Given that it’s the holiday season, I thought it would be fun to dream a little bit in today’s post.
The wonderful folks at Apple have truly delivered so much to our creative lives. This year alone brought about possibly the biggest update to Logic Pro, since the release of Logic Pro X.
Drummer…
Smart Tempo…
Quick Sampler…
Step Sequencer…
Those are just 4 innovations in a sea of many more.
But of course no matter how much Logic Pro can do, it could always do a bit more, couldn’t it? 🙂
So today I felt like just having fun. I took some time and wrote down my top features I’d love to see introduced to Logic. While I started with a list of 30, I whittled it down to my top 10.
These aren’t just bug fixes though. I really tried to dig deep and imagine things not yet possible in Logic Pro.
To be clear – today’s post is strictly for fun. But I’d love to hear your wishlist for Logic as well.
What features or updates would you love to see in Logic Pro? Dream big! Perhaps our ideas could turn into some amazing Logic Pro feedback for future updates?
I would love to see Logic improve their pitch shifter. Sometimes I need to change a key of a song for practice purposes for our band to work on or whatever. CAPO, an app available on the app store does a much better job at changing pitch than Logic, which surprises me given the fact that they are highly sophisticated in everything else.
Hey Ian! I feel you man. I like to use the Pitch Shifter for subtle degrees of pitch shifting. But for more dramatic adjustments I could see an improved version.
By the way, do you ever try transposing the pitch of audio tracks with the Transpose function in the Region Inspector?
For organization
#1 movable mixer channels
#2 Cycle sets
#3 disable the record button on selected tracks
Excellent wishlist! Here are some I’ve wanted for awhile:
1. Not only more console emulations, but more channel-by-channel console emulations.
2. Smart EQ a la Gullfoss or iZotope Sculptor.
3. Smarter algorithmic vocal alignment like Vocalign
4. Polyphonic Flex Pitch
5. Blended Reverb and Delay plugins
6. IPS functions embedded in those reverbs and delays
7. Plugins that feature more “randomness.”
8. Multiband exciter
Hey Jonathan, all great ideas! Can you elaborate on #5 and #6?
#5, are you referring to plugins that have both delay and reverb features in one? Or replacing the dry and wet sliders with a single “mix” control? I’ve always wished that the delays and reverbs had a mix knob instead of the separate sliders.
#6, I’m assuming by IPS you mean tape speeds. Is that accurate?
Great top 10. And I’m with you on the export functionality. Expanding the export/import functionality into the negative space would be awesome as well, especially for film scoring and collaboration. Removing the limitation of exporting and importing only beginning at bar 1 would be a huge plus. Assuming everything should always begin at 1 is something we can’t do any more.
Thanks, Chris!
Hey Scott, thanks for your comment! Great feedback on the needs of those scoring to film.
1. linkin plugin controls like in ProTools
2, movable mixer channels
Hey Matthias, I’m not familiar with your first suggestion. Is it the ability to link 2 separate controls as one?
More elegant looking plug in also a better gate like rx plug in more high end emulation like similar to Manley plugs and more even though all plug ins are 1/0 less cpu usage more robotic plugs and pitch shifters less stress on cpu
Link mixing project and mastering project, both open at the same time, allowing final adjustments to be made from either project while hearing final result. Oftentimes I discover textural and balance flaws during mastering, which I would rather fix in the mix instead of conceal with master processing.
Agree with this as well. Great ideas Chad 🙂
I got one! A speaker tuner that would insert the eq room adjustments after the master output, so it will only affect the signal going to the speakers, and not the project bounces. It could be a simple graphic eq, and could be set up to use a room mic input to ‘tune’ the room. I set up a channel EQ to tune the room using my ear and the sine-wave sweep through the frequencies. The problem: I would forget it was on and mix down my project, which would really mess it up. Should be a simple app, no?
Agreed! This is a great idea. I rely on Sonarwork’s Systemwide app to avoid accidentally printing its curve onto mixes. For the most part it works, but I do have issues with Systemwide developing latency that will jump from 30 ms to 150 ms for not reason.
An Audio FX chain that is not in the Bounce path would be amazing. Also, I’d love the Stereo Output fader to not actually adjust the Bounce level either. Often I’ll receive Projects where the Stereo level has been adjusted, I Bounce a track, and then wonder why the waveform is so quiet? Hah.
How about waveform displays that update in real time? It would be SO USEFUL to see what your plugins are doing to the file, or just to see respective levels in comparison to other tracks in the mix (Ableton can do basic waveform level). At the very least surely we could see the Mix output waveform without having to render it before we can see the changes? It’s like we’re working in the dark here fumbling about with this amazing DAW (ok using our ears!) but unable to see what’s going on with the audio files. I realise that computers weren’t able to do this but surely now with graphics accelerators on TB3 etc it is possible? Games are dealing with billions of polygons and Logic can’t do 2D drawing? Various options could be switchable based on GPU power.
Hi Chris, thanks for your comment. Your idea for waveforms to update in real-time is brilliant! I love it. It would be SO helpful to see waveforms adapt to the processors. I’m thinking specifically limiting, compression, distortion, etc.
Some form of visual for the Stereo Output would be super helpful as well. I rely on Fabfilter’s Pro-L2 to give me a good idea of how loud drum transients are in relation to the rest of the music. Peak vs average type of thing.
Totally submitting feedback to Apple on this one.
All these are really great ideas.
My suggestion is a very tiny little thing, maybe it is already in Logic but I don’t see it.
How about a « Start on MIDI event »?
The minute you touch a key on your MIDI controller, or a MIDI pedal, recording or playback starts, no need to touch your computer, and the first MIDI note is right on the beat …
Simple but very practical .
I’d like to be able to comp MIDI takes the same way you can comp audio takes.
Hey Chris, Hi Everybody,
So, this might be a little mundane, but in Take Folders, having the Quick Swipe tool in MIDI would be a real bonus. In fact, it seems weird that it isn’t there already. I saw the video about using Track Alternatives (among other options) where you can select copy and drag. But hey, wouldn’t it be cool?