Let’s get right to it – no one should complain about free updates. I immediately upgraded to Logic Pro 10.8 and I’m glad I did.
That said, well, I might complain just a little bit.
To me, there are four cool new things in 10.8, which are:
- Ability to easily use other drum libraries for Drummer.
- Sample Alchemy give you the ability to make an instrument out of a sample in a cool, fast way.
- Beat Breaker lets you mess up your loops in cool ways.
- Mastering Assistant gives newbies an easy way to better master stuff.
Yes, some might call the new Slip and Rotate tools cool. I pretty much don’t need them, but they do look handy for some. And I’m going to throw out #4, because I think the new Mastering Assistant doesn’t give as much control as, well, just doing these things yourself. But again, it’ll be great for some folks. There’s also 32 bit recording, for those who need it. Cool. I don’t need it, but cool.
Let’s focus in on the first three.
The ability to easily use other drum libraries with Drummer is damn cool. I wish that Apple would give us more drum sets, but this is really the next best thing. Previously, to use Drummer with, say, Slate Drums, you’d need to get a pattern you like, convert it to MIDI, drag the MIDI into the Slate Drums track, listen, and if you didn’t like it, repeat the process. This will save a lot of time, and it will encourage people (like me) to purchase third party drum sets.
Please, Apple… give us more drummers. And more drum sets. But thank you for doing this, in the meantime!
I’m not the guy who tweaks samples, but Sample Alchemy does look like more fun than what I’ve seen previously in Logic Pro. I’m looking forward to playing with it. Whether it gets anywhere near my own original music will depend on how much I like the results. But still – it’s a great idea and looks like fun.
Beat Breaker is… OK, to be honest, I use Drummer and I mostly don’t use loops. I don’t need to mess up my loops that I don’t use. Why did I include it? Because I will give it a chance… that’s why. It looks fun. Maybe I’ll love it! Maybe I won’t. It’s still cool.
So what about Mastering Assistant? I already shot it down, but… of course I’ll try it out. If it can beat what I normally do, I’ll use it. I don’t think it can beat what I normally do. For one thing, it doesn’t have Soothe 2 built in. 🙂
There’s a lot of ways to improve Logic Pro, but I can’t think of anything that ranks as “super important must have.” I’ve used Logic Pro to make 6 albums and it’ll be used to make my 7th. I love the workflow and the tools. And I appreciate every single free update Apple provides.