Some guy "uses" Logic to "prove" why iMacs are shit.

Oh boy what you don't find on the Internets these days.

I hate it when a complete neofite or a non-musician goes on a tantrum writing rubbish about things he understands nothing about and saying it's all complete shit.

But hey it's the weekend let's see it with humor shall we?

I stumbled upon some "review" by a fellow named Brian Turner and let me tell you Brian, what complete bullshit you write.

Obviously this guy pulled this review from his ass. Here are some of the 'precious' bits:

"So I bought a Leopard-powered iMac with a 24″ cinema screen and Logic, ready to make a start."

So far so good, bare with me... so, Logic is ready right? yeah of course you can buy a Mac with Logic installed, why not, I have no reason to say he is lying on that one.

Anyway that iMac with Logic must have cost a fortune but hey, for Brian that wouldn't be a problem you see he's got the budget, he also got the Vienna Symphonic Library....
which he describes as follows...

I also make the mistake of buying Vienna Instruments, a VST module for Logic. You need a USB stick, two sets of supporting software, and a video tutorial - just to install the bastard thing. The software they sent was out of date, I had to find and download the updates, go back through the video tutorials - and the whole install process became so exhausting I daren’t try and use Vienna Instruments. I can already see I need another computing degree, specialised in VST instruments, just to use it.

Brian baby... no "the Vienna" is not a VST module, if you are working with Logic there is no VST, there is another system Audio Units...

But that's not the problem, I mean, come on, you did know that "the Vienna" works exactly the same on a PC and if it's complicated or there's a steep learning curve to it you do realize that has nothing to do with Apple right? And that "USB stick" (the dongle) is not Apple's fault either it's "the Vienna"s that is how they wish to combat piracy.

Of course what is a reviewer if he does not have enough technical expertise?
That would be complete n'importe quoi ! wouldn't it? No worries... Brian is an expert here's the proof:

"I’ve used Windows machines extensively for over ten years, learned to use the command prompt on Linux servers - but still get easily confused when trying to do anything with settings on the iMac."

So yeah you learn the command prompt on Linux but get confused by the settings on the iMac...
right... I would have given some credit to that unfortunately he wrote this after:

"The Apple GUI is very pretty, ahead of its time, makes me go “wow” a few times. Until I try and use anything."

Alright...this... is comedy gold he dared to make a review about Logic!!!

Logic Pro

Installing Logic Pro takes around 6 hours to install.

Seriously.

Come fucking on Brian... you had said that the iMac you bought came with Logic ready to go...

Just be fair and tell people you know shit about music software and they'll understand why it was imposible for you to work with 2 complicated pieces of software and an iMac. That could come through as a more honest approach.

Otherwise if you think you are right, go to all the specialized media in the UK (I mean the people who actually know what the fuck they are talking about like SOS) and tell them they what morons they are.

Have a great weekend.

Killers confession: "we all use Logic (Studio)"

Yeah, it sounds like a police story doesn't it?

"The Killers confessed using Logic..."
But we're talking about about the band and their 'confession' is in the new Musicradar 's podcast interview by Ben Rogerson.

As you have seen in this blog more and more musicians are "coming out of the closet" (previously we've had Stereolab, Enigma, Radiohead and Coldplay) and admitting their use of Logic to create their albums.

Here's an interesting bit from the interview, this is The Killers' guitarist David Keuning :

"All of us recorded demos separately in Logic, which allowed us to email our ideas to each other and to Stuart Price, the producer," explained Keuning. "He told us his favourites and added drum loops and keyboard parts."

You can hear the podcast interview here.

Radiohead, Logic Studio's latest victim...

Here's a short and nice interview by Stephanie Jorgl at Audiohead. It's called "In the Studio with Nigel Godrich".


Here's are the golden chunks of the interview:

“We mainly used the Mac as an instrument to create new sounds or treat things to make new sounds rather than using it as a multitrack device.”

and:

"...Logic is an astounding piece of software. It’s almost too powerful!”

There you have it go read it!

No FireWire in the new MacBook

What is going on?
Come on Apple... no FireWire in the MacBook? what the frak?
How am I supposed to connect my gorgeous Apogee Duet (or any other FireWire audio interface for that matter)?

If you want to use Logic Studio with your new MacBook be prepared to use a USB audio interface because the boys at Cupertino have dropped the FireWire port from the new lineup.

If you use a FireWire audio interface and have an older MacBook, you might as well stick to it.

Of course the MacBook Pro has a FireWire port but come on... let someone who knows about it more than I do explain it in a very elegant post.

The main objective of a company is to MAKE MONEY and well, if you and I are not satisfied with the specs the majority of the population will.

Let's face it; not everybody is concerned about making music with their laptops and probably what Apple means is: "if you are a musician why do you have a MacBook, you should have a MacBook Pro and shut up already".

Of course everyone would love to have one but musicians usually have tiny tiny pockets.

Stereolab... yeah, they too, Logic Studio

Gearwire recently published an interview with Stereolab's frontman Tim Gane and he talks about his tool of choice: Logic.

Here's the link to the video interview or you might as well click at the image.


If you've never heard of Stereolab it's basically a Franco-British band (mostly a British bloke and a French Lass with different lineups through time) that sounds as though they could have scored the entire 1960-1970s film era movements, from Italian Neorealism to the Nouvelle Vague up to New Hollywood...

