making music
Record that hit song like a pro using Apple’s high-end audio and midi workstation
Logic Pro X
£199.99 From apple.com/uk + mac App Store Features Virtual drummer + customisable guitar and bass rigs + vintage synths and organs
For many Mac users, Garageband does everything they need when it comes to recording and creating music. For those working in a professional environment, however, Logic Pro X is the choice.
Logic is optimised for Mac hardware, and the latest version includes tweaks designed to take advantage of the jaw-dropping, number-crunching feats of which the forthcoming Mac Pro is capable. These include support for up to 56 processing threads and five times the number of plugins of previous high-end Macs. For mere mortal machines, Logic now supports up to 1,000 audio tracks and 1,000 software instruments, with support for 1,000 auxiliary channel strips, 1,000 external MIDI tracks and 12 sends per channel strip.
Build your own
As you’d expect, Logic enables you to build your own guitar and bass rigs with its Amp Designer that has a host of vintage and modern amps, cabinets and microphones. And you can build a custom pedalboard, too. There’s a virtual session drummer and beat producer, 28 of them in fact. And you can build custom drum kits from samples of acoustic drums.
There’s a huge range of synths available, as well as a range of classic organs and keyboards. And Flex Pitch allows you to fix out-of-tune audio or change instrument melodies. The Logic Remote tool makes it possible to use an iPhone or iPad to record music from elsewhere in the room. And a barrage of samples and effects can be called up when you want to add that unique touch to your recordings.