 "wonderful, but its a CPU sucker" | 2009-05-31 |
| - Reviewed By Noah P. Mitchell from northfield, MN |
| so far for me logic has been amazing and smooth, apart from a common error: CPU overload. You have to limit the amount of things going on to please my G4 mac. Granted, G5 is highly recommended and that's why. There are ways around this problem, but it's still a problem. |
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 "cool virtual electronica cybersystem w/ impact" | 2009-03-31 |
| - Reviewed By zed mizar from los angeles |
i never used garage band because i soon discovered that i couldn't get the big drum sounds i need for my music with it. well let me tell you, there is no shortage of bangin' drum sounds on logic 8.
drum sounds are basic to electronica, if you haven't got that then everything else is pretty much wasted. i have always preferred sampled drum sounds over drum synthesizers, i never cared for those vintage roland analog drum machines that some people think are hip, they always seem to lay flat to me & have no impact or energy. it's hard to beat the sound of a tight snare drum being hit hard with some reverb on it for impact. i want my music to jump up @ you, not lay flat. well, i have finally found a drum synth i like better than sampled drums--although there are many many fantastic-sounding sampled drums here--& that is ultrabeat. it has grown on me, some of the sounds do lay flat like an analog drum machine but some of them really pump & thwack. it sounds better than sampled drums because a sample is always just a recording but a synthesized drum is being generated on the fly & the sound quality is better & more live. that's why you want to program your own drum tracks rather than just rely on loops. i might use a loop but i will program a beat on top of it to improve the sound quality. when i take an ultrabeat drum track & record it @ 20 bit 44.1 there is a detectable loss of quality, so i leave my software tracks on the recording.
the only other program in logic studio that i use very much besides logic 8 is waveburner. it is certainly handy for mastering. i do my final mix on logic 8 & save it as an .aif, load it into waveburner & master it & then load it back into logic to make the .mp3 of my choice in quality. that is good because i can make the best possible sounding .mp3 given the file size limit i am dealing with. i can post my songs on myspace easily & the .mp3s sound really good. i recommend this software, it works great for me. |
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| "You will need a bigger harddrive" | 2009-03-28 |
| - Reviewed By Musical Enterprises from Bloomingdale Illinois |
| Apple Logic Studio The Logic Pro Studio is Great I got going right away but I did have to upgrade my hard drive since a program this size 49 gig of hard drive space needs more than the standard 160 gig hard drive that comes with the MacBook Pro. |
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 "Memory Nightmare" | 2009-03-06 |
| - Reviewed By CC |
1. 32bit logic does not have enough internal memory to run even fairly modest 3rd party libraries/plug-ins.
2. therefore logic would have to become 64bit which is NOT going to happen for many VERY good reasons, or else the 3rd party plug-ins will have to use the same mmap trick as the exs24.
3. the mmap functionality requires a certain amount of internal logic memory to make work. this severely curtails the amount of memory you have for your 3rd party stuff, which is why reducing your physical RAM could actually increase how much you have available for logic. the amount of memory logic sets aside to run mmap is set in your plist file. even a fairly low level programmer could adjust this. i have had mine adjusted and it has made a huge difference.
4. the only real solution for those who are working with a fair amount of 3rd party stuff is to use an AU host. this really is not the end of the world and actually brings its own benefits. in this case a 32bit au host has its own 4 Gb memory space which makes far better use of your systems RAM.
5. logic is much more stable close to its memory limits than it ever has been before, but it reaches the limit far sooner because of the 512 Mb set aside to run mmap. i stress, if you are running close to the memory limit you need to consider another AU host.
6. it absolutely has nothing to do with computer model, intel vs PPC, or whether your RAM is paired, coloured purple or has furry dice hanging off of it. it is all to do with the internal RAM address space limitation with logic.
some further thoughts:
- generally if you get the unable to save message, it may save anyway. look for the file with a tilda ( ~ ) after it.
- there are many features in logic which have not been thought all the way through; file management, communication with other DAWs, beat mapping, working with video, the library drawer, score editing, and finally mmap.
mmap was clearly meant to address the problem of working with large libraries and is partially a good solution. but the reality is, most modern sound libraries are only available for 3rd parties plug-ins and not available for the exs. missing this point makes the mmap virtually a redundant feature - how can you miss it? simply saying its up to the 3rd party manufacturers to sort out is not helpful to the poor user who is wondering why their expensive macpro with a gazillion gigabytes of RAM falls over sooner and runs no faster than their old coal-powered G5.
having spoken to very smart programmers not related to logic development (that i know of) there are a myriad ways of exploiting RAM on your system and certain advantages at least in the short term to remaining a 32bit application. logic developers have not thought all the way through the problem of running large libraries and this annoys me somewhat. an integrated secondary hosting program such as RAX or plogue bidule, created by the logic developers would be much easier and more efficient to manage, more tightly integrated and would make a lot more sense than an obscure programming trick that they didn't even announce when it came out.
a big problem of running combined libraries is that when switching songs, the 3rd party samples have to be reloaded. keeping them in plogue bidule running in rewire, means that switching songs takes a fraction of the time it used. the technology exists for logic to run a secondary application very easily and would have been a far more practical and obvious solution than the one they came up with, because the situation as we have it means that people get burned all the time as they come against the memory wall. |
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| "Breath of Fresh Air" | 2008-10-15 |
| - Reviewed By webratss from Washington, DC |
I've used Cubase for many years for my personal production and ProTools whenever I'm in the the studio. I purchased Logic Studio for 3 reasons.
- The price
- No dongle
- I wanted an upgrade from Cubase
Logic Studio met my 3 needs and surpassed them by miles! This program runs circles around Cubase for more reasons than I can count so I won't spend time there but the thing that surprised me was the out-of-the-box functionality that eclipsed anything I could've gotten in ProTools (for less than a few thousand). Plus the MIDI functionality rivaled my other favorite program, Reason 4.
I run LS on my MacBook 2.4GHz, 4GB, Leopard 10.5.5 and it runs smoothly without ANY issues. The LS track count embarrasses ProTools. So far, I've run 24 tracks of MIDI instruments (6 ReWired to Reason) and 24 audio tracks simultaneously with no clipping.
At that point, Logic Pro 8 had surpassed my expectations but once I started configuring MainStage and using WaveBurner, I was in love. I haven't touched SoundStage or Compressor yet.
There will be some arguments from the ProTools faithful. I know everyone has their personal preferences but I think it would be difficult to argue that at just under $500, LS is a steal for the out-of-the-box functionality.
Apple finally has a program that not only competes but excels. You can bet that Apple support for DigiDesign will diminish now that LS is out (I've already started to see this dropoff).
I highly recommend it! |
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| "A great upgrade to Garageband." | 2008-08-27 |
| - Reviewed By An Amazon User |
| I got an Intel iMac in 2007, and I used Garageband for about 6 months. Compared to FL Studio on the PC, I found it much easier to use, and I quickly fell in love with it. Lately, though, I have been thriving for something a little more complex and feature rich. Logic Studio turned out to be my answer. The amount of content you get for the price is overwhelming; the first 5 Jam Packs are included (a ton of instruments and loops) that alone cost what this software costs. In addition, you get Logic Pro 8, and other programs like Soundtrack Pro and Waveburner. If you've used Garageband, the interface will be a little easier to pick up. Logic definitely takes some getting used to, but it is completely worth it. With the Apple Pro Training book (the basics one), I was able to use Logic's basic functions comfortably within a week. If you're looking to produce any type of music on your Mac, you need Logic Studio. Highly recommended. |
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