Tag Archives: Logic Pro X

Cubase vs. Logic

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I’ve been on the fence for some time, going back and forth on Logic as a DAW.

I like how simple it is to get going with a melody and a groove, and how snappy the UI of the actual DAW feels, but at the same time the state of the built-in instruments and effects really drags the whole experience down.

It’s not that they sonically sound bad, but the design and presets are really starting to feel old. I’m sure this is great for old time users, and there’s certainly nothing wrong with the engines under the hood, but for me the design and look and feel of a creative is just really important to get in the zone…

With this in mind, and after carefully looking into other DAWs at the market, I’ve decided to finally give Cubase a chance as well. I’ve only just recently installed it, and at the moment I’m plowing through the manual while finding my way around the UI.

So far though the impression is excellent. I really think Yamaha / Steinberg has made a fantastic job with laying out the controls while retaining a super fast response and a very logical workflow.

There are some things that require a bit of un-learning, such as Instrument Tracks and how the mixer and internal signal routing works, but it all makes sense once you open your mind to it.

Given the above though I’m uncertain if I will manage to pull a whole track together for Feb, but I’ll try…

Right, one more thing! The other reason I’m really excited about Cubase is because it will allow me to run the Hatsune Miku vocaloid plugin natively on the Mac. The standalone editor is only available on PC, and the plugin only works in Cubase…

New Track: Tribute to Tom

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This is the January track. First monthly track of the year. The news here is that I’ve recorded and mangled some analog electric guitar parts as well as synth loops. Other than that it’s entirely in the box. 99% Logic Pro X with some samples edited in Live.

The voice over parts are from an old sci-fi radio show called ‘Tom Corbett – Space Cadet‘.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Corbett,_Space_Cadet

Questions and Feedback is as always welcome in the comments!

Presonus Faderport and Logic Pro X 10.1

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After pulling the latest update (10.1) to Logic, don’t be surprised if your Presonus Faderport stops working. All you need to do is download the same 64bit driver you installed for the previous version (10.0) and copy it back into the Logic application package content folder.

The reason for this is that as Logic get’s bumped to 10.1, the application package gets overwritten and your old Faderport bundle disappears.

In other words, just follow these instructions again and you should be all good.

(Also, you don’t need to delete your previous control surface settings in Logic before copying in the bundle again.)

Learning Logic Pro X (for real)

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I mentioned before that I’m using the down time in Japan to study. It’s turning into a mixture of music theory, composition and software techniques, and I wanted to particularly highlight a book (Logic Pro X – Professional Music Production) that I found used on the Japanese Amazon store:

Screen Shot 2014-12-28 at 11.06.50

This book is part of Apple’s Pro Training Series, and is certified by Apple as part of their official certification program. This is important because it means you can expect a certain level of quality and accuracy in the material, and the book certainly does not let you down.

It takes the form of a series of lessons which all work out like tutorials complete with all the necessary content. The book starts off with a tour of the UI and leads you through all the major ‘features’ and workflows (think mixing, arranging, editing, working with Midi and Audio files, setting up instruments and so on).

It’s a beautiful, full color book with a very well paced and pedagogical language that requires basically no prior knowledge of Logic, though it does assume you are familiar with the basic concepts of audio editing and production.

I highly recommend it to anyone interested in learning more about the depths and capabilities of Logic Pro X, and especially to anyone making the jump from another DAW to Logic.

The lessons are just about long enough (60 to 90 min )to check off one a day, which means you’ll work through the entire book in about 10 days.

Read more about why I decided to move over to Logic here.

Mac Pro

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The main computer in my home studie is an iMac that I bought back in mid 2011. It has served me really well and is actually still holding its ground on simple tasks like browsing and emailing.

Screen Shot 2014-12-20 at 23.07.35However, trouble started about a year ago when I decided to upgrade my software catalog (mainly Maschine and Live) and also to try out Cubase and Logic. Turns out that my old iMac was not up to par anymore and could no longer handle much of the new software I tried to run on it.

Since then my productivity has actually been pretty low since Live and Maschine kept crashing due to memory and CPU not keeping up, and Logic kept dying since the disk was not fast enough.

Tired of dealing with this I decided to buy a new Mac, and given that I expect this types of investment to last for a while, I aimed high and pulled the trigger on a pimped out Mac Pro. It’s not top of the line, but I got the 6 core, 16GB, 512Gb version.

Hopefully this will keep up with developments over the next 3-4 years at least.

What are your thoughts on the new Mac Pro? Have you made the jump? Are you thinking about it? Leave a comment and let’s discuss.