Apple Notes

I must say it was an exuberant moment when I saw an update appear for Logic Pro X earlier this year. It had been quite some time since much had happened on the Logic Pro front, but seeing the release notes made it clear Apple’s Logic Pro team had been hard at work sculpting the new update. There were extra plug-ins and features, alongside a multitude of bug fixes and performance enhancements – such as not quitting in the middle of certain operations. Logic Pro X 10.4 and its recent iterations were welcome upgrades, and appeared for zero upgrade fees. Let’s dive in.

Without doubt, the feature raising the loudest applause would have to be the ability to relocate the Logic Pro sound library to a drive other than your primary system drive. Now while this was possible in the past with the use of aliases, it’s now a bona-fide menu command found in the Sample Library menu within the Logic Pro X drop down. Absolute gold, I tells ya! Frightfully handy for those running less than a 1TB SSD – which includes me. I can’t run a system drive less than 2TB these days, and I’m not ponying up $700 for a top-shelf 2TB SSD. I know how to wait. In six month’s time I reckon I’ll be shedding my hybrid drive for a decent 2TB SSD. 

Anyway, moving those Logic samples — and your Apple Loops if you can be bothered — off elsewhere will make things easy with your next system upgrade. The process is very simple. Go to the menu, choose the drive you want the library on, then hit the ‘Relocate’ button. Unfortunately it’s not possible to share the same library amongst multiple Macs, so networked systems will need the library installed on a per machine basis. Sample library relocation is also possible in Mainstage.

Other enhancements include the option for Smart Tempo to analyse tempo data across multiple tracks and then define the project’s tempo. Similarly, imported multi-track stems can follow or define the project tempo. This means you can play without a click and the original recording will define the tempo then push and pull any imported samples and loops into sync. Also long overdue is the ability to add images to track or project notes — perfect for keeping track of any outboard hardware settings. Although, once an image is stored within a Logic Pro project you can’t enlarge them after that point. So have a play with the size and legibility of the images you store with a project.

While these improvements are without doubt useful, I reckon most would first jump into the new plug-ins.

Heading up the additions from 10.4 is Chromaverb. This is yet another reverb choice which uses algorithmic reverbs rather than Space Designer’s use of convolution. It’s a simpler way to go about ambience and it sounds superb. There are 14 different algorithms covering your traditional hall, room and plate-style reverbs, along with stranger ambiences such as ‘Airy’, ‘Strange Room’, and my favourite; ‘Bloomy’.