Apple today announced major updates to its music creation apps with exciting new features for music makers of all levels on iPhone, iPad and Mac:
- GarageBand for iOS 2.2 now features the powerful creative synthesizer Alchemy and a new sound browser that makes searching through instruments and patches easier than ever.
- Logic Pro X 10.3 becomes an even more powerful tool for pros with a modern interface, new features for professional audio production as well as support for the Touch Bar on the new MacBook Pro, putting context-sensitive controls at users’ fingertips.
New tools also streamline workflows across Logic Pro & Garageband, on both desktop and mobile devices.
Logic Pro X users can now remotely add new tracks to their Logic sessions from their iPhone or iPad when they’re away from their Mac. With a new share option, users can upload a special GarageBand-compatible version of a Logic project to iCloud, which they can then open on their iOS devices and add new recordings whenever inspiration strikes.
When the project is saved back to iCloud, any newly added tracks will automatically appear in the original Logic project the next time it’s opened on a Mac.
Alchemy Comes To iOS
With the updates, Alchemy is now available on iPhone & iPad.
“As a huge fan of the Alchemy synthesizer,” notes producer and composer Paul Epworth, “I love that I can grab my iPhone or iPad and use GarageBand to keep coming up with new tracks for my Logic sessions when I’m traveling and away from my studio.”
GarageBand for iOS
GarageBand for iOS features a redesigned sound browser that makes it faster than ever to explore Touch Instruments and find sounds. Alchemy, one of the world’s most innovative modern synthesizers, now comes to iOS and includes a rich collection of patches. And with Alchemy’s Transform Pad, users can morph between eight sonic snapshots in real-time, to create expressive synth performances.
Recording music in GarageBand for iOS also gets easier with Multi-Take Recording, giving users multiple passes to capture their best performance and the ability to audition and switch between their favorite takes.
The release also features a redesigned Audio Recorder that adds fun, one-tap vocal effects and provides users studio effects like pitch correction, distortion and delay. Users looking for more control over their mixes can use a new collection of advanced audio processing tools, including an interactive graphic Visual EQ and the ability to use third-party Audio Unit plug-in effects for expandable, creative sound design.
Logic Pro X
Logic Pro X includes advanced new features that make Logic an even stronger tool for audio production, giving musicians and audio engineers even more control over editing and mixing their music. The latest release features a new modern design that improves legibility in a variety of working environments..
Logic Pro X also adds support for the new Touch Bar on MacBook Pro, providing the ability to view and navigate projects in a timeline overview, along with convenient access to volume and Smart Controls for any selected track. New performance controls let users play and record software instruments with the Touch Bar using a piano keyboard that can also be customized to a variety of musical scales, or by tapping drum pads to create beats. Assignable key command buttons allow users customize the Touch Bar controls to keep favorite keyboard shortcuts readily available.
Track Alternatives let users create and switch between different playlists of regions and edits on any track. This feature makes it easier to experiment with various creative ideas or evaluate different versions of a track as it evolves.
Selection-based Processing allows users to apply any combination of Logic or third-party effect plug-ins onto any selection of one or multiple audio regions. It is useful for optimizing sound quality and a great tool for creative sound design.
Logic Pro X also becomes more powerful for professional mixing, with a 64-bit summing engine, 192 additional busses and true stereo panning, providing discrete control of stereo signals.
Pricing and Availability
- GarageBand 2.2 for iOS – Free update today for all existing and new iOS users; $4.99 (US) for older and non-qualifying devices.
- Logic Pro X 10.3 – Free update today for all existing users; $199.99 (US) for new customers.
But you cant plug in any of your music gear without attaching and expensive rat nest of adapters.
Let me know how you feel tomorrow.
Er…you don’t need the latest silly MBP to run this ya silly sausage.
true but when i need a new laptop.
Why is that? I got a few USB-C>miniUSB and USB-C>USB-B cables and that was it. There is no need for any adaptors at all. This has been overblown by people who just like to make sensations out of nothing.
I’m trying to think how creating a new track remotely can be practical?
It’s laughable how Apple thinks that this move is going to enthuse pro users while removing all essential ports.
Actually, it seems like just the feature I’ve been looking for lately. I’ll have to try it, but I can see myself recording ideas on the go with this. Sure, I can do it in other ways, but this is something that I feel is very handy for what I have in mind. Just like using a computer with a DAW instead of a tape machine suits my mode of working which is very incremental and fragmented. Obviously, I am not a pro user and I don’t earn any money mucking about with music or sound.
Bit of bad news for all us macOS Sierra holdouts. Logic Pro 10.3 is only for El Capitan OS 10.11 or higher. Apple seems to think that all “Pro” users have moved beyond Yosemite, which is still fairly recent and stable with most of my Pro Hardware/Software. Plus anyone updating Final Cut Pro are also forced to move to Sierra with no options for Yosemite users.
A 2009 4,1 Quad Core Mac Pro with 32gb RAM, OWC 512gb PCIe Blade SSD and a NVIDIA GTX970 isn’t allowed to upgrade to Sierra. I’ve had to trick my Mac Pro into being a 5,1 to be seen as an upgradable machine. It’s been a stable workhorse machine that can still do Pro work and I want to use this update.
Apple needs to really get a grasp on the whole Pro thing instead of using gimmicks like the touch bar and using Logic Pro to justify it. They need to seriously show a new Macbook Pro, iMac, or Mac Pro model attached to an external chassis with PCI cards running real world scenarios. They should reassure the Pro folk that you can continue to use your DSP cards and GPUs. Pro isn’t always small, fancy, and Darth Vader looking.
