Apple Updates Logic Pro, Mainstage

alchemy-logic-pro-free-upgradeApple has updated Logic Pro X for Mac OS X and MainStage, adding ‘numerous fixes and enhancements.

The updates include new loop content, enhancements to the Alchemy synthesizer, improved performance, support for Force Touch and Music Memo and more.

Here’s what’s new in Logic Pro X v10.2.1:

  • 650 new Apple Loops in a variety of dance and popular music genres.
  • An Audio preference has been added for multithreading live tracks to improve CPU performance when processing multiple live channels.
  • The spectral engine in Alchemy now provides 11 spectral effects that allow creative sound processing in the frequency domain.
  • The tempo map embedded in Music Memos Ideas can be exported to the Project tempo.
  • You can drag Apple Loops into Alchemy and they automatically conform to the current tempo.
  • The downbeat of Music Memos Ideas automatically snaps to the bar nearest the playhead when imported.
  • The accuracy of the Detect Tempo options has been significantly improved, especially with long audio files
  • The content of the Score edit window reliably updates as expected when the Same Level link mode is enabled
  • Alchemy now supports MIDI mono mode. This lets you use third-party Expressive MIDI Controllers including products from Roli and Roger Linn Design.
  • There’s now an Empty Kit patch for Drum Machine Designer to use when building custom kits from samples dragged and into empty cells.
  • The playhead now remains visible in the Audio File Editor and you can use it to navigate in the Audio File Editor when playback is stopped.
  • You can now manually (independently of the alphabet) sort Categories folders in the Plug-In Manager by grabbing and dragging a folder to a new place in the list.
  • There are two new columns in the Plug-In Manager that can be used to assign long and/or short names to each of the plug-ins. The longer name appears in the menu, and the shorter name appears in the plug-in insert.
  • The Sound Library and Apple Loops browsers now display content that’s available but not yet downloaded. Individual files or directories can also be downloaded directly from within the browsers.
  • You can now hold the Shift key while clicking on an empty channel strip EQ graph to insert a Linear Phase EQ.
  • The drum kits and software instruments in Logic now respond to Force Touch and 3-D touch with supported devices.
  • Drum Machine Designer now supports drag and drop of multiple audio files at a time.
  • There’s now an option to include tempo information when importing MIDI files into an existing project.
  • Logic now supports the WAV RF64 audio file format for WAV files greater than 4 GB in size.
  • You can now use the Export Region as Audio File command with multiple selected regions.
  • Export Track as Audio File now works for multiple selected tracks, with each track exported as a separate file.
  • Bounce Tracks in Place now works for multiple selected tracks.
  • There’s a new metronome option to generate accents according to the beat grouping of the current time signature.
  • If the currently selected audio device isn’t available, Logic now uses one of the other three most recently used audio devices in order of last usage (instead of defaulting to the built-in audio hardware).
  • There’s a new project setting recording option to “Create Tracks when recording in Cycle mode.”
  • You can now define Catch behavior independently per window by right-clicking or Control-clicking the Catch button in each window.
  • The Step Editor now includes a Lane Set you can use to automatically create lanes that display all the content in a region.
  • You can now reposition Plug-in windows by grabbing either the header, or the lower edge of the window.
  • Alchemy now automatically adjusts the gain when morphing formants.
  • MIDI generated from Create MIDI Track using Flex Pitch Data now includes velocity data based on the source audio volume.
  • The function to delete unused tracks now offers an option to include tracks without regions that contain automation.
  • When the horizontal size of the Main window is decreased enough to hide the Waveform Zoom and Vertical Auto Zoom buttons, those controls now are added to the Action menu.
  • When bouncing to a new track, Track Notes from the source track are now transferred to the destination track.
  • When you drag a Piano Roll Time Frame handle past another, it now pivots the note start positions (instead of swapping note starts and ends).  You can still trigger the older behavior by holding Shift while you drag the handles.
  • The behavior of the Option key in the Event List now depends on where you place the pointer:
    • When you scrub with the Option key in the event value or position columns of a group of selected events, it allows editing to continue when the maximum or minimum limit is reached on part of the selection.
    • When you scrub on the event type column with the Option key, it temporarily solos the events.
  • There’s now a key command “Hide all empty tracks” that hides all tracks that don’t contain regions or automation.
  • If Logic Remote sends a custom key command for a feature that’s not available for the current Advanced Tools setting, you’re now prompted to activate the needed setting.
  • Clicking the VCA slot in the Inspector area channel strip now switches the second channel strip in the Inspector to the corresponding VCA channel.
  • You can now create and flatten Track Stacks in the Mixer in Tracks view.
  • You can now create a new category in the Plug-In Manager by dragging a selection of plug-ins below the last category in the Category column.
  • Beat Mapping now works with Take regions.
  • When a set of non-contiguous regions is selected in a track the Catch Playhead in the Piano Roll now automatically disables and re-enables as needed during playback.
  • The Score now provides a button to zoom the staff to fill all available vertical space in single track view.
  • The track export dialog now offers an option to limit the export to the cycle range.
  • You can now horizontally drag multiple selected take regions when Quick Swipe Comping is disabled for a Take Folder.
  • The Drummer Editor now includes an Auto Region Select button that selects Drummer regions in the track as the Playhead reaches them.
  • The new tool selection latch mode lets you temporarily select a tool by pressing and holding its key command.
  • You can now use Smart controls to automatically configure how Logic interacts with various MIDI controllers and keyboards.
  • Scrubbing with the Option key in the event value or position columns on a group of selected events allows editing to continue when the maximum or minimum limit is reached on part of the selection.
  • Scrubbing on the event type column with the Option key temporarily solos the events.
  • The Piano Roll View menu now offers a Region Transpose option that causes the display of notes in the Piano Roll to match the Transpose setting in the Region Inspector.
  • Hovering the pointer over a plug-in slot now displays a Help tag with the plug-in name and the name of the plug-in preset (if one is loaded).

