Apple Logic Studio Reviews

Pro Tools is industry standard (ARE YOU SERIOUS)???
by BIG MAC from Texas, October 2008
Music Background: Engineer, Producer

Pro Tools is now Pro Fools because Logic is kicking there azz and I was a faithful Pro Tools user until I seen the light.
Only $500 bucks for all of this. It's not the easiest to learn, but once you've learned it.. you become a magician! From plug-ins to instruments to loops to as many tracks as you want it's just bananas. Along with Mainstage & Soundtrack Pro, it's just unbelievable.

Digidesign... you are way behind. You are losing this battle between Logic & Pro Tools.

I'm A Believer! Not as hard on CPU as Pro Tools!
by AKB from New York, NY USA, October 2008
Music Background: Recording Engineer/Producer

The verdict is in! Logic Studio is taking over!

I've been a staunch Pro Tools advocate ever since my days in undergrad (using the Digi 001!). I bought Logic Studio just to see what all the hoopla was about...now I only open Pro Tools to access old files and when I absolutely need to use it for studio compatibility purposes. Logic's ease of use, superb sound quality, and "out-of-the-box" feature set all put the program way ahead of any DAW out there.

I was apprehensive about getting it at first because of the learning curve associated with previous versions, but I converted over to Logic after only one session. Why, you ask? Because I can have more Virtual Instruments and Audio Tracks running simultaneously in a Logic session than in a Pro Tools LE session using the same configuration on my MacBook Pro!

I can create music for hours on end with this suite. Amazing!

The best there is!
by Tony Blount from Gainesville, FL, September 2008
Music Background: Recording Engineer, Singer, Writer, Producer

It doesn't get any better than this! The fact that so many plugins are included in the box makes this a no-brainer. If you are apprehensive because you deal with a lot of people who use Protools.... don't sweat it. Logic allows you to export files in Protools compatible formats.

First music software that is fun and fun is all about !!!
by sjcongo from studio, September 2008
Music Background: Started in 1985... forever music

I consider that computer is not an music instrument !!! Logic had changed that for me, Logic can transform a computer into a fun powerfull workstation music instrument and you can believe that !!! I've tried out all music DAW software and none of them is complete and fun as Logic and this is the main reason for me... Music process should be fun and interesting not difficult & boring . Let your inspiration flow with Logic, it's the most powerfull DAW ever no doubt about that...
Thanks Logic, i love you :)

Like stock car racing
by Steve Jackson from Antigua and Barbuda, West Indies, June 2008

If we could keep it working it would be awesome, but it doesn't appear to be compatible with the Mac Pro with the Intel chip. Odd since they are made by the same people. The documentation that came with the software has to be the best I've ever seen, problem is its just unreliable. Like "stock car racing", lots of fun but expect plenty of crashes.

i love it
by judas from north shore, May 2008
Music Background: engineer

it has amazing sounds and features for $500.00. i use this only for midi though, and pro tools for audio. editing audio in logic is just really slow. but either way, get it. well worth the money.

This Is Why I Don't Use Pro Tools Much Anymore
by MountainBikingGuitarGod from Fort Collins, CO, February 2008
Music Background: I write the songs that make the whole world think of absolutely nothing

Every couple of years I would get GAS and go out and upgrade my home recording rig. I believe the progression was Tascam 4-track - Roland VS-880 - Korg D12 - Korg D1600 - Korg D3200 - Pro Tools on a Mac G5 with a Digi 002 controller - back to Korg D3200...

I grew so disillusioned with the learning curve, CPU hogging and expense of Pro Tools that I sold it and went back to my D3200. I was simply spending more time fixing computer problems than I was making music. And when I was making music, I was wishing I had more plug-ins & processors - which, when I got them, only added to the CPU thing...

One day I happened in to an Apple store and noticed Garage Band was opened on one of the iMac's. It took less than 5 minutes to realize that this was an intuitive, native, feature rich DAW - that, for my purposes, rivaled my Pro Tools LE rig. The sales rep, who also did some home recording, said, "You should check out our new Logic Studio."

The next day I called Carson at Sweetwater and asked about Logic. He excitedly told me that it was basically the shiznit. He was using it and was loving it. I told him I would call back. I did a little more research and called Carson back and bought a demo iMac, Logic Studio, Apogee Ensemble and UA LA-610.

