Peter Kirn has a review up that I found really helpful and thorough:
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Thanks! A bit clunky but I got there in the end!
Read it and found it mostly hype. Even he doesn’t mention the horrible GUI with some of the plugins.
Like how did he missed that or did he see it and just didn’t wanna inform people about it?
I found the Kirn piece useful as a new user to Logic, since it’s a pretty full description of all the features beyond the presets and the headline new items. More walkthrough than review, sure.
A few days into the trial (the lessons and some manual reading) now I’m glad to know what kinds of things it can do (and impressed) I don’t think it’s right for me and my setup at the moment (esp with Auv3s I like and my own samples I want to use, and hardware to record). But still, will keep an eye on how it develops.
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I find the guis to be just fine. They scale well, everything is easy to find and touch. It’s good to me.
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I just tracked a song into LP for iPad, from a Digitone and Digitakt.
The Digitakt is connected via usb for audio and midi, the DN connected to the DK’s analog ins.
It was super easy. I prefer to record in one track at a time with the others muted, so I can also record the FX, but even so, the MIDI sync (Logic is in control) is good, and it’s all ready to arrange.
I know that tracking audio into Logic isn’t news, but it works so well with just an iPad and a single USB cable that there’s very little barrier to recording stuff. This has always been a sticking point for me in the past
I also recorded in some longer samples from the DT, and now I’m chopping them up with the new Beat Breaker, which is also rad. I plan to keep working on the song across Logic and the Digis, as going back and forth is so reliable, and they all have their own strengths and weaknesses.
A big thumbs up. Definitely buying this after the trial is up.
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Well you were right. I stumped up the Apple tax and now it works! But as far as I can tell I don’t have the option to choose input channel from my audio device, only output channel? Makes it useless for me if that’s the case. I had thought about swapping my MPC Live for this, but having played around a bit I think the MPC is currently better overall.
Edit. You can choose the input channel in the mixer section. So it’s all good now.
Did some experimenting today with some loops I’d chopped up in Koala and exported for a remix I plan to do of Roxy Music’s “if there is something”.
It’s quite a slow song bpm wise and not exactly on the grid. I wanted to bring the tempo up from about 79 to 87. Here’s what I’ve learned.
You can drag a sample from Files onto a track. In the Tempo context menu you can ‘Analyze Tempo’, then do ‘Apply Region tempo to Project’ which will line up a loop of for example 8 bars to the logic grid. If you open the Tempo track you’ll see this will have adjusted the tempo for the bars that egion covers. What I’ve found is that for shorter samples this is a just a single tempo change, but for longer samples it will have lots of tempo changes as the rhythm ebbs and flows. Before you change this, use the Info sidebar to turn on ‘Flex & Follow” for the region. Once you’ve done this you can remove all those tempo changes the region applied to the project and set the project tempo you desire (E.g. 87bpm). You can do this for many samples.
What I found when first did this and set a tempo quite a bit faster than the original is it sounded a bit crap. I tried using the new Sample Alchemy in Spectral mode and that does a better job of smoothing time stretching and avoids you having to do the above process to get the samples to fit the grid - it has good recognition of sample tempo and loop length. But something sounds slightly off with that sample mode. It probably will work well for some styles but I felt it wasn’t quite right for what I was doing.
You can also use the Quick Sampler to get samples to conform to the tempo you want but after an hour or two fiddling with this I wasn’t that satisfied with the workflow. Plus I like to have the waveforms of my samples on the track to chop and rearrange etc. Call me old school.
So I persevered with the original method with ‘Flex & Follow’. The trick is to set the right Flex mode. Go to the Info sidebar again, for the track this time, and ensure Flex Mode is set to the best option for your sample. Polyphonic is the default and that works well for the sort of sampling I’m doing where there’s drums and multiple instruments. However, it’s well worth setting the ‘Complex’ option underneath which does wonders for smoothing out the timestretching. It turns out after a few hours experimenting that setting was all I needed.
I’m now more than happy with the timestretching ability of Logic Pro for iPad. Now I’ve imported all my loops and got them conforming to the right tempo, I’ll probably convert them to Live Loops to try that workflow for remixing.
