Logic pro X

[marty bradbury]

I am thinking of changing from a PC to a Mac and noticed they have a recording program: Logic Pro X. Any one have any experience with this and if so your opinion? Thanks!!

[membler]

The Mac will come with Garageband that is a pretty good DAW in it's own right. It may be all you need for a while. I have upgraded to Logic X and really like it. It's well worth the money to upgrade from GB and it's an easy transition.

[Psalad]

Originally Posted by marty bradbury

I am thinking of changing from a PC to a Mac and noticed they have a recording program: Logic Pro X. Any one have any experience with this and if so your opinion? Thanks!!

Great $200 purchase! It's not without quirks, but it's a great value and comes bundled with some pretty amazing content.

[philjs]

What are you using on the PC? Chances are excellent that the same software is available for Mac. I'd try a "cross-grade" first before trying new, unfamiliar software (no matter how good or cheap it is)...

Phil

[Andy Howell]

A great program but a professional package. You need space and time to work with it. I love it but have only really scratched the surface. Lots of YouTube tutorials available though!

[marty bradbury]

Phil, I am using a Zoom H2N, Havent tried any PC programs,

[Trevor B.]

Originally Posted by marty bradbury

I am thinking of changing from a PC to a Mac and noticed they have a recording program: Logic Pro X. Any one have any experience with this and if so your opinion? Thanks!!

Hey Marty,
I acquired Logic Pro X awhile ago but only started to 'learn" the program recently. I purchased the David Nahmani Apple Pro Training Series book called, "Logic Pro X, Professional Music Production, along with all the lesson files and worked through the book from cover to cover. Now I'm working through the book a second time but applying the lessons to my own recorded tracks. The big difference for me between GB and Logic Pro is the tremendous editing capability of the latter. Logic Pro is simply miles ahead of GB in this regard. So for me the steep learning curve is well worth the effort.
P.S. I love the Flex and Automation features in Logic Pro.

Trevor

[DesolationAngel]

Logic is an extraordinary application... the power, flexibility and sheer range of that application versus how much it costs is remarkable. It's come a long way since it's eMagic days. Personally I'd think it was worth the price of entry just for the Drummer feature, which has changed the way I make music almost entirely. You can start pretty easily in Logic and then peel back the layers a LONG way...

This is the most recent track I've made using Logic Pro X:


And this is how it looks in Logic:



Really pretty straight forward... the tracks, from top to bottom:

Yellow: that's the Drummer track, with a fair number of changes to the various regions of the track (for a more natural feel)

Blue 1: that's an electric guitar plugged straight in via an Apogee interface, using one of the guitar presets but tweaked 'to taste'
Blue 2: that's a different electric guitar used for the soloing near the end
Blue 3: a Washburn acoustic that has been set up for Nashville 'high strung' tuning, plugged straight in, again and panned hard to one side
Blue 4: a Martin HD-28V tuned normally, plugged straight in and panned hard the other way.
Blue 5: a Fender Jazz, plugged straight in
Green 1: a synth pad used to beef up the overall tone
Green 2: an organ soft instrument used to back the quiet bridge near the end.

And that's it.

In the spirit of full disclosure; I work for Apple and know the Logic team well but I do not work on that particular product.

[marty bradbury]

Hello Martin. Great recording!! So for starters I would just use the first track for my acoustic guitar? And would I plug in to my Mac or use external speaker? Thanks!!

[DesolationAngel]

Originally Posted by marty bradbury

So for starters I would just use the first track for my acoustic guitar?

When you create a new project in Logic you can use a template or create one for yourself... for example, the 'singer/songwriter' template has a drum track, an acoustic guitar track, a vocal track, a bass track and a grand piano track. The drum track is a software instrument (and a very clever one), the guitar, vocal and bass tracks are set up to record in from an external source (mic or line) and the grand piano is a regular MIDI-based software instrument.

And would I plug in to my Mac or use external speaker?

Not quite sure I understand the question, are you asking about getting audio IN to your Mac or getting it out? To get the very best in AND out you'll be needing an audio interface of some sort. But there are various ways and levels of getting audio in and out of your Mac:

Simple
Get a plug in USB microphone and use a pair of headphones. This is the simplest way to get started. For me, when I travel, I'll often take an Apogee Mic and a pair of Sennheiser HD-25s... and an acoustic guitar.

