Why I Love Logic Studio
I started my production career back in 1996 using trackers – mainly Impulse Tracker and Buzz. About 10 years ago I made the switch to Logic – it was version number 4 back then. I’ve worked on other software since then (Cakewalk, Cubase, Ableton Live, Pro Tools) but always felt Logic just works best for what I do. Here is a roundup of things that makes me like it so much.
Depth and versatility
Many times in Logic you’ll find there are different ways to accomplish a task. The initial learning curve is probably steeper because of the sheer amount of features. Logic still does have a bit of a notorious reputation but those days are long gone now.
The latest versions have improved the interface and made it a lot easier to use and learn. The sea of features is still there – you don’t have to dive deep but it’s good to know that you can.
In any case, after a while of using Logic you will develop your own way of working with it. This is just brilliant as we are all different – it’s great to have all these different options and ways of doing things to choose from.
Flex Time
Logic 9 introduced Flex Time. It’s is a collection of tools that allows you to quickly manipulate the timing and tempo of your audio. It combines beat slicing and elastic audio techniques into a single workflow.
Flex Time is excellent for working with vocals for example but works great with anything. One of the things I like about it most is that you can easily slice an audio part up and then have a sampler track created from that, essentially turning audio to midi with just a few clicks.
I know other software has similar features but trust me – Flex Time is just smooth. Wether you want to tighten things up or do something more creative, it makes audio editing a breeze… Love it.
Great bundled plugins and content
Logic Studio comes with a very comprehensive collection of plugins, instruments and sound libraries. The built-in effects sound great and there is a lot to explore.
The sound libraries are vast. I don’t really use that stuff much for my own music, but there are times it comes really useful. For example when working on advertisements for radio or other such projects where the client wants you to come up with random things like, say, bluegrass music.
It sounds right
I don’t know wether it is the summing or something else in the audio engine but Logic just sounds right to me. I feel it’s easy to make things sound the way I want.
A case example: I’ve made tunes in Ableton Live and worked really hard on the mixdown without being able to get what I want, or match what I get pretty much “straight out the box” in Logic. Of course it’s partly due to my inexperience with Live. But come on, it should not be that difficult?
To be fair, my experience with Cubase and Pro Tools is also great in this respect.
Developers do the right things
Logic’s developers cleary listen to the users and keep addressing the most relevant problems, smoothing out the interface and bringing great new features.
Stability
OK this one is actually not so simple but I wanted to bring this up. I still vividly remember the horrors of Logic 5 – I lost so many projects when Logic crashed during saving. Logic is still not perfect but fortunately has been getting more stable by each revision. It rarely crashes on me these days, and if it does, it’s nearly always a case of a third-party plugin gone mad.
When a crash does occur, a lot of the time Logic manages to do an automatic emergency save of the project before it closes. This way you can get right back to where you were. This together with the auto-backup feature is pretty much a foolproof combination. I don’t recall losing a single project during my time with Logic 8 and 9.
Price
Priced currently at 503 € (here in Finland), Logic Studio is very affordable for what you get.
Have your say
It would be interesting to hear what is your favourite music production software and why do you like it so much? Use the comments below.
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i’ve often considered logic but i feel put off by the expensive Mac hardware i’d need to run it. I find the native Ableton vst and instruments to be pretty robust and capable but i guess it just comes down to personal feel!
Yeah Mac hardware is more expensive.. But there is also less trouble in my experience.
The way I look at it – I’m happy to pay for the fact that I don’t have to deal with all the nonsense that I had when I was still back on PC.
I have to admit that is many years ago now! But my experience with macs has always been very smooth – can’t say the same for windows based systems. I don’t mind paying more for quality, long lasting products.
In a way I see the investment pays itself back as it allows me to concentrate on my work more and do a better job.
But yeh like you said, it does come down to a personal feel!
Personally an ableton fan myself, also because of the price of mac hardware. It’s also not that hard to look after your pc and make sure you don’t have to deal with any nonsense. Great article thanks though
Cool yeah Ableton definitely has something that I really like quite a lot as well. It opened up whole a new way of thinking of and crafting the music for me. I found, once you learn the interface a bit, it was quite quick and effortless to put things together which is GREAT. And it really shines in doing live stuff.
My main problem with it is that the tunes I made with it simply sounded somehow thin, or as if something was lacking, no matter how hard I work on the mixdown. And I know other people have had the same experience…
That is not to say it sounds BAD. It doesn’t. I was just unable to match what I get in Logic that’s all.
That was a couple of years back though, so maybe I should try the newest version.
Thanks for the comment!
Having the tracker background as well I must say I love Renoise. I also use Cubase for some more professional stuff and Ableton for some live music playing. Rewiring all these together is also quite easy. And it all works well on a sensibly priced pc laptop as well.
Yup Rewire is great.. Did a collab one time with a friend who uses Live. So we just rewired that to Logic – worked perfectly.
Could you tell something about VST’s that you mostly use with Logic? Effects, instruments, etc… The blog is great, thanks for sharing the knowledge!
I think that’s a good idea for a future post. I need to get on the case, thanks for the tip