Logic Pro (Mac)

The Lounge General Discussion
184

I’m gonna need myself a proper filter, I feel. Haven’t fully explored Logic’s yet, but if Logic is Logic, they’ll sound great and ordinary - but in a great way. But still ordinary.

Give me something more Sherman-like, Chase Bliss-vibey, NOT MOOG THANK YOU, to apply character and vibe to the track more than actually cleaning up frequencies.

And not too many options, I like the Softube approach of just enough buttons to make a fellow understand and still get good results.

Any advice here, friends? :slight_smile:

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185

By the way, speaking of Softube, their Prophet 5 plug is on sale now - having owned a Prophet 5 myself, I personally feel this is the best one if you’re looking for that sound - others have features and also sound great, but this one somehow just nails that movement going on within Dave’s masterpiece.

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186

Yeah, I find the Logic filters kind of “meh”. Very mastery, not very charactery.

Actually, that’s not quite true. The filter selection in the Retro Synth is really nice, but there’s no way pass audio through it or use the filter outside of the plugin, I think. Real shame :’(

So I use FabFilter’s Volcano when I need anything outside of an EQ context. Plenty of choice there. Easy to automate. Great drive options. And of course has all that FF modulation routing if you want to get crazy.

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187

Thanks. I’ve seen this one come up in a few searches, as well as Soundtoys. Damn, plugs are a djungle.

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188

Actually, Spectral Gate in Logic isn’t half bad. Something along those lines would be interesting to explore further.

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189

This is true, but to some extent depends on one’s approach. In hardware, I have a whole lot of boxes for a whole lot of things. A selection of reverbs. A selection of delays. All sorts of distortion. Because each does something unique, and if it tried to do everything it’d be really hard to use. And limitations breed creativity.

Software doesn’t have to be like that, though. Volcano is just as easy to use (IMHO) even though it can have up to 4 filters with various routings each with 11 models and 8 shapes with different slops to choose from and a virtually limitless modulation matrix. With plugins, it’s possible to have a one-stop-shop just for, say, filter. You could reasonably get “my one filter I use for everything” and be done. And that’s how I use Volcano.

But, frankly, that’s not as fun. If I didn’t have my hardware fetish to sustain me, I’d get bored of Volcano no matter how capable it is. And there’s also the very practical consideration of feature paralysis/tyranny of choice. Having a plug that can do anything means you have to do the work of deciding what to make it do. This is not trivial in the middle of composition, in hardware or software, and having a plug that does just one thing with three knobs can be a real boon in these cases.

And, as in hardware, limitations breed creativity.

So you can collect, say, just a SEM plug, and just an MS-20 plug… and build up a library. I think that might be closer to how I’ve imagined your hardware process, actually. In that respect, Volcano would be horrible :wink: Something like The Drop might be better. Or the Arturia modeled ones. Or the MF-101S (I know, no Moog, just as an example)

But ultimately it’s as much about where you get your mojo as anything else.

To bring this back to Logic, it has a better selection of stock plugins that meet my tastes than most DAWs. So it really enables me to go for the “one stop shop” version of 3rd party plugins when I need them. And as a result, my total number of installed plugins is really light. But that’s a matter of taste — and the aforementioned hardware habit that keeps things interesting for me.

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190

I can see that angle. Also, as someone who has “plugged the gap” more than I’d care to mention in Ableton, I can see myself using the Hide Plugin option a lot in Logic if I make the jump. With Ableton (which has some quite nice filters fwiw) there are areas where having one or even two options outside of the stock devices can feel like a useful addition. For example uhe’s Satin & Presswerk (and technically the latter isn’t even needed with the options in the Logic compressor) are one-stop-shop plugins that do pretty much anything you need in their respective departments.

Trouble is alongside Ableton, that gets damn expensive. My overall feeling while trialling Logic is that a lot of the gaps I plugged in Abelton are possibly better covered in Logic for my tastes, which is the blinking light flashing in my head saying it might be time to flip. If I could sell off half the plugs I own and not skip, that’s saying something. As you say though, one stop shop gap fillers are where it’s at, and actually (lesson learned) it looks like this is a useful indicator to tell you if a DAW is going to work for you.

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191

If push came to shove, I wouldn’t need to buy a single plug outside Logic.

I want to. But don’t have to :slightly_smiling_face: what’s in there, still runs circles around most onboard stuff in hardware one stop shops.

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192

same here well I am fine with stock free plugins from Logic and Ableton. They give me what I need and I already have tons of synths if I need anything else. In 2024, I feel no real need to buy a single piece of new gear. A peaceful happy feeling so I can fund other key things like kitchen remodel, new car and trips.

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193

Drum sequencer in Logic is just stupid powerful. I can’t think of a single thing it can’t do.

I’m not much of a drum guy, but this just begs to be explored because why not. I’ve set up multiple planes with their own time division, step counts and automated lanes that blink on and off just in time for next Christmas, with my own custom samples, some field recording nonsense I picked up with my TP-7 today from the melting snow and mixing loops and track recording independently of each other, in a very confusing but somehow making sense kind of mess.

I just love this drum sequencer to no end.

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194

Agreed. It gets even more fun when you use all the weird divisions, skips, and random gates on melodic sequences or sample chopping.

And with Logic for iPad, you can plug it in to any instrument with USB or MIDI and let it rip. It’s basically killed my GAS for any standalone hardware sequencers.

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195

That sequencer is the best part of logic, i use it for melodic midi all the time also :slightly_smiling_face:

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196

Every time I use Logic for iPad I always regret my most recent hardware purchases. If ever there was a great midi controller that attached and connected to iPad via the magnets like Magic Keyboard, I’d pay handsomely for it and forsake all other groove boxes and DAWs.

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197

I think, perhaps, the first track I’ve made with Logic that’s actually going somewhere.

Using two Model D’s, two Moog Marianas and one Softube’s Model 80. Reverbs are Softube’s TARS-1, the delays their Tape Echoes as well as the Mariana’s inherent delay. Softube’s Tape on the master and their Blue Tube (just released) on all tracks. Nothing else on the master -

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198

It ended a little abruptly now I realised :smiley: oh well, I’ll write that down as an experience learned and move on to write new stuff.

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199

If there is a way to disable the help menu from popping up every time logic is opened I’d like to hear it.

200

I’m not sure what you mean, but here are some things to try:

  • Go to the Help menu. Is Quick Help checked? If so uncheck it.
  • Right below this, there’s a Quick Help appears as > menu. Select Inspector Pane from that list.
  • These settings are also controllable by clicking or long-clicking question mark button on the far left of the control bar.
  • If you don’t use it and want that space back, right click on a blank part of the control bar and select “Customize Control Bar and Display…”
  • Lots of good stuff here, but we’re looking to uncheck Quick Help from the “Views” section. This will hide the button. Then click “Save as Default”.

Edit: Oh, and before any of that is visible, you need to Enable Complete Features from the “Logic Pro” → “Settings…” → “Advanced…” menu. This takes off certain training wheels giving you, for example, the ability to customize the interface.

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201

Thank you!! :slight_smile:

202

Funny enough, as I go deeper into Logic Pro land, I’m finding the Teenage Engineering TP-7 and TX-6 extremely useful.

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203

this should be a Share Something, but its Logic specific, something only Logic users would use…

SHIFT + R

awesome. Logic is recording in the background [midi], always, and if you banged something out you like and wish you had recorded it…you did. just hit shift+r and it will be transcribed in a midi region

i love it

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