Intermediate
Get an audio interface that allows you to take in more than one input and allows for a good output signal too. This allows you to record with more than one mic and playback through good speakers (near field monitors is what you'll be wanting and they range in price from 'oh' to 'oh em gee').

More advanced
An audio interface with multiple ins and outs allowing for more complex recordings to be made with various outputs to different places too (so you can test your mix on something good and something not so good, for instance).

To be able to play any of the soft instruments in Logic (or any other music app) you'll also need a midi keyboard. These are not very expensive and are really plug 'n' play.

What sort of stuff do you want to be able to do now and eventually? Are you wanting to just record in a guitar and vocals? Are you going to want to use multiple mics? It may be that you're going to be keeping it simple if you're used to just using a Zoom but you might want to consider the possibilities for the future before you invest in an interface. The choice of interfaces out there is extremely wide. I've invested in Apogee stuff because I find it to be some of the best sounding, easy to use stuff on the planet (and I've used quite a few other interfaces from M-Audio, Scarlett, Digi etc). So, just staying in the Apogee line of interfaces:

Mic: 200 bucks and just that, a microphone. very good quality, plug 'n' play.

One: 350 bucks. Two inputs and a built-in mic (that is surprisingly decent for vocal demos). Again, great quality and plug 'n' play. If you're just doing straight up singer/songwriter stuff it might be all you need; plug a good small diaphragm condenser (SDC) mic into it and sing into the built-in mic.

Duet: 600 bucks. Two ins, four outs. No mic. Good value desktop interface. Dead easy to use and great sounding. Plug an SDC into it for your acoustic and a LDC for vocals and you're good to go. This one can also route outputs to external speakers/monitors as well headphones.

Quartet: 1400 bucks. Next level up. Four ins, eight outs. This is great for running multiple lines to multiple people if you were recording a group session for instance. Or, if you're a one man band, like me, you can run four lines to different parts of the studio so that you're not forever running lines out in different configurations for acoustic, bass, vocals etc. So, for instance, I have two XLRs running out to a stereo mic pair, one XLR running to a DI box which I plug my bass into and another XLR line running to a LDC, any of which can be used whenever I need 'em.

Hope that answers some of your questions...

[DesolationAngel]

If you want an example of what can be done just using an Apogee Mic, a pair of headphones, a Mac and a guitar (in Logic), I recorded this little noodle sitting at my sofa about a month ago just to hear what a local luthier's guitar would sound like recorded. Not the worlds best piece of guitar playing or composition but I knocked it out in about an hour.



And this is a more complex track that has, at it's heart, just acoustic guitars recorded through the same tabletop Apogee Mic, but with bass DI'ed in, MIDI keyboards being played and a few other layers 'n' doodads:



(The acoustic guitars were a vintage Gibson LG-2 panned one way and a new Martin HD-28V panned the other)

[sdelsolray]

Full featured DAW software, regardless of brand or version, is some of the most sophisticated and difficult software to learn to use. No way around it. Add to that the need to understand a host of other areas involved with recording, such as analog signal chains, sources, acoustics, etc., etc., and etc. Add to that the artistic, creative and aesthetic layers.

[DesolationAngel]

Originally Posted by sdelsolray

Full featured DAW software, regardless of brand or version, is some of the most sophisticated and difficult software to learn to use. No way around it. Add to that the need to understand a host of other areas involved with recording, such as analog signal chains, sources, acoustics, etc., etc., and etc. Add to that the artistic, creative and aesthetic layers.

And tremendously rewarding and fun...

[marty bradbury]

Thanks Martin!! Nice sounding guitar(s), cant wait to try it out.

[DesolationAngel]

Originally Posted by marty bradbury

Thanks Martin!! Nice sounding guitar(s), cant wait to try it out.

Go get 'em... don't be intimidated by the weight of it, there IS a lot to learn but I started from scratch a few years ago and just love noodling around in my studio. You don't have to go crazy, you don't have to have a perfect environment in which to get started, you just need a musical idea, a few items (mics etc) and some basics of working in Logic. If you don't start making things in short order you'll find yourself getting bogged down in the details, lost in the weeds and with a terrible case of analysis paralysis.

And remember: YouTube and Google are your friends

I just found this and it seems pretty useful: