, and an additional output limiter. It also has six operating modes: two FET types, 2 VCA types, Opto and the super-flexible ‘Platinum’ mode.

Logic Pro X has improved audio- to-MIDI capability, going beyond simple timing data to include pitch too. This works in conjunction with the new Flex Pitch feature. Once you’re happy with the analysed or corrected notes, select Create MIDI Track From Flex Pitch Data from the Track editor’s Edit menu to create a MIDI part.

Previously, certain GarageBand instruments could automatically be reopened in EXS24 simply by swapping the incumbent instrument to an EXS24. This functionality now extends to Drum Kit Designer, so if you’re working with it but would like to edit the underlying samples fully, simply switch the instrument over to EXS24. The same kit will then reload in the sampler with access to layers, key groups samples and so on.

To circumvent Logic Pro X’s 64-bit plugin limitation, you can use some third-party software. One option is to use an AU shell that hosts VSTs, such as DDMF’s Metaplugin or Blue Cat Audio’s Patchwork, and then convert 32-bit VSTs to 64-bit VSTs using the free jBridgeM application. A recent and more elegant option, though, is Sound Radix’s 32 Lives, which turns your 32-bit AUs into 64-bit ones.

Logic Pro X replaces the previous channel presets system with a new patch menu, which opens in the Library to match the type of the track selected – instrument, audio, auxiliary, and so on. But there’s another way to get the presets: by Alt-clicking on a channel name in the Inspector or Mixer, you can access channel presets and patches for all types of tracks and mix and match channel presets and patches.

Logic Pro X includes the great new Retro Synth instrument that incorporates analogue, wave-table and FM synthesis. Here we’ll focus on the wave-table option, and modulate the table position for a typical PPG-style sound.

Logic Pro X can be purchased from Apple App Store for $199.99.

If you already own the Logic Pro X, bellow I listed some great presets and soundbanks: