Hey, sound guys! The good news is that Apple is preparing a new release of its Logic professional audio software called Logic Pro X.
The bad news? Apple may be looking to recreate the software the same way it did with Final Cut Pro X… and we all know how popular that move was with filmn professionals.
According to Macotakara, a source has told them that he heard about the new Logic Pro X during a “customer interview” with Apple’s Logic team.
Supposedly, this source says that Apple will discontinue the Soundtrack Pro component of Logic Studio with Logic Pro X, just as they did with Final Cut Pro X. While they’re at it, they’ll also fold other production tools like WaveBurner directly into the software, while spinning out MainStage as a separate app.
If The Final Cut Pro X debacle is anything to go by, pros should tread lightly when it comes to upgrading software they depend on for their bread and butter to the latest shiny thing. Apple’s probably right to tear everything down and rebuild it from the ground up every few years — that’s how Apple makes itself ready for the future — but that doesn’t mean professionals depending on a piece of software shouldn’t look before they leap.
[via Macrumors]
John Brownlee is a writer for Fast Company, and a contributing writer here at CoM. He has also written for Wired, Playboy, Boing Boing, Popular Mechanics, VentureBeat, and Gizmodo. He lives in Boston with his wife and two parakeets. You can follow him here on Twitter.
28 responses to “Apple Is Getting Close To Releasing Logic Pro X [Report]”
Only like 4% of musicians use Logic (professionally) anyways. Pro Tools is still the standard by far and away so hopefully this won’t receive such a massive backlash.
means that… they going to make Logic and Main stage as 2 separate software in future? The customer have to purchase with 2 price in order to get both apps to work together? That’s a bad news!`
good contribution
Actually, it looks like that Mainstage and other Logic suite software could *also* be offered separately by Apple. In any case, the Logic Studio suite alone has undoubtedly the best quality/price ratio on the market, and it looks like Apple will rock this ratio steady again.
In such view, Erik, your “4%” statement is groundless: there are no public sales data for DAWs except than a sort of popularity comparisation based on Google keywords (!). PT is great, but frankly, I’ve read much more complaints about PT than any other music software.
There is a lot of excellent competition on the field, but Logic Pro is really a *fantastic* instrument for music production, and for such reason it firmly stands in the daily life of countless musicians (particularly among electronic music users) – without mentioning the [argh] pirate copies.
Once there was a rough list of famous Logic users: http://bit.ly/mSyaoR (3/06). And if you take a look at these 2009 poll results http://bit.ly/pMgnCC from the pro-pulated forum Gearslutz, you’ll see that Logic was the most used and appreciated DAW – by far.
Thanks for the article. Crossing fingers for the new release!
Oh, 4%? Really? I never knew the exact figure, but thanks for figuring that out for the rest of us :)
Here’s more anecdotal evidence for you… the vast majority of musicians I know use Logic over Pro Tools. PT is the standard for big studios, but many independent musicians use Logic. It is a competent DAW and, unlike PT, Logic comes bundled with lots of nice virtual instruments and effects.
On topic… I’m very worried about what Apple may do to Logic. I hope I’m wrong, but I think they’re going to turn it into to Garageband Pro. Who knows, I may have to switch to PT eventually!
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
I think Erik has got the 4% all wrong. I just came from the UK and i can tell you that alot of the dance music producers & remixers use Logic. As for the states i’m pretty sure those numbers are up there too.
I was a Pro Tools user at one point, but i got tired of burning my money on there over priced hardware that you needed so you could run there software. besides there Midi and external drive capabilities really sucked at one point!
Logic, Reason, and Abelton put a hurt on Pro Tools that they redsigned & finally include support for third party audio interfaces! AKA “universal software compatibility”Final point: Degidisign audio interfaces suck.spend your money on Apogee or RME they rock!
4%? Do some research before you post. As a working professional, I can tell you that way more people use Logic Pro than you may think. Pro Tools is great and still dominates in the big studios, but far more composers, video game sound designers, and post production professionals use Logic than you might think. Let’s hope this update does not follow the FCPX model…….
The customer can get just what it needs, and not a bundle. And, judging from iLife, iWork, Aperture and FCP X in the Mac App Store, the price will be slashed anyway, so even buying both will be not only the same price we pay for today but even cheaper.
4%? Where did you got that?
Pro Tools is used in the majority of the studios for recording and audio editing, but a HUGE percentage of artists use Logic for sequencing / recording at home, sometimes rigged to a Pro Tools setup too.
Check any trade mag that interviews musicians (Keyboard, Future Music, Music Tech, etc) –90% of the time they use Apple laptops and Logic.
Especially in electronic music (house, techno, hip hop, trip hop, modern r&b, etc) Logic is prevalent. Probably because Pro Tools sucks for MIDI (although later versions have gotten better).
He probably means people in the US doing Country, Heavy Metal, “rawk” and stuff like that…
“”” I hope I’m wrong, but I think they’re going to turn it into to Garageband Pro. “””
Which means what exactly? Faux-wood finish?
The “Garageband Pro” fears have no base whatsoever (and neither did the FCP X is iMovie Pro fears — it lacks some previous features because it’s a redesigned from scratch future-proof codebase, not because it was “dumbed down” and other such nonsense).
I feel like Logic isn’t really in need of a huge overhaul like Final Cut was. The interface for pre-X Final Cut looks like it’s stuck in the ’90s. Not the case for Logic. It’s already 64-bit, works just fine and looks just fine, too. I’ve got no problem with them prettying it up a little bit, but now I’m kind of scared they’re going to be removing features and slowly bringing them back over the next few years (like they’re doing with Final Cut). I surely hope they don’t drop support for Logic 9 when it’s released. There’s just no reason for it.
That being said, Logic Pro 9 works so well that I’m not going to turn retaliatory and immediately start learning Pro Tools when they release it. This is all speculation right now anyway. I’m going to wait it out and see.
Yep. Not to mention that Logic is already pretty much a basic application with a lot of extra power via plug ins and outside programs, as Final Cut is now. This is part of why Logic Studio is half the price that Final Cut was.
And as you say, it’s already 64 bit.
I suspect that Logic X will be pretty much the same as Pro 9 with perhaps some of the Soundtrack and Waveburner blended into the program instead of as their own thing (never made much sense to me). Some fine tuning and some Lion features like Auto Save. Knock $50-100 off and sell it only in the MAS. Toss in Main Stage for $50, same MAS only. Package the instruments etc through software update like they did with FCPX
Don’t wrap musicians together with film editors – our reaction to the new software is likely to be very different. We are used to leading edge change and most of us invite it as a spur to creativity. Pro editors are different in this respect and much less accepting of change. In ten years from now, when all video is edited the Final Cut X way, we will have forgotten that the vested interests of the film industry ever had a problem!