Emagic Logic 2.5
More years ago than I care to remember, one of the first reviews I ever wrote covered Emagic’s Logic 2.5 MIDI sequencer for Atari Computing magazine. Although Logic began life on the Macintosh, Emagic’s previous sequencer Notator had been written for the Atari ST family of home computers, which were popular amongst musicians of the day thanks to the inclusion of built-in MIDI ports. Therefore, since Logic had been conceived as a cross-platform application, it stood to reason Logic was also available for the Atari users who’d grown up with Emagic’s earlier products.
Version 2.5 was the last release of Logic that would be made available on the Atari platform, and the following review originally appeared in the August 1997 of Atari Computing, back when I was 17.
Software is often described as long-awaited, but this time it is certainly a worthy title. I first started using Logic 2.0 over two years ago, and even then the box sported a “Free 2.5 upgrade” sticker. Needless to say I filled in the registration card and waited for my upgrade and the much needed new manual. Several months later Sound Technology said Emagic have abandoned the Atari platform and there would be no upgrade but recently I read the updated program was being released at an Italian show and I saw an Emagic press release early in 1997 stating the Atari v2.5 would ship in April offering all the features of the Mac v2.6. LogiC 2.5 is now available in the UK as an upgrade and we’re all left to ponder whether the wait was worthwhile.
First Impressions
On first starting the program, which seems to load quicker, the new Logic logo appears followed by the familiar arrange window. Cubase users will instantly recognise the familiar rectangular blocks representing musical sections, common to most modern sequencers across all platforms. At this point I’d better mention I never really liked Cubase — I find it really awkward. However, despite the similar approach Logic takes, I find it much easier to work with and far more powerful.
Making Arrangements
The arrange window hasn’t changed much, but there are some great new features and improvements. For example, it is now possible to mute tracks. With the cursor positioned over the track number or velocity meter, the pointer changes to the mute tool and you can mute/un-mute tracks as desired.
Markers are also included, these enable you to place text notes to help you keep track of the structure of your music, for example, verse, chorus, bridge and so on. You can jump to individual markers via a special event list or environment fader.
Hyper draw is another really useful feature — although on first inspection it looks like a gimmick. When activated lines can be drawn on the object to represent controller values, for example, volume, pan and so on. This makes occasional alterations and even mixing down much easier and more visible.
Modes of Transport
The transport window also looks pretty much the same, but includes one important change. It is now possible to completely customise the transport bar. Each element can be called separately or combined with others, and multiple transport windows can be opened and active at the same time! This might seem over the top, but it does reduce the need to have the full transport window open all the time, which is especially useful at standard ST resolutions.
Fans of the giant SMPTE window will also love the addition of a new giant display transport window — the giant bar window. Although this looks impressive, it’s only really useful if you’re partially sighted or need to be able to see the screen from a distance.
What’s The Score?
For me one of the biggest disappointments in Logic 2.0 was the score window. I’ve used Notator SL for many years now and it’s brilliant for score-writing. It’s faster than anything I’ve ever seen (don’t even think about mentioning Sibelius 7!) and makes entering notes via step or real time a breeze. So has this feature improved in Logic v2.5? I would have to say “almost” because although the score window has more symbols and layout abilities the underlying method used by Logic means it is still more awkward than SL. In fact, I challenge anyone to enter a perfect slur symbol first time!
It is however an improvement, for example it is now possible to get Logic to play grace notes — although they still can’t be entered in real-time. The method of choosing note values has been improved with a pop-up menu, and the floating windows for the score symbols have also been rethought. There’s also an equivalent to the SL polyphonic voice separator tool — which is a definite plus.
One of my favourite new features is the automatic score style assignment. This means that Logic will no longer display bass parts in the treble clef.
Environmental Controls
One of the most intriguing features in Logic is the environment window. It is a totally different concept compared with Cubase mixer maps and immensely powerful. Using the environmental controls it is possible to create virtual MIDI controls on the screen. Effectively you can create your own custom virtual mixing desks — and it goes much further than that.
As shown in figure one all the objects can be wired up to define the path for the MIDI data. Available objects include faders, switches, monitors, keyboards, chord memorisers, real-time transformers and they are all configurable. Another powerful new tool is touch tracks, which enables parts of arrangements to be triggered from the keyboard. Once set up it’s even possible to control remixes live which can be a lot of fun! Although the environment window can be daunting to a new user it’s well worth spending some time setting up a good environment because once it has been set up it can be imported to all your songs — which reminds me, why must Logic insist on saving the environment to each individual song file? It seems so unnecessary.
Unforgiven
Unfortunately Logic is not an Atari program — hang on let me explain!…
Logic was originally programmed for the Apple Mac then ported to the Atari and PC. Emagic rewrote their own window handling system to compensate for computers not having background operation abilities which is fair enough. Now we have MagiC and other Atari multitasking operating systems Logic is stuck back in the dark ages without iconify or hide features — or even support for NVDI so we’re restricted to those horrid GDOS fonts.
Thankfully Logic does run under MagiC and the timing is just so stable, even compared to the Mac, on one occasion Logic was playing a song and MagxDesk crashed — I simply reloaded it and to my amazement Logic kept playing and did not even go out of time!
There is, however, one big problem. Logic is a memory hog — it reserves all the available memory except 63Kb on starting the program. If you want to multitask you have to think ahead and load all the programs you might need before launching LogiC — again this really isn’t good enough considering MagiC has been around for years already.
In many ways this upgrade rates full marks but the niggles all add up. Try stopping a song while notes are being sustained and they hang and the only way to silence them is to resend the program changes. During recording instead of the count-in bar being: 1–2–3–4, you get: 1 — — -2–3–4. Perhaps I’m being too hard, Logic has a lot going for it and if you’re serious about music, or are a current Logic owner, this is one program you have got to have.
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