Apple updated Logic Pro for iPad and macOS today. They’re leading with stem splitting enhancements and sound packs, but advanced users may be more interested in a bunch of improvements across the mixer, automation, Spatial Audio, accessibility, and more. Here’s what long-time Logic users might most want to know. (Hint: undo history saving!)
Stem splitting and beat making
Apple’s stem splitting in the previous version performed nicely as far as audio fidelity – if, and this is a big if with all machine language-powered stem splitting tech, you found material that fit their training set. They’ve expanded that support. Stem Splitter now performs better with “old recordings and demos,” and adds guitar and piano stem support, in addition to a submix feature. (Like most other Apple AI features, that requires an M1 or better chip on both iPad and Mac.)
Apple also added their ChatGPT-powered Writing Tools to the Notepad, which sounds horrible to me personally, sorry, but okay. (Sure, I made fun of Microsoft Songsmith, and now it’s come to take over the world.)
All of this is accompanied by this cute film from our friends in California:
Now, I don’t want to knock those features; I know stem splitting is growing in importance and has some unique possibilities for remixing audio sessions. But for long-time Logic Pro users, I suspect you’re interested in whether the DAW you already use day in and day out can work more effectively.
Flashback Capture
Flashback Capture is the one expanded (and renamed) feature in this release, which lets you recall and save what you were playing, even if you didn’t hit record.
Logic has had this feature for many years, well back into the Emagic era, dubbed “Capture Recording.” Apple made it more discoverable in more recent versions by adding a button to the transport UI.
(Ableton Live has “Capture MIDI”, and most mature DAWs now have something like this – though not necessarily with audio.)
Now they’ve expanded what you can do: both audio and MIDI are automatically captured. That includes capturing multiple takes by enabling Cycle – previously available for MIDI, but now available for audio, too. (For audio, Logic Pro has to be in “active play mode.” That means you do have to have the associated track or tracks you want to record-armed. But you don’t have to hit the actual record button.)
Flashback Capture seems like it’ll be great on the iPad in mobile situations. And it’s a must on desktop, too, for getting over the weird thing that happens when clicking the record buttons sucks all musicianship and creativity from your body all at once. (It’s unknown how it does this; I think someone failed to let an artist bring their goat into a Motown studio sometime in the 60s, and we’ve all been cursed since.)
Undo History is saved with projects
Oh Hell, yeah. You can take your AI-powered lyric assistant; I’m glad to never have to endure the nightmare of Logic’s backup structure. This is the single most important feature of this release to me apart from playing out with Sculpture on the iPad.
I’m aware Logic has other users. I don’t care. I have spoken.
Search and Select
This is nice, too. Search is gradually getting implemented across Logic; now you can “search and selecting” tracks by name or track number. Searching for tracks in the Side Chain menu works, too (there were some glitches in that before), and you can search from the Plug-in input menu, too. Plus, speaking as someone with way too many plug-ins, I appreciate this little detail: “Plug-in search now shows results when the search string omits special characters that are in the plug-in name, such as dashes.” Phew.
Learn MIDI on iPad
This was a feature we were looking for: Logic Pro for iPad now finally gets Learn MIDI. That lets you assign external MIDI controllers to plug-ins, instruments, and automatable parameters. It also means my dreams of Logic as a mobile Sculpture instrument are fully realized – and it makes a nice effects box, to boot.
But there’s more…
Ableton Link and MIDI Clock coexist
On both iPad and Mac, you can now send MIDI clock output and Ableton Link at the same time. That was a much-needed feature for using Link to integrate your jam sessions, since it means you can connect devices like computers and iPads (and a small handful of hardware) via Link, while still sending clock to your gear. I’ve even done this with students; it’s a great way to work.
There are a ton of Mixer, Smart Tempo improvements (Mac, iPad)
It’s the little things. Apple got a shovel and dug through a lot of what made the Logic Mixer annoying. For example:
When the input format for a channel strip is changed with a key command, inserted plug-ins now switch to the matching format.
Or:
The Input Monitoring button on audio tracks set to No Input is now dimmed.
The Record Arm button on audio channels with no input set is now dimmed.
Just read the Mixer section of the release notes (linked below) and you’ll see what I mean. On the iPad, there are a bunch of improvements that smooth out the experience there – which was in need of a little additional love and care in the transition from the Mac mouse paradigm:
- Double-tapping the cap on a volume slider now resets it to 0 db.
- It is now possible to re-order plug-ins directly in the Horizontal Channel Strip view.
- It is now easier to rename channel strips in the Mixer.