These plug-ins have been updated with new Retina-ready interfaces:

  • Stereo Delay, Tape Delay, Sample Delay, Bitcrusher, Clip Distortion,  Distortion, Phase Distortion, Adaptive Limiter, Limiter, Single Band EQ, AutoFilter, Levelmeter, Multimeter, Chorus, Ensemble, Flanger, Microphaser,  Phaser, EnVerb, SilverVerb,  Gain, Klopfgeist, Test Oscillator, Correlation Meter, Surround Level Meter, Surround Limiter, Binaural Post-Processing

An extensive list of changes is available at the Apple site.

Here’s what’s new in MainStage v3.2.3:

  • Over 650 new Apple Loops are included in a variety of dance and popular music genres.
  • The spectral engine in Alchemy now provides 11 spectral effects for allowing creative sound processing in the frequency domain.
  • Apple Loops can now be dragged into Alchemy and they will automatically conform to the current tempo.
  • Alchemy now supports MIDI mono mode This allows you to use third-party Expressive MIDI Controllers, including products from Roli and Roger Linn Design.
  • Alchemy now automatically adjusts the gain when morphing Formants.
  • The Sound Library now displays content when it’s available but not yet downloaded. Individual files or directories can also be downloaded directly from within the browser.
  • Holding shift while double-clicking on a channel strip EQ slot now inserts a Linear Phase EQ.
  • Drum kits and software instruments in MainStage now respond to Force Touch and 3-D touch with supported devices.

The following plug-ins have been updated with new Retina-ready interfaces:

  • Stereo Delay, Tape Delay, Sample Delay, Bitcrusher, Clip Distortion,  Distortion, Phase Distortion, Adaptive Limiter, Limiter, Single Band EQ, AutoFilter, Levelmeter, Multimeter, Chorus, Ensemble, Flanger, Microphaser,  Phaser, EnVerb, SilverVerb,  Gain, Klopfgeist, Test Oscillator

An extensive list of changes is available at the Apple site.

16 thoughts on “Apple Updates Logic Pro, Mainstage

  1. and Alchemy still un-usable on 13″ screens of Macbook Pro (non retina) because Logic set plugin size not 100% by default.