As a hyperbolic plus: to my wild imagination they sound more Parisian than most Parisian bands =) have a listen:

Discover Stereolab!

Coldplay, producing with Logic Studio

Coldplay is one of the hottest bands out there and Apple has recently posted an interview with music producer Markus Dravsm, he talks about the role LS plays in their current setup and how they work with it, how it helps their work flow and creative process.

This interview is a part of the "Logic Studio in Action" series, you can find it here:

http://www.apple.com/logicstudio/action/markusdravs

About that ProTools 8...

I could write a lengthy post about this but I think this song would sum it up.

Discover Annie Get Your Gun - Chichester Festival Theatre Cast!

Michael Cretu (Enigma) Logic Studio user

You probably know Michael Cretu, or some of his creations:

Discover Enigma!

Well, German magazine Xound has an interview with the acclaimed producer (in German) but here's the Google translation to English (which in my opinion is not that awkward).

Here's the golden bit:

Das Herzstück des Alchimisten ist ein Apple, da ich alter Logic-Fan bin – ich kenne Gerhard Lengeling* schon seit er noch für den Commodore C 64 programmiert hat – aber man kann genauso einen PC verwenden. Ich habe von Logic 7 auf Version 8 geupdated. Ohne Logic 8 hätte das Album sechs Monate länger gedauert.

Which roughly translates to:

"The heart of the alchemists is an Apple, because I'm an Apple fan - I know Gerhard Lengeling since the time he was programming for the Commodore C 64 - Otherwise you can just use a PC. I had Logic 7 updated to version 8. Without Logic 8 the album would have taken 6 months longer."



When I read about people complaining about why they can't do anything with their current DAW I love to see people who complete major projects with the same software; it brings back the fact that the human factor is THE factor to consider in the equation.

* Lengeling is one of the founding members of Emagic, the company that gave us Logic.

Cheers!

Eddie Kramer, Waves and Logic Studio

Eddie Kramer, the legendary recording engineer is on tour with Waves and Logic studio in North America.

Who is Eddie Kramer?
Someone who understands that audio is an art form, someone who worked with Jimmie Hendrix, Peter Frampton... Led Zeppelin... Erick Clapton...
If you read his complete production credits you will get a heart attack.

I knew about Eddie in the best of ways: listening to a recording, not knowing who it was and asking "WHO IS THAT, WOW!!!"
For the first time I was not asking about the artist but the audio engineer.

I was a very young lad learning to play the guitar (which I never did properly) and it was this song:

Discover Peter Frampton!

It totally blew my mind.
If you love music I'm sure this has happened to you at least once in your life; you hear a song or recording and you begin to wonder how... how did they record such a pristine yet powerful sound, how did they blend the instruments together in a perfect mix, what kind of technical prowess, witchcraft, alchemy, or science was it necessary to achieve such work of art?

Eddie Kramer is one of the greatest (if not the greatest) recording engineers in history.
Yet he is humble enough to share his great knowledge with the newer generations, he is not someone to keep his recipes secret.

In the past every time I read about Eddie in articles in magazines such as Keyboard or Sound on Sound he was always addressing a group of students or giving a recording masterclass and blasting MP3 and expressing his dissatisfaction with some aspects of digital sound.

Contrary to what you may believe he's not an enemy of digital sound he's just not been a great fan of it. He is rather an advocate of using what you have and mixing analog with digital.

Here's a great video from 1996, where he talks about digital vs. analog, further on another video where he reacts to Waves plugin technology.



On a recent video E. Kramer seems satisfied the way things are going for DAWs, specifically in this case, Waves plugins, watch:



If a man who has been on this business since Woodstock mixed Jimmy Hendrix and The Beatles says he knows analog sound you might as well damn believe him.

Congratulations Waves and thank you for choosing Logic Studio as your running mate. I mean, come on, for some reason you chose Logic Studio and not someone else right? (growing market share of Macs and Logic Studio maybe?).

Perhaps someone has brought some good marketing sense to your scary company. Now if you did the same with your pricing strategy you'd be golden.
Yes, your plugins are sexy technological wonders but with the price of some of your bundles I could buy 2 Mac Pros.

You really don't want to go the Avid way now do you? I mean ignoring that for every established recording studio you target there are a 1,000 more home recordists with tiny pockets. Unless of course that story of studios closing is old news and the trend has reversed...

Affordable prices for great software is nothing bad.

I mean it congrats Apple and Waves for getting Eddie Kramer, a great man, one of the greatest analog audio engineers in the whole wide world and perhaps the most notorious digital audio skeptic to promote you.

Guitarists: Fond of Logic Studio

There's a little poll on the right side of the blog, and I'm a bit amazed of the results:
Most of our readers are ....

KERRRAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNNGGGGGGG!!!!!

yup... guit-R-ists.

I thought it would be keyboard players, but I guess Logic Studio is guitar-friendly enough, how about that?
The only missing votes are the ones from woodwind players. Perhaps they have their own woodwind player software world?

Now if only Logic Pro had a guitar tuner, there is one in Mainstage, but come on, do I have to open Mainstage when I'm working on Logic Pro?

I'll calm down before I smash my Fender on the amp.

Update - Oct 13.

Well I was hoping someone would correct me but it never happened... Logic Pro does have a tuner here's the little bugger, innit pretty?: