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Logic pro x review 10.4 free. Apple Logic Pro X 10.4 review

Apple have made Logic easier to use. But have they compromised the powerful features logic pro x review 10.4 free professional users depend on? Logic Pro X rebiew released on July 16th, almost four years to the logic pro x review 10.4 free after Logic Pro 9 — the longest that users have had to wait for a major new version in the product's year history. Apple switched Logic Pro from boxed product to download nearly two years ago, so it's no surprise that Pro X loyic available only through the App Store.

Moving Logic feview the App Store has one big implication for existing users, which is more a limitation or policy of the App Store than a decision Apple have made for Logic Pro specifically: there is no upgrade pricing.

If you previously bought Logic Logic pro x review 10.4 free 9, you'll pay the same price as those coming to Logic for the first time, although logic pro x review 10.4 free isn't, perhaps, as unreasonable as you might first think. After this, you're free to use Logic, although there's nearly 35GB of further content waiting for you in the cloud if you desire.

As the basic content downloads, two links logic pro x review 10.4 free Logics Pro's Help system are displayed: one for newcomers, and one for existing users. There is no longer an Arrange window — it's now called the Logic Pro main window — and the Arrange area itself is now the Tracks area. Apple have also given Logic a dose of Ritalin, removing any occurrences of the prefix 'hyper' from the program. Rrview change worth noting is fref Logic Pro X, like Pro Tools 11, is a bit-only application, and Apple have removed the bit Audio Unit Bridge that allowed bit plug-ins to run.

This will obviously be something of a pain for those who have bit plug-ins they still want to use, although I vree see why Apple wanted to force everyone into the bit realm: running bit plug-ins via the Bridge never felt completely reliable. Using a host like Vienna Ensemble Pro alongside Logic might help mitigate some of the frustration. A comparison between the interfaces of Logic pro x review 10.4 free Pro 9 and X.

If you're used to previous versions of Logic, I think it's fair to say that you might be in for a bit of a shock the first time you see Logic Pro X's new user interface. The result is incredibly dark, even compared with other music pri, and a part of me misses the appearance of Logic 9, where function areas were light and contrasted logi with the darker editing areas.

Along with the palette change, Apple have also introduced arguably the most significant user-interface overhaul that the program has yet logic pro x review 10.4 free.

Logic's previously sparse menu structure has been fleshed out to provide prp access to the program's many logkc, and proo probably a good thing.

The Track menu lobic the old Arrange pgo has been promoted to the main menu bar, and is joined by other menus, such as Navigate, Record, Mix and View. I was fairly well acquainted with Logic's earlier menu structures, but this is definitely an improvement.

Before going any further, I should note that when you open Logic Pro X for the revoew time, you might not see all the commands you're expecting in the 1.4. In what could be considered a slightly dubious move to make the program seem less overwhelming to logic pro x review 10.4 free, Apple have added an Advanced Tools mode that needs to be enabled to show features like the Event, Marker, Tempo and Signature Lists, or MIDI Draw and step input recording.

There are also additional 'advanced' options for audio, surround, MIDI, control surfaces, rpo and advanced editing functionality. So the first thing you should do after loading Logic Pro X is to open the Advanced Preferences panel and make sure all of these options are enabled.

The redesign sees the Prp bar relocated from the bottom of what was the Arrange window, and incorporated into a new Control bar at the top. The main element of the Control bar is the LCD previously known as the Transport bar Displaywhich fre the current position in beats, along with the tempo and the key and time signatures. To seasoned Logic users, this may appear worryingly basic. The Control bar also includes a few of the icons previously found on Logic 9's toolbar: specifically, those for toggling the Inspector's visibility, and opening the various list editors and browsers that appear on the right-hand side of the main window.

Although it's possible to configure what controls appear on the Frde bar and LCD by right-clicking in an empty spot and clicking 'Customise Control Bar and Display…'you'll notice that it's not possible to include any editing commands that could previously be attached to the toolbar.

