ProAudio Review - July 2008 - (Page 30)

STUDIO | REVIEW sion. The system sounds wonderful, and the included instruments, loops, samples, and effects are all professional quality with no sonic compromises whatsoever. This said, at $499, Logic Studio is a bargain and is the perfect one-stop-shop production tool for composers, musicians, sound designers, engineers, and producers. Russ Long, a Nashville-based producer/engineer, owns The Carport recording studio. He is a regular contributer to Pro Audio Review. LOGIC Continued From Page 28 | SUMMARY Apple’s Logic Studio is an amazing suite that includes a host of powerful applications. The software is lightning-fast (especially when running on a dual Quad-Core Xeon machine) and has more features than I could imagine. Logic Pro 8’s makeover has resulted in the world’s most feature-laden DAW, actually becoming user-friendly, and Apple has done it in a way where current Logic Pro users will be right at home with the new ver- LOGIC PRO 8 FOR COMPOSITION I use Logic for soundtrack composing and pop production. Over the past four years, I’ve shifted from using MIDI modules and keyboards to streaming sample players and software synths. Logic’s integrated music production environment is now the starting point for all my composing projects. I’ve used Logic since Version 5, so I was eager to see Apple simplify and beautify the user interface. The consolidated Arrange window with pop-up panes for the mixer and piano roll editor and the sliding pane for the media bin and instrument/loop library are a welcomed improvement. However, I still use the separate score and environment windows when I need to focus on those tasks. The transport and status bar — centered along the bottom of the main window — worked well, even stretched across two 19-inch standard displays. The Mackie Control that I’ve used since Logic 6 worked fine, as did a Unitor8 MIDI interface. The Studio Sound Library, instruments and effects plug-ins are the heart of Logic Studio for composers. The sounds and loops cover many genres including pop, world, R&B and strong support for classic and modern electronic music. The sound effects and ambiences are well suited to indie film and stage productions. Logic Pro 8 (LP8) makes sound picking easier than pie. Select a software instrument track in the Arrange window and click in the library browser to instantly audition thousands of pre-built instrument channel strips. For example, “gated synthesizers” combine soft synths with effects locked to tempo. The symphonic instruments won’t fool your music teacher or put the high-end sample libraries out of business, but are more than adequate for pop production and symphonic sketches. I had no trouble loading Logic 7 project files. In fact, once I started using LP8, I found almost no need to go back to 7. One exception: Vienna Horizon instruments use a VSL plug-in for EXS24 and some settings can be used, but not edited, in LP8. I frequently use QuickTime clips for film scoring. The new small movie pane in the consolidated Arrange window is a great idea and full screen mode is just a couple of clicks away. To investigate the surround features I used Logic’s surround-animated component modeling synth, Sculpture, and other instruments in surround channels. I added a Sound Designer convolution reverb with one of the new surround impulses. Next, I picked a surround setting in the new Delay Designer and added Logic’s Surround Compressor with the “Atmospheric Master” preset in the master output. The MultiMeter adds a surround signal viewer and a goniometric display to show coherence and phase relationships between stereo pairs. All together, it’s a powerful combination of tools for surround production. You can burn your surround mix to DVDA format directly from Logic or bounce to PCM for Dolby Digital encoding with the Compressor utility. In summary, LP8 packs a huge bang for the buck. Mature audio and MIDI tools along with the extensive loops, samples and software synthesizers make LP8 a must-have tool for rock, pop, urban and new age producers and a cornucopia for film, TV and game composers. — Carlos Garza 30 | ProAudio Review | July 2008 www.proaudioreview.com http://www.strobosoft.com http://www.strobosoft.com http://www.proaudioreview.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of ProAudio Review - July 2008

ProAudio Review - July 2008 Contents Publisher's Page: Inside Broadcast Production Studio News and New Products Steinberg Nuendo 4 Digital Audio Workstation Developments & Trends: Digital Audio Workstation I/O JZ Microphones Black Hole BH-1 Apple Logic Studio Behind The Scenes: JBL Professional – A 60-Year Legacy Broadcast News and New Products WLOY: Real World Facilities For An On-Campus Radio Station Post News and New Products Hot Gear InfoComm 08 Chandler Limited TG1 Abbey Road/EMI Series Limiter/Compressor Live News and New Products Cerwin-Vega! Professional Active Series CVA-28 and CVA-118 Speakers QSC Audio Model GX5 Power Amplifier From The Road: A Week In The Life — Gear Essentials Contracting News and New Products Taming The Driving Factor — Drums UpSampler: sE Instrument Reflection Filter Buyer’s Guide: Live Sound Amplifiers Single Slice: Roger Powell “Fallout Shelter”

ProAudio Review - July 2008

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