I should probably record a quick tutorial on this as it’s simpler than I’ve made it sound. Hopefully some useful info here for someone.
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If I wasn’t so into my new eurorack setup it seems an OP1 and an iPad with logic would be the perfect pairing. Portable, powerful.
I need to save up for that Field.
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Thank you and tutorial please!
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All of AUv3’s I’ve tried work fine so far. There are some issues with automation but from what I understand it has to do with dev implementation.
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Yeah I’m wondering why I bought the tx-6 now!!
Having a go with some Logic today:
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After more playing, I’m seeing Logic as a perfect partner for the Digitone and Digitakt. Logic is far more powerful, obviously, but when it comes to sequencing samples using p-locks, the Digitakt is way way faster and smoother.
Then again, for basic beats the Logic drum machines are really great, more than good enough. And the Sampler Alchemy and Beat Breaker do things the Digitakt cannot.
Now I’m getting used to it, LP lets me go back and forth quite easily. Previously, when I have used, say, Ableton or Drambo with hardware, I find it all too distracting. Somehow, LP+DN/DT feels more integrated.
One thing I like is that I can quickly track something from a digibox to the iPad and keep working on it in Logic.
I also came up with a neat resampling trick in LP. I put an AU instance of Drambo on the master bus, and drop a Recorder module onto one of Drambo’s tracks. I can then grab synced clips of anything I can hear in LP, and then drag that audio clip from Drambo back to a track, sampler etc in Logic. I use the master bus as it’s as simple as soloing a track to resample it.
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The one thing I was hoping to be able to do was lower my Digitakt from my iPad Pro. I have a usb-c splitter dongle and the plan was to use one side to plug into the Digitakt’s usb port, and the other side with a Birdcord to power the Digitakt. I’ve tried it out though and the Digitakt won’t power on.
I think the Birdcord needs Power Delivery protocol on the usb-c and while the iPad Pro can power some things like the Atom SQ, I don’t think it does PD. Shame.
The usb-c port has a maximum output of 7.5watts.
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Well…
HOLY GUACAMOLE on a CHEESE TOASTY!!!
If I was a radio DJ dropping a banger my finger would be repeatedly hitting that dub horn!!! This is insane. It’s totally cleared the floor. Jeeeeeeez.
Had a little time to have a go… just wanted to report my current feelings… diving back in now.
PS. Subscribtion moaners… wind that neck in!!!
PSS. I am THEE subscription moaner! This is freaking worth it for me! That is all!
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I’m finally sitting down with this for the first time this morning. There is a crazy amount of functionality and content packed into this app. I’m glad Apple shipped it with lots of tutorials. I’m pretty satisfied with Ableton for arranging and composing, but I think the Ipad version of LP will be part of my mobile setup for a long time. Hopefully I can bounce loops out of here easily to add to my Ableton sessions and vice-versa.
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Hello all, long time iOS music maker here who switched over to hardware a few years back. Currently VERY happy with DT/DN combo and I seemed to have settled on the Elektron workflow as being… right for me I guess. I still use a handful of iOS apps for creating samples for my DT and have recently returned to Garageband after a few years away from that app. I’m really impressed with how it’s evolved over the years to the point where I think I could use it and pretty much nothing else to create samples. I know for sure that I wouldn’t be happy trying to make a whole track using GarageBand, so I’m thinking Logic Pro for iPad, although overkill for my use case, might just be the thing. It’ll mean buying a new iPad but hey… mine is getting on in years anyway. My only big reservation is, coming from the lovely big clacky buttons and smooth encoders of the the Digi boxes, using something as complex and deep as Logic on an iPad, do people find it a bit… fiddly? I’ve found returning to GarageBand more than a bit frustrating when it comes to editing note data and cutting/moving stuff about. I wondering if Logic will be more of the same or is the user experience much slicker, even if the app is much deeper and has far more to offer? If anybody has any thoughts on the matter then I’d be grateful to hear them!
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But you don’t have feedback loop issues?