byron j. scullin

Apple recently announced the release of their new Logic Studio package. With this offering it would seem that Apple are laying down and firm and serious challenge to Digidesign’s apparent domination of the DAW market - something that many people have long expected. I haven’t been able to lay my hands on a copy as yet, but going off the Apple info, there is a lot to like about this package. In general terms I really hope that this release injects some much needed competition back into the pro-audio software market. This becomes particularly apparent when we compare the Logic Studio offering against Digidesign’s Pro-Tools LE suite.

On the face of it, much has been added to Logic which has been well overdue and which Pro-Tools has had from day 1. Sample accurate editing is essential in any serious DAW, and finally Apple has included this into Logic. Gone also is Logic’s messy old any-way-you-like-it interface. Apple appears to have tightened up the interface considerably. Gone are all the separate windows like the audio window (Hooray! I hated the audio window), hyper edit, mixer, and so on. Instead all of this same functionality is viewable via a single main window. Gone also is Logic’s configureable multi-window interface (this was a confusing and redundant nightmare). It looks as if making new tracks is a hell of a lot easier as well - making a new audio or MIDI track shouldn’t require creating several new objects over multiple pages as in previous versions. The mixing interface in Logic 8 has also been stripped back and sorted out. Generally is seems all the bad interface stuff that stopped me using Logic in a serious way 6 or 7 years ago appears to have gone.

Now, these interface changes in Logic are not really revelatory for us Pro-Tools users. It is right out of Pro-Tools 101 but here’s the thing - as well as getting some of this basic stuff right, Apple have also upped the stakes on several other key fronts.

Firstly right out of the box Logic 8 gives you up to 255 channels with 32 busses - this appears to be the case regardless of sample rate or bit depth, but I’m thinking that your storage hardware and CPU power will probably dictate exactly how much of this you can use. This is unlike Pro-Tools LE where you only get 24 tracks out of the box and have to pay additional to step that up to 48. Like wise the same thing goes for people who want to work with video. Logic 8 will allow you to import movies and import a variety of mixed media formats such as XML, AAF, OMF and OpenTL. It will also display timelines as timecode as well. Again if you’re looking for this functionality in Pro-Tools LE - you must pay extra, US$1,295.00 extra to be precise! In addition Logic 8 will allow you to mix in surround (up to 7.1) and comes with at least 16 plug-ins/effects that are true surround plug-ins. The Logic Studio suite also includes Compressor 3 which will allow you to encode your surround files to AC3 format for DVD authoring or burn uncompressed surround straight to DVD-A. While surround is common to Pro-Tools HD, you must pay extra for surround plug-ins and it comes without any software to encoding or authoring of surround material for DVD. If you are a Pro-Tool LE user, then you have no surround sound option at all!Unless of course you upgrade to a basic Pro-Tools HD rig for an extra ten grand or so…..

The Logic Studio suite contains a massive offering of additional software and content that does not come close to either Pro-Tool LE or HD. There is the Studio Instruments with 40 vintage, synth and sampled instruments. The Studio Effects package has 80 different effect plug-ins (no doubt all in Audio Unit format) which cover about most anything you would need to do - from EQ and compression through to delay, reverb, amplifier cabinet simulation and so on - there is even an impulse response reverb. Also included in these plug-ins is the industry standard ESX-24 sampler. The beauty of these plug-ins is that being in AU format you will be able to use them in other applications such as Abelton Live or even Final Cut. These Audio Units having been designed by Apple to run using the Core Audio services in OS X, you can be sure that these plug-ins will be very CPU efficient. You can expect that even on an entry level Intel-Mac laptop your plug-in count will be really very high. This is unlike Digidesign’s sluggish and flakey RTAS format used in LE and HD - which can only be used in Pro-Tools and nothing else. Digidesign do offer a small suite of rather bland RTAS plug-ins with Pro-Tools - the Digirack plug-ins. Digi also offer “Factory Bundles” (for which you again pay extra) but these bundles look like a complete joke compared to what you are now getting from Apple with Logic Studio. Digi also offer nothing as powerful as the ESX-24 with any of their free or packaged options (please don’t even try to talk up SampleTank LE that comes with PT LE - it’s a red nightmare). You can buy their Structure LE sampler, but it does not come close to the power of ESX-24.

The other thing to add here is that there is a vast developer community writing for the Audio Unit format, many of whom are offering there software free for download. Again - there simply is nothing like this in the Pro-Tools/RTAS community. We are still not done yet however - Logic Studio also includes the following sound file content:

• 18,000 Apple Loops, including 12,000 loops from five Jam Pack collections
• 5000 Foley, sound effects, and music beds, including over 1000 options in surround
• 1300 EXS instruments, including 248 instruments from five Jam Pack collections
• 400 channel strip settings and plug-in settings, for a wide range of high-quality sounds

You also get a copy of Waveburner for setting up and burning red-book CD’s as well. Gone as well is the old copy protection dongle (XS key) with only a serial number now required for authorization. This pretty much covers most of the important changes, however there is even more on offer from Apple, but I’ll let you go on over to Apple’s web-site for more info…

In terms of comparative functionality, the Logic Studio package will put you somewhere between Pro-Tools LE and HD. I’d say you’d generally be closer to HD than LE with what you can do using Logic Studio. Now, let’s compare dollars involved and see what we’re getting - and why Logic has got it all over Digidesign in terms of value for money.

Lets look at a comparison between a Digidesign based LE set-up that comes close to what you get with Logic Studio right out of the box.

• mBox 2 factory bundle with Pro-Tools LE. US$595.00
• DV Toolkit to add up to 48 tracks, timecode, OMF/AAF/XMF file import/export. US$1,295.00
• Digidesign Structure Sampler US$499.00
• Roxio Toast 8 US$99.00
• Total Cost: US$2,488.00

This compares to:

• Logic Studio US$499.00
• Apogee Duet US$495.00
• Total Cost: US$994.00

So it’s getting close to being a 3rd of the cost of the equivalent Digi set-up. And I still think you can rightly argue that you are still getting more (both content and functionality) from the Logic Studio offering than what is on offer from Digidesign. You could even add Ableton Live to the Logic Studio list and you’d have yet more options and power for less than this basic Pro-Tools package. Plus, if you don’t need an audio interface, you can still use Logic Studio without one - just the minijack output on your laptop or the optical I/O on your Mac Pro and you’re good to go! Of course, you must have a Digidesign interface attached to even get Pro-Tools LE or HD to load.

All in all this great bundle from Apple should be a massive wake up call for Digidesign. While Digi may trot out the old, “We’re the industry standard.” routine it’s important to note that Logic is based on the old “industry standard” sequencer Notator, and in many ways the development curve of Logic has followed a generally similar path to that of Pro-Tools. Furthermore, for many people that are scoring for TV and film, Logic has for many years been the standard music writing tool, in preference to Pro-Tools relatively more recent attempts to offer itself as a music creation (rather than post-production) tool. You’d hope that we’ll see some really competitive and generous offers from Digidesign shortly. If not, this could mark the beginning of the end for Digidesign and Pro-Tools as the preeminent digital audio and music platform.