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Download on the App StoreAudiobus is the app that makes the rest of your setup better.
My thoughts on Logic Pro - 48 Hours Later
I just watched this video on Youtube...
While Ocean is an amazing producer and beatmaker who works within Logic Pro, I'm highly doubting if I'll have any use for it once it's released to the iPad. Maybe it's just me, but I've become very set in my ways in how I create music on the iPad, and I'm not sure if Logic Pro would benefit me at all. In other words, I'm having my doubts.
I am glad that Apple have decided to give us one month free in order to make up our own minds about it and have the monthly subscription fee so ridiculously affordable in case I need more time to decide. (I'm not getting into the "subscription debate" here as there are other threads for that.) And only time will tell. But, it seems to me at the moment that I can choose either to bounce between apps that are easy to wrap my head around, or fiddle around with menu diving in Logic Pro (unless my initial assumptions are incorrect and grossly misinformed).
Question to those who use/have used Logic Pro? How easy is it to use? I'm not meaning the difference between Mac vs iPad/mouse vs touchscreen. I mean as far as the DAW itself is concerned.
Comments
Logic Pro on desktop is where you go after you graduate from GarageBand. It's more or less a smooth transition.
Ah then I think it's time for me to finally wrap my noggin around GarageBand to see how to play with that. I do wonder...can I program notes on a piano roll in GarageBand iOS? Or is it all live input?
Not sure what you mean by "program", but you can input notes in the piano roll on keyboard or draw them in and edit them that way. You already have GarageBand if you have an iPad or iPhone. I don't know why anyone wouldn't at least try it out since it came with iOS.
Point taken.
I'm going to check online for tutorial videos on GarageBand iOS. Maybe I'm just overcomplicating things in my mind and GarageBand is dead simple to use, lol. 😂 Wouldn't be my first rodeo with overthinking, that's for certain.
I'd say just jump into it and see how much you can figure out on your own. Most of it is quite intuitive. If you get stuck, check out Pete Johns' The GarageBand Guide on YouTube, which has loads of tutorials. Most of what I learned I learned on my own.
AUM is geared toward playing live. GarageBand is geared toward recording and production, on a very simple level. GB does not have the routing options you may be used to. It does some things well and others not so well.
Logic is pretty straightforward to use. The basic operation is simple, if you’ve ever used a daw.
But it’s got a ton of stuff so if you get into transient and warp editing, or the sampler, or midi grooves it can get complicated. So I’d say it gets complicated as you force it to. It’s a lot easier to get basic stuff going in Logic than it is in Drambo or even AUM.
Yes and iOS Garageband has one of the best piano rolls.
As for Logic, it’s easy enough. I found it a bit frustrating at first with the location of things and the layout compared to Ableton. Give it enough time though and it can do some really cool things.
I also think Logic has the best stock synth sounds out of any DAW period.
This is all stock Logic synths:
@jwmmakerofmusic : Udemy has a ten hour course for like ten dollars, also “Studio Live Today” has literally hundreds of videos … Also “Music Tech Help Guy” on YouTube for Logic Pro.
Personally i think Logic Pro iPadOS is going to be easier than GarageBand.
GarageBand has some irregular concepts like calling effects sends “master effects” 🤯
The instrument picker is excessive. The built in instrument will wipe out AU inserts when you change presets etc
There’s a hidden master limiter that can affect volume.
Bouncing tracks forces the creation of a new project
I anticipate Logic for iPad will rectify these anomalies and more…So perhaps you can skip learning all these oddities in GB and just start fresh with Apple’s return to sanity on these aspects
Just installed GarageBand…. No StepSequencer… one of the main features in Logic Pro X I have seen, is the ability to bring in a midi file (Melodic in this case) and give it the SS treatment (transpose to key/scale, probability, etc.).. will just have to wait until release..
Wow, lots of great responses. ❤️ I'm truly blessed to be a part of this wonderful community.
I checked a couple of tutorial videos, mucked about in Garageband and used "Ecuador" as my source material (I usually pick a Sash! song to recreate when testing anything new lol), and there are two things I can't figure out.
Automation. Does it exist in GarageBand? (I know it does in Logic Pro as it was part of the advertisement.)
How the heck do I render the final project to audio? 😂
EDIT: Yes, I came to find out my brain was overcomplicating the heck out of GarageBand. It's dead simple to use, lol.
EDIT 2: Found it. Woof, that was rather a pain in the butt to figure out, lol.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/d3dx1xhkumiusjm/garageband first attempt.m4a?dl=0
Alrighty. Garageband really is dead simple to use, lol. If it's that simple to use, I wonder if Logic will be just as simple but with a ton of more features put in there as shown on the official page!
Now you're getting it!
You find Automation by tapping to select a track (on the left hand side... tap on the icon of your instrument), then tap again to bring up the menu which will list all of the following "Delete / Rename / Merge / Automation / Show in Grid / Icons".
The only thing you can automate in GarageBand iOS is volume over time. It's the most common use for automation, so it makes sense it would be limited to this. In Logic Pro, you can automate just about anything.
Tapping on a MIDI roll or block of audio in the timeline will show you a different set of options.
GarageBand (at least iOS) has a step sequencer.
I can’t find it (melodic). found the Beat Sequencer..
Yes! A simple-to-use DAW that'll fit my every need and comes with a boatload of great sounds in addition to my ability to use the rompler and synth AUv3s I want to use? I'm all in!