After a few months of use and studying up on one of the Apple Certification books, I can tell you that Logic Studio is amazing! The amount of loops, samples and processors alone would cost thousands to add to a ProTools LE rig. I like the interface better and I have never had any issues with buffer size, time-outs, etc., Besides all of that, it's only $500 - and NO MORE DONGLES!!!

Logic Studio is truly all you need- and more - for an awesome in the box mix.

If Your Logical Logic is the Logical Choice
by Victor T from Princeton NJ, December 2007
Music Background: Pro Musician, Recording Engineer and Studio Owner

I have only been in the digital world for three years and have tried everything. I really like the world of Apple/Macdom and after having a few of my good engineer buddies saying try this over PT and others. For the 499.00 it was the best investment. While it may take a bit of time to set it up to be ordered in the work flow that you like then your free to create. I love all the plug ins they work awesome and you have a complete studio recoding, editing and mastering package in one box for 499.00 that would be just the price for the loops if your were to buy the loops separately. Well then when it comes to use with Reason, no worries it all works with Reason 4, Stylus RMX, all Native Instruments plug ins. When my engineer Taz works with me in the studio his projects are producing amazing results the best auto and midi sounds i have ever heard. Logic is simply logical if you just want to do it all out of one box. I believe it's good to know as much as you can so take time to learn this powerhouse of gear. And it will let you work with other projects that were created in PT. Well try it you wont be disappointed and then you can use it live, and with sound track stuff if you are creating video etc. Awesome.

Logib Pro 8 Is at The Top
by Teacee from Los Angeles, Ca., October 2007
Music Background: Producer/ Multimedia Productions.

I have read may reviews here, about some of the cons. One is that its lack of beat mapping, thats not true, its there look a little harder, I use it daily, another was lack of the Fill plugin-delay compensation, it is also there, and another stating, no floating and moveable transport there, it is also there, as well as pre-made templates, buses ans sub groups, and an interface that makes production fun. Hands down it is the best DAW on the market.

unreal PERFECT
by Liquidlogic from Austin, October 2007
Music Background: Professional

Have you ever seen a women that was so beutiful so perfect that it physically hurt to look at her? Well this how I feel about the new Logic Studio. I look at the Box and it hurts because everything is perfect. I have used EVERY PROGRAM DAW out there and yes some have some better little features here and there. But logi ust has TNA Totally Nice Approach to being reprogrammed so Logic I love you thanks for your rebirth as a perfect female.

A Logical Logic is finally here!
by Chad from Cleveland, MS, October 2007
Music Background: Pro Musician, Recording Engineer

It's about time Apple fixed this program. The power of Logic has always been amazing, but completely unintuitive. I've had to use logic 7 at my job but always hated it. I'm so glad I can finally feel good about purchasing this powerful tool for myself. I'm not giving it a five because there are still a lot of things I would like to see added on the audio side, but as far as bang for the buck, Logic stomps everything now. I still use PT for pure audio projects because it just does it in a much more intuitive manner and I already own it, however, Logic is my first choice now for anything involving the virtual world.

A huge step in the right direction
by EAW from Nashville, TN, October 2007
Music Background: Mix engineer

I've been a Logic user for about 2 years now, and while I have enjoyed using the program for composition and such, it had many hurdles to overcome as far as interface was concerned. The audio editing component of older Logic software was sketchy as well, requiring much more frustration than was necessary. Logic Studio, in my opinion, solves a great many of these nagging problems. The sample-accurate editing and Crossfade Tool are welcome additions, as well as the main window design. It makes getting a session up and running MUCH quicker than before. While there are some things I would like to see further improved (group options, for instance), Logic Studio is a huge step in the right direction for this DAW.

This Does it ALL
by John B from Vancouver, WA USA, October 2007
Music Background: pro musician, songwriter, levitator

Having spent many years with Motu DP, Pro Tools, and Ableton Live, I decided to give Logic a try after waiting a long time for an overdue revision. The price drop was all I needed to lay down my money. And after only a week with the product, I am amazed at how powerful and complete this application is.

I am selling of the old apps because I want to focus on this one alone...it is the perfect mix of audio and midi capabilities, and it is so intuitive to use that I have rarely needed to consult the manual (which weighs in at 1,000 pages, demonstrating the underlying power beneath the simple interface). And now I am finding that I may sell off some of my midi keyboards, sampler, and sound modules, just keeping one 88-key hammer action keyboard/controller, because the bundled synths and sampler are more than sufficient for my needs. Logic does it ALL ---- audio editing, great midi control (though the Environment still has a learning curve if you want to dig deep into midi setups), excellent plug-ins (included convolution reverb), sampler, software synths. Not to mention the huge library of loops and instruments for the sampler. And bundled apps like the ability to use Logic with a laptop for live performance, and Soundtrack for video work.