The Power Mac G4 Tower was still offered after the G4 Cube was released…
It’s really a mess with the actual MacPro. I hope they give up the Ashtray Design and create a new Workstation which has space for some PCI Express Cards (PCI may be too outdated). If they want to be special, maybe have a look at the design from SGI Octane2. I’m sure there are tons of Hackintosh Users because of all that. It’s not only the Software, it’s also that MacOSX gives you a stable UNIX Operating System without the surveillance madness of Win10. There’s a market – even for a normal Workstation which don’t have the cost of a MacPro. With actual MacPro or even MacMini (a shame, that no quadcore CPU isn’t available in actual models, because it’s a quiet system which is a positive thing for a DAW station) you have to buy ultra-expensive boxes for connecting your PCI-X stuff to the station via Thunderbolt.
I expect there will never be another Mac Pro. Only iMacs and MacBooks, slowly morphing toward one new semi mobile… thing.
apple pro is just marketing. logic was better before and i won’t even talk about fcp x.
You’re living in the past. The new Logic Pro X is better than ANY previous version, and FCP 10.3.1 is fantastic. I used both for years (and still use both) and there’s a gigantic difference from several years back.
Red Shark’s impression of FCP 10.3:
http://www.redsharknews.com/post/item/4287-why-fcpx-10-3-is-the-nle-of-the-future
Pro video editor here: FCP X may have a lot of impressive features, but it ignores many basic needs of a professional environment for video editing. Project sharing on a network is essential, and by essential, I mean the most important feature of NLE software. FCPX may work for music videos and small projects, but for a full production it still doesn’t cut it. This translates to the initial complaint in this thread, where Logic X is great for a home studio or a small production, but updates requiring OS updates means a studio which needs stability for their business to run suddenly is throwing themselves into compatibility issues when all their plug ins and additional have to follow them into a new OS. That opens you up to a lot of bugs. In general this is why you see studios and post production environments running older versions of software, but dragging people into new OS’s can create serious headaches.
That being said, I’m a home-studio guy, so I don’t mind at the moment.
I agree, it’s impossible to feel joy about Apple updates: A. When you know that for every cool new thing they add there’ll be a few things you love that get amputated, or some new bugs will appear, and B. You are pressured to update the OS which also suffers from A.
No amputations, as far as I can tell. It’s a pretty good update.
Get over it…
Looks like you have some ancient computer/
Both are real bargains.
Hasn’t Alchemy been available for iOS for like years?
Alchemy was available for IOS, I still have it on my iPad 3rd gen. However, when Apple bought Camel Audio, the next IOS update wiped out all the custom patches I had purchased from Camel. It’s is still usable (the factory patches are pretty good) but far less flexible than before. Also, the old version runs as a discrete app, the new version is an IOS AU plugin, just like the original computer version. It’s sad that Apple didn’t offer the plugin version in VST/AAX format so we Pro Tools (or Cubase, whatever) could continue to see updates for our DAW of choice.
no ableton link?!?!?!
Brilliant 🙂
well garagbands version of alchemy did not seem to have any midi input witch make it useless to me,alchemy still is much better, its sad they stopped it
hhmmm. i can`t find this Alchemy synth on my ipad Garageband. Also the GUI doesn`t look any different. Could it be that it doesn´t update?
starting to look like ableton . damn no one can think for themselves
64-bit summing engine? Seems like good news, right?
I hope the iCloud sharing to GarageBand is a predecessor for some form of cloud collaboration in the future.
(A Crippled Version of) Alchemy Comes (Back) To iOS
Fixed your headline, bro.
What a bunch of moaning old ladies!!! Get over it and make music ffs!!!
its the opposite, you dont need a rat of dongles!
just buy a tb3 dock where everything is connected.
connecting just 1 cable allows to charge your device
two 4K 60Hz displays, all your peripherals and storage devices, sound cards and so on….
Second device ports offer all the same functionality as the computer port, meaning you can plug a USB device into a monitor, which then connects to the computer.
up to 6 devices can be daisy chained on one port!
this is all done with 1 cable (40GBit/s)
and the port offers 15 watts of power to connected devices.
if you can afford a new macbook pro you can afford a decent dock which suits your needs.
then you plug in 1 cable and everything is connected, its so fast you just need 1.
if you really go crazy you have another 3 ports available. this is actually insanely better then everything before.
and a real game changer
duet display brings touchbar to the iPad
http://www.theverge.com/2016/12/20/14005070/add-touch-bar-to-any-ipad
Recording / comping vox will be easier w track alternatives which is basically a PT function. But when do we get an EXS update? Graphically and under the hood?! Fucking hell. I switched over to Ableton for sampling. ES2? Great synth but clunky as hell. Same with Apple loops – should be able to audition the hundreds of loops i’ve made in the song tempo without having to go thru the shit process of making apple loops. At least drum loops w/o key information. Drag and drop preset racks would be a huge improvement too. Touch bar? Couldn’t give 2 shits about this but hey apple needs to push laptops i guess as I sit here with my outdated mac pro trash can. smh.
So the iOS Alchemy ISN’T Alchemy, but that old Alchemy Player.
Thanks!
It’s not even that. The iOS Garageband version is like Alchemy Player for babies, just a very limited soundboard.
Yeah, I’ll just stick to Ableton till they crap out, though I hope they won’t ever on my Mac mini. Everything is working great here so far. Gonna wait a couple of years to get the Macbook pros…