- Channel strip selection indication now remains visible after applying a channel strip type filter.
- When changing the output assignment for a channel strip, the output label now correctly updates to show the current assignment.
- The target channel strip for patches dragged from the Sound Library browser is now highlighted.
- It is now possible to assign a bus as the input for a newly created audio track.
- Level meters in the Mixer work as expected when loading a new instrument patch.
- It’s now easier to activate the Mixer filter list buttons.
Smart Tempo got a similar treatment; there are just a bunch of tweaks. Add up a bunch of little things like this, which you only notice when they go wrong, but then which you really notice:
Resolves an issue where setting an average tempo for a selection could move beat markers at the border of the selection.
Spatial Audio and surround get expanded support (Mac only)
You’re noticing the pattern here, right? Let’s just paste the entire Spatial Audio and surround release notes here, as this addresses a bunch of significant issues:
- Fixes an issue where a Normalize progress bar could unexpectedly displays when exporting to ADM BWF.
- The Top speakers now output sound when the Atmos renderer is set to Renderer for Display Speakers.
- 5.1.0 and 7.1.0 are now supported as Surround Bed formats in Dolby Atmos.
- Settings can now be saved and recalled for the Atmos Plug-in.
- Signals placed at + 90º or -90º in the Surround panner now output as expected when the Renderer for Apple Display monitoring setting is used in the Dolby Atmos plug-in.
- Channel Strip Surround and Object Pan controls now include a fader to control Elevation.
- Surround regions now display glyphs that accurately represent the number of channels in the recording.
- The surround format of audio files is now displayed in the Project Audio window.
There are more specific improvements, including a big fix to Software Instruments sync for Spatial Audio projects and Atmos, ADM, and 3D object support.
I have more to say about Spatial Audio very soon as I’ve been testing Apple’s new AirPod Max support – that’s coming in the next days. I’m excited actually to have a couple of these details now working with that.
Accessibility improvements (Mac, iPad)
Accessibility and VoiceOver have seen iterative improvements in each release. Those dig much deeper in this release, particularly in iPad VoiceOver support, in ways that I’m sure will be significant to those users. I’ve talked to the folks doing this kind of development, as well as users, and this is how the work goes: you just test and test and tweak and tweak to make sure that everything in a UI that was originally designed to be seen can also be read aloud. Each bullet point on the iPad release notes looks like it’ll be a relief for some folks.
Step Sequencer enhancements (Mac, iPad)
Both Mac and iPad releases see a bunch of improvements to Logic’s quite-nice Step Sequencer. On the iPad, that quietly turns Logic into a powerful mobile sequencing option, both for other apps and for outboard gear. Check those iPad improvements specifically:
- MIDI channel can now be set per step in Step Sequencer.
- Channel and Articulation IDs can now be set per step.
- Use the Recurrence Cycles and Recurrence Iteration step parameters to control how often a step plays.
- Step Sequencer now offers a setting to set a step to play every x number of cycles.
- It is now possible to add multiple steps to Step Sequencer using a Touch and hold gesture.
- It’s now easier to make precise edits when scrubbing parameters in Step Sequencer.
- Multi-touch can now be used to create ramps between values in a Step Sequencer lane.
- The Convert to Pattern region command is now available on regions that are more than 4 bars long.
- Step Sequencer now allows pattern lengths to be added based on 5/4 and 7/8 time signatures.
- Changing the edit mode while using the Inc/Dec controls in a Pattern Row no longer causes unexpected values.
- The Step Sequencer Inc/Dec controls now work in Loop Edit mode.
- All Step Sequencer lanes in Pattern regions converted from Drummer regions are now consistently named correctly.
Quantec Room Simulator
QRS is one of my favorite things ever, so of course I’m going to give it a section. Two nice tweaks:
- Controls in the QRS reverb can now be adjusted using scroll.
- The QRS reverb now offers a Phase Reversal switch for first Reflections.
And more – check the release notes
Before you cough at this Logic Pro release, check the release notes. There might not be a big banner pro feature like the Quantec Room Simulator, but this is one of the more significant clean-up releases for the core DAW that we’ve seen in a while. And as always, it’s still a free upgrade on the Mac. You’ve gone a significant number of years (The iPad version requires a subscription.)
I had to do a double-take a couple of times that I was still looking at 11.2 in the Mac notes; there’s a lot in there:
New in Logic Pro 11.2 [Mac]
New in Logic Pro for iPad 2.2 [iPad]
Here in Europe, I haven’t seen the download just yet but that typically happens staggered within a few hours.