This is the best price/performance that I have seen in ANY software application, and sets the new standard in digital recording and audio workstations. And for those of you on a tighter budget, Logic Express has most of the essential bells and whistles.

Thanks, Apple!!!

I own Logic, Pro Tools and DP...
by Phil from Beverly, MA, October 2007
Music Background: Musician, Producer, Self-Taught Engineer.

I just wanted to add a review for those of you looking at Logic as a replacement for Pro Tools LE. I own PT LE (with the Music Production Toolkit), Digital Performer & Logic and use all of them for different things. Here's my short run-through of each DAW's strength and weakness':

Pro Tools LE -
The Good:
*Compatability with sessions made on any other Pro Tools systems.
*Beat Detective and overall audio editing ease.
*Great support who stay on top of issues via the Digidesign User Conference and very intuitive.

The Bad:
*Track count limitations for no good reason.
*No plug-in delay compensation.
*Tied to specific hardware (although as far as drivers go, this is sort of a positive)
*Far less bang for buck than competitors when it comes to certain aspects
*Not very cpu efficient when it comes to plugs and VIs.

Digital Performer -
The Good:
*Very comparable feature set to Pro Tools HD (no track count limit, delay compensation, Beat Detective-type tools, etc).
*Very easy transition for Pro Tools users
*Large group of very helpful users and info out there on sites like unicornation.com.
*In my experience, very good performance when it comes VIs and very CPU efficient with plugs.

The Bad:
*Tech support is the worst.
*Long term annoying bugs that will most likely never get fixed, (like midi data totally disappearing when using the drum editor window).
*While audio editing is pretty close to PT, but the Beat Detective-type tools are not as well done or as efficient in use.
*Most of the plugs are super lame (be prepared to get a good compressor and reverb if you switch).
*Drawing volume automation can be a bit tedious compared to both Pro Tools and Logic.

Logic Studio
The Good:
*Logc 8 user interface is much improved compared to Logic 7.x and earlier (even just creating tracks in Logic use to be completely non-intuitive).
*Logic has finally adopted a multi-take approach that is as good as Pro Tools & Digital Performer if not better, at least in concept.
*Full plug-in delay compensation, unlimited tracks and very good to great stock plug-ins and VIs.
*A lot of bang for buck at the new price.
*Improved audio editing.

The Bad:
*Still no Beat Detective-type tool (quantizing multi-track drums is still a huge pain - you'll still want to keep Pro Tools around for this task, if nothing else.
*Little to no interactive support outside of the first 90 days, although updates do seem to reflect reported bugs via thier feedback form (MOTU is notorious for ignoring long-term, widely reported bugs).
*Apple's secretive nature can cause issues with certain plug-ins after updates (for instance user's of Fxpansion's BFD are currently experiencing problems in multi-output mode).

This isn't everything, but as someone who purchased both DP and Logic hoping each might replace Pro Tools entirely as my main native rig, I thought I would share what I've observed. At this point, my use of Pro Tools is pretty much reduced to Beat Detective and overdubs (since most sessions coming from other studios come in as Pro Tools sessions) and I do everything else in either DP or Logic or both. Still, what's dissappointing is that one DAW that appear's closest to being a PT-killer in terms of features, seems to be Sonar 7, which is, of course Window's only :(

All in one
by Jonathan from Boston, MA, September 2007
Music Background: Recording Engineer

Forget running reason rewired into DP, forget about pro tools being the industry standard - this program truly convinced me that i didn't need to go back to either of those two because i could get better sound faster in logic now , intuitively.

audio editing used to be logic's achilles heel, but not anymore. now with advanced editing features like their new comp creator they're forging ahead into areas other DAWs seem to have forgotten about.

i used to hate logic but now with version 8 im a believer - this may sound like overexcited commercial crap but this program honestly was that convincing and exciting to work with - not to mention all the other programs it now comes with like main stage and wave burner - which i will use ALL the time. easy to use, great sounding plugins out of the box (without shelling out thousands more), amazing virtual instruments, cutting edge editing features.

bottom line: for 500 dollars you'd be hurting your business/education not to purchase the program.