This is because the Control bar is not, in fact, meant to replace the revjew, and Logic Pro X provides a separate toolbar that is summoned by toggling the Toolbar button on the Control bar. You can, again, customise the toolbar as before, and logc process has been made easier: you simply toggle the commands you want, rather than having to drag and drop icons. The only slight omission is that it's no longer possible to have the toolbar logic pro x review 10.4 free displayed as 'Text Only', which is a shame, considering the far-from-humble size of the icons!

A number of subtle visual cues have been freee to make revies current state of Logic a little clearer. As with some hardware mixing consoles, the colour used to display text in the LCD now reflects certain transport states: blue, by default; red when recording, and yellow when a Track is soloed or Solo Mode is enabled.

In fact, solo and mute states in general have been made slightly clearer, as Logic now greys out any Regions not eligible to play, and blinks the Mute button on all tracks not previously muted when one or more tracks are soloed. Should you need help about any aspect of the interface, a new Quick Help feature provides a brief snippet of information about whatever part of the user interface the mouse is hovering over. I did encounter a small anomaly, though: when you have another Logic window open on top of the main window, Quick Help still tracks the main window rather than the window that llogic focus.

Even stranger, if you open an Environment window yes, it's still there, although looking a little lost between the past and logic pro x review 10.4 free presentthe Quick Help Inspector section moves to the Environment window, but still shows help for the controls on the main window behind.

In use, I logoc initially unsure whether I liked the redesign; but after the first day or so I realised it wasn't po radically different as it had first appeared.

It's a bit like revisiting a house you lived in as a child that's been modernised and changed by the new owners: it's still basically the same house and you know where all the rooms are, but it's been redecorated and the kitchen has been made more accessible. My biggest complaint about the interface is that many elements have swollen in size to take up more screen real estate than seems necessary, leaving less prk in which to work. The Control Bar icons are pretty substantial, and although you can opt to reveiw the Control bar completely, you'll probably need to learn reviea few key commands to navigate the program without it.

The Inspector, which logic pro x review 10.4 free slightly resizable, takes up logix space than in Logic 9, as do the List editors, which are only resizable in the wrong direction. I used reeview really like having the Event List open on the side when I was working, but it now feels slightly indulgent on anything less than a inch display! The most common resolution lgoic MacBooks is x unless you scale up to non-Retina resolutions on a MacBook Pro with a Retina displayand Logic Pro X feels distinctly cramped in these dimensions, compared to previous versions.

Making the prp interface elements larger was apparently a deliberate move by Apple, logic pro x review 10.4 free to take advantage of newer display technologies, but also because some Logic 9 users found the interface elements too small. I suppose I should be grateful my eyesight isn't such that the tumescent revew interface makes me happy, and, if nothing else, it certainly shows that you can't please all Logic users all the time.

The Track List has also received a great deal of attention in Logic Pro X, and, before fref go any further: yes, it's finally possible to select more than one track at a time. Selecting multiple tracks works much like selecting multiple items in the Finder: you can Command-click to individually select and deselect tracks, as well as selecting a track and then Shift-clicking another to select all those in between.

The Track Header's controls are laid out slightly reviw from before. Controls such as mute, solo and freeze are now displayed to the left of the header, and, if the header has sufficient height, the track name will be displayed above the controls.

The track name itself is now set in a much larger font, which revirw definitely clearer than before, although, while it's still possible to reduce the track height to a fairly small dimension, track revied can't be made as small as in Logic 9.

This may or may not be an issue, depending on the size of your typical Track List. A few pixels make all the difference.

The colour bars are now an optional background behind the track number on the left-side of the header, and, perhaps most controversially, Logic's Track Level Meters have been loglc with GarageBand's integrated volume and level meter track control, which now appears on the right.

In theory, the idea of having a combined volume and level meter control on a track isn't a completely terrible proposition. In practice, however, it is. The Track Header has to be quite a reasonable size both in width and height for the volume control to even be visible, making it useful for 104 very small projects, or very big Track Headers.

Below a certain size, Logic will substitute the volume control with a small, circular, LED-like indicator that illuminates when signal is revies. Logic's old level meters weren't particularly informative, but they were more informative than a blinking light. There must be a better alternative. Alongside the volume control is a pan knob, though again, this knob only appears if the Track Header is a fairly healthy size. A nice touch is that you can set it to control one of the eight available sends if you'd rather, though it would be nice if the number of the send appeared inside the knob, or something.

As it is, you can only see to what send a knob is assigned by clicking on it. I thought at first that the Hide Tracks functionality had disappeared, but it turns out that the Hide button only appears above the Track List after you hide logic pro x review 10.4 free first track using a key or menu command. Would it really have hurt just to leave the Hide button there to begin with? A common request among Logic users over the years has been for Cubase-style Folder tracks.

Of course, Logic has had its own Folder tracks from the very first version, but these were intended for horizontal musical arrangements rather than vertical track organisation. In Logic Pro X, Apple have erview added such a feature, in the form olgic Track Stacks, which loyic you to place one or more sub-tracks inside a main track. Here you can see a Track Stack open top and closed. Notice how overlapping Regions become Stacked Regions.

Two types are available: Folder and Summing. Folder Stacks are useful for purely organisational purposes, when you want to be able to group a number of tracks together and expand and collapse them as a 'folder' within the Track List. A Folder Stack's main track has mute and solo buttons, and, as you would expect, if you mute or solo a Folder Stack's main track, all the tracks within the stack are muted and soloed as well.

The main track also has a volume control which trims the overall level of the sub-tracks, but does so without adjusting free volume settings. So if you have a sub-track reveiw at 0dB and you bring the main track down by -6dB, the sub-track's fader will show 0dB, but the audio will be heard at -6dB.

This is useful for retaining relative mix levels within Stacks. The way in which Regions are handled for Track Stacks is actually quite interesting and pretty smart. When a Stack is collapsed, so long as there are no overlapping Regions, the individual Regions within the Stack can be edited as normal. However, when there are overlapping Regions, Logic will show Stack Regions that represent these overlapping Regions.

These Stack Regions can be moved around, which causes the Regions within the sub-tracks to be moved accordingly, and, although you can't resize a Stack Region per se, you can stretch it out to loop the corresponding Regions. A nice visual cue with Track Stacks is that Logic adds a colour hint to the background of the main and sub-tracks in the Tracks logic pro x review 10.4 free, making it easy to see ftee Track Stacks begin and end. The background colour used will frwe the colour assigned to the main track, although I did notice a small visual glitch.

When you change the colour of the Track Stack track, the background in the Tracks area changes for all but the last track in the Stack. However, if you move the scroll bar, collapse and expand fdee Stack, or do anything that forces a redraw, the colour is changed to the correct one. Summing Stacks behave very similarly to Folder Stacks, but differ in one important way. With a Summing Stack, the main track behaves like an Aux Input track, and Logic automatically uses a logic pro x review 10.4 free bus to route the output of the sub-tracks to the input of the main tracks.

This opens up some interesting possibilities, because if the tracks within a Summing Stack deview Instrument tracks, then, unlike with Folder Stacks, you can select the main track logic pro x review 10.4 free treat it as if it was a stand-alone Instrument track triggering all the sub-tracks within. The only thing revies watch out for is that if you create or record Regions on the main track of a Summing Stack, Logic will only show those Regions when you collapse the Stack, regardless of whether there are any Regions on the sub-tracks.

Say you have no taste and you create a Summing Stack containing an Instrument track for piano and another for strings. You can now choose either the piano or the strings sub-track and record onto them individually as normal, or you could lobic a Region onto the main track that triggers both piano and strings together.

If you look through the Library of new patches that come with Logic Pro X, you'll notice quite a few that adopt this technique. It's also not possible to have sub-Stacks, meaning that you can have Stacks within Stacks.

This makes sense with Summing Stacks, but is a slight organisational limitation logic pro x review 10.4 free Folder Stacks. One of the biggest new features in Logic Pro X is a virtual pri, who will accompany your music based on various parameters that you can specify and won't charge you union rates. The basic operation of Drummer is incredibly simple.

Once you add the Drummer track to your Project — there can only be one — Logic will automatically create two Drummer regions for you on that track. These regions look logic pro x review 10.4 free Audio Regions, but they act a little differently. By creating Regions on the Drummer track, you tell your virtual drummer when to play — and, of course, when not to.