    1. It’s annoying, yes, but that doesn’t make Alchemy unsuable. What’s more annoying to me than a new pluing behaving inconveniently is that many of the classic Logic plugins from way back when have been giving a new interface design. I am so used to the old style apparently that my muscle memory plays tricks on me when I try to work with those plugins. I could also claim that this makes Logic unsuable because it doesn’t perfectly cater to the old way of doing things, but I will just say that it’s an inconvenience that’s slightly annoying.

      1. Would be cool to use it, but UI of X is just too space requiring for my 1920*1200 display. Upgrading to X would also mean a new display.

      2. Well, it is genuinely annoying that usability is traded with a skeuomorphic user interface, letting go the previous plugins’ designs. I have never been a fan of Logic’s built-in plugins’ layouts (particularly the synths are causing me eye cancer…), but the new look and feel is only good because of one reason: When you use Logic X on a high resolution – aka “Retina” – screen, the non-Retina UI elements just look really bad. Now, some of them look “good” as in: high-resolution-good. But everybody has to learn a new UI again. Oh, and yes, not all plugins are designed skeuomorphic, I get that.

        What bothers me much more is: Why introduce Drum Machine Designer instead of redesigning and overhauling Ultrabeat? It would have been very nice to continue using the latter (maybe even with some backwards compatibility to your older projects?) with all its strong features, but a new, clean user interface.

        Or, come up with a 21st century update on the sampler? Jeez, EXS24 really needs an update on all levels – not just a face lift.

        1. The Ultrabeat colours are nasty – but I really like the modulation depth bars around the rotary controls. It is cluttered and confusing when you first look at it, and some of the UI elements are difficult to grab because they are so tiny, but to me it is the most logical layout possible for that instrument.

          What bugs me more is the amount of name-changing Apple has been doing to the program’s components. Oh, and the new compressor design is ugly.

  2. AUX channel input assignments are still not saved when the source is an alias channel strip.
    This means, these input assignments are lost when opening a saved concert.

  3. How is one supposed to use third party WAV loops within Logic ?

    Incredibly, it looks like the audio browser still won’t allow you to preview them at project tempo if they’re not Apple Loops, something Ableton has done for what, 10 years ?

    To make it worse, it looks like the Apple Loops Utility is deprecated so you couldn’t even mass convert your loops to AL if you wanted to…

  4. Are there non iOS devices that have force touch and 3-D touch, or is this a clue?

    “The drum kits and software instruments in Logic now respond to Force Touch and 3-D touch with supported devices”

    1. Apple laptops have force touch pads now dude. If you don’t have a laptop you can get the latest “magic trackpad” peripheral.

  5. I use logic for adding SFX to IOS trailers I create. I use it like once a month and I STILL need to go online to figure out how to normalize a simple clip. I’ve used all of the high end DAW’s, Cubase, Sonar, FL studio, Ableton, Reason. It boggles my mind that I cant right click and normalize a clip. There is a way to do it but its definitely not intuitive. I guess if I used it on a daily basis, Id just remember but I found that strange since It was never a thought in any other DAW. Its like the software is deep in the areas that should be intuitive. I can go into ableton and route all of my midi gear swiftly, Logic, nope. After a few videos, a trip to the manual and a step by step guide on some blog and I’m still wondering why my CC’s aernt connected. With the price, I bought it with high hopes and keep getting lost.
    But the updates they do are pretty great since its free.

    1. In my limited experience, quite a few things that are easy in Logic are hard in Live and vice versa. It’s good that there are different options that favour different kinds of work flows and methods. We are really spoiled for choice when it comes to DAWs and plugins. Why not use a piece of software that’s appropriate for your task? For just adding a few effects and normalizing an audio track something like Audacity is probably sufficient.

  6. “The content of the Score edit window reliably updates as expected when the Same Level link mode is enabled”

    Wow. Much as I love Logic there is so much bloat there. So many unused functions and useless help to try to learn these. I was reminded of the, unused by me, VCA function so I went to the online logic help on the Apple pages and typed VCA. Zero results. So perhaps it doesn’t exist?

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