WELL worth the money.
by Nathanael Davenport from Rexburg, ID, September 2007
Music Background: Project Studio Owner, Multi-Instrumentalist

I don't ever put 5 stars, but I really was blown away. Yes, the user interface has undergone such a substantial upgrade that it does take a little time to readjust, but it wasn't unreasonable. It's almost a new work-flow paradigm, and the more I got into it, the more sense it made to me why they made a change. There were numerous things that I had been hoping were changed, and they were; but, there were many other subtle changes that I had never even thought about, and they also made a lot of sense.

There is a lot more that could be said - just about every aspect of the program has been improved. Not to mention the inclusion of a monstrous sound library, which is thoroughly integrated into the program, as well as a new program, Mainstage (very cool), and Soundtrack Pro, among other things. And all this for $500? Clearly Apple is trying to help people make up their minds, and it shouldn't be too hard to do it upon even a shallow examination of what Logic Studio has to offer.

The point is - Apple listened to the suggestions of their faithful Logic user-base. They left few (if any) stones unturned, especially with editing audio - which has historically been the biggest rift between Logic and Pro Tools. In my opinion, it's BETTER than Pro Tools now. I'll take Logic over any other Digital Audio Workstation software. Period.

A Logical Choice
by brianbfw from Alexandria, VA, September 2007
Music Background: Classical Guitarist, Composer, Mixing/Mastering

I'm a DP user, but work with some many people on Logic. With the price drop, it was a no brainer. No problems with the learning curve, which i was worried about. The basics, tracking, recording, mixing, adding plugins, i had going in about 40 minutes. Plugins are great, lots of sounds, very nice interface.

With Guitar amp Pro, you can play with effects, in REAL TIME! Great "brown" sounds, ie Larry Carlton, jazz tones. good enough to where i would gig with it.

There's a new feature called Quick Comping which very easily let's you loop a few measures, and quick build a comp from multiple takes. Already used it for guitar solos and melodies. Very easy to use. THis is the high light for me.

Mixer is great, the Linear Phase EQ, and Match EQ sound great. You can get great sounding mixes.

The Piano's and rhodes are quite as good as some of the sample libraries i have, but that's no big deal.

I'm new to Logic, and i love it. Highly recommend it. If you thinking about going to Logic, you won't regret it.

Mindblowing Tool
by Painful Leg Injuries from Austin, TX, September 2007
Music Background: Musician, Film Editor

This is a seriously inspiring, robust, intuitive DAW.
If Pro Tools is a hammer, this is a nail gun.

Worth Every Penny...And Then Some
by Adam from USA, September 2007

My satisfaction with Logic Pro 8 may not reflect that of your own.ALWAYS try out the gear (or rent if possible), before spending any amount of money on gear. Assess your needs and price range and buy with discretion. But none the less, Apple Logic Pro 8 (Logic Studio), hereinafter LP8, is a great instrument for music/video production and composition.First and foremost, I would like to say that Apple has done a wonderful job with this upgrade. The only gripe is that after having spent over $2000 in upgrades and previous versions of Logic they go and drop the price to $500 which is the best version to date, IMO. Anyhow, that is the price we musicians pay right. Well, I just upgraded to LP8, from Apple Logic Pro 7 and i am blown away by the features this packs. IMO, this upgrade has unraveled a new level of creative outlet for me and it is now condusive to my creative efficiency. LP8 coupled with the Apogee ensemble has produces results far greater than those in past versions. I dont know what it is but I believe it has to do with the updated layout... I have been a Logic user since Emagic Logic Platinum and, while all the versions have been excellent music production tools, there was always something more to be desired. LP8, it seems, has definately addressed this issue. My ideas translate into musical form more fluid and professional than ever before. It is packed with tons of new sounds for EXS, Ultrabeat, and all the other instruments not to mention the tons of Channel Strip Settings and Apple Jam Pack instruments. The sound quality is simply stunning!! A key addition to this version is the browser which allows you to easily view all of your sounds within Logic and start making music quickly. Delay designer is extremely useful and powerful, but there is too many useful upgrades to list. If you are familiar with the previous Logic's, LP8 will be a breath of fresh air with only a limited amount of time finding your way around all of the new features inside this beast of a program. Believe me you will not be disappointed and it is well worth it. If you are in need of a tool to that gets you the superior results and expands your creative possibilities, GET LOGIC STUDIO.

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