Logic
I’ve been using Apple Logic for a good many years now, since version 3, if memory serves. In fact, I go back even further with MIDI sequencing, starting with what used to be called Steinberg pro-12 on the Atari ST (mine had the huge 1024kb memory upgrade), then upgarding to the 24-track version. After spending a year on an almost completely sequencer-driven project, staying up until the small hours tweaking Quantise values, I more or less gave up on the whole MIDI thing for maybe six years, concentrating on playing ‘real’ instruments.
By the time I came back to computer-based music, things had changed pretty much beyond recognition. Hard-drive recording was by now commonplace, and software instruments were beginning to make racks of keyboards and other outboard hardware redundant. I could buy a £30 Mellotron plug-in that sounds just like the real thing, and combine effects and intruments in ways that would be essentially impossible in the ‘real world’.
So, about Logic. Logic is a very powerful piece of software (it’s now in version 7), and I like to describe it as being to digital music production what Photoshop is to digital imaging. It’s just as complex and deep, and presents you with many ways of achieving a result. Now, I teach people how to use Photoshop for a living, along with several other topics. I think I know Photoshop pretty well, and this knowledge has been acquired through what must, I suppose, be hundreds or maybe even thousands of hours of exploring and using the software.
How many hours have I spent with Logic? I have no idea, but it must be into triple figures. Sure, I have a ‘proper’ job these days, I’m not a freeloading musician any more, so I can’t sit around all day making music (I wish…), but I still spend a major part of my time with it. But, am I anywhere near the expert I am with Photoshop? No way. I can produce good recordings, but I still have trouble with basic things like adding or deleting tracks without messing up the track assignations. I still don’t really understand the Environment, or why I need to randomly press key combinations until the Track Mixer actually shows me the tracks I want. And there’s loads of other stuff I don’t even use. What I do know, is that this is all down to me simply not having the time to learn how to use the software properly, or if I’m being honest, the inclination.
What I want to do is be creative, so I tend to just use the tools I do have, and get a result. Of course, I could be doing things more efficiently, quickly etc., but it just seems to get in the way of actually playing, so I never get around to picking up the manual (which is pretty dense anyway), or looking around for online help - well, hardly ever.
Of course, this is how most people use software. It’s the comments that people make during an advanced Photoshop course, like: “I wish I’d known that technique a month ago, I would have saved myself half a day’s work”. When a deadline’s looming, who has the time to figure out how to save time?
I could go on a course and learn how to use Logic, but that would be too easy - after all, it’s not like it’s my job or anything. I don’t have deadlines. Ocassionally I get asked to compose some music for someone, maybe for a short film or a play, but there’s never that much pressure. So, for now, I’ll just keep muddling through, and maybe I don’t need all those extra features that I don’t know about anyway. In fact, maybe I’ll just go back to playing my acoustic guitar, put the recording gear away for another ten years, and see what happens then.
Probably not.
By the way, some of my music can be found at:
or
http://www.myspace.com/audiovert
Your thoughts on Logic (or maybe you’d like to give me some tips), music production or anything else that’s relevant or at least interesting are more than welcome.
Add comment February 19th, 2007