Apple officially introduces Logic Pro for iPad, a mobile multi-touch-enabled version of its full-featured digital audio workstation.
Logic Pro for iPad is now available. I took a quick look, and the operation seems to be well done. But I have to work with it longer. On the other hand, it is a pity that the powerful Alchemy Synth was not ported integrally. You get here a kind of light version. However, the new Alchemy Sampler features a 4-layer granular, additive… engine.
The EXS-24 sampler is also not included. You can open patches and play them. However, edits remain macOS exclusive so far. So just playback. I’m sure I’ll delve deeper into it over the next few days.
Article May 9th, 2023
I think you all know that I’m a big fan of mobile music making and the iOS world. No mobile platform is better optimized for music-making apps such as iOS and iPadOS. There have long been rumors of a Logic Pro for the iPad. Also, for Final Cut Pro, my video editor tool for all my videos.
The bomb was dropped today. Apple today announced both Logic Pro and Final Cut Pro for iPad. It’s not a rumor; it’s freaking reality.
Apple Logic Pro For iPad
Now it happened. Apple has ported Logic Pro to the iPad, with the entire collection of internal instruments, effects, and more. It was clear to everyone that Apple had to redesign and adapt its entire DAW to multi-touch touch. It would have been a hassle to use the macOS layout on iPadOS/iOS.
Apple says in its press release:
With Multi-Touch gestures, music creators can play software instruments and interact naturally with controls, as well as navigate complex projects with pinch-to-zoom and swipe-to-scroll. Plug-in Tiles put the most useful controls at the creator’s fingertips, making it easy to quickly shape sounds.
With the built-in mics on iPad, users can capture voice or instrument recordings, and with five studio-quality mics on iPad Pro, users can turn virtually any space into a recording studio. Creators can also make precision edits and draw detailed track automation with Apple Pencil, and connect a Smart Keyboard Folio or Magic Keyboard to utilize key commands that speed up production
But Apple didn’t stop there and packed many new features into the Logic Pro for iPad version.
Starting with all-new sound browser that uses dynamic filtering for displaying all available instrument patches, audio patches, plugin presets, samples, and more. Plus, you can tap to audition any sound before loading.
Plugins
According to Apple, Logic Pro for iPad ships with over 100 powerful instruments and effects plugins. It includes vintage EQs, compressors, and reverbs let users tweak and fine-tune their tracks. There are also instruments that can be played with multi-touch.
It also comes with a collection of realistic-sounding instruments and powerful synths. Probably also the full Alchemy multi-voice Synthesizer for the iPad. That would be fantastic.
Logic Pro for iPad also introduces the new Sample Alchemy, a new sample manipulation instrument from the developers of Alchemy. It also you to transform any audio sample with a tap of a finger.
You can do everything you know from the desktop version but only with your fingers: chop and flip samples, program beats and bass lines, and craft custom drum kits. It has the quick sampler, step sequencer, Drum Machine Designer, Live Loops, but also the new Beat Maker plugin. It’s a new time and pitch-morphing plugin, let’s music creators swipe and pinch to radically reshape and shuffle sounds.
You can do all this with multi-touch. So you can record something on the go and immediately turn it into an expressive instrument.
Full Featured Mixer
And it also hosts a pro-grade mixer console with channel strips, volume faders, pan controls, plug‑ins, sends, and precise automation. Multi-Touch enables creators to mix intuitively and move multiple faders at once, and the mixer meter bridge lets them quickly navigate an overview of track levels, all from iPad, says Apple.
Plugin Support?
Apple created the new AUv3 standard a few years ago. The successor to the AUv2 or also known as AU. This was the first step in the mobile direction. With the release of Logic Pro for iPad, the AUv3 standard will gain massively importance. Especially for many developers who have only developed AUv2 so far.
