SYSTEMS DEVELOPMENT

Systems Development



Systems Development

Introduction

Logic Pro is a hybrid 32 / 64 bit digital audio workstation and MIDI sequencer software application for the Mac OS X platform. Originally created by German software developer Emagic, Logic Pro became an Apple product when Apple bought Emagic in 2002. Logic Pro is part of Apple's Logic Studio bundle of professional music applications. A consumer-level version based on the same interface and audio engine but with reduced features, called Logic Express, was also available at a reduced cost. Apple's GarageBand, another application using Logic's audio engine, is bundled in iLife, a suite of software which comes included on any new Macintosh computer. On December 8, 2011, the boxed version of Logic Pro and Logic Express were discontinued, and it is now only available through the Apple App Store at the price of $199, which used to be the price of Logic Express.

The study of any art or discipline always starts with fundamental building blocks. These are typically considered tried and true methods or ways of working that yield positive results on a consistent basis. In music, these music production basics are the basis from which all other decisions are made. Once a stumbling block in the process comes up, intelligent decisions can usually be made to achieve the desired result.

Over the years it have been found that the procedures and tools used by most professionals in the music production process are very similar in concept and design. The reason is simple, they work! Even though the personalities and the dialog may appear different on the surface, the underlying process is mostly the same.The following articles will outline many of the concepts and working methods of the music producer when approaching various production situations. How these methods are applied will vary from artist to artist.

History

Creator and Notator

In the mid-to-late 1980s, Gerhard Lengeling and Chris Adam developed a MIDI sequencer program for the Atari ST platform called Creator. When musical notation capabilities were added, this became Notator, and later Notator SL. For simplicity these three are collectively referred to as Notator.

Its main rivals at the time included Performer, Vision & Steinberg 16. Most MIDI sequencers presented a song as a linear set of tracks; however, Notator and Vision were pattern-based sequencers: songs were built by recording patterns (which might represent for example Intro, Verse, Chorus, Middle-8, Outro) with up to 16 tracks each, then assembling an Arrangement of these patterns, with up to 4 patterns playing simultaneously at any one point in the song. This more closely resembled the way that hardware sequencers of the 1970s and 1980s worked.

In its time, Notator was widely regarded (by musicians and the musical press of the time e.g. International Musician) as one of the most powerful and intuitive sequencing and notation programs available on any platform, but subsequently the popularity of Steinberg's Cubase increased and track-based sequencing prevailed over pattern-based, resulting in the eventual greater integration and hybridization of the two methods in later versions of both Cubase and Logic.

Logic

The C-Lab programmers left that company to form Emagic, and in 1993 released a brand new program, Notator Logic, ...