Monthly Archives: July 2015

My Favorite New Features in Logic Pro X – Part 4, Editor

Editing, ,

I don’t think the Editor changed much in Logic Pro X. If I find that it did, I’ll have to write a post for that.

What did change is the sync between the Tracks area and the Editor. In previous versions of Logic Pro, you had to understand it to use it. I was just using Logic Pro 9 the other day, and when I was changing tracks or regions, the Editor didn’t change to follow what I had selected in the Arrange area. I know there’s a way to do that, but I had to remember and never could. Now, Logic Pro X follows the selection in the Tracks area. I’m sure there’s a way to turn this off for those who prefer the old method, but I prefer the new way so I don’t know it.

To me, this is another good example of how Apple has made Logic Pro X simpler, more intuitive, and more like other applications.

(Logic Pro X’s Tracks area was called the Arrange area in previous versions)

My Favorite New Features in Logic Pro X – Part 3, Compressor

Mastering, Mixing,

One of the cool new things in Logic Pro X 10.1 I really love is the new Compressor plug-in. I think AskAudio Magazine covered it quite well. Their article not only described the new features, but what compressors are being modeled. I think that it is great how Compressor now shows you what it’s doing in real time, either via the Meter or the Graph.

However, what this update made glaringly obvious was how dated some of the other plug-ins look. They probably were appropriate for their time, but now they show their age. Personally, I expect that Apple will go through all the “blue” ones at least and clean them up to match the basic black look that you see in the Channel EQ plug-in, as well as the basic plug-ins that are in GarageBand. But, I also think that some real-time feedback will appear in some of them as appropriate, even if it’s as simple as a meter to show what the plug-in is doing.

My Favorite New Features in Logic Pro X – Part 2, Alternatives

Mixing, ,

I’ll admit it, I’m obsessive and can get a bit precious. In this case, this meant that if I wanted to try something new in a project, I had to save the old/current version, duplicate it, and start working on the new version/idea. Since I like to keep projects as a package with all the assets stored internally, this can start to hog drive space quickly. Also, knowing which file in the Finder was which was something else to manage.

Screen Shot 2015-06-29 at 5.39.51 PM

Project alternatives make this a breeze. Now, if I want to experiment with a new mix or edit, all I have to do is stop before I do anything else, create the new alternative, and then start work on that alternative. For example, if the end of the song has several choruses and I want to see what it’s like to have the first of those be a drop chorus, I can create a new alternative called “Drop Chorus” and then begin editing the first of the final choruses to be that drop chorus. If I like it, I can continue with that. If not, I can revert to the previous alternative* and move on from there. Or, if I want different versions of the song such as single edits, extended solos, different arrangements, etc. I can create those all in the same project.

I’ve already created several alternatives in some of my projects, even though I haven’t gone back to the previous alternatives. But since this uses little drive space, it doesn’t matter that I have all these other alternatives. Maybe I’ll use them for something, maybe not. But it’s nice to be a hoarder without the clutter.

*The initial version of the project will always be stored as an alternative with the same name as the project. If you look at the Alternatives menu shown above for one of your projects and you have not created any alternatives, you’ll see the name of your project already listed below the line on the right submenu.