The mobile Logic Pro cannot load AUv2 from macOS. However, you can load in any of the AUv3 available plugins on iOS and on macOS. Further, it supports capabilities, making it easy to move projects between Logic Pro for Mac and iPad.
iPad users can export their finished songs in a variety of compressed and lossless audio formats, as well as individual audio track stems. Plus, you can also export them into Final Cut Pro for iPad and open projects created in Garageband for iOS
Apple Logic Pro and Final Cut Pro for iPad will arrive on the Apple AppStore on May 23rd, 2023. It will be available as a part of a subscription for $4,99 per month or $49 per year. You can get a free 1-month trial. Logic Pro will be available on A12 Bionic chip iPad models or later.
More information here: Apple
And so it begins!
Gamechanger. 😎
hopefully we get Aggregated device too. But yes . excellent news.
Wow. That was ageist. You can smell the Apple PR engine even more than normal in that one.
Huh? noone griping about the subscription yet? Let me do it for you!
Why would a subscription be a good idea for software you could own? Especially Logic, which gets very few noteworthy updates on Mac. You will own nothing and be happy. Then again, idiots are buying iPad keyboards that cost more than an iPad, so…
Amen!
I absolutely DETEST all subscription models that keeps seeping in from everywhere. It’s basically banking, and should be avoided out of principle. I’d be very happy to buy all of these programs. Subscription – just NO!!!
Great news 🍻
I don’t see the point. there is no headphone jack, meaning we have to either choose bluetooth with latency or headphone adapter coupled with the adapter for usb charging and / or audio midi interface.
A hand held mobile device is then made immobile by the plethora of clagnuts and cables.
I guess it may be ok for a completely mobile experience without any midi devices attached.
I just find the bluetooth lag to be annoying.
I may as well stick to the Laptop for mobile and my desktop for Home / studio.
I was interested until I saw it was subscription only.
You seriously can’t edit Alchemy?
there are two versions: Alchemy plugin is a kind of player version while the Alchemy Sampler gives you the 4-part granular/additive etc. engine.
But missing the VA part
that’s good to know… At least they didn’t do lite, dumbed down versions of their effects and other synths. Hopefully it’s still a work in progress. Full Alchemy would do more than anything to keep me subscribing.
Do you know of you can at least import your Mac Logic alchemy patches? (If not individually, via saved projects?)
I’m interested in what it doesn’t have compared to the Mac version. Haven’t been able to find a score editor yet. And what about export from a track to a midi file? Anything else that is missing?
With its policy of planned obsolescence, Apple always stops upgrading iOS for “old” devices that are still working very well so you won’t be able to upgrade and use new versions of your apps. A subscription is pretty logical for this company.
You will own nothing and be very unhappy to pay a fortune in a brick.
By the way, no headphone jack on this expensive device is so great to make music on the move… Just buy and add another adaptor in your bag. In the end, a laptop is far better than this toy.
But constantly buying new apps adds up somehow. What if they are no longer supported? I have a lot of dead VST plugins and apps that I’ve spent a lot of money on. The money is gone there too.
In many cases, you need to buy upgrades for your DAW like Ableton Live, Cubase, that are all like 200€+. I’m not a fan of subscription at all but if you calculate Logic Pro for iPad costs you 249€ for 5 years. If you take two updates (every two year) for Cubase, you are at 300€. If you want updates and new features, you can’t avoid spending money on a DAW. That every few years or monthly. It comes out to almost the same amount.
The big problem is that you can’t open your projects if you cancel your subscription.
It’s like ransomeware.
Sure you can, if you have a mac and an extra $200 laying around for Logic.
You’re right with bad plugins. That’s why I use hardware synthesizers, they just work for decades when they are good instruments.
You can use Cubase for years without upgrading if you want, especially on Windows that is not as disposable as OS X. Plus no comparison should be drawn with Cubase or Ableton, these are powerful DAW, complete versions that will work on any computer: you can install and uninstall at will, on several machines, without being limited by a pure money hungry company.
The first iPad was a great tool. Then it became crippled just to take users hostage. On a mobile device, Cubasis is good enough to script ideas.
That being said, thanks for the news you post on you web site, it is a great hub to follow the market. And it’s good we have the choice with so many software and hardware, there is something for every taste.