Good news for fans of Apple’s pro audio software as the company has just announced this morning an update to MainStage 3 and a major new version of Logic Pro with Virtual Drummer and Flex Pitch features, plus an iOS Remote application to go along with it. Apple pulled a Final Cut Pro X here as Logic Pro X appears to be a reboot of the previous version.
The next-generation audio editing for the Mac, according to Apple’s global marketing chief, features a set of advanced tools and a modern new interface designed to streamline the process of creating professional quality music. “Musicians are going to love creative new features like Drummer, Flex Pitch, Track Stacks and the Arpeggiator,” he was quoted in a press release…
Virtual Drummer is a new capability designed to provide a virtual session player that automatically plays along with your song in a wide variety of drumming styles and techniques.
As for Flex Pitch, it’s another new feature sporting integrated pitch editing for audio recordings. Apple’s media release sheds more light on the Virtual Drummer feature.
Virtual Drummer delivers professionally produced, realistic drum tracks that respond to your direction and can perform millions of unique grooves in rock, alternative, songwriter and R&B genres.
Drummer is powered by the performances and sounds of some of the industry’s top session players and recording engineers, including legendary mixer/producer Bob Clearmountain, who has worked with the Rolling Stones, Bruce Springsteen and David Bowie.
Here’s Drummer in action:
There’s also a new Drum Kit Designer plug-in which allows musicians to build their own custom kit using a diverse collection of professionally recorded snare drums, toms, hi-hats and cymbals that can be mixed, matched and fine tuned “to get the right drum sound for your song”.
Other notable new features include new instruments and nine new MIDI plug-ins, including Arpeggiator which can “transform a simple keyboard chord into an elaborate performance,” Retro Synth for fans of retro synths sounds from the 70s and 80s and Vintage Keyboards for the realistic sounding electric pianos, B3 organs and clavs.
There’s also a bunch of new plug-ins and a new Sound Library with 1,500+ instruments and updated loops and effect Patches that make creative use of Track Stacks and Smart Controls.
Designed as a companion remote, the free Logic Remote iPad app doesn’t just turn your iPad into a keyboard, drum pad, guitar fretboard, mixing board or transport control – you can also use it to record and mix from anywhere in the room.
As for MainStage 3, the live performance companion app for Logic Pro X, it has a revamped interface and maintains compatibility with the new Logic Pro X plug-ins, Patches and Smart Controls.
Logic Pro X is available from the Mac App Store for $199.99. The MainStage 3 upgrade commands the $29.99 price tag.
Unfortunately, there’s no free or paid upgrades: because Logic Pro X is a major new release and is distributed via the Mac App Store exclusively (which doesn’t support paid-for upgrades), it’s a separate download with a full cost purchase.
For more info, visit the official Logic Pro X website.
You may also want to check out a nice review by Jim Dalrymple of The Loop, who’s an avid guitar player and has been using Logic Pro X in his studio.