Computer-Music.com contains articles and product reviews related to making music using
computers and creating 3D computer animation in sync with music.
Computer-Music.com is also the home page of Donald S. Griffin, an
experienced professional composer, sound effects designer and audio consultant
with an emphasis on computer games, video games and internet music and
sound effects. For pricing and contract availability send email to: DGriffin
(@) Computer-Music (.) com
[ Home ] [ What's New ] [ Quick Picks ] [ Spot Reviews ] [ Articles ] [ Sound ] [ Graphics ] [ Links ] [ Services ] [ Credits ]
Emagic Logic Audio Platinum 4.8
This article is out of date.
Emagic was purchased by Apple Computer who has discontinued development of Windows versions of the software.
At that time I was preparing an updated review of Logic for Windows. I was very happy with the progress made by Emagic. However, not so happy that I was willing to completely change my studio around to wire everything to a second computer (a Mac) to support that one piece of software.
This site has discontinued coverage of Emagic products except those available on the PC.
+
I have added my 4.7 comments to the top so that previous visitors can read only the update and skip the part they have read before.
Logic Audio Platinum version 4.7 adds a few things over 4.5 but the one I noticed the most was the fact that software synthesizer instruments are not affected properly by aliased and looped sequences. The next step for me will come in 5.0 (expected in September) in which aliased and looped sequences will show up fully in notation. Currently you may be hearing loops or aliases of sequenced material but only the original notes (not the aliases or loops) appear in notation view. This makes it awkward to use notation view as your master view since you are hearing things that you can not see in the notation.
I am ever hopeful that we will see a complete revamping of how they handle multi-instruments so that there can be 128 banks and so that you can browse a continuous or sub-category listing of existing patches without having to deal with empty patch slots. Right now if Logic allowed 128 banks in a multi you would still have to know which of the 128 banks you wanted in order to find a specific patch. Furthermore, you would have to visually browse 128 patch slots to find the patch. In Musicator, for example. Once you create a patch list for an instrument you can browse to a category then see a simple list of patches. If you want to sometimes search alphabetically and at other times search by instrument type or patch number order you can set up multiple lists and use the list you prefer to search for the patch on that occasion. I am sure Emagic would benefit from an Explorer type columnar listing of patches where categories can be sorted into sub folders and clicking the column heads (like name or family) will sort alphabetically and a Find command will allow you to search for all the patches with "guit" or "gtr" in the name present you with a sortable list of only the patches fitting your search criteria.
(previous content)
Logic Audio is simply one of the most thoroughly thought out products I have ever seen. Logic has a reputation, probably undeserved, for having a steep learning curve. Emagic is trying hard to leave this reputation behind them by adding new features, streamlining and reorganizing old ones, and changing the default configurations. This reputation probably stems from the fact that Logic allows you do many complex things. Most can be done in a variety of different ways. Most features are accessible from almost anywhere in the program. This kind of flexibility always comes at a price. New users can get lost investigating every feature and become confused. Logic is easier to learn if you try to sort the features by how likely you are to need them in everyday use. It also helps to figure out how you will want to work and focus on the features and methods that you will be using on a regular basis rather than learning what is hiding in every nook and cranny of such a large program. Emagic has recognized the importance of this and reorganized the menu system starting in version 4.0. Since everything you want seems to be everywhere you might need it you can easily become frozen by indecision when trying to decide the best way to proceed with almost every task. This can't really be called a fault of the program. Having too many choices is what creative people thrive on. It can just be a bit much in the beginning. Other software developers will often leave out features because they are afraid they will confuse some of the users leading to more tech support calls which cost the company money. I would rather Emagic leave those extra features in the program and it seems as though they share this philosophy. I am constantly finding myself giggling with delight or staring with amazement at all of the little things they have thought of incorporating into this program. I spend a lot of time consulting, reviewing and beta testing so it is an occupational hazard that I can't use a program without constantly stopping to note something that should be done better or differently or some feature that would help a lot. With Logic I found a few of those but more often I was just about to jot something down when I found that they had already thought of it. I am rapidly running out of things to criticize. The last few years has seen the incorporation of Autolink to SoundDiver, SoundDiver updates, the addition of plugins in DS2416 mode and more recently addition of VST support and the ES1, EXS24 soft synths and many more synths on the way. The way Multi Instruments are handled still needs reworking. But the few shortcomings of using the ES1 seem to be only temporary according to Emagic who plans more updates alleviate some of the restrictions involved in using the ES1 and using it with the DSP Factory. I have had the ES1 for a while now and am currently working on reviews of the ES1 and EXS24.
When Logic is configured to use the Yamaha DSP Factory (DS2416 + one or more AX44 patch bays) Logic totally replaces its software mixing with the hardware mixing (and other functions) of the DS2416 so, if you want to get the full functionality of the DS2416 in Logic 4.1.1 then you have to give up some functionality. DirectX plugins must occur downstream from any native DS2416 processes. Also it appears that the Audio Instruments are not yet available using the DS2416 native mode (this may have changed in recent versions). I have not been able to confirm this yet. But, if so, this may change in the near future. If this is so they you can still use the Audio Instrument objects (i.e. the ES1 and ReBirth) with the DS2416 in PCAV mode but you will lose some of the functionality of the DS2416. Fortunately switching modes only involves restarting Logic and Logic will try to change your audio configuration on the fly avoiding even that step. There is a wealth of very good audio processing algorithms built into the DS2416 and they are all done in hardware so not only will they probably sound better than your DirectX Plugins but they won't suffer from stuttering or crashing and you can use more of them at the same time without needing to own the fastest computer on the market. As of version 4 feeding the audio from the SW1000XG directly via the connector cable no longer requires running Yamaha's Patch utility to turn on Sync to Sub as Logic now handles this properly once you use the right settings. Logic has no support for selecting which MIDI channels are routed to which audio channels for passing to the DS2416. It is possible to set this with an external program that does support this feature (if you have one) but this is yet another inconvenience, a bigger one this time. So far Autolink to SoundDiver has not cured this since the first version of the XG driver does not support this feature but that may in incorporated into a future version of the XG DLL for SoundDiver. I have found Logic 4 be one of the most thoroughly thought out and conceived programs, of any kind and I am pleased to say out that they seem to be dealing with almost every issue that I have felt the need to criticize.
Note: Logic Audio 4.5 & 4.7 did not contain the major patch handling improvements I was hoping for. Maybe they will finally show up in 5.0 which is due to come out in September.
You can link to Emagic's web site at http://www.emagic.de
(more specific links will be added soon)
![[HRule Image]](../images/TEST%20strip%20paper%20Rainbow%2050pct%20Bvl1pctC.jpg){kind=small}