Garageband was easy to put together my little "Ecuador" example. I did use FAC Transient to deaden the attack and bring up the sustain of the piano, and of course I can't just utilize the Garageband drums without slapping on Beef. 😂 I do wish we had master effects in Garageband, so the wait for Logic Pro will be excruciating. At least I can do enough in Garageband now on my iPhone that I can then port into Logic Pro for polishing the production and such. 😃
Ahhh, now I see. Well volume-only automation is a shame, but then again building beats in Garageband on my iPhone and finishing in Logic Pro is the way to go then innit? Much thanks mate. 🫶
Yeah I don't see a step sequencer either, just the beat sequencer and the piano roll.
Okay, dumb question alert. Is there a way to turn off quantisation in GB so I can nudge notes off the grid for more Dilla-inspired beats?
Yes, one of the quirks of iOS GarageBand... you first need to lay down a MIDI track BEFORE you can see it, so bring up a synth patch in a new track, record a few notes. Then you'll be able to double tap on the recorded notes (usually shown in the track as a block of green with a piano roll appearance) and you'll then see the following editing options pop up "Cut / Copy / Paste / Delete / Loop / Split / Edit / Rename / Settings". You'll want to see what happens with each of those choices so you become more familiar with the real options available to you.
Yes, press the icon above the tracks that looks like some faders, which opens the track details dialogue. You can then choose quantization or not in there.
Woohoo! Thanks mate!
Saved my bacon. Cheers.
Excellent, the mor bacon saved the better! Those track controls are a little fiddly.
I do really live GarageBand for getting quick ideas down and sometimes they wind up in logic on the Mac turning into bigger projects.
That's certainly my plan with Logic Pro on iPad. Start a beat or musical idea in GB on the iPhone, and flesh it out and finish it up in Logic Pro on the iPad! My next EP will most likely release in late May at the earliest. I'm going to begin work on the loops and instrumentals tomorrow.
(Now to search Google on how to hire a gospel choir to record backing vocals to send me over the interwebs. 😅)
This boils down to the old iOS vs desktop question, right?
The attraction of iOS music apps has always been in the immediacy and simplicity in sound and music composition. The reduction to what really counts and playfulness is what still draws me in.
Desktop is a different story. I turn to desktop apps when I need more power in terms of features, fine editing and more complex tasks that are also quicker done using many keyboard shortcuts. Yes, I'm a fan of keyboard shortcuts because they make my editing so much faster than on a touchscreen.
I find it easier to use than Garageband. In GB, I'm wondering too often how to do something and I hate watching videos just to find one little feature. In Logic, although certainly overwhelming for newcomers, I have at least an idea about where to find what I'm looking for because it follows a somewhat traditional DAW concept, and I've been working with desktop DAWs for decades.
I have rocked this track so loud in my car for a long time now. Feel-gooderizer.
I’m getting the piano roll, with those options.. not the ‘Logic Type’ StepSequencer (with Probability, etc.).
Thanks.
I used it twenty years ago and quite liked it, felt solid and simple enough, but when I went back to it last year for a trial on the Mac, it just didn’t gel, felt unwieldy and bloated. It might be that I’ve got used to Ableton now, or that it’s showing the legacy of a quarter century of development. I didn’t bite anyway. I would expect/hope the iPad version will have been thoroughly worked over to make it much more accessible and fun on the interface so I will give it the month and see, though I suspect my air 3 will not be the greatest at handling it…
I would consider myself as user with good knowledge of Logic. Played with it a lot in past, just never really finished any full track in it, just tons of snippets - but that's mostly because i bought it somewhere in 2010, right around the time when first Nanostudio was released and since then i basically moved with my production completely out of desktop into iOS world.. Funny thing is i bough my first Macbook back then in 2010 EXACTLY
with intention to fully use Logic for my production. But yeah, then Mr.Borstell with his masterpiece completely changed the course of my history :-D
Here and there i returned back to Logic just to justify the money i put into it LOL. And also i always LOVED all bundled synths. Only one real project i finished in Logic for was mixing/mastering of this album: ( https://raysubject.bandcamp.com/album/complexity-of-simplicity). There is exported every track into 4 main stems (kick, bass, synths, percussions), put them all together in one big project and them did some minor cuts and rearrangement and mostly mixing and mastering in Logic.
That being said - Logic is probably my top 1 from list of DAWs i used to use in past.
I went through Cakewalk, Reason, Cubase, Presonus Studio One, Ableton Live, Reaper (and not counting all kinds of Trackers before that era but that is completely different topic) - made in almost every of them (except of Live which i simply didn't like at all) some music - but Logic simply fits somehow best my mind.
So, if they preserve basic structure / editing / general approach then damn yeah, it will be fucking great, no doubt about that.
I am very curious if in iPad version will be all bundled oplugins from desktop, especially the synths (including the legacy synths like ES1, ES2 and so on). I am in high doubt it will. But if yes, then outch. It would be very very hard to resist that fucking subscription
Honestly, when you put together all stock plugins in Logic you have literally NO REASON to look an any other third party plugin. There is everything you ever needed.
@jwmmakerofmusic from what I’ve seen you’ve used just about every DAW on iOS and that being the case I would think you’ll have no problem in using Logic. You’ll be pumping out tunes on day one.
You're not a pro user until you create snippet nuggets with it.